- Joined
- Jul 10, 2017
- Posts
- 2,781
- Reaction score
- 2,297
- Location
- Hudson Valley, NY
- Ram Year
- 2014
- Engine
- 5.7L HEMI
It turns out that the latches on the floor bins on our trucks are just a marine/RV slam latch and you can get locking ones for around $12 each from Amazon, eBay, etc. (as opposed to the $100+ Mopar ones).
Disclaimer: I did not come up with this idea myself. I saw it on a forum somewhere. I cannot recall where, but the original poster just used a slam latch and cut up the bin liner to add a new catch point for the deeper latch. I did not want to do that so I merged the new locking latch with the original latch.
Original latch on the left, new one on the right:
And the same from the side. You can see the issue, the latch piece on the new one is deeper and narrower than on the original.
Both the old and new latches are held together with a simple roll pin. It was the work of only a moment with a punch and a small hammer to disassemble each.
Original, disassembled;
New, disassembled:
I used the latch piece and spring from the original and the rest from the new one. You don't have to swap the springs, but the original was a stiffer spring and I preferred that.
Reassembled:
And installed in the truck.
This is the latch I used: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Slam-Latch...BOAT-Hatch-replace-Southco-M1-41/132303759229
-K
Disclaimer: I did not come up with this idea myself. I saw it on a forum somewhere. I cannot recall where, but the original poster just used a slam latch and cut up the bin liner to add a new catch point for the deeper latch. I did not want to do that so I merged the new locking latch with the original latch.
Original latch on the left, new one on the right:
And the same from the side. You can see the issue, the latch piece on the new one is deeper and narrower than on the original.
Both the old and new latches are held together with a simple roll pin. It was the work of only a moment with a punch and a small hammer to disassemble each.
Original, disassembled;
New, disassembled:
I used the latch piece and spring from the original and the rest from the new one. You don't have to swap the springs, but the original was a stiffer spring and I preferred that.
Reassembled:
And installed in the truck.
This is the latch I used: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Slam-Latch...BOAT-Hatch-replace-Southco-M1-41/132303759229
-K
