Deadbolt Added to Scamp

[Patrick M.]

As best I recall, which isn't all that good, someone posted these pictures in the forum prior to the vandalism. If the originator is still around I would like to hear from him/her.

I am attempting to duplicate this fine effort, but discovered the first deadbolt I bought, a Schlage, was incapable of bridging the gap between the outside of the door and the inside of the 2x4. I have measured the thickness of the door at about 1" and the 2x4 is 1.5", for a total of 2.5". Few normal house doors are that thick. The Schlage is designed to mate together and have short "tongues" to activate the bolt.

I'm assuming the Kwikset lock he/she used has an extra long "tongue" to reach from the outside lock to the bolt, or one was juryrigged. Long screws are also obvious.

I also wonder why screws were used from the outside to hold the 2x4. Why was that necessary?

Anyway, any advice or comments on this project would be appreciated. I'm re-posting the pictures for future reference.

Pat

[Roger H]

Patrick, that looks like a standard residential deadbolt. Mobile home deadbolts won't require the shimming for thickness this one does, and are available in various length bolt throws.

Roger

[Loren G. Hedahl]

I did the same to my 16ft ten or twelve years ago. Only mine didn't turn out quite so pretty. I just used a piece of pressure treated deck framing left over from another job. It was one of those 'prototype' jobs that I would re-do upscale, but the prototype worked fine and it never got the final treatment.

I don't remember any problem installing the lock, a Schlage, but I took another look at it this morning. It is just about like you say; appprox 1 inch door thickness and 1 1/2 for the two-by.

If you haven't already jumped in and done this by now, what determines the maximum thickness of door is the length of the two screws that hold the lock assembly together. They are the ones that go in the holes in the inside bezel and screw into tapped holes on the "in" side of the lock mechanizm.

They aren't anything special, just common hardware 8-32 or 10-32. If the ones supplied with the kit are too short, just go to your friendly local hardware store and get some long enough. The only difference may be the head. If that is a problem go to a marine hardware. They would have them in brass or stainless steel.

The through bolts that show on the outside of the door are what holds the wood "spacer" to the door. I used galvanized 1/4 - 20 carriage bolts for mine, just three of them instead of four, with the carriage heads on the outside so they can't be tampered with from the outside. They really are't necessary, since the lock bezels would hold the whole thing together.

If I were to do an up-scale job I would prepare the spacer from a nice hardwood like ash, oak, teak that matched the rest of the up-scale woodworking. I would cut away the door covering where the wood spacer would be located and prepare the wood surface to exactly match the inside fiberglass surface of the door. Then I would glue the wood to the door with epoxy using clamps. After all was set up, then I would install the lock.

Would a Scamp deserve anything less than that?

[Patrick M.]

We have completed the deadbolt installation!
The main problem we had was locating a deadbolt that would accomodate a thickness of 2.5". The issue was not the bolts that hold the lock pieces together, but the "tailpieces" inside the lock that operates the bolt. These tend to be short, and none of the locks we looked at at Home Depot, Lowes or Ace would accomodate a 2.5" thickness. We stopped at a lock shop and they put several parts together, along with a lock from Argentina, and wa-la, we had one that would fit the thickness! (At about $50, or 2x the cost if one could be found at one of the big boxes!)

Picture #1 shows it mounted on the piece of 2x4 cut, drilled and painted. I recommend from experience drilling the smaller latch hole first to avoid straining and possibly cracking the block of wood with the larger hole.

Picture #2 shows the strikeplate, and booboo holes. After all the careful measurements, pre-assembly, careful consideration, the first location of the striker made the inside of the lock too close to the Scamp handle for comfort. So up it went and some white caulk sorta filled the holes pending gelcoating by the next owner.

Picture #3 (little blurry) shows the exterior. One of the things I got from the locksmith was a shorter "escutcheon" around the key cylinder. This made the lock about 1/4" closer to the door.

Picture #4 shows what came out of the Scamp door after drilling the lock hole. (Drilling that hole gets your total attention! ) As you can see, the fiber-like material is why some doors end up trying to return to their normal flat shape after a few years!

All in all, we are very happy with the results. Much easier and faster to lock the door. More secure now, although anyone with a crescent wrench could take off the hinges in about 1 minute - that's the next area that needs some attention.

Pat

[clarence haasjes]

Hi I posted these pictures a while back. My trailer is a Boler. The Bolt latches behind the lip of the closet and body shell which act as the door stop. You have to get the bolt close enough to the stop when you mount it so that it can engage with the stop. In my case this worked out ok. Dead bolts are made for wooden doors that are 1 3/8 inches to 1 3/4 inches thick. I think mine might be a bit thicker but I used a piece of hardwood let into a cut out that I made in the door. I then covered this with annother piece on the surface. I added a cabinet D pull to apply enough pressure to compress the gasket when closing the door from the inside. The latch on the original lock is still functional but the locking mechanism was shot.

[Patrick M.]

Kamper Bob over on the Scamp forum posted these photos of his ambious latch and deadbolt install. Here's his comment on the install:

"Overall, alignment worked out very well, but the curvature of the door complicated things a little. I still have to "tweak" the lever latch alignment to get it right. Now it binds a little in the hole cored through the door so the catch tongue (whatever its really called that sticks out and into the strike plate), well that doesn't want to pop out (extend) easily on its own without some handle jiggling (due to the alignment issue). Easily fixable I think but yet to be done now.

I think door curvature helped cause the binding because it worked freely before I tried pulling the bottom of the handle into the door. Right now there is a plywood spacer taking up the gap at the bottom. I tried bowing the handle a little (to match crvature) but it was hard to grip in a vice without scuffing it up, so I went easy on the brute force at the time. If I can't find a way to bend the handle the rest of the way to conform to door curvature then I will likely just fashion a shim plate for the bottom (tapered too if necessary)."