New Lockset for Aliner

When C.J. and I purchased the Sportliner, I noticed right away that the key rattled around in the door lock and only worked after shaking and jiggling it. In addition, there did not seem to be any way to lock the door from the inside. Not to mention that the latch itself was wearing away the thin aluminum strip that was all that held the door closed. None of the foregoing problems were anything like crucial, but they went on the list "to do later".

The trailer is living in the garage so this is a good time to work on it. I found a Fastec travel trailer lockset on Ebay for half of what I expected it to cost - and the shipping was included. So that was a no-brainer.

Installation, on the other hand, was semi-traumatic. There were no instructions with the lockset and no template for the size, shape and placement of the large hole I was going to have to cut in the door. Fortunately, the Yahoo Groups A-Frame email group had several photos and a couple of good files describing how other owners had done their installations.

So I measured, measured again, covered the area with painters tape, measured again, drilled holes and cut a whopping big hole. I used my old jigsaw with a fine-tooth blade, then I used the Dremel tool with a (several, actually) metal cutting disk to cut through the aluminum door jamb. I had to remove the styrofoam and the section of paneling inside the channel as well. These operations were done one step at a time with a test fit after each excision. At the end I still had to make a second cut-out to enlarge the original rectangular hole to allow the thicker end of the lockset to fit into the door.

The Fastec lockset is designed to be used with a one-and-quarter inch thick door while the Aliner door is only one inch thick. I laminated two 1/8 inch pieces of automobile gasket cork to make a spacer for the outside, painted it black and fitted it around the lockset.

The next step was to drill and countersink holes in the door frame for the machine screws that hold the latch flush against the jamb. Then the door was reinstalled on the trailer and I aligned the latch and deadbolt with the door jamb. The Dremel tool allowed me to cut into the door jamb fairly neatly. I tried to install the strikeplate over the hole but found that the hole needed to be larger. After more Dremel-ing the strikeplate fit and I screwed it in place. The door closed and latched almost perfectly.

To be sure that it would work the next time we headed out to go camping ("camping"), I rolled the trailer outside and set it up. The door closed but it was clear that the srikeplate was a bit too thick, nothing I can't live with for now. However, the latch did not fully extend into the door jamb and that WAS something I could fix. Removing the strikeplate, I Dremel-ed out another quarter -inch of door jamb material, replaced the strikeplate and, voila, perfect fit!

Even with the painters tape the finish on the door got scratched and I had to spray on a few coats of gloss white paint. The final step was to caulk the seam around the new lockset with clear silicone.


The first six photos are from the Aliner Yahoo Group and the one above, with the black lockset, is from my camera