My first (of many to come) Opps!

[sac89]

Ok, I got my first (minor) mishap. New TT, new to the industry. I opened the slide, and it caught a cabinet door and ripped it off the hinges. Scared the snot out of me!

Any tips for a non-handyman person to fill the screw holes and re-install the door? I was thinking filling the holes either with wood glue, or gorilla glue and screw the door back on.

Thoughts?

[Samsonsworld]

bolt, washer, nut.

[dwayneb236]

Yep, I rarely post any questions here as I know there is someone out there who just wants to berate or belittle. I just wander for the most part and see what's up.

So far I have not pulled any doors off but I have hit the front of my trailer with a branch sticking out in the street. Just a small dent but I had not even taken it on a trip yet. Hard to see unless you know where to look. It was the neighbors tree and he had it cut down soon after. I didn't say anything to him and I'm sure he didn't see it, but I guess he was wanting the tree gone anyway. I'm glad he did. But it was my fault all the way for driving so close to curb.

My first oops but not my only one.

[2gypsies1]

I am really, really impressed with the NICE answers you've received. Quite often on this forum you'd be called **** for doing it. Thanks for owning up to a mistake and the great help you received.

You're certainly not the only one that's happened to and it doesn't have to be a newbie. We were 5 years into full-timing and moving around constantly - so a lot of practice packing up, and it happened to us. I visually looked at the doors but didn't test that they were, indeed, latched shut. Ouch!

Carry on..... and have fun!

[wa8yxm]

Wood glue and toothpicks Then replace screws.

Bungee loops on door knobs or old hook & eye or bungee straps across the doors will keep them closed.

in one pair of cabinets due to the way they mount I took two common hinges,, Knocked the pins out .. Dremmeled the hinge parts slightly so they are loose (can move up and down a bit on the pins) and cotter key them when driving. Trust me those cabinets do not come open on the road.

[afishinado]

kickstart wrote:
When I need to fill a hole I use a wooden golf tee wooden golf tee, it's already tapered all you have to do is glue it in cut it off flush and screw the screw back in.

Many times. Used to fill rivet holes (drilled out)on a boats rub rail, works very well, much better than a toothpick.

[IndyCamp]

Yes, let your dealer know and let them fix it under warranty.

We were opening a slide on our second trip and one of our slides caught a cabinet door and ripped the entire cabinet out, including the outlet and wiring.

I dropped it back off at our dealer and the service manager wrote it up in a way that guaranteed Forest River would pay to fix it. I don't feel like I scammed them, because we checked all of the cabinet doors upon packing up, and the door in question had come loose during travel. There was no way to check those cabinets with the slides in, so we didn't know the door had come open and we opened the slides as usual.

Get to know your service folks. They can be very good to you.

[itguy08]

I've had good luck with just filling with Wood putty, putting the screw back in and let it harden around it.

[kickstart]

When I need to fill a hole I use a wooden golf tee, it's already tapered all you have to do is glue it in cut it off flush and screw the screw back in.

[DrewE]

I've had good luck repairing stripped-out cabinet hinge screw holes by drilling crosswise (from the edge of the cabinet door) and inserting a dowel, then redrilling and re-attaching. This has the possible advantage of driving the screws into the cross grain rather than the end grain, and if the holes are lined up conveniently it's possible to repair two at once with a single dowel.

I have not tried it, but the Veritas Plugger system looks quite promising and is clever and fairly reasonably priced. (It's basically a conical drill thingy that has the same angle as a normal hand-crank pencil sharpener produces. It comes with some pre-drilled dowels, technically pencils without the lead, for screw hole repairs.)

In either case, gluing the dowels in with ordinary woodworking glue is the preferred approach. I usually use Tightbond III, because it's what I keep on hand, but any wood glue will work nicely--even Elmer's glue is quite adequate. Tightbond III is particularly useful in some other applications because its joints are waterproof.

[RVcircus]

In addition to the other suggestions, I've also whittled down pencils, glued them in and flush cut them to fill holes. Just about any piece of wood that fits the hole will work.

[sac89]

SLJKansas, I like your suggestion, and that (so far) sounds to be fairly easy for a non-handyman. I'll give that a shot.

Yes, I have no doubt that this will indeed happen again

[ScottG]

Your sure not the first to do that. I've read of cabinet doors being torn off countless times and if I had one in the way I'm sure I'd have loosened its hinges by now too!

[sljkansas]

I would use a wood dowel the size of the screw hole needed. Drill the hole out the same depth as the screw would go in. put some white glue on the end of the dowel, then insert the dowel in the hole. use a saw or knife to cut the dowel flush with the cabinet door, then let the glue setup for a few minutes. Drill a starter hole in the dowel, Then reinstall the screw(s), this will give you a better fit than toothpicks.

[RoyF]

After the repair, try to secure any doors that might be damaged by a slide in the future. (I have had two cabinet doors damaged by slides.) I now use some mini-bungee cords (available at Walmart) to secure all cabinet doors that are adjacent to slides.

In my case, door handles are "side by side" (like French doors), so I can run a bungee cord through each pair of handles. If necessary, you might need to screw in something to put a bungee through.

If it happened once, it will happen again. Vibration during travel can cause a cabinet door to pop open.