Don't let your door slam or the latch may break! :(
While camped at the US forest service's really nice "Ten-X" campground just south of Grand Canyon national park I decided to take advantage of the paved campsite to roll under the coach on my creeper and grease the chassis. I had the outside door open with the screen door closed. A sudden burst of wind slammed the door shut very hard. I came out from under the coach with grease on me and couldn't get the door open... (sigh)... so I got out my ladder and climbed in through the window. I sat there on the steps inside the door with my flashlight and tools and eventually got into the lock by drilling a couple of holes in the screen door directly over the two screws in the lock and removing the inside faceplate. I've taken the lock apart before but wasn't familiar with it enough to spot the problem, so I busted the lock out of the door being careful to do as little damage to the fiberglass door as possible. I called Foretravel and had them ship me a new lock and latch, figuring my old parts were now useless. After the new parts arrived and I compared them I noticed the little spring in the latch had popped out of its slot, which wouldn't allow it to release from the door bolt. I put the spring back in the slot in my old latch and bent all the parts back to approximately the way they're supposed to be and reinstalled the whole thing... and it works! 
...but I still have a $153 spare lock and latch ...oh well, I'm sure it'll break again someday ...The moral of the story here is find a way to secure your outer door so it can't slam shut when you're using your screen door. If your door does slam shut and you have to go through all the annoying stuff I went through, be sure to look carefully at the little spring in the latch after you get the inside lock faceplate off. You might be able to carefully put the little spring back into its slot with a pair of needle nose pliers. I may try to put a glob of JB Weld over the slot to permanently secure the spring in the slot.
Topic: Don't let your door slam or the latch may break! :( (Read 361 times)
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