back door lock repair or replacement

Hi Auto-Sleeper owners!

I have just joined because I am desperate to get the lock on the back door of my van repaired or replaced.  About 2 weeks ago I discovered that I was no longer able to lock the back door of the van and it looked like someone had jammed a screwdriver in there.  On checking the contents nothing seemed to be missing so I assumed it had been a failed attempt to get inside the van.  I Googled locksmiths and could find none who would actually deal with a lock - only keys.  I had booked and paid for a pitch in Blue Anchor Bay near Minehead for 5 nights beginning on Sunday 16th September so on Saturday, I checked the van to see that it was ready and equipped - only to discover that somebody HAD now got into the van and stolen all kinds of things but without actually trashing it (phew).  A little pop up tent for my dog was gone, as were my hiking boots, the dog bed, a wind-up radio, torch, ONE of the 2 matching, leopard print fleece blankets I used to cover the twin sofas, sheets, pillow cases and another leopard blanket I used to protect my duvet from the dog and all his little brown hairs.  He won't sleep if he can't see me so the tent is just for me to put my clothes in and for him to hang out while I'm cooking or washing dishes or banging poles in the ground....

I have to park on the street opposite my place in north London and next to a church which feeds and tries to help homeless people so judging by the things that were taken, I surmise that it could have been one of them.  Maybe it's a thing to jam somebody's lock, wait for them to unlock it and be forced to leave it unlocked so they can come back and help themselves?

But the trip was booked and paid for so Sunday morning we (me and my trusty companion, Truffles, the Wonder Dog - a chocolate Labrador Retriever) set off and I was feeling happy that despite not leaving until 7.45 am, it had been such a breeze getting out of London (a rare treat).  However, once we reached the M4, I realised I had left not only my laptop but also my drivers licence, debit card and bus pass behind on my desk at home.   I had around £46 in cash on me and half a tank of fuel which would have been more than enough to get us to our destination had it not been for the signs saying that between Junctions 15 - 18, the road had been closed.  So without the benefit of the satnav which kept trying to take me back to the M4 - or a road map, we spent an hour and 50 miles trying to find Junction 19, by which time I was down to Reserve fuel.  £46 to last 5 days was going to be a challenge but now I had to top up with £20 worth of fuel as well as getting directions.

We finally made it to Blue Anchor Bay which was lovely and soon hooked up the electrics, turned on the gas and sat down for a decent cup of tea.  After a nice long walk on the beach with Truffles I started to turn the sofas into a small double bed for the night and to my dismay, found that both sheets, duvet cover and pillow cases AND duvet were gone!  I slept under a beach towel that night and prayed for the weather to continue warm - which of course it didn't.  

I have an awning which I discovered on our last trip a month ago, had 2 joints broken on 2 of the 4 main poles - so it couldn't be erected.  I had packed a large fold up picnic table,  a large rug, a small clothing rail and some fold up shelves to go in it because in my van, once the bed is made, there is only a square yard of floor space between the hob on top of the fridge and the sink on the other side. My habit is to leave the bed made up for the duration of my stay because I don't want to make it up every night but this means that my clothes, vegetables, the toaster and all the dog stuff (feeding bowls, food, collars, leads, balls, treats, raincoat, chew sticks etc.) would go in the awning leaving the van for just cooking, washing and sleeping.  Sometimes I think I probably shouldn't be allowed out by myself because I foolishly packed the mallet in the bag with the awning and groundsheet and left it at home- not thinking that I would need it for the windbreaks I had bought as a substitute for the awning.  Quite honestly I had been finding the awning a real * Inappropriate Word * to erect by myself even though each time I tried to follow 2" x 2" black and white photos that came with the instructions, I kept finding that the consequences indicated didn't always follow in the way the instuctions set out.  So I had tried a couple of trips without it.  I really missed the extra space though and that's why I took it  again last month.  I had bought it at the NEC in Birmingham after seeing a man erect it in 8 minutes.  I managed once to get it up by myself in 3 hours but usually, after an hour of struggling with it on a new pitch, good hearted men would come and ask me if I wanted a hand - and they would take another hour or 2 to figure out how to get it up.  It's a really useful awning but IS quite tricky because all 4 poles come folded in 2 places and when clicked together, form 4 long poles which create a dome at the end of a 'room' which is attached to the back of the van.  It's from Khyam if anyone is interested and I believe is the only tailgate awning in their range.  There is a stabiliser tape at the foot of each pole which gets tangled up with all the ropes (even though I DO loop and tie them all up) and great swathes of fabric.  On one occasion, 3 guys came to my assistance and after about 45 minutes, one of them who was an engineer was getting a bit frustrated with it and seemed to feel that someone should take charge of the operation.  I guess he couldn't bring himself to give up on it and felt that if the other 2 guys would only follow his instructions they'd have it up in no time.  I watched them for a while but decided to make some tea and while my back was turned, the engineer took the poles apart and (as I later discovered) reassembled them the wrong way round - but they DID manage to get it up and attach it to the van.  What else could I feel but grateful for all the time they had spent helping me?  I only discovered what they'd done during a rainstorm which was actually the end of Hurricane Jack so there were 70 mph winds as well which tore at the awning making it flap about alarmingly and the dome was in fact now a bowl due to the wrongly assembled tent poles and which rapidly filled up with water making me feel like Mickey Mouse in Fantasia having to empty it every 10 minutes or so from 11 pm to 3 am.  At the end of that trip (year before last) I wondered if I should stop camping altogether - or try it without the awning.  I am 69 years old and in reasonable health apart from my circulation which makes walking difficult sometimes.  I have to walk Truffles 3 times a day for him to stay as sweet as he is but confess I am finding all the difficulties erecting the awning and then the time it takes to take down and pack away a bit too much like hard work, when what I really want to do is relax and enjoy my surroundings with my dog.

So when I was setting up in Blue Anchor Bay, I had to keep borrowing a mallet to bang the poles of the windbreak into what was initially grass but rapidly became shingle and or hard core.  It was very windy so it blew down twice before I borrowed a lump hammer and got most of the poles to stay in the ground. The following day I managed to get some money in the Minehead branch of my bank despite not having ID and bought a duvet and cover set, half filled the van with fuel and bought a few food items in Tesco's.  The thief hadn't taken the pillows.  It was a challenge with no radio, no laptop, no books and no TV but we had some lovely times, daily walks on the beach (3 minutes walk away), splendid breakfasts at beach side cafes and a steam train journey through the lovely Somerset countryside.   

So now I am back in London and parked once more on the street with the back door of the van still unlocked and ready for another visit from thieves.  

I thought I'd use this post to both introduce myself to the group and set out my problem in the hope that somebody can suggest how or where I could get the lock repaired or replaced as my Googling attempts yielded nothing until I found this Forum. 

That is the best intro I've ever read on ASOF Welcome to the forum.

I think you need something like these -  LINK - for you back door. Any reasonably competent mechanic should be able to fit one - or all three.

Frank

Welcome from Lincoln showground..   

Hi and welcome to the forum from chilly Bridlington 
Boaby

Hello and    from Leicestershire, was Lincoln show ground, well done for persevering, hope you have better trip next time.

Sorry cannot help with the lock, but Frank is very knowledgeable.

Good luck,
Margaret

Until you get the back door lock lock properly fixed, there must surely be some way you can secure the back door internally, e.g by passing a bicycle locking chain, a luggage strap or even some rope through the inside handle and a second securing point, then you can exit via the front doors which presumably are locking OK?

If this isn't possible for some reason can you maybe park it so that the back door is so close to a lamp post or street sign that the door can't be opened. 

You really need to find some way of securing it, otherwise whoever has been in before will be free to access it again at will.

It's a shame we weren't aware of this as we live in Lynton very near to Minehead and could have helped with blankets etc.   Now you've joined you can post any problems you may encounter and people will help if they can.

You could probably get a new barrel fitted in the lock by a local garage, provided the actual handle has not been damaged by the perpetrator with the screwdriver.    However I would suggest you could purchase one of these keyring type personal attack alarms which is activated by pulling a pin out of the actual alarm body.    If you google "pull pin attack alarm" you will see a wide variety.     It would then be a case of attaching one end of the alarm to the inside of the door, and the other end with the pin, to some suitable fixed point.    The thief would then pull open the door, which in turn would pull the pin and set off the alarm (and they make a helluva noise).   Enough to deter any would-be thief .     And they are relatively inexpensive.   

BobK wrote:The thief would then pull open the door, which in turn would pull the pin and set off the alarm (and they make a helluva noise).:

He/she would then either smash the alarm with the tools carried for the van break in, or just stamp on it to smash it then throw it as far away as possible.

Sorry - that idea is a non- starter.

Frank

boxerman wrote:


Sorry - that idea is a non- starter.

Frank

   noise can be a great deterrent.    Would the wee scummy rummage about to try and find the source of the noise so he could stamp on it or throw it away, or would he just leg it.

Thank you so much everyone who has tried to help me here.  I don't get notifications that somebody answered my post so it's taken a while to find the responses.  I was expecting some sort of email telling me someone had responded.  I am thinking of an alarm once the lock is sorted because there's no guarantee that it won't happen again.  It's such a pain having to empty the van every trip because I really don't have space for it all in my flat.  Thanks for the link Frank and your kind words about my post.  So glad I found this forum.  I will keep U all updated on my progress with this.  But while I'm here, can I ask something else or should make a new post?  In the cupboard above the sink is a gap at the back which I think is somewhere to hang clothes.  I don't use it for this but have put 2 baskets inside where I keep the cutlery and small things like batteries, the grater, string, torch, pegs etc.  Many things have fallen down the gap which doesn't seem 2 go all the way down to the lower cupboard where I stow pots, pans and cleaning products or the place underneath where the toilet is situated.  I have no clue how to retrieve these things.

You should really start a new thread, but how about a magnet on a string for the steel objects, and a litter picker for the other things?

Frank

For notifications go to your profile and tick the notification method and then click on 'watch this topic for replies' which is found at the bottom of the last comment.

What Autosleeper are we talking about here? Your profile says 'Partner'. No Autosleeper is built on the Peugeot Partner. We need to know the model in order to help properly.

I think that the Mezan was built on the Peugeot Partner.

DavidT wrote:I think that the Mezan was built on the Peugeot Parrtner.

Yes you're right , forgotten about the Mezan.