these look awesome but I had a thought… if the lock is spaced 1/8 or 1/4 or however thick the flange is further out, wouldn’t that make the curved metal part on the inside be positioned inwards a bit too much for it to close fully?
It is thin enough that combined with the panel it is still within the panel thickness southco gives, but I think you might be right… not sure if there is any adjustment. I know they have the option with a threaded hole, but not sure they utilize it.
this is going to be where it gets very interesting… the older campers used the locks as seen on the bottom where there is a threaded stopper that can be adjusted… the one on the top is a much shorter one and is the ones that comes with the newer campers and this is the ones that will give us problems fitting as it closes just flush to the frame as is… I’ll test fit it in the daylight and confirm if my suspicions are correct.
Shoot. I like the idea of the easy sandwiched mounting. Maybe back to the drawing board I guess.
It’ll still work for everyone who still has the older locks… I’ll report back tomorrow if it can be done with the new ones… worse comes to worse, i can put it over the lock flange itself with some kind of adhesive around the edges and it’ll still work… just a little bit more permanent
@jedgar How thick is the flange on the cover? Kyle’s right, there isn’t much wiggle room with these new latches. I guess if it was some kind of rubber which we know is a pita to print it would maybe compress enough that the latch would still catch.
I can’t see the tolerances being so tight that a 1/32 or 1/16 would be too thick.
The V2 has the threaded latches on the side panels, just not in the rear. So worst case, you could put them on the sides and slide the blocks out of the way from the sides to open the rear.
If it doesn’t fit, I’ll just get a sheet of the 3M double sided tape, the thin ones they make, not the padded foam one and cut out a “tape gasket” and put it around the perimeter of the cover base so that it only goes around the perimeter of the lock flange and not on the side panel itself and bob’s your uncle
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I have the V2 camper… the replacement locks are of the shorter arms… I had them warranteed out and they were what I was sent…
Interesting. I wonder if they’re all coming like that new now too.
That looks like it’s about an 1/8th? Is that correct?
2mm or 5/64ish. Didn’t want to risk any thinner with it being plastic is a cold environment.
i just caliper’ed it and it came out as 2.93mm
I sent the ones I printed to @Dignon , but the file in fusion shows 2mm. Maybe I’ll print one and see what I get.
I’m loving how all of this is becoming a group effort!!
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Just went outside to do some test fitting… the concept is A+++ as I love the way it looks but as I mentioned in an earlier post, my concern about the latch being just a skotch too short was realized… this will work perfectly for those who have the earlier latches with the long arm and the threaded stopper but for us who have the new ones with the short arm, the only way to make this work is to attach it to the external face of the lock itself using some strong double sided tape or epoxy or adhesive of your choice… we’re so close!!
with the short arms, the C will indeed go over the bracket for the cross piece of the GFC frame as intended but there isn’t enough give for the latch to fully engage and lock in place…If the base of the cover was 1/8 inch less thick, then it would work excellent and this was with me removing the rubber gasket.
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Looks great, @jedgar is it possible to shave 1/8th off? Kyle, would you be able to show how far it is out on the rear latches from the inside?
The double sided tape isn’t a terrible idea. For me, this will be a permanent install anyways. Logging roads are just as brutal in the summer rain at gumming stuff up. But it all looks good! Great work @jedgar and @OverlandKyle !
If you shave off 1/8 inch from the base, there’ll literally be no lip around the perimeter for the lock to rest in unless, you shave off the lip and attach a very thin sheet of aluminum that has the cut out in it and can be sandwiched
Digon… on the inside, the latch closes over the bracket like normal, its the lever on the outside that cannot be pushed in completely to lock as there’s a slight spring action
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Thanks @OverlandKyle for taking the time to test these. Wonder if we should just plan on them being stuck on, with some vhb or something similar. I could make the flange go outward rather than behind the latch to give a better mating surface. Wouldn’t be as clean but would be universal.
@Dignon do you have the bolts or the short latches?
Pretty sure I have the short ones, as I picked up my camper in November.