Community Forums

jkorn · 01-26-2019, 09:42 AM

Well, I had to take a quick trip out of town. Received call from my wife that she could not get back into the bus. Door making all the right noises when entering codes to lock and unlock it, but it will not open. Someone had to crawl in thru a window and open the door. No the deadbolt was not locked. Anyone else have this happen? Not sure where to go from here. When I get back to the coach I’m going to remove the panel on the inside of the door. And of course this happens when I’m not there. Jeff

Tizbad · 01-26-2019, 10:13 AM

I had this on my Zephyr once. It wound up needing the contacts cleaned between the door and the door frame. (2-brass plungers and contacts). I wiped them down with WD40 and never had another problem. If that is not it, it will be in your mechanism, requiring the panel removal as you had planned.

Dennis123 · 01-26-2019, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jkorn

Well, I had to take a quick trip out of town. Received call from my wife that she could not get back into the bus. Door making all the right noises when entering codes to lock and unlock it, but it will not open. Someone had to crawl in thru a window and open the door. No the deadbolt was not locked. Anyone else have this happen? Not sure where to go from here. When I get back to the coach I’m going to remove the panel on the inside of the door. And of course this happens when I’m not there. Jeff

I had the same issue. I took the door assembly apart and got the manufactures name. Looked them up on the net and they sent me a new assembly at no charge. Unit was 4 years old when this happened.

Bob Hyatt · 01-26-2019, 12:19 PM

My 32SA had a similar problem. Turned out to be the dead bolt was about ¼" too long. With any tension on it, such as locking or unlocking when not leveled, it was hard to unlock. Required significant pressure on the door and a vigorous twist of the unlock key. Took me and my dremel about 2 minutes to fix this and it has not returned.

Mrb1ll · 01-26-2019, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Hyatt

My 32SA had a similar problem. Turned out to be the dead bolt was about ¼" too long. With any tension on it, such as locking or unlocking when not leveled, it was hard to unlock. Required significant pressure on the door and a vigorous twist of the unlock key. Took me and my dremel about 2 minutes to fix this and it has not returned.

I had this same problem. Usually happened when we stopped for fuel, food, etc. and the coach was not completely level. When that happened the pin seemed to be “stuck” as everything seemed to function normally otherwise. Having gotten frustrated with it I looked closely at the wear on the bolt and found the end seemed to have different wear. Seemed that it was the last 1/8” so I cut it off with a Dremel tool and problem resolved. Glad I carry that Dremel with me. Has been handy many times.

jkorn · 01-28-2019, 09:32 AM

Thanks to all.

Should have taken a picture of the inside of the door. There are a couple of linkages. The one from the handle up to the door release seemed a little loose. So I loosened the two nuts and turned the tur buckel nut a bit so there was no slack. Hopefully this will work. I did find that before any repair that if if pushed in on the door while pulling on the handle it would open.

rdalemercer · 01-28-2019, 10:11 AM

If you door system is actuated via the Spyder controls, you might "reboot" the coach systems by turning off the disconnect for the coach, waiting a few seconds and then turning it back on.

My "Key-fob" started acting up (wouldn't lock/unlock) the doors. Resetting the coach batteries helped. Ultimately, the exterior keypad was identified to be defective and I haven't had any additional issues since I replaced that (Tiffin sent me the part) under warranty.

jlturner · 02-01-2019, 08:49 PM

We had this issue. A good idea is to hide a key in the engine compartment for emergencies

Larryrb100 · 02-04-2019, 10:17 AM

This is a known and ongoing problem with the door locks if it is the same as on my 2018 Bus. Door assembly is manufactured by PTL and the fix (maybe) involves adjustment of the lock and striker bolt/stud on the door frame. Call Tiffin and they can tell you how to adjust it. Many, many posts on the Tiffin forum referencing this problem

brandss · 02-07-2019, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlturner

We had this issue. A good idea is to hide a key in the engine compartment for emergencies

This is a great reminder for me and thanks for it. I need to order a few more keys from Tiffin, can't seem to find a local key place to cut new keys, and put one in a hide a key. I also need to do this for the toad but the key is much larger and requires a larger hide a key. Okay, getting on amazon right now for the large hide a key.

chillwill · 03-29-2020, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Hyatt

My 32SA had a similar problem. Turned out to be the dead bolt was about ¼" too long. With any tension on it, such as locking or unlocking when not leveled, it was hard to unlock. Required significant pressure on the door and a vigorous twist of the unlock key. Took me and my dremel about 2 minutes to fix this and it has not returned.

Bob, I was wondering how did you fix your issue with the door. I've had the whole thing changed out and it's still hard to open at times. Don't know what's going on with it. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Bob Hyatt · 04-01-2020, 12:53 PM

OK.

First, here's what is going on (or was going on in my Tiffin). When I turned the upper lock, which engages the deadbolt on the door, on occasion the door would not unlock. If the RV was leveled, I could re-lock, and then "sharply" unlock again (turn the key very quickly) and it would open.

If the RV was not leveled, say when traveling and pulling into a gas station to fill up, this became a problem, as any twisting in the body would bind that deadbolt slightly so that the "quick twist" would not work.

I used a caliper to take measurements and found that the deadbolt was too long. It was actually sticking outside the opening it stores in.

My fix was to extend the deadbolt, and using a dremel with a cut-off wheel, I cut off about 1/8" of the deadbolt. That helped but was not quite enough. I took another 1/8" off and this solved it. You can check to see how this might apply by opening the door, locking the deadbolt, then grab it and try to keep it from going to the unlocked position as you turn the key. When the key is in the unlocked position, did the deadbolt retract all the way? Mine did not, so I removed enough of the length to cause it to unlock reliably, without removing so much that lockup was "iffy".

Note that the bolt is pretty hard steel so you have to go slowly or else break several cutoff wheels.

You can, with a little time, measure (a) how far the dead bolt extends, and then how far it ought to extend to reliably lock in the striker plate. Any extra length can cause this problem. I simply cut mine off, bit by bit, until the unlocking problem did not happen. You can partially test by locking door, then SLOWLY unlocking while applying a little pressure trying to open the door. If the door pops open, you are probably good to go. If not, back to the dremel...

HPbari · 04-03-2020, 11:31 PM

My issue was not with my deadbolt. Camped in the CA desert with a bunch of friends I pulled on the handle and...no open. Both key and key fob were actuating the lock throw; it was audible. To my delight one of my buds had opened a window. Smallest guy thru the window and we had the door open from within. Screwdriver removal of the coverplate and it was clear where the problem was. As mentioned in an earlier response, the throw distance with each pull is dependent upon the adjustment point of the turnbuckle. On mine the jam nuts had come loose, and allowed the turnbuckle to become mal-adjusted. Reset T/B to give sufficient retraction of the throw, set the jam nuts, replaced the cover, and no trouble since.

n2zon · 04-04-2020, 04:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brandss

This is a great reminder for me and thanks for it. I need to order a few more keys from Tiffin, can't seem to find a local key place to cut new keys, and put one in a hide a key. I also need to do this for the toad but the key is much larger and requires a larger hide a key. Okay, getting on amazon right now for the large hide a key.

Likewise, nobody local has the blank for the key used for the lock integrated in the door handle assembly. Ours is made by Trimark, and they cut and ship keys at reasonable cost given the key number. (Our deadbolt uses a Schlage lock and the blanks are widely available.)