Additional lock, on upper half door

I feel dumb, now I see what everyone was saying about that swing down plastic peice, the one that holds the door in place while travelling. Having not taken a really good look at the newer doors, I was thinking you were saying the door was held together by plastic. My apologies!

Happytrails.......

Happytrails,

:-/ If your confused, then maybe I'm confused too, but the 1998 3124 I looked at just had a plastic latch on the inside of the door to keep the two halves together while open (in use).  The exterior side has a piece of aluminum angle fixed to the bottom of the top half (like yours)

If I understand your picture correctly, yours doesn't use the plastic latch, but a metal bracket to hold the two halves together.  If I get a TM with the new plastic latch, I will definitely replace it with metal latch of some type, like people are discussin here.

Some other trailers I've looked at have differing designs that I might borrow from.  I can't rember the name of the latch, but one one similar to old suitcase latch is popular on other doors....

The reason I installed a cam-type cabinet lock on the upper half door of my TM was to provide a little more security from casual, would-be intruders. The door knob's standard latching mechanism may hold the entire door locked, but oftentimes there may be only an eighth inch, or less, contact between the knob's sliding latch pin and the frame's strike plate. Other TM owners have found that pounding on the door frame with a fist or reaching inside after pushing up the velcro flap next to the frame can move the door just enough to unlock it. The installation of a cam lock on the upper half door makes it more certain that the locked door will remain closed and more difficult to force open. Since the upper half door overlaps the lower half door, one would have to break the cam lock before the bottom half could be opened. I'm sure that the majority of our RV neighbors and campers are honest and law-abiding citizens. However, it only takes one low-life, who discovers that your door is a breeze to open, to ruin your entire camping trip!

Oh, ok......I was thinking they were just talking about the door popping open because they weren't using the little swing down plastic thingy. I see what you're saying. Where mine has the 1" - 1 1/4" metal tab, the newer ones have plastic there.......am I right?

Happytrails......