Don't get locked in!

any body have a picture of the whole bar/door/etc?
for the life of me I have never seen a steel tube like is shown in the picture. I understand in the past those U shaped door entry assist jobbies have been installed with the "locked" swing over the door but IIRC those are easy to overcome?
bumpy

Just a note, the myth(reality) started with 8' truck slide in campers, when you could close the tailgate of the p/u successfully jamming the camper door closed.
You would be hard pressed today to find a slide in camper less than 9' utilizing the tailgate for the additional length.
This was a concern in the early 80's at rest stops and boondocking where thieves
locked you in and had unfettered access to the cab to steal whatever they could find.

Bumpyroad wrote:
any body have a picture of the whole bar/door/etc?...
bumpy

I'll get a set of photos of mine. Hang on folks!

I would much rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it... Overkill? Probably. Truly needed? Probably not. Peace of mind, just in case? You bet!

OK, I'm back! got the photos of my Outback.

Here's a photo of the handle in the back position. We normally travel with handle in this position. When we had our walk through, the service tech advised to never travel with the handle forward over the door, as the rubber on the handle would rub, and eventually it would have to replace. In the back position, the rubber does not touch the trailer at all. And he was right.



Here's the handle in normal "operational mode".



And here's the position the OP is addressing:



Now, while I was there, I decided to try to pull the handle and see if I could get it to pop away from the door with out lifting it, just pressure. The answer is, "No" I could not. And I definitely could not force it to pop away from the door by tugging on the door:



So, in my opinion, "yes" this is a safety concern. (and frankly, one I never about before until I read this thread.

Here's some more close-ups of what happening with the handle:

In order to get the handle to pop up, it has raise this much. If you notice, the forward direction U shape is not near as deep as the front one, but it still will not pop out of the U because of all the spring tension holding it down.



Here's a different angle, with the handle resting on the U catches. You can see how deep the U catches are:



And not only the TOP of the handle, but the bottom too has those U shaped catches. That handle will NOT open if it's against the door without lifting it up first, then swinging it.



Top:



Here's another view of the U shape catch and how deep the handle sits in it:



So you know, I'm going to have figure out how to prevent this handle from swinging forward over the door. Not sure how, mine is designed a bit different than the OP's, but I sure do thank him for drawing this to my attention.

I believe that yours is very much like the OP's. A plastic or aluminum plate fastened to the door side should solve the problem. If you have, or can make a small amount of space at the door side of the block, a piece of aluminum or plastic angle could be used as well using the mounting screws to hold it in place.

The fix is simple and could be done with less effort than criticizing those that came up with a good idea.

I just tested my handle and it flips from being 'locked' in front of the door to the ready position with virtually no force. Just a slight flip of a finger and it pops out of the U no problem.

Maybe a new design?

Mike

On our TT, there's no room to fold the assist bar flat against the trailer wall -- only option for folding it flat is against the door. However, we have a second door without an assist bar, so it's not a worry for us.

Why is folding the handle against the door even an option?

drsteve wrote:
Why is folding the handle against the door even an option?

I agree. Just went out and tried mine. It looks different than most and has no curved slot but has only a square hole to which a square piece on the handle drops into. You have to lift the handle to unlock and move it. I see the only way out is to push/pull on the handle hard enough to break the plastic hinge mountings from the wall. Oh well---I do have two escape hatch windows in the trailer.