As a followup to my prior post on the busted door latch:
https://www.wanderth...ted-door-latch/
what I found was the linkage pin for the deadbolt had popped out. I never lock either the deadbolt or the latch handle and use only the large, silver deadbolt. After removing the door I found that all the screws for the latch were tight, the four mortorq screws in the black mounting plate as well as the two phillips screws for the internal cover plate, yet the linkage pin managed to bounce out. This allowed the deabolt to freely slide and road vibration eventually caused it to slide into the strike plate, thereby locking the door. I drove this rig four years and on a lot of rough roads, but the worst vibration was the day this happened on a very badly washboarded road.
So what I did was remove the deadbolt, the linkage pin, and the red lever handle, as shown in the photo. It is a very simple, quick job and I would have done when I bought the camper if I had known. There have been posts recommending that the screws should be kept tight, and in most cases that is likely adequate, but not in mine, so the bullet proof way to prevent this is remove the deadbolt.
The other thing I noticed is that should one of the phillips screws holding the cover plate become loose and fall out, it could possibly bounce around and lodge in the latch handle bolt or the spring, thereby preventing the latch from opening. I plan to use loktite on those screws.
