Residential refrigerator travel lock
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I pulled out the 14 year old 7.5 cu ft fridge in our coach that was becoming less than reliable. I replaced it with a 10 cu ft residential fridge that was a near perfect fit in the space. Once it was in, anchored, and trimmed out, I began researching ways of securing the fridge and freezer doors for travel since I really hate it when the leftover meatloaf goes flying across the coach in a tight turn.
After perusing a variety of options that other folks have used, I ruled out bungee cords and baby latches as too ugly and/or awkward to use. We wanted a latch system that could allow normal door use when parked on a site, and eventually I turned to window sash latches to see if I could find a solution. The latches I finally chose were a whopping $3.28 each at Home Depot, and only needed a minor modification to fit my purpose.
The latch assembly as show on the Home Depot site:
For my intended use, the little tab seen in the center of the keeper needed to be ground off as the keeper would be installed reversed from its normal position. A few minutes with a Dremel tool took care of that.
One latch installed on the trim:
The keeper installed on the freezer door:
The latches in travel position:
The latches in normal use position:
For those that store their RV, putting the latches in the travel position with the doors open creates a spacer for keeping them open a bit to prevent odor buildup.
After perusing a variety of options that other folks have used, I ruled out bungee cords and baby latches as too ugly and/or awkward to use. We wanted a latch system that could allow normal door use when parked on a site, and eventually I turned to window sash latches to see if I could find a solution. The latches I finally chose were a whopping $3.28 each at Home Depot, and only needed a minor modification to fit my purpose.
The latch assembly as show on the Home Depot site:
For my intended use, the little tab seen in the center of the keeper needed to be ground off as the keeper would be installed reversed from its normal position. A few minutes with a Dremel tool took care of that.
One latch installed on the trim:
The keeper installed on the freezer door:
The latches in travel position:
The latches in normal use position:
For those that store their RV, putting the latches in the travel position with the doors open creates a spacer for keeping them open a bit to prevent odor buildup.
