Video Transcript for All You Need to Know About the Bauer Products T-Handle Lock for Truck Caps

What's up, everybody It's AJ with etrailer.com. Today, we're gonna be checking out this line of T-handles from Bauer, so this is gonna go on your camper shell, it's gonna be good to replace one that wore out. There's different styles of them, so we're gonna see which one works for this camper shell and help you figure out which one works for yours. Let's check them out. The T-handles are gonna be an easy replacement part for the back of your camper. If one of them broke, it doesn't work, I'd much rather replace it and have one that locks, 'cause that's the whole point of having your camper shells, you wanna be able to lock it, so you can store equipment on the inside and not have to worry about anybody opening it up and getting to it.

Some things to think about when ordering your new T-handle is make sure you get the right one, for the right side if you're not replacing both. So there is the clockwise option, that's gonna be this one, you see there's the same style that is operated a little bit differently. So this one turns clockwise, this is gonna go on your driver's side, then you have counterclockwise, and this is gonna go on your passenger's side. So this is the lock position right now, it'd be keeping the back of that camper shell from opening, you want to unlock like that straight up and down. Style is another thing to consider, so looking at how the handles work with your camper shell, everyone is different, every truck is different.

You see this one's more of a matte black, it's not as glossy, this one has a thinner, longer handle, but it's still glossy, and then the handles we looked at earlier have that gloss on them. Those are the ones we're gonna go with today, because that matches our camper shell. Make sure you hold on to your old hardware from the other T-handle, you see have everything laid out right here, they need the back plate, these screws do not come with the new T-handle, you don't even get the cam, so you can order a new one like we have right here, just make sure the length is enough to grab the back of the camper shell so it actually locks the back hatch. We have our old one here. I know that works.

So we're just gonna stick with that. Let's go over how to install our new handles. It's gonna go right where the old one was. We gonna make sure the holes line up and match. You see we're not gonna have any issues in this handle in place.

Sometimes, if you look at the other styles, you wanna be aware with. You see how this sticks up past the lip. So this hole's gonna be bigger than that middle hole. And this one when you're gonna put in place it won't sit flat against there. So you can make this hole bigger so it will fit, but you probably don't wanna modify it any more than you have to. Now with the handle we're gonna set it in place, line up with the holes, make sure that it goes in the unlocked position. This is like one that turns clockwise, so we got it in the right spot. Now I'm gonna lift up the back hatch, so you can see the bottom side. So it's gonna stay right there and I'll get the hardware. We got the back plate here. We're gonna run in the screws on the side by hand, and then come back with the screwdriver, and tighten them down. So we'll get it started so it'll hold in place. So coming back with the screwdriver it's gotta run those down and tighten it up. Now we wanna install our cam. So we're gonna make sure I install it with it sticking back a little bit to make room for it to latch onto the side. So we'll put it right here on the back of the T-handle. Now you might have to test this out to make sure you get it in the right spot so it will grab the side of the camper shell. But I'm gonna start this screw, just as the test. I'm not gonna tighten down too much, but I do want it to stay in place. That looks good there. Lets test it on the door, so turn the handle over. Looks like there's quite a bit of a gap here. I put it too far towards the back, so I wanna move this can back towards the handle so it makes connection here, 'cause right now it's not gonna hold it. You see, it'll catch it, but the the back hatch will open up about that much. We don't want that. So we want this to be closer to the handle. With that adjustment made, we can turn the handle over and it holds much better than it did before. Now with this handle installed on this side, we're gonna do the same thing on the passenger side. Overall, really easy to replace this, definitely a good idea just to make sure you can keep everything secure on the inside of your truck bed, and not worry about somebody opening up the camper shell. Well, I think that does it. Thanks for hanging out. Hope this helped.