hi my name is Doug Walters I'm a
frequent contributor to the caseta forum
and we bought the trailer I'm sitting in
front of here in May of 2015 in Rice
Texas I one thing I've noticed on the
forum that I see threads on this nature
repeatedly since I've been going there
is that probably maybe half a dozen
times a year there will be a thread
started about someone being locked out
of their casita I just wanted wanted to
post a video because I think a video is
worth you know way more than trying to
type a response in the in the forum
because I'm pretty sure that a good
number of these instances are the same
problem that I encountered on our trip
after we left rice it's very often will
be a new owner - I've noticed but any
rate let me tell what happened to us
about probably three four days after we
left rice we were out in West Texas we
pulled into a large truck stop to get
some gas and then we pulled into the
back where all the big rigs were parked
to have some lunch I went back to the
unit unlocked the doors because I always
travel with both locks lock both things
here unlock them grab the handle and
pulled and nothing happened and pull as
hard as I might I could not get into
this trailer well you know a sense of
panic sortin certainly ensued here I
made calls to casita they was on their
lunch hour they promised to call back
shortly I tried getting the emergency
window to open by using the same
procedure that the orientation guy has
rice had shown us and he did it he
showed me how it was done but I could
not I could not manage it and I was
afraid if I banged in
harder on the windows and that I would
break something so I came back and was
just fiddling with the door
you know repeatedly trying to unlock and
lock the locks and everything and I
couldn't get anywhere until I just sort
of bundled on the solution you know
we're so used to opening a door by
pulling on it so it seems kind of
counterintuitive but what's the real
problem I needed to do was push it on
the door as I was pulling on this handle
here and this is what I did that unlock
the car another thing Here I am the door
is unlocked and I'm pulling like this
and it will not open absolutely will not
won't budge
I could I could have pulled that you
know forever and it's not going to come
open at all I found that I had to do was
put my thumb right here push and pull
open it comes okay well I looked at the
last because I realize what's what the
problem is is this is not moving and
it's not moving because the latch bolt
is being held by something you know it's
being prevented from retracting the way
it's supposed to well what's what's
causing the problem is if you take your
finger and feel on this little edge
right here you'll feel a little lip this
is the global lock set there's if
there's a little G right in here on the
on the metal that stands for global
that's who makes it I don't know if
Global makes all the locks for casitas
but they certainly were making them for
the 2015 at any rate there's this lip
here and this lip is just long enough to
get caught on the latch plate that's on
the door frame here if you feel in here
with your finger you'll feel exactly
where it's getting caught so that
engages that well an easy solution to
the problem if you just take a file or a
grinder or something and remove that lip
and make this as nice and smooth there
as you can
but after I thought about for a while I
decided hey this might be a good feature
to have really because when I'm at a
campsite or something you know some if
some miscreant that one of the
neighboring campsites happens to notice
that we have a laptop or an iPad or
something when we're sitting out in our
picnic table and then they see us leave
our campsite you know for a few minutes
what's to keep them from coming over you
know breaking and just opening it if I
forget to lock the thing and get it well
with this the way it is now all I have
to do is leave it like this most people
are going to come up here to get in the
camper and say oh he locked it
well he didn't lock it you see but
they're going to think he did so I just
leave it like that so anyways what I
would suggest these people do think
they're locked out of their casita is
before they call rice before they call a
locksmith before they try and get in
through their emergency window and
possibly break the glass they just go
out and push really hard right here as
they're pulling on this here I think a
substantial number of people are going
to find that they're going to get in
there that way okay if they're if they
can't the product make sure that this
this keyhole here is vertical that tells
you that you've got the latch itself
unlocked if it's horizontal then you've
somehow locked it and you need to turn
it so it's vertical like that but
anyways that's what I would suggest you
know you may save yourself a lot of
grief and agony and as far as what you
do about it once you discover what the
problem is you can take my approach and
just leave it like that we've been
camping all over the place you know for
two years now and I have not had one
instance of lock problems since you
don't need a new lock in this case all
you need is to modify the old one
because if you got another global it
might have that same darn lip on it so I
would just divide advice just modifying
it a little bit all it takes is a file
or a little grinder and
you can have it so it won't ever happen
again