I haven’t written this to facilitate burglary everywhere, but to complain about the poor security on my recently-purchased Forest River trailer.
Locks sold in the United States are generally poor. If you’d like to learn how bad, watch the Lockpicking Lawyer on Youtube. They are short videos that you may find shocking for how easily he can open the locks that are protecting your home, etc.
My trailer is a Forest River Rockford Geo Pro 15fbs. This is one of a few dozen different brands manufactured by Forest River, probably the most popular manufacturer of travel trailers in the United States.
The trailer body is a sandwich of fiberglass, styrofoam, and very thin wood; on an aluminum frame, but it’s mainly styrofoam. When discussing the locks, one should keep in mind that anyone with a pry bar can open one of these trailers easily, and bears have been known to tear off the doors. So, there is a limit to their security.
The entry door and outside cabinets of the trailer have locks manufactured by Global Link, which come with one of 90 different keys. The keys have codes stamped on them, in the range G-301 to G-391. Just 90 different key codes seems like a really small number to me, and key rings containing all 90 can easily be purchased online. But this isn’t the biggest problem of these locks.
For the convenience of Forest River and its dealers and service people, the locks are master-keyed: there is one key which opens all of them. Although Forest River and Global Link claim that master keys are available only to locksmiths, RV dealers, and RV service companies, you can purchase 10 of the master keys for $13 on Amazon, here: https://www.amazon.com/Camper-MK9901-Compatible-Global-Motorhome/dp/B09BBDZT84
If your RV lock has the letter “M” on it, it can be opened by the above master key. My RV had an “M” on all of the outside cabinet locks and the main entry door lock. A second lock, below the main one, on the entry door, which RV dealers call the “deadbolt” although it is not made of the heavy material of a real deadbolt, is missing the “M”. But most RV users only lock the top lock, and don’t even know what the second lock is for.
So, for $13, you can equip 10 thieves to enter many popular RVs without breaking in, and look like they’re legit: they got in with a key.
Global Link is not the only maker of RV locks with poor security, see https://framon.com/update/RV-2023.pdf for a discussion of a number of differently branded, through rather similar and equally bad, RV locks.
So, what should you do? First, don’t replace your RV door lock with an electronic combination lock. While these add a combination with up to 10 digits, that you would think might be more secure, they also include the same poor-security mechanical lock as a backup, which can entirely bypass the combination keypad. If you look at the replacement keys they sell, they generally offer no more than 60 different key codes. Hopefully these locks don’t admit the master key.
So, what to do? First, use the cylinder change key: https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Products-GLOBAL-LINK-CHANGE/dp/B08CD7BFTF to remove the top cylinder on your RV’s door. Order a non-mastered version of the same lock code on eBay here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/276120210472 and replace the old cylinder. Your entry door will now no longer admit the master key, but it will still open to one of 90 keys.
The Global Link lock is a “wafer” design which is probably easy enough to defeat with a raking attack, something that amateurs can do in a minute without learning lock picking. So, even master-proofing your lock might slow down a thief a bit, but won’t defeat every one.