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Locked in coach
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While I was in Goodlettsville at Prevost recently, I had them adjust the front door. I started getting a wind noise. There are two latches, one mid-door and one up high. The one up high was not catching.
The screws that hold the trim piece around the door had backed out from vibration (assuming). The tech adjusted everything pertaining to the door. It’s perfect again.
I just makes me realize that everything needs to be inspected from time to time.
Early on, our door lock broke and was fixed under warranty. It’s not fun to be locked out. We were able to get it unlocked through the driver’s side window with a long pole as the door would not unlock from the outside but unlocking it from the inside allowed entry.
Safe travels to all!
Mark -
Mark’s pictures look exactly like what I was faced with. I was baffled that the design lasted as long as it did. One of the very few poorly engineered things I’ve run into in our coach.
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Do you have to repaint outside of door latch
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Just finished door strap on front door to prevent being locked in. Piece of cake !!
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A picture of that fix/strap would be beneficial.
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Yah give it up Steve!
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Ron, no painting required at least on mine. It’s mounted in the stainless steel area of my door and the new handle looked just like the old one. The only issue I ran into is that the new handle’s geometry is slightly different and we had to adjust the fitting that goes up to the lock.
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Harry, the cable that Steve is talking about to help get out is simple to rig up. On the last picture I posted if you notice where the gold rod on the left of the picture hooks up at the bottom, you can put a zip tie around the black leaver and run a small length of cable up inside the door panel where it will come out by your sliding window and put a small ring on it so you can pull it.
Hope this helps.
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Whoops. So sorry for not taking pics. Once interior of door is off you can see mechanism to put tie wrap onto. Just feed it up to side window for easy access. Hardest part on mine was interior lighted door handle. Had to cut wires to it for removal so interior door facing could come off to expose mechanism. Once you see the mechanism and how it works it`s pretty simple.
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Thanks Mark and Steve I appreciate the clarification. And I assume taking the door panel off is not a big deal or you would have mentioned it? Good information and it’s been mentioned enough that I plan to do something about it. The thought of being locked into or out of my bus is not a good one. Although my wife does it to me all the time. The other day she had me go to the store and when I got back she had moved!
Harry
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Everybody has to not only have a plan to release the door latch, which is done by the methods described above, but you need a plan to access the strap or wire or rod used to release the latch. On some coaches you can open the side door next to the driver with a key and then reach in and press buttons to lower the passenger door window.
But XL coaches have sliders with latches. So you either need to be able to access the door latch release from inside or outside the coach or have some means of opening the slider window latch.
This might be a good thread to toss out ideas and post photos.
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Thank you Jon and I was thinking of that very thing about how to access the latch on my slide window from outside? One thought is to open the window a tad so you can’t notice it from the outside or let rain in? Yet enough to push it open from outside? But that requires remembering to set the window latch on the way out. And you can’t drive that way due to wind noise.
I’ll have to take a good look at the window latch next time in the bus to see what my options are? Unless an XL owner already figured it out?
There was a time you could depend on Tom for this kind of information. But now with his slide coach he’s so mesmerized with watching the slide going back and fourth (oops, didn’t go back that time) that those good old days are over!
Harry
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I never lock my driver’s side slider. As soon as I rig up my emergency opener I’ll lube the right slider and leave unlocked. Considering the size of the window, I think it’s a minimal security risk.
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Maybe other more spry than me can get up to the window and wiggle in, but I agree with Joel in that the risk of someone taking advantage of an unlocked slider is slim.
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I like that idea… Simple solution and I do carry a 4’ step ladder in my bay. Problem solved, thanks guys.
1999 XLV X-6872, liberty #440
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