External locker lock.

[Derek Uzzell]

The type of door security-bolt mentioned by George has a fixing-plate width of 20mm maximum, with the diameter of the barrel of the lock that penetrates the door being no greater than 17mm. If the thickness of the locker-door of mikejkay's Chausson is "about 40mm", this should allow adequate space between the door's inner and outer skins for the fixing-plate and barrel.

 

As I attempted to emphasise above, if the Chausson door's perimeter structure is flimsy, inserting this type of 'domestic' lock into the edge of the door may prove problematical. Chausson will not have envisaged Chausson owners fitting this type of bolt to their motorhomes, so there's no particular reason to expect the locker-door's perimeter structure to be massively strong. However, as long as there's a reasonable depth of wood (assuming that Chausson uses wood), say 25mm minimum, inserting this type of security-bolt should be OK.

 

It might be possible to determine by visual inspection what's inside the edge of the door where the lock would be fitted. Otherwise, it might be necessary to drill a narrow-diameter hole into the edge of the door to establish what's within. This was something mikejkay was seeking to avoid doing, but it would hardly be catastrophic, having drillied an inconspicuous 2mm hole through the edge of the door, to discover that the perimeter structure was minimalist. (Similarly, with the original 'Yale lock' idea, a tiny hole drilled through the door's inner skin would have confirmed its construction.)

 

Fitted properly, in a locker-door with a construction adequate to accept it, this type of bolt should offer the strongest and tidiest means of providing additional security. But, as I said about the Yale-lock idea at the start of this thread, "...In principle it should be straightforward to do: in practice there's plenty of scope for getting it wrong."

 

If the Chausson's door is, in fact, significantly less than "about 40mm" thick, fitting this type of lock becomes more challenging. If mikejkay drilled the hole for the lock's barrel off-centre, or at an angle, then he could easily damage the door's outer (or inner) skin. It's not easy to guess at how skilful people are at DIY (though I tend to work on the basis that, if someone feels a need to ask how to DIY something, they probably shouldn't do it ;-)), but, if I concluded that fitting this type of lock to my Hobby's locker-doors was a practicable proposition I wouldn't envisage much difficulty in doing it, nor that it would provoke the flexing problems you are concerned about.

[George Collings]

Perimeter security is only as good as the weakest link and the principle is the same for any home be it static or mobile.. In a motorcaravan this is the toughned glass in a cab door. The safety hammers designed to do the job are pocket sized and readily available. One hit and the glass disintegrates.

 

Caravan windows are marginally better but the lightweight construction of any coachbuilt means that a determined thief with no regard for the damage needed to break in will gain enrtry in seconds with a decent sized screwdriver or wood chisel. Its due to the law - of leverage.

 

Its more than likely that due to cost- weght constraints any external caravan locks will be relativly weak and easily forced by simply driving a small screwdiver into the key slot and twisting. Fitting a second line of defence such as a deadlock might be enough to deter any further efforts of an opportunist thief but if he is really determined just results in more damage that might ential much more expense and inconvenience.

 

The only practical motorhome security is to make life difficult for the opportunist thief. If the existing locker locks have blade type keys I would be inclined to replace them with the type that has a hollow circular key as they are probably more difficult to force.

 

Returning to the long bolts Isuggested earlier the one adavantage is that as long as the gap between door and frame is tight the bolt is subjected to a mainly shearing force with little leverage exerted on the mountings minimising the risk of bursting thin skinned foam walls.

 

Stop worrying. After 15 years and in excess of a thousand nights away all over Europe we have only had one break into our unnoccupied 'van after the rubbish lock in the habitiation door was forced. Total loss under £30 + about the same again for a new lock.

It was very hot and the roof lights left open but this sets the alarm off so the alarm was left off in a busy car park . The alarm would probably have scared the thief off as soon as the door was opened.

 

Hopefully Mr Murphy is still sleeping off seasonal excess.

 

 

[tonyishuk]

Back to the original question :-D

 

One problem I would see is road muck getting into the key-way of a Yale lock.

 

Most vehicle locks tend to have slides over the entry to prevent some muck finding its way in. Those that don't, tend not to be high security locks and can be opened with a hairpin or nail-file

 

 

 

Rgds

[mikejkay]

Thanks to Derek and George I thought that this thread had died so apologies for taking so long to respond. My thoughts had progressed along the lines discussed and I have discounted the option of an internal bolt and a Yale. Now left with the options of internal bolts secured from the inside or the key operated bolts discussed earlier, both would be secured by rivnuts. The most useful bit of information that has come out of this discussion is that I now know about rivnuts! Thinking back, I have come across captive nuts in the past but at the time I didn't think about what they were.

 

I take the point made by several people that the security of the van should be considered as a whole and I am looking at deadlocks for the cab doors. I was on the point of buying a set of the Thule/Omnistor locks before I found out how big they were>

[Guest JudgeMental]

it really hardly matters what you fit, the hinge side can still be fairly easily prized with a screwdriver 8-)