I have a 2000 396 aft cabin. The outside of the door to the salon has a large handle to open and shut the sliding door. Unfortunately, the inside only has a small finger hole to open and close. I would like to install a stainless steel handle on the the inside of the door.
Has anyone installed a handle on the sliding door, and if so, can you provide some recommendations or dos and don'ts to guide me. I am assuming I would just drill some holes in the door for the handle but drilling holes always causes me concerns.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Tom Gebler
Handle for inside of sliding door to salon
- tomschauer
- Admiral

- Posts: 2323
- Joined: March 28th, 2016, 10:52 pm
- Vessel Info: 1998 Carver 355
Suspicious Fishes !
2022 Kawasaki 310X - Location: upper chesapeake bay
- Has thanked: 326 times
- Been thanked: 602 times
Re: Handle for inside of sliding door to salon
My wife bought a large handle that mounts with suction cups. It works great and no holes to drill.
I believe it was listed as a shower safety handle.
I believe it was listed as a shower safety handle.
- km1125
- Admiral

- Posts: 3657
- Joined: February 28th, 2017, 6:04 pm
- Has thanked: 81 times
- Been thanked: 1114 times
Re: Handle for inside of sliding door to salon
That's a great suggestion so you could try different positions of the handle before you ended up drilling into the door to permanently mount something.tomschauer wrote:QR_BBPOST My wife bought a large handle that mounts with suction cups. It works great and no holes to drill.
I believe it was listed as a shower safety handle.
I bought two of those to use while cleaning the boat hull from the dingy. Makes it easy for someone to hold onto the boat while the other person does the scrubbin'. I've use them for a lot of other things too. Very handy to have.
Not that bad looking either. The OP might find it's a permanent solution!
Here's one example:
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
- tomschauer
- Admiral

- Posts: 2323
- Joined: March 28th, 2016, 10:52 pm
- Vessel Info: 1998 Carver 355
Suspicious Fishes !
2022 Kawasaki 310X - Location: upper chesapeake bay
- Has thanked: 326 times
- Been thanked: 602 times
Re: Handle for inside of sliding door to salon
Similar to the one we have. Ours is black and stainless. Looks pretty decent. Plus if you need to open the door all the way, it pops off easily.
- tgebler
- First Mate

- Posts: 183
- Joined: June 10th, 2018, 1:58 pm
- Vessel Info: 2000 396 AC
- Location: Pittsburgh
- Has thanked: 5 times
- Been thanked: 29 times
Re: Handle for inside of sliding door to salon
Thanks again for the suggestion. I looked the handles on Amazon. Several of the handles offered have reviews which suggest they might not hold for any period of time or not at all. Do you have a particular model which was effective on a sliding door?
- tomschauer
- Admiral

- Posts: 2323
- Joined: March 28th, 2016, 10:52 pm
- Vessel Info: 1998 Carver 355
Suspicious Fishes !
2022 Kawasaki 310X - Location: upper chesapeake bay
- Has thanked: 326 times
- Been thanked: 602 times
Re: Handle for inside of sliding door to salon
The wife said she got ours at bed bath and beyond.
It holds very well.
I remove it to clean the door a couple times a year. Other than that, I don't remember it coming loose more than once or twice total in the last three years, and even then, it seems its just one on the cups comes loose, flip up the handle and flip back down. Good to go a couple more months.
It holds very well.
I remove it to clean the door a couple times a year. Other than that, I don't remember it coming loose more than once or twice total in the last three years, and even then, it seems its just one on the cups comes loose, flip up the handle and flip back down. Good to go a couple more months.
- tomschauer
- Admiral

- Posts: 2323
- Joined: March 28th, 2016, 10:52 pm
- Vessel Info: 1998 Carver 355
Suspicious Fishes !
2022 Kawasaki 310X - Location: upper chesapeake bay
- Has thanked: 326 times
- Been thanked: 602 times
- tgebler
- First Mate

- Posts: 183
- Joined: June 10th, 2018, 1:58 pm
- Vessel Info: 2000 396 AC
- Location: Pittsburgh
- Has thanked: 5 times
- Been thanked: 29 times
Re: Handle for inside of sliding door to salon
Thanks again. I am going to give this a try before I start drilling holes in the door. Doesn't seem like there i much to lose (other than the price). I will let you know how it works.