Door lock jammed

[Jennymay]

Well we had a 2 day trip(one night) to Baden Powell near Dwellingup WA. Beautiful night but very wet next morning so decided we would head home. Got into Dwellingup for a coffee around 11.00am and couldnt open van, the lock had jammed. Luckily the caravan dealer was still opened until 1.00pm and he gave us the name of a mobile repair guy in Pinjarra 24kms from where we stayed and on the way home. He came to us and couldnt get door open because of the triple lock!
But alas we have the large boot opening so we dropped down the bed and hubby and repair guy climbed in thru boot. They took the lock off and jiggled the top and bottom lock to open van. The door held by the two locks until we got home then hubby climbed in again and opened door so we could unpack van. The repair guy said dont worry he will bill Jayco. So now we have to get a new lock. If anyone is ordering a new van ask for the LARGE opening as it the only way to access van without any damage to van if the lock jams. We were thinking of unstudding the canvas ends and then they would have to be fitted back etc but hadnt thought of the boot...Thank you to Kye for helping us out. This could have been a disaster if we had not decided to come home and left van for the day, we may not have been able to get into van when we returned. Someone was looking after us!

 

[cruza driver]

I think this happened to Straydingo also I cant remember where the thread is though.

I'm glad it all worked out for you though although inconveniant.

 

[Moto Moto]

Yeah this has been mentioned a few times. A bit of a worry, glad you got it sorted though.

 

[Klugerclan]

Hi Jennymay, did you have any prior notice the lock was going wrong ?? Our lock is a bit dodgy at times. If it does happen to anyone else, we have 3 children, each in a different size to get in the boot !

 

[Roh]

Hey there Jennymay,
We had a similar problem when we first got our van. I found that on the door there is a pin that must be pushed in to unlock or lock the door. Our door frame was too wide and when we closed the door the pin slipped past the plate and we could not lock the door. If that pin had popped out during the drive then u would not be able to unlock the door. I just packed out the plate on the door jamb with washers and have not had the problem since. It may be worth having a look to see that this is not happening to you.
Was that Wayne that you used in Pinjarra??

 

[Brad]

Hey if you ever lock your door like this again, try winding one of your drop jacks up in one corner of the van.
I have found that it can spring the door open without requiring a key.

 

[Jennymay]

Hi Klugerclan
We had no warning the door was dodgy
Not sticking or anything. Will be replaced under warranty next week.

 

[Soaring]

We just had the same issue as @Jennymay when we got home yesterday. The lock was in the 9:00 -3:00 position, rather than the 12:00 - 6:00 and the key could not go all the way in.
I had to send one of the kids in through the front boot to try to open from the inside. No luck, so shmbo managed to squeeze herself in. I wish I took some photos of that!
Anyway, all credit to her, armed with a screw driver she managed to disassemble the handle mechanism from the inside and get the door open.
I then had a good play with the lock and got it working. Not sure what I actually did, but it works, so reassembled the handle and it all seems to be working.
I will get Jayco to replace it at the first service though. If the lock can malfunction that easily, it could happen when latched when the kids are inside. Not good enough.

 

[Smash]

This happened to our 2013 model van when it was only 6 months old . They had to fit a new key barrel it had corroded inside because they don't lubricate from factory.

 

[Danniel]

This happened to my 2013 16 494 when i was picking it up from the first service. They fitted a whole new one.

 

[Jennymay]

Hi Soaring, I agree it is scary to think you could get locked in, an adult could undo lock with screw driver but a child getting locked in is dangerous. Expanda owners are lucky we have an alternative( thru trunk ) to get into van. Other Jayco van owners would probably have to remove a window( huge expense). It's the triple locks, the old ones fool proof.

 

[straydingo]

After it occurred on mine, I raise the safety point with Jayco directly. They simply didn't care, and just passed my concern onto Camec for their response. None ever came....

 

[Wandering Star]

Had the same problem on our Starcraft as Roh said in his reply the pin is not locating on the striker plate I made a plate to pack it out to fit between the door frame and the striker plate works ok now

 

[Glen Bundesen]

I'm amazed that issues with the door lock is still happening.
When my son collected his new 17 OB in Sept 2013, the salesman advised him of a 'known' issue with the door lock. If you remove the key before it is vertical, then you can't re-insert the key - ie you are locked out! The salesman instructed him on how to file down a nail file and to pick the lock!!
Yes - it happened when we were down south between Albany and Denmark over the xmas hols. He decided to try the 24x7 onsite support! When phoned, the dealer/salesman said 'locked door problem' is not covered by the 24x7 onsite support. Finally after much 'discussion' they did agree to see if their Albany contact would send someone out, but before this was to happen my son was to try his predelivery training to pick the door lock with the nail file. Yes - he can now add that to his resume.
Doesn't say much about the security of the door lock, nor the value of 24x7 onsite support, nor the manufacturer actioning client feedback to fix quality issues with their product.

 

[DaveS]

Hi
i know how you all feel .... had to break in to quiet a few vans, poptops and expandas are easiest, lift the roof from the outside with a few people, remove flyscreen and dive in head first. for the expandas i usually unscrew the canvas on the bed. if all else fails i usually just drill the lock out, i've asked and asked for a master key as you can just pull the barrel out with one of them, but they won't supply us with one. I did change a lock on one couple who were locked in ...... they had to cut a window screen to climb out and get a screwdriver from the car to remove the lock, guess they keep one in the van now. like i've said elsewhere on the forum, i pack behind the door frame instead of the striker as it looks neater (and quicker) these door frames tend to flex a bit, specially if someone keeps using them to haul themself into the van. little bit of preventive maintenance with a graphite puffer to lubricate all the door parts works wonders.
I think the lock problems stem from two causes .... 1/ camec who make it and 2/ poor or wrongly installed door and frame at factory. it's not just specific to jayco's i've fixed all make and models of vans and they mostly use the same doors.
but in all honesty it's a very small percentage of doors which have a problem, we see hundreds of vans a year and lock repairs would be less than 1% of them, so camec probably don't see it as a high priority fix, they must make thousands and have a very low failure rate. if you do take it to get fixed ask the guys to check the frame and all for problems, otherwise they could just change the lock and put it back into a misaligned frame so not really fixing the issue.