Door Opens When Traveling

[Gary-n-Liz]

The door on our Outback Terrain opens when we're driving down the road. Not all the time, but what the heck! We have a routine where one of us locks the door deadbolt and the other physically verifies this has been done. The hardware isn't damaged that we can see.

Anyone else with the problem?

[rzrbckr]

Trailers do flex considerably while traveling. I had this issue on my Palomino. Simply use the handhold folded forward across the door to keep it closed when it occasionally pops open.

[JRTJH]

Almost any travel trailer will flex as it is towed. Sometimes the frame of the door will flex, widening the gap between the frame and the door lock. When that happens, the door may unlatch and open. It's happened to us occasionally with several travel trailers that we've owned. It's not inherent to your model, nor to Keystone, but can happen with almost any RV.

We've learned through the years to fold the grab bar over the door to stop the door from opening. It may still unlatch, but can only move about 1/2" before it hits the grab bar, thus preventing it from opening and posing a danger or a problem.

Some people (us included) also lock the dead bolt, but some people feel that the dead bolt shouldn't be used to secure the door because the flexing may damage the lock mechanism. You may (or may not) feel that damage could occur.

Anyway, if you have a folding grab bar, fold it over the door and it'll prevent the door from opening, even if it does unlatch.

[LuvsPalmTrees]

We have had the same problem with our Laredo. The first time it really scared us, but we noticed other people traveling with the grab bar over their door and figured it must happen to other people too. So we started to put our handle over the door. Our smaller trailer - Mallard 25ft bunkhouse it never did that so this was new to us. Live and learn.

[chuckster57]

Dead bolt the door and your golden. My assist handle only folds against the door so I’m double covered.

It’s a common occurrence across all makes/models.

[LuvsPalmTrees]

We do deadbolt, still had it pop open. Just learned to put the assist handle across the door and we are good. No worries.

[ken56]

That is a lot of flexing for just traveling down the road. I have never had this happen yet but we lock both the latch and dead bolt and put the grab bar over the door too. I would wonder if there was a broken weld on the wall and roof framing near the door that lets it flex so much. The only way to find out though is to open up the wall and ceiling. Not a great option. Is it still under warranty? How long are you willing to be without your rig to investigate it? Not good choices all around.

[Gary-n-Liz]

Regretfully, we don't have a folding handhold on our trailer. Just a stationary one.

I had thought about flexing and the thought that I might have frame issues scares me to death because we're full time and no longer have a house to retreat to.

I also have a soft spot in the floor that I thought happened from an OOPS where something heavy was dropped on it, but the thread by the guy in Florida about his drip channel separating and allowing rain to wander to the floor rings a bell, so I may have a similar issue there.

Aieeee. I guess I'll address the drip channel first as we'll be here for five weeks.

Thanks, and we'll start locking both door locks and see how that works. Gack.

[notanlines]

Gary, I don't know what y'all live in, but if you don't have a folding rail on your rig,
https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Stromberg-Carlson/AM-800.html?feed=npn&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrp_Z7bP92gIVDjBpCh2OpwR1EAQYAyAB EgLwvvD_BwE.
They are very easy to install.

[rick-eureka]

I have had the Baggage doors pop Open while traveling. Any suggestions?

thanks, Rick