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Locked in coach
As Gail and I prepared to leave Gulf Shores this morning, I got up and walked our dog, started the bus and disconnected the shore power as I did everything else the night before. I shut the door then thought I would do one last walk around, turn the door handle and nothing happened, door would not open. I slid the side window open reached down and tried the outside door handle and nothing happened, we are now locked in the bus. I thought for a moment, set down in the seat and hit drive telling Gail we would not be stopping driving the whole 10 and 1/2 hours home.
This could have been an issue but we had a full tank of fuel so we didn’t need to stop for that, but getting our 85 pound Doberman Pincher out through the emergency exit for a bathroom break was going to be an issue, hence the reason for driving straight through.
Now to the point, the door is shut with some of the screws holding the door panel on behind the door jam, so out comes the razor knife , trying to cut through the fiber board to get at the locking mechanism, no luck. So now comes a new door panel with a access panel to allow easy access to the lock, should this ever happens again.
I would advise everyone to take a look at how you will get out of your coach as I had to pull a Dan Hillger, having to climb out of a window after handing our aforementioned dog out of the window along with my wife, not as fun as it sounds.
Just a thought, that you might want to figure this out sooner than later.
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54 Replies
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I hope Gail took pictures of herself coming out the window after all her pictures in AL
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That $30 Kiddie escape ladder looks pretty damn good now, doesn’t it.
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So what caused the door not to open?
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Any chance you inadvertently bumped into the door lock air switch?
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I had a similar situation last summer. I too thought I’d have to cut the door panel.
But I was able to find right angle screw drivers at the hardware store which allowed me to first pop-off the screw covers and slowly (90 degree turns at a time) unscrew the screws that were “hidden” by the door frames.
If I can find the post, I’ll add a link.
DON’T CUT THE DOOR PANEL!!!!
Once you get the door panel off, you’ll likely notice what the problem is … the connection between the door handle and the latching mechanism is very poorly designed and doomed to eventual failure. One of the very few things that has disappointed me about the Prevost shell.
Then I had to order a new door handle mechanism from Prevost. I ordered the mechanism at less than $200 from Prevost Parts. But apparently Prevost ran out of the NOS part and they sent me an XLII door handle mechanism at over $500. We were at the Liberty rally in Maine last fall, and I had the Liberty techs from Florida install it. They told me that they didn’t have to use all the parts and had to rebuild part of it work.
I suspect that eventually all the pre-XLII X-series door handle mechanisms will eventually fail. Consider proactively changing out the handle and mechanism.
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Been there done that ….. we now always leave a side window unlocked with the window rod straight every time we leave the coach …
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The previous owner of our coach must have experienced a lock out as well since he connected a braided wire to the lock mechanism. The wire comes out behind the interior panel next to the sliding window and terminates in a small stainless steel ring.
Call me chicken but I have not pulled on the ring to test it yet.
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Mark, I know this is too late to help, but I urge everyone to open up the door panel and connect something, whether it is a wire or in my case a long nylon wire tie, a piece of twine or a steel rod to the very end of the door release mechanism.
As soon as Granville sent out an SOS for help because he was locked in I made sure I had something that extended up and was reachable from outside or inside to pull to release the door mechanism. If you open up the door panel you can see there are multiple points where the entire mechanism can come apart doing exactly what it did to you.
If you don’t have something your mechanism will fail. If you add some means of opening the door in an emergency it will never fail.
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What I think happened is this, on the older coaches such as mine the rods that operate the latch mechanism are held on with plastic clips. The newer style locks use a metal clip to hold the rods in place, I think that either one or both of my rods came loose and fell off. I’m going to make a new door panel, like the newer Marathon’s use that have a decorative cover that uses velcro to hold the cover in place, pull the leather tab and you have the release in front of you.
As Jon mentioned on the release mechanism there is a hole in the end of it and I’m going to run a little key ring around into the hole and use a small piece of wire cable and run it up to where it can be accessed if you slide your side window open, in case your locked out and not in.
Jeff Gail didn’t get her picture crawling out of the window, but I think she did take one of me, go figure.
Dan your right the $30 dollar ladder is looking better all the time, I guess you just hang a quilt over the window frame so the ladder doesn’t scratch up your coach.
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Kirby, I wish it were that simple, no I have a failure internal to the lock, hoping just a clip and rod fell off, but most likely not that lucky.
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So now PC has Monkey Boy One AND Monkey Boy Two. You going to train Diesel to climb an escape ladder?
I can laugh at you Mark, because I also had it happen to me, not once, but twice before I ordered a new lock. Being an Engineer, I thought I could fix the old lock the first time, but nope, so now, even with a new lock, I leave a widow unlocked and a suction cup handle in the bay plus a hidden bay key accessible from outside. I also have a set of screwdrivers inside I can use to remove the inner door panel. Ah, the joys of Prevost ownership. The learning never ceases.
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on my coach late 90’s XLE there is a rectangular box floor level passenger side/curb. That is where your air lock /suck shut door mechanism is. Puts a latch system out to lock. Has a 1/4 inch air line running to it. I have a cable run down from main lock actuwaiter also .My spelling is horrible. Also on mine you can lock door from inside by pushing inside door handle down. Lots of mechanism there..Inside the dead bolt main lock there is a rectangular slide pin that can wear out also…
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Mark wrote: “no I have a failure internal to the lock, hoping just a clip and rod fell off, but most likely not that lucky.”
Presuming you’re outside, look closely at the interior (cup?) of the outside handle. Do you see a small hole? If so, then you have a same problem I had. The mechanism is somehow welded to the handle casting there and when the mechanism and the handle casting separated a small hole was left there.
Once you get the inside panel off, open the door, and study the mechanism I think you’ll see what I mean.
When I removed my panel I could only reach the upper screws holding the panel. The bottom ones were at the bottom of the steps and in an extremely awkward place to reach. After removing the upper screws, I carefully pulled the panel away from the door frame, reached in, and eventually figured out how to open the door.
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I will get better pictures tomorrow and try to explain what has happened. I’ve called it the lock but in reality its the flat door handle that you pull to open the door. When you pull the handle its rotates a cam (not sure what to call it) on the inside of the door that moves rods etc… to open the door. There isn’t a direct replacement for the XL but the one for the XLII will fit the actual cut out, but the geometry has changed and had to be worked out to work. In the first picture, you are looking at the back of the door handle with the cam with the attachments for the rods. The second picture shoes just the back of the handle insert with a hole in the middle, which is what broke. The third picture shows the other side of the cam and if you look at the middle you will see a porous area, this is where it failed and broke of the handle insert. The last photo shows what the new one looks like.
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It failed the same way mine did, Jon( and others ) is right , having an emergency ripcord is the way to go. Also an inside the coach mini toolbox for emergency or convenience isn’t a bad idea , I got mine apart with a leather man.
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