Best Lock Replacement for KT on '76 when Replacing door skin.

[Mixter]

Previous owner put a horrible patch and house door handle on the door. Havent removed the patch yet to see what I'm dealing with, but it has just enough wrinkles on the outside edge to make be believe its torn up around the original KT lock hole.... maybe someone tried to break in or something.

Soooo... I could either cut a nicer patch or replace the upper skin of the door.. I will probably just replace the upper skin unless someone says thats not a good idea. With that in mind I can theoretically put whatever lock/ handle I want, right? Has anyone done this? I have read horror stories of that KT lock being complete junk- especially for the $500 replacement cost. However, I've read some threads where stuff wasn't lining up properly and interfering with the rivet line and door "holdopener".

I see the retro fit kit at InlandRV that I'm guessing might be a contender, but I'm assuming that I can put any lock and wondering if there might be a better option.

Which would be best to retro fit? Best bang for the buck? Etc?

Any suggestions welcomed!
Thanks!
Micky

[Belegedhel]

I'm in the middle of the same dilemma. You can see some of the challenges at the following:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f453...ml#post1230490

I really haven't had any of the expected problems, in fact the door hold-opener didn't turn out to be an issue afterall. My major problem at the moment seems to be that the door changed shape with all of the skins off, and now it isn't fitting into the frame like it should. I knew that making the door fit the curve of the body would be a challenge, but it seems that it has become skewed.

[Mixter]

So is that this lock?

Inland RV Center Inc.

It looks like your handle interfered with the rivets. Did you fasten underneath or just forego those rivets?

Wondering if I need to just focus on getting a nice, good, solid lock set and modify the door and jamb to accept it. The coach side of the jamb is boogered up, so I'll probably have to have some welding done there anyway. I could just locate the hole wherever I want...

If I have new skins and I have the jamb welded solid again (no hole in the jamb), I can relocate this anywhere, right? Am I missing something? Is the door frame structurally different around the factory location, so that I cannot relocate the new lock set?

Thanks!
Micky

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by Mixter

So is that this lock?

Inland RV Center Inc.

It looks like your handle interfered with the rivets. Did you fasten underneath or just forego those rivets?

Wondering if I need to just focus on getting a nice, good, solid lock set and modify the door and jamb to accept it. The coach side of the jamb is boogered up, so I'll probably have to have some welding done there anyway. I could just locate the hole wherever I want...

If I have new skins and I have the jamb welded solid again (no hole in the jamb), I can relocate this anywhere, right? Am I missing something? Is the door frame structurally different around the factory location, so that I cannot relocate the new lock set?

Thanks!
Micky

Yes, that is the lock.

The handle does not interfer with anything.

Andy

[Belegedhel]

The lock I used is the chromed version of this Tri-Mark lock:

Trimark Door Lock for Travel Trailers on Sale - PPL Motor Homes

At a casual glance, I would say that these are both the same latch, but Inland is providing the patches, rivets, etc. that you would need if you wanted to fit the new lock into an existing door without doing any re-skinning.

The rivet line in the door has to be where it is because it needs to be level with the rivet line in the body of the trailer. Aesthetically, I would have prefered to move the latch above the rivet line, but if I had done this, I would not have made any use of the existing hole in the door frame. By moving the latch as low as I did, I was able to use the existing latch hole in the frame as the lower-most part of the new hole. That way I didn't have to have to try to weld up the old hole. If your door frame is like my '73, it is extruded, and only about 1/8" thick. It has a lip on the front and the back designed to hold the inner and outer skins. I was worried about welding on the frame, as I figured it would be really easy to bugger these thin lips up, and the heat of the welding might cause the frame to warp as well.

You are correct, if you could fill in the holes in the door and the jamb, you could put the new latch anywhere you want, but I would recommend not taking this too lightly, as the heat of the welding could result in deformation/decoloring of the skin that is riveted to the door jamb. My recommendation would be to make every effort to make use of the existing holes before heading to the welder.

My positioning of my latch covered two rivets. I went ahead and countersunk these two holes and made my own "flush mount" rivets. Seemed to work pretty well. I had to hand hammer them in as I don't have a flat rivet set for my pneumatic riveter.

good luck!

[Aerowood]

I replaced mine also at approx. post 250 of the below thread

[rogerdodger]

Here's mine. The original was completely gone. I got this one from Inland RV. It fits perfect, and after the install, I removed most of the rivets from inside panels, reshaped the door, and put a new gasket on it. No more leaks either. I'm still pondering how to patch the massive holes a PO put in the door, as seen in the lower right of my pic.

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by rogerdodger

Here's mine. The original was completely gone. I got this one from Inland RV. It fits perfect, and after the install, I removed most of the rivets from inside panels, reshaped the door, and put a new gasket on it. No more leaks either. I'm still pondering how to patch the massive holes a PO put in the door, as seen in the lower right of my pic.

While not common in that area, how about a couple of small stick-on amber reflectors?

Andy

[Mixter]

Good stuff guys- Thanks!