Closing my action too hard (Over/Under)???

straightshooter said:
The car door IS a great analogy. Would you hold the handle of the door open while you close the door? No, you wouldn't, because it would cause more harm than good.
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Well, actually, to lock my landcruiser, you DO hold the handle open when you close the door.
It's all about understanding the mechanism that you are operating, and operate it appropriately.
It always interesting to see how those who can actually make things, and fix things, operate those things...
 
Roalco said:
It's all about understanding the mechanism that you are operating, and operate it appropriately.
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That's a fact. Understanding the mechanism goes a long way.

I trust you that your Land Cruiser employs a completely different mechanism than 95% of the world's vehicles. And I concede that there are custom guns, special purpose guns, and early designs that require holding the top lever, if that's your point. With guns though, the ratio would be more like 99%. It was never my intent to state or imply that there's no such thing as a gun that requires, or would benefit from, holding back the lever.

I believe that anyone who owns such a design knows what they have and how to use it (akin to you and your Cruiser). My comments are directed at the 99%. The same 99% that own guns and cars with doors that were designed for a wide variety of conditions. Designed so that they operate best with a degree of force that falls within normal parameters, as opposed to excessive force or deliberate restraint.

I gotta ask - what happens when someone hard slams your Land Cruiser doors without holding the handle? Sounds like a poor design to me.
 
They call it "dummy locks" - the handle needs to be held back in order for the lock to stay engaged after shutting the door. If you push the lock while the door is open, to the locked position, then slam the door without holding the handle, the lock pops back open and the door is not locked. If you hold the handle, however, then it stays locked, no matter how hard you slam it.

The idea is that if you lock the mechanism then either the door somehow shuts (parked on a hill, kid "helping" daddy out, etc) or if you are in a hurry and forget the keys are in it or didn't notice your elbow locked it, then the door does not lock, allowing you to get your keys. I think that the idea is if you have to make a deliberate action such as holding the handle, then you're more likely to have also grabbed the keys, whereas if you don't make that deliberate action, maybe you didn't even mean to shut it or simply forgot them.

It was actually quite a common locking system on many Japanese cars. All the Toyota vehicles I've seen from the 80's used it, most Nissan/Datsun used it, don't think Honda ever did though. I think Mazda and Ford trucks used it but cars I'm not aware of. And I don't think Chrysler and gm did at all. But far more older Japanese cars than you would think used this system

You can now return ti your regularly scheduled programming
 
krprice84 said:
It was actually quite a common locking system on many Japanese cars. All the Toyota vehicles I've seen from the 80's used it, most Nissan/Datsun used it, don't think Honda ever did though. I think Mazda and Ford trucks used it but cars I'm not aware of. And I don't think Chrysler and gm did at all. But far more older Japanese cars than you would think used this system

You can now return ti your regularly scheduled programming
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My 64 Pontiac and 72 Chev both had to have the thumb plunger depressed when closing the doors after pushing the interior lock down. I can't remember for sure, but think my Dodge Swinger was the same.

However, how we lock our car doors is not a good analogy as compared to how we close them. The mechanism of a hinge gun is probably better described as a latch even though we consider it to "lock" the barrels to the receiver. If you don't close your car door firmly enough the latch does not engage properly and with much older vehicles without a secondary safety position in the latch mechanism the door is not secured and your wife may depart the cab on a left hand turn.

The OP's original question is as old as the introduction of the design and asked or opined about constantly. If you ask the manufacturers what is correct, the answer is that the design is meant to be closed firmly enough for the intended spring to automatically snap the locking bolt closed properly.

If one is not satisfied with that and is anal to the point that they cannot accept doing that to thier baby, then do yourself a favor and after you have ever so carefully closed the action and gently eased your thumb off the lever, put your thumb on the other side of the lever, apply pressure to be sure it is fully seated.
 
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