Break key in camper door lock?

[MarkBC]

This happened to a non-WTW acquaintance of mine in his regular hard-side, non-pop-up camper:
He tried to unlock the door of his camper and the key broke off in the lock.
He had to quit the campspot and drive to civilization to get assistance.

So...just wondering if this has happened to anyone here and if so what you did about it.

(If there is already a thread on this subject please point me to it...I tried to search but the search function requires search terms to be at least 4 letters long, so I can't search on "key".)

I've sometimes worried about breaking the truck key off in the door -- my 2000 F250 doesn't have keyless entry and the lock is somewhat stiff when cold. But if that happened I could still get in the passenger door with my spare truck key.

 

[PaulT]

Using Google to search, have your friend try the following search string:

wanderthewest.com key lock (broke,break,broken)

Maybe one of the hits will help Good luck.

Paul

 

[Bosque Bill]

No such key experience, but remember you can use Google to search any site and they generally do a much better job of getting results.

Just add the following to any Google search term(s) and use any site you wish to search, no space between colon and URL.

site:wanderthewest.com

 

[MarkBC]

I did the search -- now -- and no relevant hits on WTW (but let me know if you find any).

I think what interests me in asking this question is more about "Has this ever happened to you?" than it is "What did you do to fix it?".

It's one of those topics relating to "is this a problem to worry about?"

 

[highz]

Might be worth carrying the hacksaw blade he describes.

 

[PaulT]

Thanks, highz. I learned several useful data bits

Paul

 

[Vento]

Good tip with the jigsaw blade.

 

[takesiteasy]

Good tip with the jigsaw blade.

Yeah, x2! Thanks for the post.

 

[Old Crow]

We didn't break a key off but we did accidently lock the door on a camper that didn't come with a door key (it had been lost by the previous owner).

The 'accident' was the two of us who knew not to lock the door didn't tell the third guy.

So there we were, in the parking lot of the Walmart in Romney, West Virginia, with two shopping carts of provisions we had just bought for our trip to Dolly Sods Wilderness, staring dumbfounded at the back of the camper.

But we got lucky-- doubly so, in fact. That camper is a Sunlite Eagle with a window in the back wall. Installed with screws. And we had a power-driver with the right bit in the truck. Zip, zip and the window came right out and we could reach in to the lock. Five minutes from head-scratching to laughing about it as we zip, zipped the window back into place.

Another thought-- On an FWC, check the side window. If it has the large sliding section like my older Hawk, the screen slides out of the way and it's big enough to climb in. Maybe you didn't latch it. You did? OK, go get that key extractor/mini-saw blade you zip-tied under the truck or put in the (non-locking!) propane compartment.

-OC

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Great ideas.
Thanks.
Frank

 

[craig333]

I haven't done that yet but I'll be better prepared if I do.

 

[Freebird]

Good topic & posts