Outdoor latches

There are several styles of bin latches used on RV's. A photo of yours would be helpful.

E-trailer & Amazon sell them

As part of my winterizing and dewinterizing, I put dry graphite lock lube into each cylinder. 14 years no problems.

Ken

The cheap barrel locks aren't great but we hit them with some WD-40 a couple times a year and corrosion hasn't been an issue.

Sorry, should have posted the image before.

This RV is less than 6 months old (Rockwood TT) and it's to the point of impossible to stick the key in the hole without first putting a screw driver or knife in the slot to loosen it up.

You can see how the lock hole is marred up from having to stick something in it.


Click For Full-Size Image.

That is because it IS a "cheap" lock.

The lock barrel is actually made of "pot metal" AKA "zinc" which is a very soft material.

To get around the soft zinc and to "harden" the lock and make it not so easy to drill they have inserted a key shaped steel fake front.

In your case the fake front is turning separate of the actual zinc lock barrel causing a miss match between the two.

Not sure if really "fixable" but I would perhaps consider pulling the lock barrel out and see if you can remove the useless front..

Lock barrel my fit a bit sloppy without some sort of shim..

Removal of the fake front may make the lock easier to drill out lowering the low security of those locks a few notches into the dirt in the process.

Follow up to my post with pictures..

They are nothing more than "Cabinet" locks

To remove barrel..

Key inserted.

Remove screw on inside end of barrel






Note direction of locked and unlock positions (need that for reassembly)

Once screw has been removed and key is in lock the entire lock barrel will pull out through the front of

lock assembly.



Once barrel is out, you have two options.

Remove the loose metal front and reassemble.

Or you might be able to tighten the indentation that was supposed to hold the two in sync.

See end of red arrow..


Click For

Full-Size Image.

You can click the last photo for a larger view.

To reassemble reverse the above, key will need to be in the barrel to reinsert.

If all else fails, you can replace entire lock assembly with any "cabinet" lock of the correct barrel length. You can find cabinet locks at Home Depot or Lowes.

The downside will be you will have a odd keyed lock if you have more than one baggage door so you may need to replace all.. Just search through the inventory at the store to locate all with the same key number..

For those annoying sticky locks, go find some "Houdini", we used it year round at work and it never let us down. It smells like orange or citrus juice and you don't need a lot, just a one second squirt. http://www.houdinilocklube.com/

Gdetrailer wrote:
Follow up to my post with pictures..

They are nothing more than "Cabinet" locks

To remove barrel..

Key inserted.

Remove screw on inside end of barrel






Note direction of locked and unlock positions (need that for reassembly)

Once screw has been removed and key is in lock the entire lock barrel will pull out through the front of

lock assembly.



Once barrel is out, you have two options.

Remove the loose metal front and reassemble.

Or you might be able to tighten the indentation that was supposed to hold the two in sync.

See end of red arrow..


Click For

Full-Size Image.

You can click the last photo for a larger view.

To reassemble reverse the above, key will need to be in the barrel to reinsert.

If all else fails, you can replace entire lock assembly with any "cabinet" lock of the correct barrel length. You can find cabinet locks at Home Depot or Lowes.

The downside will be you will have a odd keyed lock if you have more than one baggage door so you may need to replace all.. Just search through the inventory at the store to locate all with the same key number..

Great post, really appreciate it.

Are there any options to replace the entire latch with a keypad somehow? I look like a janitor at this point with the 20+ keys on my keychain.

blaczero wrote:


Great post, really appreciate it.

Are there any options to replace the entire latch with a keypad somehow? I look like a janitor at this point with the 20+ keys on my keychain.

Not sure if there is any commercially built systems specifically for baggage doors.

I know that there is electronic keypad locks for RV doors, but baggage doors are using a different latch setup..

I suppose one could "home brew" their own remote electronic locking system but I suspect it would be on the pricey side of life and a new potential failure point when the electronics part goes sideways and fails in locked position.

As far as looking like a Janitor, yeah, I understand that, it is one of the main reasons I replaced all of the baggage door locks on my trailer with new keyed alike cabinet locks. Now I have one key does all for baggage doors, electrical hatch and even the freshwater fill door..

I bought new door latches for both man doors and specified that they needed to be keyed alike. That gets me down to two keys to carry, one for the man doors and one for all other doors..

If we are leaving the trailer for a day outing like swimming, the baggage door keys stay inside the trailer and we can just take the man door key..