More than once we've been at a rally when somebody's front door latch broke. They are made of pot metal. Once the door becomes hard to open, the natural reaction is to pull harder, employ some form of leverage, use two hands, etc. That treats the symptom, not the disease, and in fact makes the disease worse by bending the pot metal over time.
If you get the linkage problem adjusted so the handle works easily again, you are back in business. If not, somewhere down the road you may be locked out of your rig, or locked in.
PTL Engineering (
www.ptlengineering.com)has replacement door handle parts if needed, give them your Alpine Coach year and they should be able to match the hardware. Here is a photo of the current door handle that covers most Alpine model years (not the 08+ rigs w/the non-hard-latching-open door):
New design is slightly rounded at top & bottom, not as square looking as the original, but fits in the original cutout on this '04 coach. Jim Archer missed the dinner cruise on Lake Powell to "fix" his door so it wouldn't lock him in (Steph made the cruise so it wasn't a disaster, happy wife...).
Parts were about $80 delivered for this outer handle. Doesn't include the inner one which is separate.
Moral of this story- don't miss the dinner cruise!
Linear Mode
