How to make an interior cargo door handle on 2nd gen Trooper without cutting or drilling.

Enemigo said:

I didn't see your thread or I would have linked you to the similar thing I did on mine. Mine was impromptu, so not my best write up.

Add a back door handle to your '98+ Trooper

I really like that the older 2nd gen Troopers have a door handle on the back door. The pockets on the back doors of the '98+ Troopers are really nice, but none of them had door handles. Swapping doors and cutting out a spot for the handle is relatively easy. What if you want the handle on your...

www.planetisuzoo.com

Now that I read through the thread, that's a pretty good idea. Well done.

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kaybjar said:

I posted here a few days ago asking to buy, or instructions on how to make an interior cargo door handle for my Trooper since it is the best way to get in and out when camping/living. I didn’t get any replies so I decided to go for it myself, with a race car style door pull. My craftsmanship is questionable at best so I did not want to cut the trim at all.

Here goes:

1. Take the door panel off. Turns out, you only have to remove the two screws in the handle, and the rest are plastic clips. You don’t have to remove the mounted containers as I first thought.
2. Assemble stuff:
   1. Get a small dual carabiner (I got S-Biner at Lowes for about $3)
   2. About a foot of thin wire rope or picture hanging wire ($2 anywhere that has wires)
   3. ¼” Eye Bolt ($2 at Lowes). A ¾” long bolt would be optimal, but I made do with 2 ½” and cut off the rest, so it would not poke the trim panel after I put it back on.
   4. Optional: Nylon strap if you don’t like pulling on wire your hands. Due to the angle of the locking mechanism the pull-strap requires a bit of force so I highly recommend this. ($2 as I sacrificed about 2ft from the end of one of my thin straps)
   5. Optional: Zip-ties, sewing supplies, fire, or anything you can think of to make a loop on the end of the strap. ($1 max)
   6. Optional: Crimps or any other small fastening device to form a loop on the end of the wire. I could not find one small enough to not interfere with my eye bolt so I just twisted it on good.
3. Fasten the wire onto one end of the carabiner and hook the other end onto the eye of the locking mechanism. I just twisted it real good around the carabiner and added some electrical tape because it kept poking my fingers while I was trying to figure out what to do next.
4. Attach the eye bolt to the existing, unused hole, in the cargo door and run the wire through it to create a downwards pull when the wire is pulled to the side. Optimally you would want a pulley but they are more than $2 and usually don’t come with a ¼” threaded bolt attached to them. Grease it if you want to reduce friction, but it doesn’t take that much force to open. Look where the plastic clips on the trim attach to the metal and use the one that has no clips. I am not sure if the clips are mounted in the same exact spot on all Troopers, since there are a few unused holes of the same size in mine.
5. Run the nylon strap from the locking mechanism, in between the two sheets of metal, all the way to the rear windshield wiper fluid compartment. There you cut (OK maybe a little cutting) the weather seal to slide the strap into the fluid compartment. You could add extra weather sealer and seal the strap out, but I opted to not do that since I did not feel like it.
6. Attach the strap to the wire, either elegantly, or by twisting the wire around the strap until you are pretty sure it’s going to stay.
7. Put the panel back on.

Total cost: $10 for you, more for me since I had a few failed attempts.

Completely concealed by the trim and does not interfere with the locking mechanism at all. Both remote unlocking and manual still work as the carabiner is simply pulling down the lever that the exterior handle uses. Best part is that you don’t have to cut the trim and devalue your stallion to future buyers down the line.

Photos:
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Overview of panel clips (lock in top left here)

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Locking mechanism and eye ring.

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Strap going between the sheets to the fluid compartment.

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The finished product in all its glory.

For more durability you are definitely going to want to clean up those connections better, but since I am going to use it once per morning per camping trip, it will not see enough mileage to warrant high precision work.

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