snowie Posted August 26, 2011 Posted August 26, 2011 I'm between trips; time on my hands, so I start thinking; about all sorts of things. This one has been in the back of my mind for some time. After dark; wherever we are camping, I get a little self-conscious about opening and closing the sliding door on our camper. It's a Ducato panelvan conversion, and we use the sliding door for access all the time. I park as level as possible, and I keep the guides well lubricated: but it's almost impossible to close the door quietly!! I hate to think that I'm waking anyone up, but sometimes it can take several "slams" to get the door to shut so that the central locking works properly. I was sat waiting at a filling station in France in July, and was so impressed by the sliding door on a Citroen people carrier... I want one! (the door) . I know that I'm using a commercial vehicle as a base vehicle, but can anyone give me any tips? (other than get a coachbuilt). Thanks to those who responded on my other recent queries alan b (Snowie)
malc d Posted August 26, 2011 Posted August 26, 2011 Hi Snowie I am in a similar position and am also aware of the noise. In our case I just avoid slamming it as much as possible. We often just slide it shut without locking it until it's time to close up for the night. Of course we can always excuse ourselves by saying that some people have noisy dogs, some have noisy children, or even a noisy generator. We've got noisy doors ! (lol) (p.s. Now stand by for complaints from the owners of dogs, children and generators ) ;-)
pkc Posted August 26, 2011 Posted August 26, 2011 malc d - 2011-08-26 12:34 PM Hi Snowie I am in a similar position and am also aware of the noise. In our case I just avoid slamming it as much as possible. We often just slide it shut without locking it until it's time to close up for the night. Of course we can always excuse ourselves by saying that some people have noisy dogs, some have noisy children, or even a noisy generator. We've got noisy doors ! (lol) (p.s. Now stand by for complaints from the owners of dogs, children and generators ) ;-) I start my generator up just before I slam the the door, works every time, never had a complaint about the door slamming yet. P.S. Now really stand by for complaints................. :-|
Retread24800 Posted August 26, 2011 Posted August 26, 2011 Define noisy?I had a Fiat Scudo with twin sliding side doors for five years in which I covered 250000+miles, the side doors took a great deal of punishment, The main source of noise was always the runners which really so need a good greasing, the only times I really had to slam the door was if the door needed adjustment (usually caused by excessive slamming by one of my clients!!!) Including sourcing and replacing the plastic strips and bushes (@150,000miles so no need to bother yet?).To close them really quietly I found that a little pressure on the rear end of the door , from the outside, helped enormously, The doors were great, But like many Fix It Again Tomorrow's, the 12V bits were dire. (Didn't stop me buying a Ducato tho') :-)
colin Posted August 26, 2011 Posted August 26, 2011 As per above, the 'knack' of getting the door shut without constant slamming is to push on rear of door if outside and pull (if poss) on rear of door if inside. Will never be as quiet as a hinged door tho.
snowie Posted August 27, 2011 Author Posted August 27, 2011 Pushing and pulling at the same time's a bit tricky I think! but I see where you're coming from. A word of warning tho' ........keep your fingers away from the rear edge of the door; otherwise you'll crush your fingers. I gave it a push to shut it from the outside, just a few days ago, and my fingers fot close to being crushed. Spoke to someone who'd actually had the pain; not good, take care alan
snowie Posted August 27, 2011 Author Posted August 27, 2011 Pushing and pulling at the same time's a bit tricky I think! but I see where you're coming from. A word of warning tho' ........keep your fingers away from the rear edge of the door; otherwise you'll crush your fingers. I gave it a push to shut it from the outside, just a few days ago, and my fingers fot close to being crushed. Spoke to someone who'd actually had the pain; not good, take care alan
Retread24800 Posted August 27, 2011 Posted August 27, 2011 Please disregard my earlier post on elf and safety pin Grounds." Being a total idiot myself, I never thought that anyone would slam their fingers in the door." :D
Hazy Baby Posted August 28, 2011 Posted August 28, 2011 Hi Snowie, this is really heartening that you panel van owners are concerned about the amount of noise shutting the door causes. My hubbie and I call panel vans "zoup zoups" (the noise they make opening and shutting?!) and we avoid parking on a pitch near one as we have been disturbed late at night on many occasions. One memorable night was on the aire at Mont St Michel when a French owned panel van parked next to us and the chap was obviously a 60 cigs a day/night man! He must have "zoup zouped" that door 30 or so times before we'd had enough and moved as far away as possible from him! This was in the wee small hours of morning....................So good on you for trying your best. We are very tolerant, live and let live type of folk fortunately and feel we must annoy others at times with our coach built.....................just can't think what with!!!!!!!! ;-)
snowie Posted August 28, 2011 Author Posted August 28, 2011 Hi there HB; we were on Mont T Michel in June; maybe our paths crossed? "and feel we must annoy others at times with our coach built.....................just can't think what with!!!!!!!! " Please don't feel that you must; I can tell you that it preys on your mind!! I'm just going out to spay WD40 all over the tracks; take care ab
gwyn Posted January 8, 2012 Posted January 8, 2012 We have a panel van and try not to open and close too often equally we watch DVD's using headphones unlike some big vans in hot weather where the sound is blaring out or as mentioned dogs yapping. I think the idea is just to be as considerate as poosible and bear in mind that sound carries. We each have our own intolerance level to different noises (mine being yappy dogs!!!)
dshague Posted January 8, 2012 Posted January 8, 2012 on our mondial we can use the rear door to keep the noise down at night.we do think of fellow campers .as for wd40 i have found when it dries it tends to collect dirt and the wheel will not run .check the top wheel as no flat spots and the the two front pointers go in and spring out .then there is the fork ones to check they are working and grabbing there post.
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 I just use one of the cab doors if I need to go out as the evening draws on, mind you once we're in for the night that's normally it, no doggies to take walkies helps. Mind you with the amount of clattering and banging about inside some folks vans that have been parked up by us,I would say as long as is a reasonable time why worry about shutting your door, and if that was my only antisocial complaint of others on some occasions, I'd think I had died and gone to heaven if it was you "disturbing" me. As for you saying you keep the guides well lubricated I'm not sure that you should be doing that, my understanding is the door guides should not have any lubrication, I'm led to believe this can create problems with the ball races causing them to skid as opposed to turning, so perhaps you should enquire about this as I'm no expert, it's just what I was told.
Guest machra Posted January 12, 2012 Posted January 12, 2012 I have just returned to a panel van from a coachbuilt and have the following comments: Coachbuilt was a Hobby Siesta and the caravan door on that was impossible to close quietly. It certainly needed a good hefty push/pull and certainly was not quiet. I agree with the pushing on the rear of the panel van doors technique when closing from the outside. Taking this further we had a type 2 VW ages ago and fitted a folding handle on the inner side of the door (to the rear) so that when closing it we were able to glide the door closed and give the handle a tug to close it properly. Same principle as pushing on the rear of the door when closing from outside. I haven’t looked into fitting a handle on the new van (Ducato). As for lubrication of runners with WD40 I would say – don’t. We had bifold doors fitted the other month at home and the fitters were most insistent that we were not to lubricate the runners with anything other than furniture polish. Their advice was to spray the tracks with furniture polish and then use a rag to get most of the polish back off. Apparently the polish is a good lubricant and dirt doesn’t stick to the polish but does to the WD40 (or any other oil used as a lubricant).
RogerC Posted January 12, 2012 Posted January 12, 2012 Regarding the 'lubricant' point I would suggest that if your door has 'nylon' bushes to run on then grease will impede their correct/smooth running. If the bushes are metal then a light coating of grease will help in smooth running.
Tony Jones Posted January 12, 2012 Posted January 12, 2012 If you've got a bed and a loo (and each other of course >:-) ), why not just stay in the van once it gets late?
Mel B Posted January 13, 2012 Posted January 13, 2012 Tony Jones - 2012-01-12 6:36 PM If you've got a bed and a loo (and each other of course >:-) ), why not just stay in the van once it gets late? Whilst the dogs love to share our bed if they get the chance, i've not managed to teach them how to use the loo yet .... :D
Bulletguy Posted January 14, 2012 Posted January 14, 2012 snowie - 2011-08-26 12:21 PM I get a little self-conscious about opening and closing the sliding door on our camper. It's a Ducato panelvan conversion, and we use the sliding door for access all the time. I park as level as possible, and I keep the guides well lubricated: but it's almost impossible to close the door quietly!! I hate to think that I'm waking anyone up, but sometimes it can take several "slams" to get the door to shut so that the central locking works properly. I was sat waiting at a filling station in France in July, and was so impressed by the sliding door on a Citroen people carrier... I want one! (the door) . I think you will find it's little more than general 'wear n tear'. My previous van was a 17yr old Transit and almost everything was well worn on that......and yes you had to slam the sliding door to get it to close! My current van is a ten year old Duetto also on a Transit, but it's done very little mileage so barely been used and the sliding door can easily be shut even using just one finger. In fact i'm still getting used to not having to drag and slam it!
Tony Jones Posted January 14, 2012 Posted January 14, 2012 Mel B - 2012-01-13 9:32 PM Tony Jones - 2012-01-12 6:36 PM If you've got a bed and a loo (and each other of course >:-) ), why not just stay in the van once it gets late? Whilst the dogs love to share our bed if they get the chance, i've not managed to teach them how to use the loo yet .... :D Which is one good reason why you have a coachbuilt, Mel - so you can shut the door quietly before and after doggy-walking!
Dave Newell Posted January 14, 2012 Posted January 14, 2012 Yes our side door is noisy, for about half a second during opening or closing. Late at night when others are asleep we probably will be too unless we are with friends who will, if possible be our neighbours so the disruption to others should be minimal and acceptable to all but the most sensitive. D. In edit: when I say "we will be too" I me a n we will be asleep not noisy. Funny how you write wot u mean but when u read it back it seems to mean the opposite :-S D.
Guest Peter James Posted February 12, 2012 Posted February 12, 2012 machra - 2012-01-12 11:49 AM the fitters were most insistent that we were not to lubricate the runners with anything other than furniture polish. Their advice was to spray the tracks with furniture polish and then use a rag to get most of the polish back off. Apparently the polish is a good lubricant and dirt doesn’t stick to the polish but does to the WD40 (or any other oil used as a lubricant). Must be the silicone in the polish. But you can buy spray on silicone lubricant. (I also spray it inside the window channels so the motor doesn't struggle so much to wind the windows up and down)
maggyd Posted February 12, 2012 Posted February 12, 2012 Your trying your best so why worry ;-) coachbuilts are just as noisy!! our door needs a good slam to close it right too, AND I have yappy dogs >:-) if anyone is that intollerant of people that try to be quiet then they should stay at home or somewhere they can have their PERFECT Peace stop worrying young man. :-D
malc d Posted February 12, 2012 Posted February 12, 2012 So just don't slam your doors, of whatever type, between 11 pm and 7 am and everyone should be happy ! ;-)
barrie w Posted February 13, 2012 Posted February 13, 2012 Good evening, Had the same problems with 2 Symphonys over about 8 years. tried all sorts of adjustments to no avail, UNTIL,Just before we sold the last one something fell out of the channel just under the floor in the door opening. It was a metal bracket with a rubber buffer on.It's meant to buffer the back part of the door as it sits into the striker plate. It had broken off. With it gone the door closed as quietly as you could wish for. If I were to have another panel van I'd look to take it out as the door closed much better without it. Worth a look ? Barrie.
snowie Posted February 13, 2012 Author Posted February 13, 2012 barrie w - 2012-02-13 9:41 PM Good evening, Had the same problems with 2 Symphonys over about 8 years. tried all sorts of adjustments to no avail, UNTIL,Just before we sold the last one something fell out of the channel just under the floor in the door opening. It was a metal bracket with a rubber buffer on.It's meant to buffer the back part of the door as it sits into the striker plate. It had broken off. With it gone the door closed as quietly as you could wish for. If I were to have another panel van I'd look to take it out as the door closed much better without it. Worth a look ? Barrie. That's interesting Barrie; and worth a look in daylight! If it buffers the trailing edge of the door striker plate could it have been located on the mid rail/track ? and dropped into the floor track? I can remember seeing a strange looking hinged "bracket" on the mid rail. Thanks, alan
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.