Passport 2910BH cargo door...need some ideas

[jhomuth7]

This is my first time to the forums! We took delivery of our 2013 Passport 2910BH back in September, but have only used it once due to kids' sports schedules and a spring full of new baby/illness/surgery/hospitalizations. We do love it though...it's our third trailer and our biggest so far.

My question is regarding the rear cargo door, by the lower bunk, as far as being able to open it from inside the trailer. We have 5 kids, one of whom is 2 1/2. The rear door worries me with him, as he tends to get himself into trouble. His next older sibling is 4, and honestly I can see her getting curious about that door as well. While I don't think she would fall out like the 2 1/2 year old, I worry that if she does opens it even once, he will see her and realize that he can open it too. Also, the baby right now is almost a year, and pretty soon will be hot on the 2 1/2 year old's heels getting into the same trouble with that door! Either the 4 year old or 2 1/2 year old will have to sleep in that bunk, which multiplies the opportunities for someone to get into trouble with that door.

So I've been trying to come up with ways of covering that door up. I understand it's an emergency exit, so I don't want to disable the lock, or cover it permanently. I'd just like to cover it somehow (especially the handle/lock) with something temporary...kind of an out-of sight-out-of-mind thing for the younger kids. And also that I might be able to hear them messing with the cover I can get to them before they mess with the handle.

Has anyone else here had to deal with this problem, and come up with any ingenious way to solve it? Any other ideas? Thanks in advance!

Jessica

[f6bits]

The window across the way is an emergency exit.

I'd have to experiment on mine, but what happens if you lock both locks from the outside? I know the deadbolt has the red lever inside, but maybe the inside handle won't work if the outside handle is locked.

[Patrickj65]

I looked at mine this weekend and if you lock both of the locks from the outside, the inside handle will not open. The inside handle will only open the deadbolt if locked.

Hope it helps.

Patrick

[E597283]

interesting...i didnt know that

[jhomuth7]

Patrick, thanks for checking and posting your findings. I honestly thought we had checked it like that, but I guess not. We haven't actually been in the trailer a whole lot (sadly...), so we don't know it as well as we knew our previous one. Thanks again!

[ezlivin]

Patrick is right. Just lock the deadbolt as well and it can not be opened from the inside.

[f6bits]

But if the deadbolt's red lever is flipped open, then what?

[jhomuth7]

Well, I just drove out to the storage place to play around with the door. And even with the door handle locked from the outside (in addition to the deadbolt), if you go inside and flip the deadbolt lock open, you can unlatch the door from the inside. So the door lever is only made to keep people on the outside from getting in...no way to keep little 2 year olds on the inside from falling out. I understand it from a fire hazard standpoint, but I find it hard to believe that no one has found this to be enough of a problem to warrant some sort of fix from Keystone, given the family (and kid) nature of RV-ing.

Anyway, my "fix" will be to just take a durable piece of black-out curtain fabric (since it is tough and the edges won't fray) to cover the whole latch/lock assembly with on the inside. I'll use a square of it and some stick on velcro all the way around to hold it on. That way, it's easily accessible if needed, but covered so as to hopefully not draw attention to itself by little 2 year old hands (and 4 year old hands, for that matter.) But, if they do get curious, it will be loud enough for me to hear them getting into trouble with it.

Still open to other ideas, though.

[f6bits]

I don't know if there are screws in the doorframe near the handle (which already has screws), but you could add a small chain and spring clip that limits how far the door opens. Or some other way to tether the door to prevent much opening.

[cc53fd]

my 2013 2910 bh when locked with key from outside will not open from inside