Until last season we traveled beyond Kino in A Bluebird MH. Built like a battleship.I never had any of the typical RV problems on the bad Mexican roads. The cupboards all had rooster catches and the drawers had aircraft latches, Everything was made of a special 1/2 inch plywood , glued and screwed. The only staples in the unit were for upholstery! In all our travels I never had a cabinet break or open while on the road. Of course rhe body was steel so the cabinets are attached to something solid. Fast forward to yesterday: We left Kino and were headed to Tucson in our new to us 05 Bounder. A nice unit but lots of staples! Things flex. The N.side of 15 is horrible. Even the semis were going slow. I did not see one Mexican drivinbg at the usual 140kmh! I had one cupboard open up and the closet door slid open. The front TV is a flat screen CRT Big and heavy. It rattled and I am afraid it will fall down. Being as we do not watch TV on our Mexican travels I am going to take the TV out for our winter trip. Next fall I will install a digital set. I would like to know what others have done to their cabinetry to keep everything closed. Over the years I have seen methods that work but are Mickey mouse: wooden dowels in the handles and even bungee cords. Presently the catches are those brown roller type with the thin metal tongue on the other end. I going to check if Home Depot has some that are made in USA.Any suggestions that don't involve welding the doors shut!!ThanksMoishehRoller Latches

You could search this Forum for something like `latches' and read onWe installed Child-proof latches in the drawers. Before that I tried to put a dowel rod down thru the handles of our three vertically aligned drawers so each drawer kept the others closed. Not as sure as the latches. We don't have trouble with cabinet doors opening.

Check out the Southco C3 grabber latch. They are available is 3 release ratings and work very well. www.southco.com

We use shoe strings on the larger double doors. Factory locks, lock mounted on stationary surface wraps around a pin on the door/drawer when closed, has held thus far on everything else. Have had to re-glue and put corner braces on the larger doors.rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

Double sided velcro,,,,lots of velcro. use it to strap the TV down and even cabinet doors if they have the right handles. If you got knobs then hair bands made for pony tails work great.

Keeping Cabinets closed | Good Sam Community

moisheh
Explorer
Nov 06, 2013
I changed 2 of the roller latches and adjusted all the brass catches. We are heading back to Mexico on Monday or Tuesday so will put them to the test. We also have to take out the plate from the microwave. Ah Mexico. I remember when we had a Alpenlite Truck camper and the roads in Michoacan broke the entire floor. Factory had to rebuild the whole camper!

Moisheh
Turtle-Toad
Explorer
Nov 06, 2013
I installed PTR (Push to Release) drawer glides and cabinet latches in my front bathroom and bedroom. I've been very impressed with them. I've had to rebuild the bottoms of all the drawers so far. They are made of a type of hardboard and have been stapled to the sides and come off easily. Since I don't want to tear the whole drawer apart so I can groove them to take a 1/2" board for the bottom, I've come up with a L shaped metal piece that laps over the bottom and sides and is drilled to attach with screws. No more bottoms falling out!

I'm still working on the living room/kitchen and the back bathroom. I'm in the process of building longer drawers for the dining booth that utilize the full depth under the seats. These glides are PTRHD (PTR Heavy Duty) that can handle about 400 lbs. Then I'll tackle the drawers in the kitchen and back bathroom.

I think they took every low bid they got when these coaches were built.
down_home
Explorer II
Nov 06, 2013
I had to install small brass screws after going down I59 last year, in the sides of the cabinets. The staples came loose. It was disturbing to think the cabinets were put together with such things. The facias and doors are wood.
Found the bottoms of all the cabinets up high, staples came loose when Dealer Wrecked it. Smeared sealer on top of reseated or ne staples looks ugly trying to find out how to address it.
moisheh
Explorer
Nov 04, 2013
THX for the suggestions. I do have a few spare Southco 10 lbs. from our Dynasty. I found that the drawers had those solid brass latches with an adjustment screw. I tightened all of those and it is OK.

Moisheh
Barbilou_and_Fu
Explorer
Nov 04, 2013
Our fifth wheel was all staples. We used lots of bungies, those double knobby ones for the cabinet doors and long ones to strap the long cupboard over the fridge and hook to the range hood, and around the TV into eyehooks. Yes, unsightly, but worked well.
Tequila
Explorer
Nov 03, 2013
I added double magnetic latches to each door, with the regular latch as well, they seem to work and are not unsightly.
keelhauler1
Explorer
Nov 03, 2013
Harold wrote:
Check out the Southco C3 grabber latch. They are available is 3 release ratings and work very well. www.southco.com

I would buy the Southco latch as recommended with 10 lb pull.
Amazon-$4.52 each.
navegator
Explorer
Nov 03, 2013
I have installed small eyehooks and have the pantry and some of the cabinets criscrossed with bungy cords after having an encouter with an idiot that ran a red light in front off us, I swerved and all the contents of all the over head cabinets pantry and closetts where spilled, now they are latched, found the latches at Home Despot.

The pantry was the most challenging, solved that with a metal corner strip and drilled holes for the bungy cords to hook onto, since it would have been to difficult to place eye bolts in the pantry.

May be you can strengthen the cabinetts wit 90> angle brackets, that is what I had to do with one of the dinnet benches.

Good luck with the repairs.

navegator
Old-Biscuit
Explorer III
Nov 03, 2013
Go back to the Bluebird :B
steelpony5555
Explorer
Nov 03, 2013
Double sided velcro,,,,lots of velcro. use it to strap the TV down and even cabinet doors if they have the right handles. If you got knobs then hair bands made for pony tails work great.