Rear Door Handle Relocator UK to USA

[slomobile]

https://youtu.be/1FeK9k63-AI

This is what I need to open the rear doors of my Promaster rear ramp van while inside it.
It is made by a small UK shop that will not ship to the US.
If anyone located in the UK is willing, I'd like to pay you to order one locally and then ship it to me in Tennessee.
Thanks.

admin@slomobile.net to contact me.
07771 650600 for the shop selling the kit.
95 pounds money, I think. Plus whatever you need to get out of the deal.

[Burgerman]

That looks super over complicated to me. Not to mention shipping and duties etc and time. Surely all you need is a longer custom cable ordering?

[martin007]

Can't you buy it in the USA?

[slomobile]

It is super overcomplicated. It is dumb that I need to do this, but the ramp blocks access to the interior door handles. This is the case on every full sized commercial ramp based wheelchair transport as far as I know. In a fire or other emergency, we are trapped inside unless someone releases the door from the outside.

This kludge only solves the right door. There is still no solution for the left door, and I need that to work too. The left door handle is between the 2 rear doors and attached directly to the latch release body. That mechanism pulls 2 cables that in turn release a latch at the top and another at the bottom.

The video solution is needed because the door latch mechanism comes with the cables permanently attached. If a cable goes bad, we need to replace the entire latch/cable assembly. There is no swapping in a longer cable. I wish that were an option. Extending it via a device like this is the only option I am aware of. This problem exists for all the new crop of full sized ramp vans: Sprinter, Transit, and Promaster(Ducato)

This solution does not exist in the US as far as I have seen. This little UK shop appears to be the first place in the world to market a solution to this problem. Period. I called them trying to order one, but they simply will not ship internationally due to the bureaucratic hassles.

FWIW I know that at least one large van converter, MobilityWorks(Driverge) is interested in offering an automatic rear door solution but they have none. I've spoken with AMF bruns, Ram, Waldoch, and a handful of smaller converters/manufacturers. None have a solution.

[LROBBINS]

On our VW Caddy Maxi the rear door latch is not covered by the ramp, but it is ONLY electrically actuated and once, with a dead battery, we couldn't get Rachi out. I opened the door panel, drilled a hole in one piece of the latch linkage and ran a piece of music wire up from there to a knob where it can be reached. Not pretty, but cheap and works. Perhaps you can do something similar.

[Burgerman]

If its under 2kg and a certain size which I think it is, then using a sort of comparison sight leads me to the cheapest shipping of 49.99 uk pounds...

Thats about 60 something dollars???

I could ship using that to your address. If you ring, organise and buy by it telephone to get whatever it is called delivered to my address.

PM me if interested. As long as you accept any extra I may end up paying. Although I dont see that happening. Depends on weight/size. And you may get hammered by customs. Unless I ship as some DIY parts or something.

Although considering the price I would make something myself. A bit of bent metal. A 1/2 inch nut bolt with two flat washers and a hole drilled in it for joining the two cables. I did a clutch that way on a Rover V8 engines ford car... Worked great.

[slomobile]

I probably will end up making something myself too. At least for the left side. But it helps to have a commercial product to compare the DIY bodge to. Incremental improvements.

I'd like to see relocatable manual overrides an available option on vans that would benefit from them. Like the glow in dark trunk release handles inside trunks. Most people never need them. But when you do need it, you NEED it.

Van cargo areas were originally included in the definition of "trunk" within the legislation that enforced manual interior trunk releases. However they were later specifically excluded because van manufacturers argued that the interior door handles provide the same effect. They do, until they fail because a conversion manufacturer blocks those handles, or an electric release has no manual backup.

Consider the situation, we have a known safety concern with mitigation already mandated by legislation and international agreement. OEMs already addressed the mandate by providing interior door handles. The conversion companies effectively defeat the OEM interior handles and offer no alternative.

This puts the conversion companies in a position similar to the diesel emission delete guys that are being fined by the EPA. Except that whistle hasn't been blown yet.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a tested solution, ready to sell to those conversion companies, to get all their vehicles compliant with the law again?

I'm making a solution for my needs. I don't have plans to sell it. But someone should. In the meantime, I'm supporting the one shop that has already worked on the problem because I am grateful to them.