Dangerous Pranks

[Reader1]

There are dangerous pranks I read about today on RV quilters facebook page. Both happen at night. "Kids" go around closing the bar that goes in front of doors. Doing that makes it nearly impossible to open the door. Kids are also closing steps. Several people had heard about both. It happened to some of them, and one woman stepped out of her camper in the morning and fell because her steps were in. Fortunately she was not injured.
I wanted to make people aware of this.

[GMH]

CavemanCharlie wrote:
On my first travel trailer the door lock didn't work so I just added a hasp door hatch clasp and used a pad lock. Went to a party at a buddies house and I didn't want to drive home after drinking so I took the TT. I though nothing of just leaving the pad lock hanging on the door. The next morning I woke up to find some friends had locked me in the TT !!! :B

The door had a window in it and the screws for it were on the inside. Using my Swiss Army Knife I was able to remove the screws and take out the window. After that I reached out and unlocked the door.

I never left the pad lock hanging on the door again. :B

You should have snuck away and left it parked there for a few days to teach them a lesson.:B

[down_home]

Had both happen on our fifth wheel..plus pull the black and or gray water drains!
Caps on and you may not notice the handle pulled.Lots of fun, not.
If I could have caught the whipper snapper I would have taken them to ladies salon and had them given a full body wax!

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

CavemanCharlie wrote:
If someone tried to fold up my manual fold steps on my TT it would bounce the camper so much and make so much noise I would wake up. Seriously, those things make a awful screechy/klunky racket when you move them. It would probably wake up the neighbors.

Mine, too - I absolutely WOULD wake up and so would the dogs, who would LOVE to chase off any interlopers when I opened the door to yell at them 😉

On another note: we ALWAYS check connections after a stop, after reading of people pulling pins on tow bars or trailers, etc.

[Mike134]

So I walked up to the trailer and left the drunk handle across the door, no problem to pull the door open and have the handle swing out of the way. Don't even need a helper to test.

I'd say this myth is BUSTED!!

[CavemanCharlie]

On my first travel trailer the door lock didn't work so I just added a hasp door hatch clasp and used a pad lock. Went to a party at a buddies house and I didn't want to drive home after drinking so I took the TT. I though nothing of just leaving the pad lock hanging on the door. The next morning I woke up to find some friends had locked me in the TT !!! :B

The door had a window in it and the screws for it were on the inside. Using my Swiss Army Knife I was able to remove the screws and take out the window. After that I reached out and unlocked the door.

I never left the pad lock hanging on the door again. :B

[CavemanCharlie]

If someone tried to fold up my manual fold steps on my TT it would bounce the camper so much and make so much noise I would wake up. Seriously, those things make a awful screechy/klunky racket when you move them. It would probably wake up the neighbors.

[justALnow]

Reader1 wrote:
There are dangerous pranks I read about today on RV quilters facebook page. Both happen at night. "Kids" go around closing the bar that goes in front of doors. Doing that makes it nearly impossible to open the door. Kids are also closing steps. Several people had heard about both. It happened to some of them, and one woman stepped out of her camper in the morning and fell because her steps were in. Fortunately she was not injured.
I wanted to make people aware of this.

Those quilters! A rowdy bunch, indeed!

[Grit_dog]

Drunk handle....love it!

[Bird_Freak]

gbopp wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:
Yep, urban legends tend to have long lives.

Remind me to tell you about the time I found a hook hanging on my car door handle. It's a true story. :C

I bet you had been parking with your honey too!:B

[dedmiston]

Last year coming home from a desert trip in our toy hauler I noticed that "the drunk handle" (as some call them in our camp) from our rear door was extended while we were on the highway.

I pulled over and shut it and assumed one of us forgot to close it before we left camp. It bugged me though, because I always do a good walk around before we leave camp: look at all cargo holds, inspect all six wheels/tires, check TV antenna, and definitely check the drunk handles on both doors.

As I was ruminating over this (back on the road), I saw the handle open again.

It turned out that some of my cargo in the garage (folding chairs) was pushing on the door, actually unlatching the door, and opening the drunk handle.

From this I surmised that it really doesn't take much pressure on the door to push that handle open.

And now I deadbolt that rear door when we hit the road. No more troubles with the drunk handle.

My experience isn't very scientific, but I still consider this myth to be busted. Just push on the door with the same weight and pressure as a camp chair.

[trailernovice]

Another thought...if closing the grab handle against the door really DID trap people inside (which, as others have noted, can't happen these days because the units have emergency exits), I'm pretty sure either some government agency would have banned them (think 'lawn darts') or product-liability suits would have bankrupted the manufacturers by now

[bucky]

We have a slide next to the door with a window there. Problem solved.

[dedmiston]

Grit dog wrote:

schlep1967 wrote:
The best way to keep things like this happening is to ....... keep putting on the internet so some kid that would never think about can read about it and play copy cat.

Pretty safe from the kids here I'd say...

LOL.

[Boon_Docker]

Pranking the cat. :B