Keystone Cougar HC design flaw with rear cabinets.

here is a latch I used in my home built cargo toy hauler that has worked extremely well.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07115R9C8/ref=pd_luc_rh_sspa_dk_huc_pt_sub_1?psc=1

It's a push to lock/push to unlock. once pushed in it locks the door in place and it is easy to see if everything is locked.

ideally, nothing would interfere with the slides
ideally, trailers would have the maximum amount of storage space available.

pick one. mfg pick the 2nd, which I agree with.

I didn't read this whole thread but assuming a cabinet door should stay closed not matter what is not realistic imo. I cleaned off an open cabinet door with the slide one day only to find my wife stacked seven 2 litre soda bottles on their sides. I can tell you, I didn't blame the manufacturer!Lol

kbooky wrote:
Thanks for the replies.

Personally, I consider it a design flaw. The latches should be such that they need to be unlatched. Driving down the road caused them to open. The manufacturer does not make any mention of tying them closed, opening the slide only part way and checking for clearance.

Having said that, it is only an annoyance, not a reason to bad mouth the Cougar High Country.

I have had to repair other things on the unit to to my inexperience and errors.

We enjoy the unit and have done some interesting and useful things to it. I look forward to seeing what others are doing to customize.

I think there is a bit of common since here, we have three cabinet doors that our big side can catch if open. Before we run out the slides we check the doors and for anything else that may have fallen in the way. We don’t tie cabinets shut too much trouble. We have drawers open once in a while but not doors.

Our doors are always secured. My wife uses those poly tail elastic bands.

Even though the door closes and latches tight, I have had pots and pans bounce out. So now everything is secured.

thanks for the info about drawer slides and latches

That's not an uncommon occurence. Could be due to poor factory workmanship or that they just don't work that great. Below is a photo from our friends' Keystone TT. They were complaining of problems with various drawers and cabinet doors not staying closed, and in particular a door beside the bed. The two parts of the roller catch were over an inch apart. The cabinetry work in their TT was atrocious. Their dealer tried to fix some of it and just made a mess of it. I've seen Keystone TTs at our local RV show with similar obvious bad workmanship. How can the factory let this sort of stuff out the door and how can a dealer not see it or be able to repair it?? I spent a day going through our friends' TT to fix the cabinetry problems including the dinette seating that was falling apart. Their TT was only a couple of years old at that point.

We used to have various drawers and doors open while in transit - above the rear kitchen counter, lower kitchen drawers, pantry door, a door above the dinette and one of two drawers in the slide. One of the lower kitchen drawers opened once and I didn't see it and the slide tagged it but luckily only messed up the drawer slide a bit and was easy to fix. See 2nd pic.

The problem is the flimsy, el-cheapo, dime-a-dozen roller catches that are common in RVs. Some TTs bounce more than others too and rear kitchen models can be more of a problem (like us). The solution for me was Southco Grabber catches. I replaced most of the roller catches in our TT with them. They work great - everything stays shut now. They come in 3 different pull forces. They also have a microswitch model that I used for the pantry door to switch an LED strip I mounted inside it. You can buy Southco catches online (ebay, Amazon, etc.) or JR Products has similar ones that can be found at RV parts vendors. These are trickier to install because the two parts have to be fairly accurately aligned. I used painter's tape and made careful measurements and marks.

The ultimate solution for drawers is RV "stay-close" 8400 series drawer slides from Knape & Vogt. I installed them on some drawers I built for beside the bed. They are sweet!

I would have been happy with a removable sticker on the cabinet that cautioned about this. It really should have been mentioned in the manual. Experienced RV'ers may know things like this.

Thinking about this, I think I am going to put attachments on each cabinet, to keep them from opening during transport. (There are some, that would not be a concern because they are protected when the slides are closed.)

If I built my own travel trailer, I wouldn't have these problems, but it would take 5 years to build and weigh at least 15 tons. Paying $21,000 for a 4 yr old travel trailer makes much more sense. Besides, if I built it, it would have more in common with a tank, than something comfortable.

RVhiker wrote:

kbooky wrote:
... The latches should be such that they need to be unlatched. Driving down the road caused them to open...

The OP says the doors were properly closed using whatever latching mechanism the manufacturer installed and the doors opened due to driving down the road. Assuming the design was to keep the doors closed when driving down the road, then of course the design is flawed.

Manufacturers often use **** inadequate to the job when building trailers. Why cry operator error when it's the manufacturer's design and install that failed?

TO some extent the OP has a valid point. It's not that he forgot to close them. Its that the latch is not designed to keep them closed during travel.
Sort of like your car door opening if you hit a big enough bump.
It should not happen or even be possible.

RVhiker wrote:

kbooky wrote:
... The latches should be such that they need to be unlatched. Driving down the road caused them to open...

The OP says the doors were properly closed using whatever latching mechanism the manufacturer installed and the doors opened due to driving down the road. Assuming the design was to keep the doors closed when driving down the road, then of course the design is flawed.

Manufacturers often use **** inadequate to the job when building trailers. Why cry operator error when it's the manufacturer's design and install that failed?

Many, many years ago (when common sense was common) latches had a positive catch to insure they would stay closed. It is only because of excessive cost cutting that we have the almost useless devices currently used.