RE: Another SPUT

[Wayfarer]

 
I m embarrassed to admit this, but it might help someone else.  Here  tis:
 
 When at home I keep the PU in the garage, always parked with the door side just far enough from outside the wall so I can open the stepper door if I need to crawl in to get or do whatever.  Usually go in the night before a trip to fully close the frig door before I plug in and start cooling it.  Frequently need to crawl in and drag something out.  What I usually do after closing the door is just turn the handle to hold the door closed but do not push it in to lock it.  That way I don t have to chase down the key every time I want in.  And usually, except for one time, I fully lock the door when hooking up to the TV.  One time I forgot.  The door was closed and the handle was in the horizontal position...but not pushed in!  Never entered my mind.
 
 About midway through Houston on the way to Brazos Bend State Park a car passed me on the right, honked the horn and made a flat-handed motion to indicate that something was or had dropped,  I looked in the outside mirror and saw the stepped door open!  I knew immediately what I had (or had not) done!  Didn t take me long to get off the freeway and into a business parking lot and check it out.  Fortunately, nothing was missing.  My " flower pot"  awning anchors were in a box in the doorway so as to be first out and their weight was enough to keep them from sliding out.  The door wasn t damaged as far as I can tell, nothing missing, so no problem.  But just imagine all the things that might have happened:  the door could have hit a person or another vehicle, snagged on a curb, etc., etc.  PTL none of those possibilities happened.
 
 Needless to say, checking that the stepped door is locked has been added to my checklist.
 

[brainpause]

 Wayfarer
Whew! That could have been ugly!
 
 Larry

[Trlrboy]

 Wayfarer
Wayfarer,
 
 You are not alone doing that.  I did the same thing a couple of camping trips ago.  I was only about 4 blocks from the house when a pickup pulled up to me at a light and informed me that the door was open.  I wasn t missing anything either.  Funny how you can t see the door open when you look in the rear view mirror...

[6Quigs]

 Wayfarer
Happened to me also, and luckily nothing fell out.
 

Funny how you can t see the door open when you look in the rear view mirror

Actually Trlrboy, that s how I knew it was open, I saw it in the wing mirror.

[The Memory Maker]

 Wayfarer
Had the same thing happen to me when I was taking it home from a minor repair at the DEALER.
 Silly me, I ASSuME" d"  that they locked the da** door, but NNNOOOO!!!!

[AustinBoston]

 Wayfarer
Well, we have twice had the stepper door open when it was locked.  I don t mean " I know I locked it" , but lifted the door top close it and needed the key to latch & then lock it.
 
 Both times, the door was closed, latched, and locked after the roof was all the way down.
 
 Now, we close & latch it before closing the roof, and I take a quick peek down the gap to make sure both latch plates have caught.  If we have to open it while the roof is down, I make sure the roof gasket is not curled under in a way that it applies outward pressure on the door.
 
 Austin (Learning from your mistakes is wise.  Learning from other s mistakes is wiser.)

[wiininkwe]

 Wayfarer
That s happened to us too, and it wasn t really hard to have it happen.  It s the result of you thinking that your partner checked that, and your partner thinking that you did.  Now, we both check to make sure the door is closed tight, and latched and locked.
 T
 []

[wynot]

 Wayfarer
We (and the whole campground) heard when our stepper door fell open on our way out of the MAPCE rally at Staunton last fall.
 
 I hate to have to really force the top down and locked, and since we were dumping at the dump station, I figured I would let the natural bouncing of the camper push the top down the last couple of inches.
 
 We pulled out of the campsite, down the road a little ways, started down a slight grade and BAM came the door down.  I guess the camper relies on the top providing some structural support to the bottom when rolling, because the best I can figure out is the still  closed  stepper door (judging from the still protruding locking arms) must have flexed in the frame and come out.