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jerryjay11's avatar
jerryjay11
Explorer
Dec 15, 2017

Installed Support Struts on Overhead cabinets

When my wife smacked her head on an overhead cabinet door she asked me to fix it. Very easy to install. My cabinet doors height are 10" so I measured 3/4" down from the hinge side and 7/8" from the right edge. Removing the doors and drilling pilot holes made is easier and prevented cracking the wood. After mounting the strut to the doors with the 2 short screws I reinstalled them, swung the bottom of the strut down with door full open and drilled another pilot hole for the long screw. Yes it does come with the screws required to complete the job. Happy Wife Now!

P.S. I decided I'd post how they were installed because there aren't any instructions included and I've read other camper owners ask how to do it. The main thing is the amount of movement the rod has that determines where to mount on door and leaving room to fit the cabinet opening.



  • gaymeadowsman's avatar
    gaymeadowsman
    Explorer
    Dec 18, 2017
    We were at a country variety/grocery near a large lake shortly after we bought our trailer in 2014. They had a small RV section that had everything marked as "clearance". I bought 8 of those struts for $2.00 each. I still have 2 as backups if any that I installed wear out. IIRC Camping World sales them for about $8.00 a piece.
  • beemerphile1's avatar
    beemerphile1
    Explorer
    Dec 18, 2017
    Good job. So nothing held the doors open previously? Our cabinet doors came with struts from the factory.
  • profdant139's avatar
    profdant139
    Explorer II
    Dec 19, 2017
    Jerry, it took me a while to get what you meant: "Hurts Donut." Very useful phrase!

    Good job on the installation. I did the same thing on my cabinet doors. Thankfully, DW never walked into them -- she is only five feet tall. Unfortunately, I am 6' 3" and am always hitting my head on things.
  • jerryjay11's avatar
    jerryjay11
    Explorer
    Dec 19, 2017
    profdant139 wrote:
    Jerry, it took me a while to get what you meant: "Hurts Donut." Very useful phrase!

    Good job on the installation. I did the same thing on my cabinet doors. Thankfully, DW never walked into them -- she is only five feet tall. Unfortunately, I am 6' 3" and am always hitting my head on things.


    Thanks though my wife is only 5' as well and has to climb on the couch to see and reach in the cabinets and then she is high enough to drop a door on her head as she is dragging stuff from the cabinet.
  • sgfrye's avatar
    sgfrye
    Explorer
    Dec 19, 2017
    Nice job. Our friends did that in their toy hauler. Ours open sideways but thinking of doing that mod in our pass thru storage doors and outdoor kitchen that open upwards.
  • Fisherman's avatar
    Fisherman
    Explorer
    Dec 21, 2017
    That's definitely on my list of things this spring, 2 over the table and another over the counter.
  • Farmboy666's avatar
    Farmboy666
    Explorer
    Dec 22, 2017
    sgfrye wrote:
    Nice job. Our friends did that in their toy hauler. Ours open sideways but thinking of doing that mod in our pass thru storage doors and outdoor kitchen that open upwards.

    My doors open sideways but after smacking my head a few times I moved the hinges to the top and added struts. A tip for easy mounting was to take a set of hinges off another door. Remove the door you’re converting and mount the hinges on the top rail and don’t remove the side hinges. Now mount the door using the side hinges to get it placed where it originally mounted, predrill and mount the top hinges to the cabinet and then remove the side hinges. Got the struts for about $7 a pair, used two on each door even though could have gotten away with one, redundancy is good.

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