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Lock out of coach
Hi everyone, a friend locked themselves out of their coach at a Cracker Barrel and can’t get in. They have a 2000 H-345 Featherlite Vantarie, I’ve already mentioned taking out the windshield. Does anyone know of another way to get in, through the steer compartment or anything else. Thanks for any thoughts.
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15 Replies
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Some coaches have a toggle switch to lower the toll window.
If so equipped, it can be found in the compartment below the toll window, behind the removable plastic protective wire shield located at the very top of the compartment.
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Deadbolt or air lock Mark?
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never lock all windows I leave bedroom window unlocked I have crawled in and out
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Mark, if your friend can get the toll window down, they can get a long piece of pcv pipe with a small elbow attached to the end. With a lot of practice, they can slide the lock by putting the pole through the toll window. (don’t ask me how I know!) LOL!
A 2000 model’s door lock could be different but just wanted to share my experience. Mine was under warranty at the time and hope it never happens again! The next step was to remove the windshield.
Safe travels,
Mark
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Anyone ever heard of a Hide-A-Key, LOL
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A Hide-a-key won’t work if the key lock is broke nor will the key-less entry buttons. When the lock is broke, it’s broke. Jus say’n.
In my case, the only way to move the lock was from the inside.
Mark
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Got it, good pointers for those cases; in this case he locked himself out
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A few years ago, I started our coach inside the barn, went outside and when I was ready to get in and move it out, the air lock prevented me from getting in. I later learned the air lock button was mistakenly pushed by the door when the auxillary air was low. When the bus filled the auxiliary tank, the air lock engaged locking me out with the bus running. I removed a vent fan on top, cut the screen and lowered my daughter in through the hole and she disengaged the air lock.
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Wouldn’t you have been able to use the rear switch to shut the engine down, and then bleed air to release the lock?
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Also in the steer compartment like Jon did I marked and put valves on aux lines coming off aux system and one of the lines is marked door lock, you could turn off valve disconnect air line release pressure air lock turns off.
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I ran into Mark today and they had a Locksmith drill out the lock, all is well.
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To Jon’s reply, I had the bus parked against the back wall so I could not open the doors to shut off the engine.
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Down by the engine block near the chassis batteries is a fuel shut off. Access is via the side door.
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Thanks for all of the advice, Randy had a locksmith come out and drill out the lock. I’ve shared all of your responses with him and hopefully in the future he will a backup plan. Thanks again
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FWIW we always have the door lock key in our pocket. We also have a key to open the door on our XLII next to the driver’s seat. That will not give us access for entry, but it allows the ability to turn on the ignition and be able to lower the entry door toll window or unlock the door, either manually with my long bus washing pole or by door unlock buttons. The key to open the driver door is hidden externally and it also opens the bays.
Additionally I added a plastic strap whose end is visible at the entry door toll window, that when pulled will open the entry door. I disassembled the door and attached the strap to the latch mechanism right at the latch so even if the entire mechanism fell apart this would still release the latch.
There have been enough horror stories about people locked in or out that I now wear two belts with two sets of suspenders to insure we don’t add our names to the list.
Our primary way of locking and unlocking our coach has been the Ford type push buttons on the entry door. So far so good.
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