entry assist handle on outside door

[flugelboneman]

Silly me. I tied my 50 lb dog to the assist handle. He spotted a dog he was interested in, ran the length of his extendaleash. When it hit the end the leash tore the handle out of the side of the coach.
There are four philips screws holding the handle to the coach and they have been pulled out. I need some way of anchoring these screws now. Any idees???????

[Heavy.Metal.GMC]

You can try bigger diameter screws but if that doesn't feel secure enough, fill the holes with a two-part epoxy and re-drill the holes to fit the original screws. Just remember to use a drill bit one size smaller than the screw shank. If the original screws are screwed into wood, still use the epoxy , if they are into an aluminum stud, bigger diameter screws should do the trick with the epoxy as an added holding power. Best of luck and let us know how you make out.

[flugelboneman]

I bowed to expertise of my local rv tech, mainly due to dicovering the holes were hollow. I tried to fill with epoxy but the wall seems almost hollow where screw holes are.

[Heavy.Metal.GMC]

If that's the case, try those expandable inserts like they use in plasterboard in your house to hang pictures. Makes one wonder if the handles are more of a decoration than a secure grab handle.

[Thurman]

This depends on what is directly behind the screws that hold the handle on: A friend stumbled somehow and tore off the top of his handle, pulled the screws right out as others have stated. After looking at this real close I noticed that IF the screws would have gone all the way through the wall they would have come out between the door frame and the kitchen base cabinet, about a 3" width area. We decided to install machine screws that would go through the holes of the handle mount and go all the way through the wall. I used "T-nuts" on the inside for the machine screws to screw into. They were not the prettiest things in the TT but they were secure for sure. His wife later went in to the bunk room, down low near the floor behind the lower bunk, and somehow cut out two (2) small sections of wall paper that closely matched the paper where we installed the T-nuts. Not a perfect match but I defy anyone to just notice this area when she got done.