NHTSA Complaint #11528659 — 2020 AIRSTREAM FLYING CLOUD

In August 2022 I noticed that the door to our Airstream trailer was somewhat loose on its hinges and sagged slightly when opened. Inspection revealed that the hinges were not tight against the door frame. The door has two hinges that appear to be machined aluminum. Each hinge is attached to the exterior of the door frame with two bolts. The hinge attachments to the door itself appear to be secure. I attempted to tighten the bolts with a screwdriver, but the bolts would not tighten, as though stripped. I removed one of the bolts to attempt to diagnose what was happening, and the entire door fell off the trailer (completely separated from the trailer). Fortunately we were parked at the time, and the door had not separated while driving. I secured the door inside the trailer, covered the door opening with a tarp secured by duct tape, and drove home. I investigated the problem by partially removing the interior aluminum skin around the door frame and discovered that each bolt was secured inside the wall of the trailer by a single hex nut with an attached star washer. These nuts had come free from the screws, leaving the door secured only by friction of the bolts on the hinge bolt holes and by the door latch, which is on the forward-facing edge of the door. The door frame is a curved aluminum channel. Due to the design of the door and the hinges, the star washer for the nuts that secure the hinge bolts do not have a flat surface to bite into. As can be seen, they easily come loose. The hinge attachment appears to me to use a flawed and potentially dangerous design, as the bolts cannot be inspected or properly tightened without opening the interior wall of the trailer. The risk is that the door may become detached while driving, which would pose a serious hazard to other vehicles on the roadway.