awesome door hold-back

[Mike Magee]

My Lil Hauley came with one of the common, plastic door holdbacks. There's a stem with a fat knob that slides into a slot and is supposed to stay there. It has never worked worth a hoot. The opened door sticks out beyond the side of the trailer, so the wind can push on it from either direction. And in Oklahoma, sometimes we have 40-50 mph gusts swirling and changing direction.

The old holdback's stem finally snapped off, so I bought a new one like it and installed it. Within a week the wind had detached the door 2-3 times already... and then it blew so hard against the open door, it bent the new stem.

Enough is enough. I've seen metal stems with T ends, and I've seen plunger types, but from past experience I know they can all detach at times. I've had 'em on other cargo trailers before. What to get??

Someone on another forum pointed me toward an aluminum holdback that, in my estimation, simply cannot detach itself! They had one and they really liked it. So I found one on ebay and bought it. Today was installation day.





Here is a website that sells it, where you can see another photo of the device. LISA Aluminum Door Hold Backs It's like a pintle hook and lunette eye. I mounted the thing with #14 SS screws, 3/4" long. I'm sure the screws would rip out before the holdback ever detached itself. And releasing it is easy enough with one hand (while holding the door with the other hand so it doesn't fly away).

I wish I'd known of these holdbacks years ago. IMO this is the thing Snoozy should provide with every one of their trailers!

[Michael Collins]

That thing looks great. I'm hoping they will ship to me in Canada.


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[Borrego Dave]

Originally Posted by Michael Collins

That thing looks great. I'm hoping they will ship to me in Canada.

Those are pretty much a standard item at most RV supply stores.

[Michael Collins]

Thx, I'll look into it


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[MCDenny]

The plastic door hold open gizmo on my Snoozy broke right away too. I reinforced the stem with a piece of steel tubing from the junk drawer. That worked OK but the aluminum part you found would be even better. I might have to get one...

Is there a reason you did not put the new one over the holes for the old one?


Denny Wolfe
Wanderingourway.wordpress.com

[Mike Magee]

I also reinforced the first one with some copper tubing, because it bent early on. That kept it from breaking until 2 months ago. But if I'd known about these aluminum ones, I'd have replaced it long ago!

The new one has 2 holes for the piece with the swiveling prong, not 4 like the old one. The other end does take 4 screws but the hole spacing is not the same. Even if they had matched up, I wanted my new one to hang down and not to the side like the old one, and I wanted it up higher and closer to the corner of the trailer so it's easier to see and manipulate.

It is easy to guide the prong into the right spot, and the spring loaded upper piece snaps it right down onto the holding pin. To release, I put my index finger on the upper piece and my thumb on the prong, and give a squeeze; this pivots the upper piece against its spring and the prong pops off in one easy motion. Very nice.

The only thing is, I don't like the metallic sound when the two aluminum pieces clank together accidentally. To make sure they don't collide at times when I do not engage them, I'm adding a rubber bumper to the door where it will bump against the seam.
Robot Check
(That is an Amazon link... not sure why it says Robot Check!) I had a stick-on bumper thing for a while, but of course it fell off when the stickum gave out. So this time I will have a screw attachment.