Yesterday I posted about replacing the door check assembly. I couldn’t get the door to release from the locked open position unless the door latch was locked. It didn’t seem right. I was concerned about locking the door latch to activate the release mechanism, then closing the door and locking myself out. I posted a question about this on the Alpine Coach Owners Forum. Before long I had a reply with a link to instructions for properly setting the cable and door stop adjustments.

RV forums can be an excellent way to learn all about RVs. Of course, there’s the usual mix of people posting. Sometimes you have the know-it-all that doesn’t really know all and only posts his opinions. Then there are certain topics that aren’t so black or white and you find many diverging thoughts on the topic. That’s okay – there’s more than one way to do things. But I find a couple of forums to be really helpful. My favorite is IRV2.com. There are many sub-forums there, including owner groups for most of the major RV manufacturers. The Alpine Owner’s forum has been super helpful for me.

Another RV forum I frequently visit is RV.net. Again, there are many sub-forums there and lots of good information. I’ve also learned a ton of information by following a few blogs. Some of my favorites are Roadslesstraveled, Technomadia, Wheelingit, Our Odyssey and Whatsnewell. There are others I read, but these are the ones I find most helpful and read frequently.

Back to the Alpine Coach owners forum. The link that was provided to me there had great instructions and illustrations for adjustment from the manufacturer of the Pos-A-Loc door check assembly (PTL Engineering, Rochester, MI).

Our entry door opens 90 degrees. The door check locks open in this position. The photo looks like the door is open less than 90 degrees, but it’s an illusion. The door is fully opened.

Entry door locked in open position

I took off the door panel to access the operating cable and adjust the free play.

Door panel removed exposing latch assembly and cable

Making the adjustment was easy once I knew how much free play was correct. Then I got my ladder out and adjusted the stop set screw on top of the door. The stop set screw adjusts the amount of play in the door when it’s locked open. If there’s too much free play there, the door can wiggle back and forth if there’s wind or any other force on it. If there’s not enough free play, it won’t lock into position.

Door check

Once I made the adjustments, the door check operated perfectly. There was no need to put the latch into the locked position, the door check released as it should. Job done with a little help from the forum.

Donna went out for a 5-mile run while I was working on the door. She has about three more weeks to train before she competes in the duathlon at McDowell Mountain Regional Park.

Later, Donna prepared a spinach dip made with jalapeno, Monterrey jack cheese, green chiles and tomatoes. This dip is served hot. We were expecting guests later and wanted to have hors d’oeuvres.

Our guests were our friends, Howard and Sara Graff. We haven’t seen them since we moved away from Arizona in 2009. They arrived around 5pm. We sat inside and chatted for about an hour while enjoying a nice bottle of Argentine malbec they brought with them. They drove us to downtown Gilbert, stopping to give us a tour of their new house along the way.

We went to Liberty Market for dinner. They have an interesting service concept there. You take a menu and get in line, somewhat like a cafeteria line. The line moves fairly slowly. As you are in line, a server will take drink orders. Before you reach the register, where you order and pay, a hostess hands you a number and tells you the area where she will place a matching number on your table. After you order and pay, you find your table – we chose outdoor seating. We ordered another drink and shortly after, our food arrived. It’s an interesting way to handle the wait for tables in a busy restaurant. Traditional restaurants would have probably told us the wait was 15 – 20 minutes. Instead we whiled away the time in line looking over the menu.

Donna ordered the special, braised short ribs with cauliflower sauce. Sara ordered salmon cakes with curry sauce – they smelled heavenly. Howard had green chile pork and I ordered sweet and savory baby back ribs. Our meals were excellent.

Donna, Sara and Howard at Liberty Cafe

As we made a pit stop on the way out, a guy said something to Howard and me that really struck me funny. He said, “I remember when this place was a real market. Now it’s all trendy and sh!t.”

We walked across the street to another place that was all trendy and sh!t – Postino. We shared a bottle of excellent French malbec and talked for another hour. It was so much fun catching up with Sara and Howard. They’re headed off to a Hawaiian cruise next week. We made plans to get together again in a few weeks.

The weather improved yesterday. We had a high temperature just over 70 degrees. Today will be in the 70s again and in the coming week we’ll see a warming trend.