Difficult to describe. From the inside, look at the bit you pull to open the door. The little flap next to it is the bit you press in to lock it.
First make sure it is fully locked by pressing it in hard.
As you then pull back the bit to open the door, the flap you just pressed in should come back with it.
If it doesn't, wiggle a finger in next to the bit you would press to lock, and pull it back towards you so that it is flush with the bit you pull to open the door. Then try pulling the bit you pull to open the door.
Ours is a bit tempremental and needs the odd wiggle to get it to behave.
If all else fails, the brown panels are just held on with velcro, you should be able to pull them off and free the mechanism up.
I gave ours a good squirt with spray grease, which seemed to help.
Make sure the locking latch is fully pressed in (see Locked below).
Pull the opening lever - the locking latch should come back with it. We generally have to do this twice. Once to pull the locking flap back into to place, and a second time to actually open the door.
Yes, we had been shown how to lock the hab door from the inside, as Morphology described and had done this a few times. Mostly I had been locking it from the outside, with the key, as I had been in and out the van several times loading it, sometimes though I left it unlocked when I went indoors.
This afternoon John had entered the van via the cab door to move it across our drive a little so we could access the outside storage door. Some time after that I tried to unlock the hab door with the key and it didn't work. We then went inside and tried from there but no luck. Between us we can't actually remember whether he locked it from inside or whether I had left it locked from outside.
Morphology, thanks for your post and excellent description. We've tried your suggestions, apart from removing the panel, which we're reluctant to do at this stage. The caution that I quoted from the manual refers to the mechanism becoming 'blocked', but does not say what to do if this happens. Has yours actually 'blocked', or just been difficult to lock/unlock?
I'm hoping a miracle happens overnight :roll: If not we'll ring the dealer in the morning.
Not sure I understand the distinction, but if by blocked you mean "won't open from the inside or outside" then, yes (and I suspect this is what the manual is referring to).
To free it I have usually pressed the locking flap in hard, then jiggled the handle until it opens.
There have been comments on the Knaus owners forum about some inner part of the mechanism breaking and it not opening at all, but you'd have to take the inner panels of too see whether that is the case here.
The locks themselves are made by Zadi, and there is a fairly poor diagram of the internal workings on page 21 of this catalogue:
So did we! So we were very relieved when they fixed it. We thought we might be told they'd have to order a part etc. etc. Unfortunately though we won't be away for several weeks, just two and a bit in France and three altogether.
Hi similar problem. I think I have the correct replacement spring but I can see where it should go. Do you have a diagram or other inspiration please? Jonathan
I'm sorry Jonathan I can't really help. The door locking incident happened over 3 years ago, just after we bought the van. We took it back to the dealer and they fixed it. I believe though that it should be possible to remove the door panelling (if you haven't already done so) and have a look. We were reluctant to do that ourselves at the time as we'd just bought the van and felt we shouldn't have to be fixing it ourselves at that stage.
I hope you manage to work it out, or that someone else on here can be more helpful.
And, welcome to Motorhomefacts by the way.
Chris
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