You may recall the time we trapped ourselves in the Airstream. Well, we did it again. This time, I sprung the trap and managed to yank the handle clean off while shutting the door. Not so good. Another call to the park manager in which it took a moment for them to understand we needed someone to simply come over and pull on the door handle of our trailer for us. Another amused maintenance guy.

My first thought was we were going to need to get a new handle or lock, but after getting the panel off again and inspecting the parts it didn’t quite look so bad. Likely we could simply have the parts welded back together again, or possibly glued. After cleaning up the parts we were pretty sure it was only glued on in the first place and that meant a pretty cheap repair could have it good as new.

Normally the handle is attached to that steel plate. PS Zip Bags are great for keeping parts together.

For the time being, we tied some string to the opening mechanism on the door so we could get out. I pulled the handle off on the night before our departure. We like to get out of the park early and get to the next place while there is still ample daylight to get everything set up. That meant repairs had to wait. This also meant our current method of tugging the tricky door closed would not work. Necessity being the mother of invention Trail hit upon the idea of simply using momentum to slam it shut. Not slamming doors is so ingrained in my thinking the idea never occurred to me.

Here is what it looks like on the inside.

Tugging it closed was clearly fraught with peril. We’d paid a small price of dignity twice now for that maneuver. Chances are good swinging it closed with some force will likewise cause us some trouble down the road, though all in all it seems a less stressful maneuver. It also occurs to me the real problem may be the frame or door is just a bit wrongly shaped rather than my original notion there was something wrong with the latch. Those problems will not be easily fixed so the slam shut is probably just something we will have to live with whatever trouble it brings down the road. But hey, that’s the stuff blog posts are made of.

All better and ready to go back on the door.

Arriving in Williams, Arizona, we hit up the local hardware store and selected the highest rated epoxy, which in this case was marketed as a chemical welding agent and that sounded like what I needed: JB Kwikweld. It was easy to apply and seems to have done the job nicely and I think it’s a handy thing to have around from now on. The door latch is working as good as new, and will henceforth no longer be asked to tug our trailer door shut.