Door won't open - had to climb out rear window

thisIslandEarth · 09-24-2016, 07:36 PM

Hello everyone,

Just joined the community. We have owned a brand new 2017 FR3 25DS for a whole two days. We took our maiden journey this evening to a nearby state park along with our 3 rescue dogs. On the way home the door came open! We were pretty sure we closed it tightly ( really have to give it a good pull to close it ) but who knows. Anyways we quickly closed it and locked it along with locking the deadbolt. When we got home, we couldn't get out. We turned the knobs to unlock both the latch lock and the deadbolt lock but to no avail. Needless to say, we were a little freaked out. I had to climb out the rear emergency window while the wife handed me the dogs one by one

I could pull the door latch from the outside but the door wouldn't budge even with me pulling from the outside and wife pushing from inside.
We don't know really what to do at this point. Has anyone experienced anything like this or perhaps offer some ideas how to fix this? I'm afraid to drive it back to dealership because in an emergency I might not be able to get out!

KansasFR3 · 09-24-2016, 10:33 PM

Most likely its the known issue with the door handle/latch. On the inside handle, if you lift it up, you'll see the piece that is most likely broken off. Its a cheap potted material that'll break over time. Ours just broke this summer, so about a year on the unit before that happened.

What I did to get by till I got back home was to remove the inner door handle, and break off the handle part and pull out the door spring itself. Then we kept a pair of needle nose plyers inside to open the door once we got to where we're going.

Check out this thread and others:
http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...lem-94467.html

thisIslandEarth · 09-25-2016, 03:20 PM

Thanks for the information KansasFR3 - we really appreciate it.

Finch · 09-25-2016, 10:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thisIslandEarth

Thanks for the information KansasFR3 - we really appreciate it.

We had the same thing happen on our 2016 FR3. We used AAA to have a locksmith out who took the handle apart and saw that the two silver pins (they are about 1/4 inch wide and have a flat head on them) that catch in the door to keep it closed had worked their way out and were jammed in the latch. We screwed them back in a ways, put some lock-tite on them and put a pencil mark on where they joined the door so that we could see if they were working their way out again. They have not so far and all has been well. Hope this helps.

Filterman · 09-26-2016, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Finch

We had the same thing happen on our 2016 FR3. We used AAA to have a locksmith out who took the handle apart and saw that the two silver pins (they are about 1/4 inch wide and have a flat head on them) that catch in the door to keep it closed had worked their way out and were jammed in the latch. We screwed them back in a ways, put some lock-tite on them and put a pencil mark on where they joined the door so that we could see if they were working their way out again. They have not so far and all has been well. Hope this helps.

Curious if your AAA covered this call out ? We have AAA RV Plus which fortunately we have never had to use but wondered about this kind of thing. Thank you!

mike.t · 09-26-2016, 01:19 PM

I usually have DW crawl out the window

/

twojump36 · 09-26-2016, 01:25 PM

Curious... we had the same thing happen twice to us...
both times it was hot out and the sun was on the door side. I think it happens when either the door or the side or the motorhome swells in the sun.
I did notice a couple of small dents in the door frame that looks like the two silver knobs are hitting on that aluminum frame.

It does make you nervous about getting out in an emergency.

I think I'll grab my tools and run those knobs in a little more and see what happens.

Mark1 · 09-26-2016, 03:39 PM

Hey thisIslandEarth I'm interested in what your door problem is and what the fix may be. I have a class A Fleetwood Bounder and am wondering if my door has the same latch.can you include a picture? Oh and I'm here in Spencerport. happy camping.

Finch · 09-26-2016, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Filterman

Curious if your AAA covered this call out ? We have AAA RV Plus which fortunately we have never had to use but wondered about this kind of thing. Thank you!

We have the RV Plus too. We called AAA and they arranged for the locksmith. Triple A does a good job of standing behind its product!

thisIslandEarth · 09-26-2016, 10:01 PM

Thanks everyone for all the help and advice. We actually had our salesman come out and he had to push hard on the door from the outside to get the deadbolt in a position to be able to rotate the lock using the key. Apparently the deadbolt was caught up or not positioned correctly. Unfortunately pushing the door from the outside wouldn't have helped us since we were trapped inside.
It is not really a solution at all.

Combatcoal · 09-27-2016, 08:27 PM

could you pull the handle from the inside? ive had to pull the handle in to pull the door further shut in order to be able to move the deadbolts.

mike.t · 09-27-2016, 08:49 PM

It's still more fun watching DW climb out the window.

Iggy · 09-27-2016, 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thisIslandEarth

Thanks everyone for all the help and advice. We actually had our salesman come out and he had to push hard on the door from the outside to get the deadbolt in a position to be able to rotate the lock using the key. Apparently the deadbolt was caught up or not positioned correctly. Unfortunately pushing the door from the outside wouldn't have helped us since we were trapped inside.
It is not really a solution at all.

I had this happen awhile back while inside my motorhome.
If you pull the handle from inside in will do the same thing as the guy pushing out side.

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