We recently moved from our wonderful little Fun Finder 189FBR to a beautiful new Grand Design Imagine XLS 19RLE. It's about 4 feet longer than the Fun Finder, but it's amazing how much they've managed to fit into the space! And best of all, it has REAR WINDOWS! Beautiful rear windows!
I don't want to say we 'upgraded' to the Grand Design because our Fun Finder was an amazing camper and we had wonderful times! But we are now full-time in under 20' and I wanted a couple things - windows in the rear! The ability for my husband to stand up everywhere in the camper, and a bigger bathroom. This camper has all this and more. But enough about my new camping trailer! This post is to share a mod I did to my screen door to make it more user friendly.
Ok, yeah, I know I should do a better job with photos, but hey, I just wanted to share this with you before it starts raining :)
Now, the real post - The new camping trailer has a neat door latch that allows you to open the door without having to move that sliding hatch to access the exterior door handle! What a great idea! Well, it's great, until you have to close it! Then there is very little to grab onto and pull.
If you don't have a door latch like this, you can get one here:
DOOR LATCH #1 - Initially, I added a simple half circle cut from a heavy plastic sheet that I had left over from the shower remodel in the Fun Finder.
This works great and is a simple and quick fix to give you a grip when shutting the door.
Simply cut a semi-circle out of heavy plastic and screw it to the door. You can use plastic from a plastic tub lid, a shoe box, or even a yogurt container. Glue might hold, but I put a couple screws in to make sure.
The screws are not visible from outside.
DOOR LATCH #2 - After I thought about it a day or so (and my husband complained that his fingers didn't fit easily into the hole) I came up with this improvement.
Now it works like a real door handle. You push down on the top of the wooden handle to open the door, and grab it to pull the door shut.
It works great and looks good (much better than the photos appear) Simply cut a piece of wood about 9" long. Mark the position of the screws. Drill pilot holes. Screw to door. Ta Dah! Simple and effective door handle for the awkward screen door.
If you have careless kids or someone who doesn't know their own strength, you may want to make the handle shorter so there's not so much torque, but it works great if you're not crazy with it. Don't try to pull the big exterior door shut with it.
In the next post I'll show you how to have a wonderful bird feeder that sticks on the windows of your trailer/rv for $1!
And you don't have to make it!
Now, go play outside!
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