May 24, 2001

Toby,
I'm curious as to what door handle you have. The early ones had a pot metal handle like you see on campers of that era. When they recalled them they put in a Peterbilt latch like the later GMCs have and a stainless steel patch with a GMC emblem on it to cover up the old hole. At one rally a few years ago Alex Birch told quite a story about the early latch. They were demonstrating in front of a crowd and were supposed to open he door in front of the audience, but couldn't open the door, so the recall.

Milt Wade-Las Vegas

 

I asked my neighbor (the original owner of a 1973 23' Canyon Lands) if he knew why his door latch was different than mine.  Without prompting, he told me a story about a trip that a group of GMC executives made to an event in a GMC motorhome.  He recalls the event as being the Detroit Auto Show.   When they got there were photographers on hand to take pictures of the arriving motorhome.  For some reason the original design latch failed and as a result they couldn't get the door open.  They were forced to exit the coach through a window with a ladder.  This was supposedly in front of the photographers.  As a result of that episode, Peterbilt latches began to be installed on all the coaches. 

I never heard this story before.  Some version of it must be true. 

I've been looking at my neighbor's coach since 1978 and until I read the post on the GMCnet about the door latches I never noticed the stainless steel plate.  Actually I rather like the way it looks.