Side door latch/lock won't close without assist...

[SJ-Chris]

On my 2013 23' Coachman Leprechaun 210QB, the side door lock/latch has developed a problem. It is a TriMark brand lock assembly. Here is a photo:


The correct operation of "closing the door" is to simply push (or pull) it shut and then it self latches closed (but not locked). Recently, when I did that (pushed it shut) it didn't automatically latch and instead it "rejected" the attempt. Imagine if you accidentally had the deadbolt in the lock position (extended) while the door was open, and then you pushed/slammed the door shut. It would make a loud "thud" and sort of bounce back open because it cannot possible close with the deadbolt sticking out. That is sort of what it is like, however it isn't the deadbolt causing the issue, it is the springy door latch part (circled in red in the photo) that is supposed to compress and then latch when the door closes. It is as if the springy part is extended out a little too far and then when the door tries to close it catches on the flat part of the springy part and not the slanted part of the springy part (which would then force it to spring inward and allow the door to close).

LOL....yes I realize "springy part" is obviously not the right name for that part. It is the part that (with the door open) you can push it in and then it will spring back once you remove the tension. It is similar to most standard door latches in your home. It's this part:


So....who here has had a similar problem? Is it possible/easy to open up the Trimark lock assembly and make some sort of adjustment? Thought I'd ask here first to see if anyone has any experience with these.

Thanks!
Chris

[Gdetrailer]

Rick Jay wrote:
Hi Chris,

Definitely check it with a magnet.

Here's the link to Pot Metal from Wikipedia. Basically it's an alloy of various metals which have a low melting point (cheaper to melt at lower temp, and not much strenght) which allows manufacturers to make an inexpensive casting of an object. It usually has little, if any, iron in the mix as that would raise the melting point, which requires more energy to melt, and thus more expensive to produce. The driving force behind pot metal is CHEAP! 🙂

In the link above, an important line is this: "Depending on the exact metals "thrown into the pot," pot metal can become unstable over time, as it has a tendency to bend, distort, crack, shatter, and pit with age. The low boiling point of zinc and fast cooling of newly cast parts often trap air bubbles within the cast part, weakening it." So this kind of makes it a "ticking time-bomb", so to speak.

The replacement parts, and I assume the new Tri-Mark locks, use steel for the part which provides considerably more strength and is more ductile and less brittle, so it's very unlikely to crack. And steel, with its high iron content, is magnetic. Hence why a magnet test will easily show which type of metal yours if made from.

Hope this helps.

~Rick

Don't need to "magnet test" pot metal.

Bare Pot metal has a completely different look in color and texture when compared to bare steel. Looks a lot like Galvanized coated metals (Zinc is the main ingredient in the galvanizing process).

Pot metal does not need painted either, steel needs painted or oiled if you don't want it to rust unless it is stainless steel. But you can paint pot metal but you can typically tell that the painted item is pot metal since it will be molded.

Not to mention magnets do not stick to aluminum and aluminum alloys and most varieties of stainless.

I could tell from the pictures that the entire lock body (including the door handle pull), the latch bolt and other small parts are nothing more than pot metal. The only steel there is the rod and any springs.

Much of your every day items are made up of pot metal if it has been molded.

[Gjac]

Pot metal is just a Zinc alloy and is very brittle and beaks easily especially with constant door slamming. My MH is a 1996 so mine has broken several times. Instead of buying a new one that may or may not be steel I just made a steel splice that joined the two broken pieces together so far after 5 or 6 years it is still holding up. Yes, a magnet will stick to steel but not to the Zinc alloy.

[Rick_Jay]

Hi Chris,

Definitely check it with a magnet.

Here's the link to Pot Metal from Wikipedia. Basically it's an alloy of various metals which have a low melting point (cheaper to melt at lower temp, and not much strenght) which allows manufacturers to make an inexpensive casting of an object. It usually has little, if any, iron in the mix as that would raise the melting point, which requires more energy to melt, and thus more expensive to produce. The driving force behind pot metal is CHEAP! 🙂

In the link above, an important line is this: "Depending on the exact metals "thrown into the pot," pot metal can become unstable over time, as it has a tendency to bend, distort, crack, shatter, and pit with age. The low boiling point of zinc and fast cooling of newly cast parts often trap air bubbles within the cast part, weakening it." So this kind of makes it a "ticking time-bomb", so to speak.

The replacement parts, and I assume the new Tri-Mark locks, use steel for the part which provides considerably more strength and is more ductile and less brittle, so it's very unlikely to crack. And steel, with its high iron content, is magnetic. Hence why a magnet test will easily show which type of metal yours if made from.

Hope this helps.

~Rick

[Gdetrailer]

SJ-Chris wrote:

Rick Jay wrote:
SJ-Chris,

I applaud you for your solution to prevent the slider bolt from extending all the way. I could tell from your pics that yours didn't break. However, it WILL break. And this guy named Murphy will tell you that when it does, it will be at the worst possible time. 🙂 You've already closed the door (probably several times) with the slider bolt over-extended. That put lateral stress on that part, and might have already weakened it. That's the problem, when it breaks, there IS no warning. The door does NOT open and you're trapped...either inside or outside.

The first time this happened to our rig, I was surprised how many others had the EXACT same problem. And like I said, we pretty much babied the closing of the door...I detest door slammers! LOL Anyway, I believe, there were some folks who sent documentation to the NHTSA to see if Tri-Mark could be forced to fix this as this could conceivable be a life-threatening failure if the lock broke and there was a fire inside the RV. Perhaps a "perfect storm" of problems, but not outside the realm of possibility. We have a driver's door on our Class A, but if the fire is at the front of the rig, that door would be useless. If the main entrance door didn't open, then wifey and I have to try to squeeze our "not so skinny" butts out the emergency window in the bedroom with the requisite "fall" to the ground. LOL

Ok, just my line of thinking, but what I paid for that upgraded steel bolt and the peace of mind it provides, I felt it is well worth it. I didn't want to take any chances, and when the kit mentioned above became available, I quickly ordered it and installed it.

I'd recommend that you order it. The frustration you save will be your own! 😉

Safe travels,

~Rick

Thanks for the info/suggestion! I'm not opposed to spending money on these things as I do like everything (every light bulb in fact) to be working correctly.

It seems there is a big difference between the "pot metal" vs the "actual metal" bolts and their durability. The "pot metal" bolts are the ones that break. I haven't searched it, but I haven't heard anyone state that their "actual metal" bolt broke yet. I've also heard that the pot metal bolt is not magnetic (...side note: I find this strange....what IS pot metal???). I will likely put a magnet to mine to see if it is real metal or pot metal. If it is pot metal, I will be much more inclined to replace it as you suggest. If it is actual metal, I think I'm comfortable keeping this bolt in there. I'll let you know what my test reveals....

Happy camping!
Chris

Pot metal is typically non ferrous metals with a low melting point, mainly Zinc, but often is mixed with varying amounts of other cheap low values metals..

Features low cost, low strength casting which equals cheap parts..

A lot of early auto manufacturers used pot metal for trim parts and things like carburetors and distributors.. Toy companies use a lot for things like Matchbox cars, Hot wheels and much more..

See HERE for more info..

Personally, I would just have taken a file to the the latch bolt which was sticking to far out and filed a rounded edge to ease the transition.. Would not hurt the latch bolt strength.

[SJ-Chris]

Rick Jay wrote:
SJ-Chris,

I applaud you for your solution to prevent the slider bolt from extending all the way. I could tell from your pics that yours didn't break. However, it WILL break. And this guy named Murphy will tell you that when it does, it will be at the worst possible time. 🙂 You've already closed the door (probably several times) with the slider bolt over-extended. That put lateral stress on that part, and might have already weakened it. That's the problem, when it breaks, there IS no warning. The door does NOT open and you're trapped...either inside or outside.

The first time this happened to our rig, I was surprised how many others had the EXACT same problem. And like I said, we pretty much babied the closing of the door...I detest door slammers! LOL Anyway, I believe, there were some folks who sent documentation to the NHTSA to see if Tri-Mark could be forced to fix this as this could conceivable be a life-threatening failure if the lock broke and there was a fire inside the RV. Perhaps a "perfect storm" of problems, but not outside the realm of possibility. We have a driver's door on our Class A, but if the fire is at the front of the rig, that door would be useless. If the main entrance door didn't open, then wifey and I have to try to squeeze our "not so skinny" butts out the emergency window in the bedroom with the requisite "fall" to the ground. LOL

Ok, just my line of thinking, but what I paid for that upgraded steel bolt and the peace of mind it provides, I felt it is well worth it. I didn't want to take any chances, and when the kit mentioned above became available, I quickly ordered it and installed it.

I'd recommend that you order it. The frustration you save will be your own! 😉

Safe travels,

~Rick

Thanks for the info/suggestion! I'm not opposed to spending money on these things as I do like everything (every light bulb in fact) to be working correctly.

It seems there is a big difference between the "pot metal" vs the "actual metal" bolts and their durability. The "pot metal" bolts are the ones that break. I haven't searched it, but I haven't heard anyone state that their "actual metal" bolt broke yet. I've also heard that the pot metal bolt is not magnetic (...side note: I find this strange....what IS pot metal???). I will likely put a magnet to mine to see if it is real metal or pot metal. If it is pot metal, I will be much more inclined to replace it as you suggest. If it is actual metal, I think I'm comfortable keeping this bolt in there. I'll let you know what my test reveals....

Happy camping!
Chris

[Rick_Jay]

SJ-Chris,

I applaud you for your solution to prevent the slider bolt from extending all the way. I could tell from your pics that yours didn't break. However, it WILL break. And this guy named Murphy will tell you that when it does, it will be at the worst possible time. 🙂 You've already closed the door (probably several times) with the slider bolt over-extended. That put lateral stress on that part, and might have already weakened it. That's the problem, when it breaks, there IS no warning. The door does NOT open and you're trapped...either inside or outside.

The first time this happened to our rig, I was surprised how many others had the EXACT same problem. And like I said, we pretty much babied the closing of the door...I detest door slammers! LOL Anyway, I believe, there were some folks who sent documentation to the NHTSA to see if Tri-Mark could be forced to fix this as this could conceivable be a life-threatening failure if the lock broke and there was a fire inside the RV. Perhaps a "perfect storm" of problems, but not outside the realm of possibility. We have a driver's door on our Class A, but if the fire is at the front of the rig, that door would be useless. If the main entrance door didn't open, then wifey and I have to try to squeeze our "not so skinny" butts out the emergency window in the bedroom with the requisite "fall" to the ground. LOL

Ok, just my line of thinking, but what I paid for that upgraded steel bolt and the peace of mind it provides, I felt it is well worth it. I didn't want to take any chances, and when the kit mentioned above became available, I quickly ordered it and installed it.

I'd recommend that you order it. The frustration you save will be your own! 😉

Safe travels,

~Rick

[SJ-Chris]

After watching the video above, I went to my RV to take a look at the door latch. What I realized is that my slider bolt is NOT broken (as in the video) and therefore I didn't need a new slider bolt. The issue is that the bolt just doesn't stop extending where it should (it goes about 1/8th of an inch too far extended) and therefore when it hits the door jam it is not on the slanted part of the bolt and therefore it doesn't compress.


So I had an idea to glue in a tiny piece of metal on the bolt (in the yellow circle on the top rail) in the photo here:



After giving it plenty of time to dry I tried it out. The opening mechanism/arm immediately popped my little piece of metal out and therefore the solution didn't work. Out of a bit of annoyance/frustration, I decided to try putting a ziptie around it as someone above had mentioned. I wasn't happy with the idea is it isn't very elegant (and I don't know how long it would last for), but I tried it anyway. It does in fact hold back the bolt from extending too far.





Honestly, I was surprised I was even able to get the lock plate screwed back together and in place as I thought the large part of the ziptie would get in the way. But I was able to. And I know that if this doesn't work (or breaks), I can always remove it later. Low and behold, it works! (for now at least). I'll try this out for a few months and see if there are any issues.


Reminder: One of the reasons I'm willing to "play around" with such a solution is because my latch bolt is NOT broken and the door does allow itself to open and close even without this bandaid fix. There has never been an issue of not being able to open the door, fear of getting stuck inside/outside, etc.


If there are any updates in the future I'll let you know!


-Chris

[Rick_Jay]

IAMICHABOD wrote:
I book marked a E Bay seller a while back that sold a repair kit that may have been mentioned earlier.

Trimark Repair Kit

That's it!!! Nice work! The website for the part is www.latchfix.com. There's a video which shows how to do the replacement.

It looks like it went up in price a bit....but then again, what hasn't?

Just make sure it fits the style of Tri-Mark door lock that you have on your rig. If it does, then I highly recommend this product.

SJ-Chris, looking at your pictures a bit closer, I'm 95% sure your bolt/plunger is the older pot-metal type. The pot metal is a dull gray in appearance, no shine or gloss to it. If it was the newer model, I believe it would be shinier. I believe you can also check it with a magnet. If a magnet doesn't stick to it, it's the pot metal version. For peace of mind, I'd replace it. Getting locked in OR locked out is not fun, and it happens without warning. That pot metal cracks and it "no worky no more".

Good Luck

~Rick

[IAMICHABOD]

I book marked a E Bay seller a while back that sold a repair kit that may have been mentioned earlier.

Trimark Repair Kit

[ScottG]

SJ-Chris wrote:

ScottG wrote:
It's a $25 item - just replace it.

Which item is $25?

A new complete door latch from TriMark is ~$150+. Are you suggesting that just a part of this latch needs to be replaced? If so, I wasn't thinking that was an option but would be good. Please elaborate. Thanks

I paid $26 for the entire assy just to get a unit key'd like my other door. Has worked perfectly for 4 years so far.
In retrospect, it probably wasn't a TM but it looks and works exactly like the one I replaced. I would buy one again.

[wnjj]

SJ-Chris wrote:
Someone pointed me to this video which shows someone repairing a TriMark latch unit. I think it is just what I was looking for and I'm putting it here in case someone else is wondering about the interior of this latch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epq8MrrRF7c

About 1 minute into the video, it shows the little white plastic piece and where it goes. That is the main thing I was trying to figure out as I believe it is what is supposed to keep the springy latch from extending too far (and thus making it so the door won't close without assistance). I'm going to check it out on my latch later today to see if I can get that piece to fit in the right place. I'll report back...

-Chris

I looked pretty close at the video and I don't think that plastic piece will stop the out travel. If anything it cusions/guides the in travel. Notice how his remade piece still rests on those two black plastic tabs.

Is it possible to shim the lock inward away from the door edge? If you take out the mounting screws you may be able to place something flat between the lock assembly and the door edge. Your picture showing the door face looks like it's all the way toward the edge right now. The dead bolt will be even further in but probably will still work.

[Rick_Jay]

SJ-Chris,

Our rig was built in 2004, and it was about 2014 the original lock mechanism broke. I replaced the entire assembly at that time and it, too, had the pot metal bolt.

The video you posted wiped away some cobwebs. I DID buy a new lock assembly the second time, but a few months later someone posted a link to somebody who manufactured new, bolts. I ended up buying one and replacing the one on my second lock set BEFORE it broke. As an FYI, I think Tri-Mark came out with the new model around 2014 or 2015? Maybe?

I do know the link of the person selling the new kit was posted on these forums back then. I'll see if I can find it.

~Rick

On Edit: No luck finding it yet. I do believe it was a one-man show who designed and built the replacement lock-bolt kit and I believe sold them through E-Bay. Again...cloudy memory. Perhaps with the new design, it wasn't worth him to continue making them? I'll keep looking, though, and if I do find anything, I'll be sure to post it. I think it was $29 or somewhere in that area, which is A LOT cheaper than replacing the entire assembly.

[SJ-Chris]

Someone pointed me to this video which shows someone repairing a TriMark latch unit. I think it is just what I was looking for and I'm putting it here in case someone else is wondering about the interior of this latch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epq8MrrRF7c

About 1 minute into the video, it shows the little white plastic piece and where it goes. That is the main thing I was trying to figure out as I believe it is what is supposed to keep the springy latch from extending too far (and thus making it so the door won't close without assistance). I'm going to check it out on my latch later today to see if I can get that piece to fit in the right place. I'll report back...

-Chris

[wnjj]

If you want to try a cheap fix first, wrap a wide zip-tie or two around the bolt (inside the yellow circle in your photo) instead of gluing blocks in. A zip-tie shim will stay in place much better.