Additional safe key?

just about to do a month long random tour of Europe and am getting slightly twitchy about having only 1 key  for our Broadway safe. 
It is a mechanical lock, not electronic.   A second key would be useful.

Query: 
Does anyone have experience of obtaining a duplicate key for a non-electronic safe used by Autosleeper? 
(Yes, I have tried locksmith and keycutter shops)

Thanks

Very surprised you only have 1 key.  We were given 2 when our van was new. Also surprised that you have been unable to get a duplicate. Have you tried a security firm? I presume that it is the double sided blank that is difficult to source at a normal key cutter.

My safe key is a Euro Lock with a 3 figure number, exactly like this one. If you have a number in yours then you can get from this dealer by post...

https://www.fastkeys.co.uk/keys/man/EUROLOCKS/801-1000/217

Can't believe high street keyshops can't get a blank.

My safe key looks like a mortise lock key but has two blocks of wards on opposite sides of the key's shaft. The larger block is plain with 6 or 7 levers while the smaller block opposite has a keyway as well as 7 levers.  It's number has 7 digits.

I’m supposed to have a safe but never found it.

chrisk wrote:I’m supposed to have a safe but never found it.

Hi chrisk, apologies for what seems a silly question, but do you possess any keys relating to a safe? Regards.

Paramedic wrote:

chrisk wrote:I’m supposed to have a safe but never found it.

Hi chrisk, apologies for what seems a silly question, but do you possess any keys relating to a safe? Regards.

No other spare keys, I think they forgot or stopped fitting a safe in mine.

Ok, I only ask as our previous Broadway ES similar to your Berkshire had the safe below floor level under offside locker made obvious by the metal lid flush to the floor.

Not a good idea to post safe locations in various models on s forum. Scrotes read forums to pick up that sort of information!

Thanks for responses. 
Mine is also a double sided mortice type key. 5 digit serial number. 
Chrisk- Location is given in the Autosleeper user manual. Also has the comment “if fitted”, so you may not have one. 
Just spoke to Autosleeper parts department and was told no replacement keys available, no blanks as safe mass produced in China (not sure how that logic works!). 
Interestingly, they did not ask any questions about which type of safe I had. My understanding from forums is that they use manual and electronic versions and using at least two totally different key types. 
Ongoing.....

Casagodfrey wrote:Thanks for responses. 
Mine is also a double sided mortice type key. 5 digit serial number. 
Chrisk- Location is given in the Autosleeper user manual. Also has the comment “if fitted”, so you may not have one. 
Just spoke to Autosleeper parts department and was told no replacement keys available, no blanks as safe mass produced in China (not sure how that logic works!). 
Interestingly, they did not ask any questions about which type of safe I had. My understanding from forums is that they use manual and electronic versions and using at least two totally different key types. 
Ongoing.....

Update: no replacement key for me, it appears. 
 - Keycutter types can’t supply.
 - Proper locksmiths can’t supply/source a suitable blank either. 
 - Auto-Sleepers parts department sloped shoulders on the issue, not a good indication of forward/aftermarket planning on their part. 

Final possibility is to get the key 3D scanned by a friendly metrologist and get one or two machined from solid using a suitable material. Sounds a bit like a potential student project! 
Ongoing.......

Casagodfrey wrote:
 - Auto-Sleepers parts department sloped shoulders on the issue, not a good indication of forward/aftermarket planning on their part.

I hate to keep coming to the defence of A/S but... they are subject to the same "made in China" conditions as the rest of us. The vast majority of Chinese manufacturers have no interest in selling spare parts for their products. They just want to make a run of 100,000 safes, each neatly packaged with 2 keys, stuff them into containers, take their money and be done with it.

A/S could buy a better quality safe from a British manufacturer with full support and spares but... It would cost three or four times the price and we, the buyers of converted vans, won't pay the extra. All of their competitors use the cheapest products available, so they have to too.

To an extent, consumers in the West have got what they wished for: cheaper products. The downside is dubious quality, no spares and no support.

If it were mine, I would use the safe purely as a dummy, and hide my valuables elsewhere...

Good point Roopert but maybe a little flawed. Agreed that generally cheaper goods are available from Far East/China. Having worked with manufacturing companies in that zone, I am aware that, alongside the stack ‘em high/sell ‘em cheap merchants, there is also good solid engineering capability. Above all though is the desire to win business. 
On the discussion of safe keys, the Chinese safe supplier will probably have used components from a number of sources, possibly ranging from larger manufacturers to their equivalent of a bloke with a machine in a railway arch.
My point is that AS could have included a requirement for a few key blanks in their order (to be fair, they may have done and have just run out). During the manufacturing process, the blanks already existed in volume. They only became specific when machined to a batch pattern. There is probably a poor soul somewhere sat on  batch of unwanted key components. We are talking very small bucks in this scenario.  
Apologies for going on....just retired and still adjusting to it!

Don't know the safe or construction but would it be possible to fit a new lock?

Sorry - I didn't mean to imply that the Chinese cannot engineer products that are every bit as good as the ones made elsewhere. They can and do build some impressive things. But their export system to the West is primarily aimed at high volume, minimum quality, because that makes them more cash than anything else.

Casagodfrey wrote:
My point is that AS could have included a requirement for a few key blanks in their order (to be fair, they may have done and have just run out).

You may be right, but for something as ordinary as a mass-built safe, I doubt they were dealing with the original manufacturer at any point. They would be at the end of a supply chain for standard product, which comes in one colour, boxed with two keys.

But I'm only guessing, and may be wrong!

If it were mine, I would be tempted to whip it out, and do similar to what Ploughlin suggests: chop off the original lock and weld on a hasp and staple so that I could fit a padlock, though I accept that's a bit crude. And again, I would not put any valuables in it - they go in hidden places around the van.

I found these on Aliexpress. They look like they might suit as I compared the dimensions with my safe key but cant be sure. Hope it helps

Ed

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32422122966.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.30ab7ea74pdgBJ&algo_pvid=d4d1ada2-6173-4624-afba-c3f347000888&algo_expid=d4d1ada2-6173-4624-afba-c3f347000888-0&btsid=f27d1f35-85bc-4dbe-acdb-f827c91dbcca&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_1,searchweb201603_53

eps wrote:I found these on Aliexpress. They look like they might suit as I compared the dimensions with my safe key but cant be sure. Hope it helps

Ed

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32422122966.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.30ab7ea74pdgBJ&algo_pvid=d4d1ada2-6173-4624-afba-c3f347000888&algo_expid=d4d1ada2-6173-4624-afba-c3f347000888-0&btsid=f27d1f35-85bc-4dbe-acdb-f827c91dbcca&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_1,searchweb201603_53

Did you means these? 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32750315276.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000060.3.5fde45b4fn8XKx&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreThisSeller&scm=1007.13339.90158.0&scm_id=1007.13339.90158.0&scm-url=1007.13339.90158.0&pvid=26edf74e-949b-49c5-b420-7ae771a694ec

PLOUGHLIN: nope. Mine looks like a double sided mortice key. 
 Not a problem now. Too late for this trip away and I will get one made from solid when I return at the end of 
September.
thanks for all responses.

EPS: they certainly look similar. Will check them out when I return to uk. Thanks.

Casagodfrey wrote:EPS: they certainly look similar. Will check them out when I return to uk. Thanks.

A new key will cost you well over £30 that's if you can get one when we had our Warwick Duo it didn't have a safe so they fitted a digital safe from Argos £29.95 and no keys to worry about. Just another idea. 

Is the safe lock a deadlock or latch. Is it possible to push the safe to lock without the key

skippeje wrote:Is the safe lock a deadlock or latch. Is it possible to push the safe to lock without the key

First post and asking about security in our vans, sorry but I wouldn't  expect an answer.

A related issue is the size and weight of the safe key. 

Neither my wife nor I are keen to add the safe key to our already-too-large collection when leaving the van: ignition key; habitation door key; bike locks' keys; etc. And the safe keys are longer and heavier. But there's no sensible alternative, other than burying them somewhere outside the van where they can be retrieved without too much hassle or tools. (Have already done that for spare ignition key). 

A digital safe would be more convenient .... if our memories hold out!

Cymro

Paulmold wrote:

skippeje wrote:Is the safe lock a deadlock or latch. Is it possible to push the safe to lock without the key

First post and asking about security in our vans, sorry but I wouldn't  expect an answer.

Point taken. It’s just that we have just bought it and might have accidentally locked the keys in the safe! So just trying to find out if that’s possible

If it has a key, I very much doubt it can be locked without the key but as you can read above, several different  styles have been fitted.


Anyway, why not say hello here...

https://www.autosleeper-ownersforum.com/f36-asof-welcome-section-new-members-please-introduce-yourself-here