Schoolie Keyless Rear Door Lock

One of the problems in school bus conversions is how to lock the rear door.  Bruce on Yahoo Shoolie Group used a dead bolt lock on the rear door of his school bus conversion and I liked the idea so much I kidnapped it and expounded on it.

He used a simple dead bolt in the door to stop the action of the rear door latch.

Bruce's door lock, unlocked.

Bruce's door lock, locked.

Bruce's door lock outside.

While I loved Bruce's idea, I have a hard time just doing things simple.  Also, this is my second school bus conversion.  When I did the first one I had a combination/key lock then also.  It was a manual combination lock similar to the one pictured below.  The main reason I opted for that type of lock was if I were camping and wanted to go swimming or just didn't want to have to take keys with me I could just dial in the combination and open the door.  Nothing like losing your keys at the beach or the pool and can't get back into the house/camper. 

Manual combination key lock.

Well, Now I've just got to do One Better!

So I picked up Kwikset Smart-Key digital lock set for half price at a surplus salvage and got to work.

Kwikset Smart Key

Unlike Bruce's installation, I had to use a slide bolt because the outside portion of the lock would have ended up in the handle well and not allowed the handle to swing. The slide bolt moved the loch far enough away to land on the raised portion of the door.  Also by being on the raised part of the door I also needed an extension piece inside the lock as the school bus door is 2 1/2" thick and I still had to add another 1' on the inside for the dead bolt to ride in.


You can see the detailed installation at Instructables.com.