Square bottom doors

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Square bottom doors

Postby TardisBuild » Mon May 22, 2023 1:05 pm

In starting our build and buying doors we found some tall 42" doors that have a square bottom. When trying out the squaredrop we bought over the weekend I found I did not like my legs hanging over the door frame as it pinched a little.

I am thinking the square bottom doors would avoid this pinch if I put them to the floor of the build.

Or just get the regular doors and have them a bit lower to the floor?

Thank you171944
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Re: Square bottom doors

Postby Tom&Shelly » Mon May 22, 2023 2:42 pm

What many of us do is have the bottom of the door about 2 or 3 inches above the floor. That gives some strength to the wall down there. Then we get a 6 to 8 inch tall mattress.

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Re: Square bottom doors

Postby tony.latham » Mon May 22, 2023 4:20 pm

When trying out the squaredrop we bought over the weekend I found I did not like my legs hanging over the door frame as it pinched a little.


As Tom pointed out, the bottom of the doorframe needs to be halfway into the mattress so you sit on it, and not the frame.

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Re: Square bottom doors

Postby philpom » Sat Jul 08, 2023 11:36 am

TardisBuild wrote:In starting our build and buying doors we found some tall 42" doors that have a square bottom. When trying out the squaredrop we bought over the weekend I found I did not like my legs hanging over the door frame as it pinched a little.

I am thinking the square bottom doors would avoid this pinch if I put them to the floor of the build.

Or just get the regular doors and have them a bit lower to the floor?

Thank you171944


I used a door like these, a nearly flat bottom, works great for us and while camping several folks have pointed out the nice advantage of not having that thin flange in the back of your leg. Can't really think of a downside personally.
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Re: Square bottom doors

Postby Pmullen503 » Sat Jul 08, 2023 5:02 pm

I haved inset doors on a foamy so a pretty deep bottom sill. Even though the sill is angled down 10 degrees it is still wet after it rains which means the back of your legs can get wet climbing out.

The next build will have square bottom doors all the way to bottom of the floor so water can drain out and there will be no bottom sill to collect water.
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Re: Square bottom doors

Postby boardhead » Sat Aug 05, 2023 12:27 am

The sharp hard 90 degree corner on the opening side of the door could be easily bumped into. I'd go with rounded.
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Re: Square bottom doors

Postby KCStudly » Thu Aug 10, 2023 12:14 pm

My way of thinking prefers radius corners mostly because of the seal configuration, but also to avoid sharpness. I'd rather have the seal wrap around in one continuous sweep with just one butt joint to deal with (placed at the very bottom center) rather than having to miter cut multiple seal joints and somehow glue them together. Trying to get any type of weather strip to walk around a sharp corner will make it bunch up, buckle and probably not seal well. I'd also rather not prang my shin on a sharp corner.
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Re: Square bottom doors

Postby S. Heisley » Thu Aug 10, 2023 8:35 pm

I heard a tip to slant the bottom of the door opening so the water runs back out.
That might be worth thinking about. I would still add a lip of some sort all the way around the door to help block weather from entering.
You can get a lot of ideas just by looking at the way automobile doors are engineered.
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