Spare Motorhome Keys
People often ask us what we do with our spare motorhome keys. Well Craig carries a set of keys, I carry a set and we have a spare set. That way if one of us looses our keys we can always rely on the other as a back up. Also, if one of us accidentally (and it happens) locks the garage door or outside storage space with the keys inside then the other person can reopen.
Where do you keep your spare key?
We constantly struggle to find a place that we feel comfortable with. Leaving a spare key in any accessible place does not feel right, so if you have any great ideas please share.
Spare Motorhome Key Barrels
We carry two spare barrels, which was a life saver when we got broken in to in St Tropez, France. The dealer was able to repair the broken habitation door lock by switching out the barrel, which meant we still could have all the doors operating on the same key. Imagine if we had one door lock on one key and the others on another key, nightmare.
Replacement barrels and keys can take a long time to order and can only be ordered from specific dealers. We have heard horror stories from a minimum of two weeks and up to twelve weeks wait, so might be worth checking you have a spare and if not, how long it takes to order. When we used our spare in France we ending up traveling via the Hymer manufacturing site in Germany, so we could purchase a couple of spare barrels. They hold all spares on site and they cost around £10 each which is quite cheap and having a spare can certainly make life easy.
Hi -re spare key location – for years all over Europe I did the following:
Get small plastic food container with lid that clips on.
Spray it’s outside mat black.
With two screws. Screw the lid to a discreet, hard to reach place under the van.
Put spare key in bottom part of container.
Offer bottom of container up to lid and clip it under van.
Practically invisible. Stays there for years. Always there as backup. Accessable from outside the van.
Being a bit slow here – apologies – but can you explain more how the spare barrel helps operate all doors on one key? Looked on eBay and Hymer barrels are available but with a paired key. Do you have to order a barrel that corresponds to your existing key number? Thanks
Yes, visit a local motorhome shop or contact Hymer direct with your key number, having just the one key for all doors is much better than a bunch of different ones, Hyer are usually very quick to dispatch things too.
Give Mac & Tosh a set ,they won’t loose them ,they might try to eat them ,I’ve no problems with my door keys ,it’s a self locking door!