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RVcircus's avatar
RVcircus
Explorer II
Oct 11, 2016

Securing RV cabinet doors

When I made the drawers for our tall cabinet I intended to use push-to-open drawer slides to prevent the drawers from smashing the door open when on the road. Well, I ordered the wrong slides and instead of returning them and waiting for the new slides I decided to use what I had. I was hoping the spring loaded door catch would keep everything put, but was pretty sure I'd be dealing with this down the road.

When the drawers aren't loaded all the way everything stays closed just fine, but when we have them loaded up for longer trips the weight slams the drawers into the door and they blast open. While on out trip to Tennessee we made a pit stop at Home Depot to pickup some magnetic catches to help the door hold those drawers in place. I ended up picking up two heavy duty magnetic catches for the task and left them in the cabinet for a month and a half and it turns out you need to install them for them to work. The time has finally come to install them giving us our 2nd Minute Tips video, so check it out below.

https://youtu.be/QeEU0X2N_9A

6 Replies

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  • RVcircus's avatar
    RVcircus
    Explorer II
    Oct 17, 2016
    myredracer wrote:
    Another option for drawers but more expensive is Knape & Vogt 8400 series RV slides. They stay locked in place and you give them a tug to release. Have them on 4 drawers and they work great.


    I used the K&V 8400P slides for these drawers and there's a little friction before opening, but not much. I'll look at the other 8400 options since I plan to order more slides this week for our next project.
  • myredracer's avatar
    myredracer
    Explorer II
    Oct 14, 2016
    tenbear wrote:
    My RV originally came with These latches.


    Those things are great. I've replaced most of the standard cheapo roller catches with them. Some of them come in 3 different pull force ratings - 3, 5 & 10 lbs. I used a 10 lb one on the pantry door and it's way too strong and needs to be replaced with a 5 lb.

    Another option for drawers but more expensive is Knape & Vogt 8400 series RV slides. They stay locked in place and you give them a tug to release. Have them on 4 drawers and they work great.
  • RVcircus's avatar
    RVcircus
    Explorer II
    Oct 12, 2016
    I'm building a new dinette in the next week or so with drawers underneath and plan to use some recessed magnetic catches. I'll be using stronger ones since I'm expecting the wife to load them heavy. Worst case I'll use a mechanical latch, but I've seen some pretty strong magnets used for catches.
  • riven1950's avatar
    riven1950
    Explorer
    Oct 12, 2016
    We used baby safety latches on our previous TT. The kind you can turn to activate / deactivate, that way they are not a pain to use when you need them when camping.
  • tenbear's avatar
    tenbear
    Explorer
    Oct 12, 2016
    My RV originally came with These latches.

    I installed a large drawer under my dinette seat for shoes and had a problem with it opening on any left turn. I installed a 10 pound latch of the above type and now the drawer stays closed unless I open it.

    A couple of the OEM latches have broken so they are not indestructible.
  • Tiger4x4RV's avatar
    Tiger4x4RV
    Nomad
    Oct 11, 2016
    If that doesn't work, try lots of blue painters tape as a temporary measure. Then perhaps a hook and eye on the big door? A old-fashioned bolt? Baby safety locks such as Zappy Baby (see Amazon; I've had good results with these)?

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