jwcolby54
Lovin' my Winnie
It would be a funny story if it wasn't funny. I purchased my new to me Vista 26HE last Friday afternoon. I drove it around the block to my Appartment and parked it on the street. I then took my daughter Allie to visit the old Scamp 19 and get most of the stuff out of it to put in the Winnie. I passed a bunch of bags into Allie and then stepped up in to Winnie and closed the door. When I tried to open the door to get more stuff... NO DICE, NO OPEN.
I'm flipping the two latches back and forth and pulling the handle each time. NO OPEN. Hmmmm. I reached for my phone in my shirt pocket... no phone.HMMMMMMM. My phone was on the dash mount in my truck, parked facing Winnie, 10 feet away. No problem, I have a trucker headset around my neck which can dial my phone.
"Hey google, dial Robbie" (my son). To which Google replies... "OK but first you will have to unlock your phone."
At which point I am thinking it is a good thing my coach is not on fire.
Soooo,,, I started beeping Morse code SOS on the horn, thinkig my son was in my apartment 40 feet away. It turns out he wasn't. So I beep the horn and flash my lights at every passing car. No one stops. Finally I just leaned on the horn. FOR AN HOUR!!!
No one comes but someone does call the police to come find out what the racket is all about. I open the passenger window and tell him my problem. He takes the keys and tries to unlock the door. We try everything. No Joy. I ask him to retrieve my phone (luckily the truck was unlocked), so now I at least have my phone. He asks if I want the fire department to come. I have vision of macho southern men
prying the door open with a crow bar. I politely decline.
Finally Robbie comes home and gets e a phillips screwdriver so I can disassemble the latch, whereupon I discover the back part of the spring loaded latch which the handles pulls back to clear the strike plate and allow the door to open... being made of pot metaL... HAS SHEARED OFF. Luckily leaving me a tiny piece which is too short to grab with my fingers but lone enough to grap with needle nose pliars. So Robbie brings needle nose pliars, I pull that tiny remaining piece back... and the door pops open!
“Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.”
But now I have a broken latch which I cannot just put back in lest I lock myself out of my RV. So...
Has anyone replaced this latch? Hopefully with an electronic version with keypad and fob?
I'm flipping the two latches back and forth and pulling the handle each time. NO OPEN. Hmmmm. I reached for my phone in my shirt pocket... no phone.
HMMMMMMM. My phone was on the dash mount in my truck, parked facing Winnie, 10 feet away. No problem, I have a trucker headset around my neck which can dial my phone. "Hey google, dial Robbie" (my son). To which Google replies... "OK but first you will have to unlock your phone."
At which point I am thinking it is a good thing my coach is not on fire.
Soooo,,, I started beeping Morse code SOS on the horn, thinkig my son was in my apartment 40 feet away. It turns out he wasn't. So I beep the horn and flash my lights at every passing car. No one stops. Finally I just leaned on the horn. FOR AN HOUR!!!
No one comes but someone does call the police to come find out what the racket is all about.
I open the passenger window and tell him my problem. He takes the keys and tries to unlock the door. We try everything. No Joy. I ask him to retrieve my phone (luckily the truck was unlocked), so now I at least have my phone. He asks if I want the fire department to come. I have vision of macho southern men prying the door open with a crow bar. I politely decline.Finally Robbie comes home and gets e a phillips screwdriver so I can disassemble the latch, whereupon I discover the back part of the spring loaded latch which the handles pulls back to clear the strike plate and allow the door to open... being made of pot metaL... HAS SHEARED OFF.
Luckily leaving me a tiny piece which is too short to grab with my fingers but lone enough to grap with needle nose pliars. So Robbie brings needle nose pliars, I pull that tiny remaining piece back... and the door pops open!“Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.”
But now I have a broken latch which I cannot just put back in lest I lock myself out of my RV. So...
Has anyone replaced this latch? Hopefully with an electronic version with keypad and fob?
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