Basement Doors?

[JACC0811]

I tried searching the forums, but didn't find the answers I was looking for.

So, how have some of you constructed your basement doors? How did you build the opening? Dimensions of materials for both? What locks/latches/etc. did you use and how was it mounted? Did you do round or square corners? What did you use for hinges?

 

[Bob86ZZ4]

Good questions. It looks like that's one of the hardest parts about building a coach. My lower compartments were framed with square steel tubing around the face of the opening. They were lined with sheet metal. The doors are built with square tubing (don't know because I can't see it but I suspect it's aluminum) and skinned on both inside and outside facings with aluminum sheet. The box frame has a rubber seal around it. When the door is shut it pushes onto that seal. The hinge is something. It looks like there is a aluminum strip running horizontally down the side of the coach. The strip has a rolled lower edge. The top edge of the door has a corresponding roll that interlocks the strip. So it's not actually a traditional hinge. It's like they must fit the door into the roll of that strip? I'm guessing maybe if the gas charged lift supports were removed you could open the door completely up against the siding of the coach and un-hook it? That's what it looks like anyhow. The latches must be mass produced by somebody. Looks like they fit into a squarish opening in the door and attach with a bolt from the backside. There is a flat metal piece with a slot in it that bolts to the inside of the box. The latch fits into that when closed. I'll try to remember to take some close up pics of it when I get to my shop in the next couple days.

 

[Doc Weaver]

I built the box off the truck and then attached it to the frame. I built the box by getting a sheet of steel cut to the size I needed. I then built a frame out of aluminum square tubing. I used JB weld to put the frame on the steel so that I wouldn't have issues with steel against aluminum. Then I riveted aluminum sheets to tthe frame. I got the door from kinro directly.
I went to a truck junk yard and got a pair of L brackets that mount to the frame, drilled out the frame to mount the brackets, and mounted the brackets and box.

 

[Big Mike-TC]

I had local aluminum fab shop build me underbody boxes & bolted them to the bottom of my van body. Thay worked great