Video Transcript for RV Designer Compartment Lock Feature Review and Installation

Hi, Matt with etrailer. Today, we'll be talking about RV Designer's compartment locks. So let's take a closer look at them. So these are going to be pretty handy for a lot of different situations. Of course, the main thing to these is, making sure you can properly lock up these compartments so no one can get in here. Now, a reason why you might want to replace that is for a couple different ones.

One, the one you've had, you've had it for years on end, it's starting to kind of corrode, it's not as easy to use. It's probably about time to replace it. Or maybe you got a new camper. When you got that, you're missing a couple sets of keys to some of these compartments. You need to replace these old ones.

That's where you're going to need a new set as well. I do want to point out, you can get this in two different styles. There's going to be the more entry level counter one, and then there's going to be the more high end one, which is going to be the weatherproof one. They're going to work exactly the same way. Now, the difference with the weatherproof one is one, you're going to get this different set of type of keys, a little more sturdy.

But if you notice at the very front of it, when the face of the lock sits, it's a little bit of a different design. The weatherproof one is a little more beefy, has more of a seal around there to help prevent water or debris from getting in there. And there's also going to be an additional seal that goes around the edge to help prevent water from getting inside your compartments. They are going to have the same sizes except for one. And that one size is going to be only exclusive to the weatherproof one, which is going to be an inch and a half.

But the other three sizes that both of these are going to share in common are going to be the inch and eighth, which I have on here right now. There's also going to be 7/8 and 5/8. The important thing to that number is pairing it up to the right type of door because these compartment doors are going to have different thicknesses. So you want to make sure yours isn't sticking out too far in that compartment space, taking up space, but it's not too short where it's not going to be able to reach all the way across. Now, I know that's a lot of different sizes, so it's going to be kind of tricky to find out which one you need. So what I'd recommend doing is starting off with your door. We're just going to measure that. Right now, the distance I'm getting is about 7/8. I wouldn't recommend if you have a door that thick to get the 7/8 locked though, because that's going to be pretty much its entire length there. You're going to want a little bit of extra. So if you're in the same case as I am right now, the one I have on is going to be the inch and 1/8. And this is working on here just perfectly. Now, I do have another size. That's going to be the inch and 1/2. That's going to give me a little bit much than what I need, so I might not need that. But to kind of give you an example where you're going to be measuring from, that's going to be underneath where the head of that lock is to the very end here. And right there we're getting right about at an inch and a half. Another thing you can do is just grab your old lock and measure what the distance is there and just trying to find one as close as possible here on a website. All right, so to install this lock, what we want to do is kind of get everything prepped up. So I've already removed my old lock. All you got to do is take off that bolt at the very end of it, which is going to require a Phillips screwdriver, which we're going to use again to install the new one and just push it right out. You might need a little bit of force. Just be careful you don't break anything on here. Now, when we're grabbing our new ones, I'm going to be showing you guys how to install the weather-resistant ones. The kind of ones are going to be the exact same process. The only difference is, you just don't get this rubber adapter here. And that rubber adapter just matches the shape of the core itself. It'll be pushed into place, just like that. Once you have it on here, we want to remember when installing this, we want this to be in the unlocked position. So we're going to push it in from the side, push it up, retain it, and then I'm going to secure it down with a nut. We're going to have this thinner nut right here. I'll apply a pressure from the backside of it, just like that. Once that's on there, about hand tight, I recommend grabbing an adjustable wrench and get it on there fairly snug. So what I did was, I continued to tighten this down while applying pressure to the backside. Eventually it's going to spin the entire lock. And what I was looking for was to turn it by 90 degrees where that lock is kind of horizontal with your trailer in this orientation because this will let me know it's unlocked. I'm going to put that back up. You are going to get two of these little latches here and I would recommend probably going to be using the one with a bend to it, maybe putting it in this orientation so you have more of a gap in between this and the door itself. But of course, it's just going to depend on your setup. But our old one just had that straight arm, so I'm going to use that one. We're just going to hand tighten that and I'll come back through with the Phillips and finish the job. Then from here, we just test it out, make sure everything is going to work properly, that it is going to latch. So I'm going to close this, lock it down, try to open it up and there you go. Looking good to go here. But that's pretty much it when it comes to these locks. I'd say if you're looking for the most affordable option, I'd go with the kind of ones I talked about today since they're going to give you almost all the same benefits of these. But if you're looking for something a little more premium that's going to last you longer, then go with the weatherproof ones. Since we do have more protection, that is going to help them last longer. And of course, for either set you go with, there are going to be the thumb latch versions of this. So you can have your locking side and then you can just have your latch side. And if you guys have any other questions, let us know here at etrailer. And again, I'm Matt, and thanks for watching.