Patio door failure

Sowie

Well-known member
So my 2016 4200 side patio door has started swelling and the floor side is soft. It gets stored under cover but water got in somehow. All this happened about 2 months out of warranty. I called heartland and they responded back pretty quickly and offered to mediate with lci to see what they would do. Well after a few months of going back and forth lci agreed to replace the patio door and have a local body shop paint it for me. I have to do the labor to remove and install. Over all I am pleased with both Heartland and LCI on this.

My question is in order to prevent this from happening again and I want to protect both my ramp door and side patio door has anyone used a truck bed liner product to seal the surface? I also want to see if any of these products could have the added benefit of not getting so hot on the feet as the factory surface does.

if this works I would think Heartland may want to incorporate this into the new TH at the factory as dealing with this is a major pain. Any thoughts? Thanks.
 

porthole

Retired
So Heartland is back to using Lippert doors? I thought Challenger Door was the new fix for the water intrusion problems.
 

Lynn1130

Well-known member
I don't know for sure so just for info and my guess. The aluminum frame around the outside and inside of the door on mine was not sealed. I do not have a patio so don't really worry about the inside but I did seal the gap all around the frame on the outside. I believe that moisture can get in there and the failures I saw were mostly at the bottom of the door where water would enter easily.
 

porthole

Retired
Point is that a 2016 was built at least 2 years ago and maybe almost 3 years ago. I didn't see how that fit with your comment "So Heartland is back to using Lippert doors".

Because around 2015 Challenger doors were being used - and thats how it makes my point
 

Sowie

Well-known member
I haven’t heard of challenger doors. Lipperts makes or at least sells the ramp and patio door on my 2016 (manuf 12-2015). The reason I thought of coating the inside of the door is I have noticed when in the open position the aluminum frame flexes and pulls at the bottom around the hinges. I thought over time maybe this was how water was getting in. I will also seal the joints in the outer aluminum frame as others have pointed out.
 
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