Locked inside by entry assist handle

I'll wake up to a cricket farting......very light sleeper. I also have multiple extinguishers and extra fire detectors - using both technologies of detection.

Here is a direct link to the article. This will make it much easier to find. Great article by the way. I'll be showing it DH.

Direct Link to article

fpresto wrote:

.C-Bears wrote:
My plan is simple, we are grabbing the fire extinguisher and crawling out the door.

I truly wish you well but using your scenario of waking up to an RV full of smoke, your plan has very little chance of working. Forget the fire extinguisher; grabbing it just wastes precious seconds that you don't have. The smoke will kill you long before the flames. Plus the extinguishers' provided in our RVs are useless for anything larger than a piece of paper burning if they work at all. Until you have been through training including smoke chambers people don't understand how disabling and disorienting toxic smoke can be. Hopefully your smoke detector will alert you well before the RV fills with smoke. In that case using the door may work unless the fire is near the door.

First of all, the smoke alarms that came with my rig get new batteries every year and are tested on a regular basis. In addition, I have a smoke detector installed in my basement storage area. My chances of waking up with the trailer already full of smoke is less than possibly yours.

Secondly, I do not just depend on the single small extinguisher that came with my 5th wheel, but I will depend on the other three I have purchased and placed around the rig.

My preventive measures work for me. If someone coughs outside my fiver in the middle of the night it wakes me up. I feel very confident that one or all of my four detectors will wake me up and allow me and my wife the 10 seconds we need to run out the door.

If other folks want to depend on old detectors, a single factory installed fire extinguisher, and escape windows then that is okay too.

N-Trouble wrote:
Power screwdriver and the handle is off in less than 30sec... Not much of a deterrent IMO

If someone wants in they are going to get in. But how many people walk around with a power screw driver looking for a trailer to break into with it? Instead they look for the easy targets and skip over ones that will take even 30 seconds and require tools.

Found the "fix" see link

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/28023438/gotomsg/28023438/p/1.cfm#28023438

Point taken.
If you want a serious answer, avoid the PUBLIC forums.
I did check my assist handle and it has 4 square lugs holding it in place when both open and closed. If it is across the door I do not believe anyone other than a Dallas Cowboy running back ( humor ), would be able to shoulder it open.

Thanks for your help.

Bumpyroad wrote:

fpresto wrote:
I just went out and tried mine. As others have posted and I suspected the beveled edge will not allow the handle to be locked against the door. A slight tug on the handle pops it open. Pulling on the door does the same and doesn't even leave a mark.

now don't all of you that jumped out your window feel silly?
bumpy

Hilarious! I nearly choked laughing.

Splashers3 wrote:
Most of you are missing another aspect of this...thieves HAVE used this technique to lock folks in and then steal stuff out of the basement....and even with a cell phone, they will be gone before anybody can show up...and when you are sleeping you may not even know it.

I will take a picture of something I did to prevent this...not sure if I will be able to post it. It consists of a small piece of metal, about 1.5" vertically screwed (2 caulk sealed screws) into the black mount. The handle can not be put into that position with the handle against the door, because the metal blocks off that position. An easy project providing some insurance. People are crazy....thieves, or kids playing pranks.

In over 40 years of camping and over 10 years on here I have never heard of this happening once. As you have heard most of the people on here that have tried it has found that the door opens easily.

fpresto wrote:
I just went out and tried mine. As others have posted and I suspected the beveled edge will not allow the handle to be locked against the door. A slight tug on the handle pops it open. Pulling on the door does the same and doesn't even leave a mark.

now don't all of you that jumped out your window feel silly?
bumpy

I just went out and tried mine. As others have posted and I suspected the beveled edge will not allow the handle to be locked against the door. A slight tug on the handle pops it open. Pulling on the door does the same and doesn't even leave a mark.