We have noticed that the interior skin of the exterior door (2019 Vilano 370GB) has cracked all the way across the door in numerous places (you can see the door insulating foam through the cracks). Has anyone else had this happen? I did a topic search on this site and didn’t see anything. I will contact the door manufacturer and see if the interior door skin can be bought as a separate item.
Ours is starting to show cracks. Lippert is the manufacturer. Let us know what they say.
I have seen this reported often but I never hear the solution. I assume folks are replacing the doors. With a painted unit replacing a door becomes even more pricey. Keep us updated on your solution.
I searched the internet and found multiple door interior skin cracking reports from various years and brands (i.e., not unique to our brand and years). I contacted Lippert this morning and while the representative was nice and responsive, they don’t typically sell replacement parts for the door. I will take more pictures today and send to them to Lippert and make sure it’s their door (no visible Lippert tag on the door). The rep did say any new door from them would probably be polar white and require painting to match the color scheme of the RV.
There are videos on the internet of covering up the inner door skin with glued on material but so far no video of taking the door apart and replacing the skin with a similar material or other light weight replacement (melanin, aluminum, fiberglass panel, etc.). The big question I have is whether the inner skin is glued to the foam board insulation in the door or just held in place by the various trim pieces.
Update:
Tiffin provided my Lippert exterior door part number and I got an email from Lippert today that a new door is a special order (none returnable) at $1,023.95 plus shipping. There was no further discussion on parts being available. I assume the new door would require painting to match the exterior color of the RV.
There are numerous youtube videos of how others have tackled the problem from covering the existing panel with short nap auto carper to replacing the skin with aluminum or fiberglass panels. I did look at HomeDepot.com and they have a 4x8 white fiberglass panel that looks identical to the installed panel.
If I choose to repair the door by replacing the skin instead of covering the existing with carpet, here are the challenges:
- To do this successfully, the door will have to be removed from the unit for the repair duration.
- The door is held together by a C channel around the outside edge that will have to be removed along with all interior trim pieces for window, door lock, etc.
- The inner skin appears to be glued to the foam interior of the door, so the skin will have to be cut away from the foam with as little damage as possible. I can hopefully use nylon fishing line as a cutting tool to cut the foam as close to the skin as possible. Depending on foam damage, use removed skin as template to cut new fiberglass panel to correct shape.
- Re-assemble door and hope for the best.
I will keep the group up to date if I choose to repair but for now, the door works, doesn’t leak, but does look ugly from the inside if the screen door isn’t latch to it.
I have the same thing on my 2018 Vilano 325RL. Other than it looks bad, I don’t see any negative effects. If it costs a bunch to replace it, I think I’ll just cover it.