Valterra RV Screen Door Push Bar - 21-5/8" to 28-5/8" Long - Silver and Black

Video Transcript for Valterra RV Screen Door Push Bar Review

AJ: What's up, everybody It's AJ with etrailer.com. Today, we're going to be checking out this screen door push bar from Valterra. Now, what this is great for is instead of having to step all the way out here and grab this piece of plastic to shut our screen door, or stepping outside to grab the edge and then close it, which is just kind of a pain, we can just grab this bar instead. With this installed, I just grab here. I don't have to leave the camper, and I can shut the door. Another benefit is when you're opening it, you're not worried about anybody pushing on the screen, maybe damaging that.

You've got this bar. You just push it, push the door in place, and get out of your RV. Let's check it out.Another awesome thing is it's not just for the screen door. So when you're going to shut your door, you can unlatch it from the camper. And like I said earlier, instead of if it was unlatched, you wouldn't have to reach all the way out here to get the screen door and the door.

Usually people grab this latch here. You'd have to step out, kind of do that. Now you've got this bar, and just easily shut the door, and open it. Now, you're probably wondering how sturdy it is, because I was thinking the same thing when I went to go install it. I'm like, "Is this actually going to help Is it going to hold up" And yeah, it does.

I'm shaking it back and forth here. There's no independent rattling of the handle from the screen door. It's going to be as sturdy as your screen door is, so I can move it back and forth rapidly. There's no rattling, no extra. It doesn't seem like it's going to pop off or anything like that.

It's in there and it's going to stay there.Now, I didn't shake it by the handle, but let's take the screen door and go back and forth; still no rattling, no movement of the handle whatsoever. And it also acts as a stabilizer probably for the middle of it, so there's less of a chance of a bend. With now that in there, that kind of acts as a support beam. If you're worried if it's going to fit your door or not, it has 7" of adjustability. So it's going to fit doors as small as 21 5/8" and as big as 28 5/8". So that just gives you as long as you're in that range, you're going to be fine.Now, it's really easy to install, too. It didn't take us any time. Let's check out how we did it. When you get your handle, it's going to come in a bunch of different pieces. I assembled this side, now I'll show you how I did that. It's really pretty simple. You just slide this little part into the black handle here in the middle, then we attach our piece at the end that's going to attach to the door. The way to tell what end goes where, you see the multiple holes on this side, and we use to get it to fit our door. Then farther out, there'll be two more holes and that's just attached to the handle part . or the part that attaches to the door. Sorry.Now I can hold it up there and see exactly where we need it, with it loosely put together. So you want to drill in and attach to the edges of the door, about there. So I'm going to flip it around and see how many holes are exposed on the other side. And it looks like it lines up pretty good with two holes on each side. It moved a little bit when I flipped it over, but you can see you got two holes outside, and these two we're lined up. That's where we want it, so I'm going to install the hardware on this now, before I mark the holes to drill it out. Set the handle down on the table, that way I can install the hardware. And we're just going to come here on every one of them, line it up and run a screw through just to hold it in place. Now that I got them started in the place I want them, I'm going to come back here with the drill, just run them down.Now that the handle's all put together, I'm going to hold it up to the door and mark out the spots I want to drill so I can attach it. So I'm coming in here with my marker, make a dot so I know to drill there. And a way to see if this is level and we want to measure from the bottom of the door up to this dot on both sides to make sure they're both at the same spot. It's a good way to see if it's level or not. Because our trailer's not level right now, so I wouldn't want to just measure the handle. That's not going to be an accurate reading. This is the most accurate reading we can do right now. I got my tape measure now, we'll go from the center of that dot to the bottom of the door. Right at 39". Let's try the other side. Same thing, 39". Awesome. So it's going to be level. We're good to mark the other holes with the handle and then start drilling them out.Now there is a space and a pretty good gap between our screen door and the regular RV door. So just be mindful of that while you're doing it. Go slow. You'll feel right when it gets to the metal stop there. That way you don't get to the door. I don't want to unlatch the door because then the door is going to move back and forth while I'm trying to drill. I think that'd be worse, so we're going to do it this way. You're going to repeat that for all the other ones. With all four holes drilled, I just wanted to show you when we move the door over to close it, the drill never went through the other side of that door. So you have nothing to worry about. It won't be affecting your RV door or ruin the other side of your screen door. Just wanted to point that out because I thought that was kind of cool.Now, I already ran one screw in on the other side to help hold it up while I was doing this. But we're going to line up our screw with the holes we drilled, through the part of the handle, and run down the drill. It goes in nice and easy. And we'll repeat that process on the remaining holes. With our handle installed, now it's way easier to close our screen door, or we want to release it, put it back. No longer do I have to reach all the way out here and try and grab this to get it, or grab this part. And as I showed you, there's not much to grab on to to actually pull it. I guess I can grab this metal part, but I still have to take a big old step out here and grab this to close the door, and that's just kind of inconvenient and kind of unsafe if you're not having sure footing. So grab the door handle now, shut the screen door, and you're done. Thanks for hanging out. I hope this helped.Welcome to the huddle, everybody. Today, we're going to be checking out this screen door push bar from Valterra. Any questions One thing I was curious about is, is there an optimal mounting location that you're supposed to, or can you pretty much mount it anywhere up and down the door The only reason I ask is because a lot of people mentioned in the reviews and questions that they got this bar so their grandkids or their kids will stop pushing on the screen door. AJ: Yeah, you can put it wherever you want. You just have to drill the holes to actually install it. You only drill through the first layer of the screen door too, so it never comes through the other side. We put it there because it was kind of in the middle for everybody. But yeah, you could probably get another one and put it a little bit lower, if you have younger kids down here, just to have them have a bar to push on as well. Aiden: One thing we had to watch out for is just these screws there in the side. So if we we're to mount that slightly lower, we we're worried we might run into that. So we just made sure we avoided those. And that was really the only thing we ran into. Otherwise, I would think you could put it pretty much anywhere up and down. AJ: Yeah. Are you going to run into any interference with the plastic slide there crosstalk 00:08:40. AJ: Not the slide itself, but this addition to the slide, I couldn't go any lower than this because clearly it's going to hit there. So that did cause a little bit of issues. So you're either going to be probably right where it is, which is adult height, or maybe if you have inaudible 00:08:57 kids AJ: Yeah, you could go down here. They could always buy two. That's true. And most screen doors don't come with anything like this Aiden: Not that we've seen. AJ: No, not that I've seen in any of the RVs we've worked on. Usually, I mean, you got this to grab to move it that way, but still, that's like way out here. It's not an easy thing to grab from inside your RV. And I guess you can kind of use this as a handle too, if you wanted. But the bar's way easier. inaudible 00:09:31 too, it's just as sturdy as a screen door's going to be. It doesn't rattle independently or anything like that. So it feels good. Speaker 4: I would imagine it would be a lot cheaper, too, to get something like this rather than if your kids keep breaking the screen door, to keep having to replace that, too. AJ: Yeah. So this might be a dumb question, but do people know this exists I mean, is it common enough out there that they know what they're looking for Or is it something that you just stumble across AJ: It looked like, when I was doing research and looking at different YouTube videos and stuff, they know of bars; not specifically this one. I don't think we found a video on this one, but there was a lot of DIY kind of stuff, like, "Hey, make a handle real quick for your screen door. That way you don't bust out the screens," and stuff like that. So it's a problem that's out there. I just don't know if they know this bar is out there yet. Cool. Yeah, you don't have to do it yourself. Look, you can just buy this. AJ: Yeah, and this is way nicer than doing it yourself with like PVC pipe, "Hey, just drill this here. Now it looks like junk." This one actually looks nice and sleek. It's got the holes in there to adjust, too, so when you go to install it, the only holes I had to drill we're the ones in the screen door here. So it's got multiple holes on the inside so when you go to pull it apart inaudible 00:10:49 adjust it to your door. You'd have to drill those holes, then drill the screen door holes. You only have to do these. If I didn't complicate that too much. Aiden: That made sense. crosstalk 00:11:01. From what you've seen, other than obviously those screws and the plastic part, from what you've seen and worked with this, do you think there's any type of RV doors that this wouldn't work on Or as long as it's within the width parameters, do you think it should pretty much fit all doors AJ: I think it's made to be universal, and that's why inaudible 00:11:31 adjusting points and stuff like that. I think it's going to go ahead and work with whatever doors those holes on the inside line up with. I don't know how many . Aiden, do you remember how many inaudible 00:11:41 Aiden: There we're a lot of adjustment points. I don't remember how many, but- AJ: There's a lot of room for adjustments. Aiden: Yeah. AJ: And I'd honestly be surprised if it didn't fit into your door. That's I guess if you have a fancier door, maybe you don't want to put it on there. I didn't look that up and saw that there's some people with some real fancy doors on their RV inaudible 00:11:58. When you say real fancy doors, I'm just curious what that means. AJ: inaudible 00:12:04 like a wooden door that was on the inside instead of the screen door. I don't know if it was just like a YouTube thumbnail, or what. I don't know. It looked like a little much for an RV. Somebody that wasn't worried about pets or kids gnawing on the door. I didn't know . Have you . Because I know there's a very similar Camco push bar. Because from what I can tell, other than a slight difference in the style and the price, I don't know if you've had any experience with that and how they're different AJ: Not yet. I did look at it on the website. That's the all-black one, right, that goes across I think there's multiple Camco ones. There's all-black ones, all-silver, and then a black and silver, like that one. AJ: Okay. No, I took a look at them on the website and that's as far as I got. This is the only one inaudible 00:12:53 hands on with so far. Sure. Speaker 5: I don't really have a question or anything, but I really like this because I think a lot of people don't realize until they actually have the RV how . Like when you're thinking about opening or closing a door or something, you're not really thinking about how unsteady it can really be, like if you're having to jump out onto your step and reach over and reach out like that in order to bring it back in. I feel like people don't think about that until they're actually in the RV or seeing a video like this, where you're seeing how you would have to lean out to get it. AJ: Yeah, because inaudible 00:13:28 do is grab the inside of the door, you kind of hang out and grab it without the handle. So yeah, you're right. You don't think about until you do it. And you're like, "Oh yeah, this is way easier." Speaker 5: Right. I'd be taking a tumble down those steps. AJ: Oh, yeah. If it was slick or raining or something like that, I'm sure I'd fall right down when I go to close the door. Especially, too, if it's dark out, nighttime, and you don't have an RV outdoor porch light. I'm sure crosstalk 00:13:58 a little hard to navigate those steps, too, to try and close the door. Speaker 5: And sometimes people say the steps are a little bouncy or feel unsteady, or something like that. That could be an issue, too. Speaker 4: One thing that I was curious too, and I mean, this is just kind of a rhetorical question, I wonder also if someone would be able to put this on their screen door at home, too. I don't know if there's anything that would stop them from doing that. AJ: Other than them being wider . I guess your standard residential door might be a little wider than this, but I mean, it is adjustable, so probably. Speaker 4: I just thought I'd put that question because it's been like 20 years since I've had a screen door, so I don't really remember. crosstalk 00:14:46 AJ: Screen doors are also what we're learning, too. Speaker 6: I guess you could also . I mean, I'm sure it's not really designed to bear weight, but I'm thinking you could like throw a hand towel or something over it if you just wanted . It looks like a towel rack so crosstalk 00:15:05. Speaker 4: . you could. There's actually someone in one of the Camco, I think, reviews that mentioned they occasionally used it as a towel rack, put their wet towels on it. So yeah, multipurpose. AJ: Yeah, you could do it right here. If you go swimming or something, I guess, at the lake, you could just throw your towel out here. That way you don't have to take it in the RV, and you got somewhere to hang it. Speaker 7: Yeah. How sturdy would you say it is I can just see a kid hanging off of it.And breaking it. AJ: I'm not going to try and do a pull up on it because I don't think it's going to hold up to that. It might be the screen door, but I think it's as sturdy as the screen door is. Speaker 7: Got you. AJ: No, we're not going to do that. Speaker 6: The door will just topple over you. AJ: Yeah, it's not my RV. Jake might be mad. Speaker 6: Right. But yeah, I would imagine that, because the screen doors aren't super, super sturdy obviously, or we wouldn't need a bar because people wouldn't be breaking them. So yeah, I would guess it's as sturdy as the door. I really didn't have any more questions, unless anyone else did. Speaker 6: I'm a little curious in general about the door parts that slide, or the handles. Do you need to replace them pretty often AJ: I don't know. Are you talking about this Speaker 6: Yeah. AJ: Here Speaker 6: Yeah. AJ: It got a replacement bar on it earlier today. I was kind of wondering the same thing because this is the old one, and I don't know how long it's been on here, but . I don't know. I think it just depends on your use of it and how rough you are. I could see maybe . I don't know how, but I just pictured somebody pulling on it too hard and pulling it out of the track or the plastic eventually breaking because it's been out here in the sun so long, maybe it gets brittle. I don't know. I don't know how long they actually last. I don't know. I guess it depends on how much you're out in your RV too, I guess. Speaker 6: They're very easy to pull out of the trailer. We have that issue with ours quite often, just because people use it as a handle. Yeah. AJ: Yeah. So you think if you had this handle, maybe you would have to replace that less, too Speaker 5: That's what I was just thinking. If you had the handle, then you don't need to replace that. AJ: Thanks, everybody.