Cougar Door Latch

[rlh1957]

Originally Posted by JRTJH

Have you considered fabricating two plates to rivet to the door, one outside, one inside and then cut those plates to fit a conventional "digital door lock" ???

If done carefully, the plates could be shaped to enhance the door rather than appear as a "block of metal to cover a hole"....

It would take some thought, some "artistic ability" and some work to build the required parts, but the end result would probably be much better than "empty anger at Keystone".....

I’m not that handy, skilled or artistic, and it would look like something Goober and Gomer put together and appeared on a Foxworthy Redneck worthy photo.

[Bamabox]

One gets the feeling that RV manufacturers are run fundamentally by the purchasing department and not the engineering department, assuming they have one. A material purchasing agent gets approached by a salesperson “we have these amazing new lock sets and you can save five dollar per unit”. Never run past engineering of tested, they get thrown into drawings for the door. And they’re you have it. After 6 months…………..hey these are POS. Too late.

[rlh1957]

On the 2020 29RKS, Keystone used for 2nd half of the 2020 production run then mysteriously changed back.
Met someone with 2020 29RKS built first of 2020 production that had regular style used previously. Mine built in 2nd half of 2020 production run had Euro lock, additional bedside shelf, and a few other minor production differences.

Then when 2021 production began, poof! A change back to traditional door cutout and lock mechanism.
A lock mechanism that has many aftermarket alternatives… that work.

[JRTJH]

Some background information:

From 2006 through 2013, nearly all RV doors were manufactured with Fastec RV locks. In 2014, NHTSA mandated a "Fastec RV doorlock recall". That recall required Fastec to consume all of their available locks and all future production of locks to meet the recall effort. Simply put, there were NO RV doorlocks available in the USA to meet "new trailer production".

So, the industry turned to Europe and an "Italian manufacturer" to provide locks for the industry so they could maintain production of new trailers. Those "off the shelf locks" were not the same configuration as FIC locks, so the cutouts in the doors had to be changed....

The "apparent industry decision" (not exclusive to Keystone) was to reconfigure the doors to keep building trailers. That started the "Euro lock invasion".....

Once Fastec finished the recall and was able to resume production of locks for new trailers, some manufacturers returned to the "old style locks" while some "kept using Euro locks".

Keystone apparently elected to return to FIC locksets. Then, along comes the "pandemic" and parts availability returned to the supply chain..... FIC locks were not available and Lippert (who builds nearly all the industry RV entry doors) elected to use Euro locks rather than stop production.....

So, Keystone gets blamed for not being "sensitive to RV consumer desires"....

I wonder what we'd be saying if Keystone just stopped putting doors in RV's until the Fastec locks were available to Lippert ?????

There's usually a much more complicated situation that "drives the decision to make production line changes than just the thought, "Let's see, how can we piss off our customers this week" ..... YMMV

[RJS]

Bummer, if they don't make a replacement keyless lock for your door. This RVLock I bought in Jan 2021 fit my 2021 29MBS:
RVLock V4 Keyless Entry Handle w/ Integrated Keypad & Fob
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1