Our first travel trailer was a 28' Dutchman Kodiak. It had a front and rear door as well as two undercarriage storage compartments. Each door - all four of them - had a unique key. Drove me crazy! Trying to remember which key went with which door was highly frustrating! When we sold the Kodiak, we downsized to an RPod. It had only one entrance door which meant only one door key but it had another key for the storage underneath. In addition to these, there was the key for the coupler lock and the hitch pin. Keys and more keys!
If you've been following this blog, you know that we recently bought a new Rockwood travel trailer - affectionately nicknamed Rocky. Like our original Kodiak, Rocky has a front and rear door, two storage compartment doors, and an access panel to the outdoor shower. Before we picked up Rocky, I was assuming (hoping) that the Kodiak's assortment of keys was an anomaly. Surely, I reasoned, THIS trailer will have its doors keyed alike. Sadly, no. Rocky has four unique keys for the doors and compartments. Plus the extra keys for the coupler, hitch pin, etc.
To compound the overall key frustration, we learned that in the world of RVs there are, surprisingly, a fairly limited number of different keys out there. The folks where we stored our Kodiak told us they had a set of keys that "pretty much fit any travel trailer on the lot." Yes, it's true. There's a good chance you and some of your fellow campers share the same key. So we're not only deviled with a fist-full of keys for our units but we also live with the knowledge that our homes-on-wheels are far from secure.
The ideal solution would be to replace all the factory-installed locks with new combination locks - all set to the same combination. We are seriously considering this solution for Rocky. The good ones are a bit pricey though and we need to get past the initial purchase outlay before making another big investment in our new toy.
So, until that upgrade happens, Carol & I decided to conquer the battle of the keys. Our simple (and cheap) solution was dollar key rings with coiled wrist bands and a 98¢ package of plastic key color codes. Since we come and go through the rear entrance door 90% of the time and use the undercarriage storage compartments 99% more than the outdoor shower compartment, the rear entrance door and storage compartment door each got a green plastic cap (green for go, since those are the doors I "go to" most often). This simple solution has saved me so much time from fumbling around with the wrong key for the wrong door. The other part of our solution is collecting all the keys (for the trailer, hitch, coupler, etc) on the wrist band key ring. When we're out camping, I'm wearing the wrist band all day. No more searching for "lost keys" or wondering where I laid them down. Not a perfect solution, but a big improvement until we pop for replacement, combination locks.
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