Drawers in a Travel Trailer

[Alabama_Jim]

What are your reccomedations for securing drawers while in route. They alwasy slide out and velcro does not hold them.

[Terryallan]

pasusan wrote:

Terryallan wrote:

3oaks wrote:

Terryallan wrote:
camper drawers are built to stay shut. In 30 years of towing campers. I have yet to have a drawer, OR cabinet door open.

Apparently you haven't driven on the roads in PA too much.

I have driven in PA, not a camper though, and I have towed campers down washboard dirt roads, and pot hole filled back roads, I have turned corners, and had the TT leaning to a somewhat scary angle. Still haven't had a drawer, or cabinet open.

However all the campers we have had. Had drawers that you actually had to work at opening. they have little lips on the front, and you have to pick the drawer up, and over to open it. Are not all RV drawers made that way? If not. Y'all got ripped off. If you get these drawers shut, they will not open accidentally. So I 'm wondering. asking of no one in particular. Could it be operator error. Cause If we don't get ours shut all the way, If they don't drop into the catch. they open easily. We check them before we head out.

No. Ours are that way and we don't have any problems. But - lots of RV drawers are not made that way. 🙂

I guess they are just standard on the "Entry Level" campers. :B Not having them would be a deal breaker.

[Terryallan]

pasusan wrote:

Terryallan wrote:

3oaks wrote:

Terryallan wrote:
camper drawers are built to stay shut. In 30 years of towing campers. I have yet to have a drawer, OR cabinet door open.

Apparently you haven't driven on the roads in PA too much.

I have driven in PA, not a camper though, and I have towed campers down washboard dirt roads, and pot hole filled back roads, I have turned corners, and had the TT leaning to a somewhat scary angle. Still haven't had a drawer, or cabinet open.

However all the campers we have had. Had drawers that you actually had to work at opening. they have little lips on the front, and you have to pick the drawer up, and over to open it. Are not all RV drawers made that way? If not. Y'all got ripped off. If you get these drawers shut, they will not open accidentally. So I 'm wondering. asking of no one in particular. Could it be operator error. Cause If we don't get ours shut all the way, If they don't drop into the catch. they open easily. We check them before we head out.

No. Ours are that way and we don't have any problems. But - lots of RV drawers are not made that way. 🙂

I guess they are just standard on the "Entry Level" campers. Not having them would be a deal breaker.

[pasusan]

Terryallan wrote:

3oaks wrote:

Terryallan wrote:
camper drawers are built to stay shut. In 30 years of towing campers. I have yet to have a drawer, OR cabinet door open.

Apparently you haven't driven on the roads in PA too much.

I have driven in PA, not a camper though, and I have towed campers down washboard dirt roads, and pot hole filled back roads, I have turned corners, and had the TT leaning to a somewhat scary angle. Still haven't had a drawer, or cabinet open.

However all the campers we have had. Had drawers that you actually had to work at opening. they have little lips on the front, and you have to pick the drawer up, and over to open it. Are not all RV drawers made that way? If not. Y'all got ripped off. If you get these drawers shut, they will not open accidentally. So I 'm wondering. asking of no one in particular. Could it be operator error. Cause If we don't get ours shut all the way, If they don't drop into the catch. they open easily. We check them before we head out.

No. Ours are that way and we don't have any problems. But - lots of RV drawers are not made that way. 🙂

[RollandB]

The KV8400RVs are great. Got tired of the "Small C" ends breaking and putting sticks through the handles. The tedious but not hard work was worth it.

[Terryallan]

3oaks wrote:

Terryallan wrote:
camper drawers are built to stay shut. In 30 years of towing campers. I have yet to have a drawer, OR cabinet door open.

Apparently you haven't driven on the roads in PA too much.

I have driven in PA, not a camper though, and I have towed campers down washboard dirt roads, and pot hole filled back roads, I have turned corners, and had the TT leaning to a somewhat scary angle. Still haven't had a drawer, or cabinet open.

However all the campers we have had. Had drawers that you actually had to work at opening. they have little lips on the front, and you have to pick the drawer up, and over to open it. Are not all RV drawers made that way? If not. Y'all got ripped off. If you get these drawers shut, they will not open accidentally. So I 'm wondering. asking of no one in particular. Could it be operator error. Cause If we don't get ours shut all the way, If they don't drop into the catch. they open easily. We check them before we head out.

[myredracer]

Old Duck wrote:
I saw a new trailer with the grab catches downtheroad posted. This past year I've replaced the 8 cheapy drawer slides in the kitchen with KV8400RV full extension slides and haven't been disappointed.

These things are awesome aren't they?

[RollandB]

I saw a new trailer with the grab catches downtheroad posted. This past year I've replaced the 8 cheapy drawer slides in the kitchen with KV8400RV full extension slides and haven't been disappointed.

[marcsbigfoot20b]

Strange, I drive 60-90 mph on pretty rough roads down in Mexico and have never had a drawer of any kind open.
On mine, the slide out drawers you have to lift up slightly to "unlock" them.

[3oaks]

rhagfo wrote:

RCMAN46 wrote:

donn0128 wrote:

newman fulltimer wrote:
Balancing the trailer tires will help a lot.

So will leveling the trailer

put shocks on the trailer

X3 to all, also slow down on rough roads!

Yes, we all know that helps but doesn't necessarily solve the problem in all RVs.

Poor quality of materials and construction, plus extremely deteriorated road conditions play a bigger part in drawers opening while on the move.

[3oaks]

Terryallan wrote:
camper drawers are built to stay shut. In 30 years of towing campers. I have yet to have a drawer, OR cabinet door open.

Apparently you haven't driven on the roads in PA too much.

[tenbear]

I use what Johno02 suggested in the 5th reply to your post. They come in various strengths. I made a drawer under the dinette seat and it came open on every left turn. I installed the 10 pound latch and it hasn't opened by itself since. The small drawers have the 5# latches.

[myredracer]

Some trailers are simply worse than others for drawers opening in transit. Just depends on a number of factors. We have a couple that are mounted in a left-right orientation that open once in a while. (Haven't dealt with them yet.) The ones in our rear kitchen facing fore-aft never open, but I would have expected them to over the left-right ones.

Other suggestions:

If you have the standard roller catches (as in photo), check to see that they are properly aligned. Just went through a friend's 1.5 yr old Keystone TT and every single roller catch was misaligned or bent. TERRIBLE factory workmanship. One had the pieces 1" apart and didn't work at all. Also make sure drawer slides are aligned and drawers aren't c*ck-eyed, esp. on wide drawers.

Adding a 2nd roller catch may be all that's needed. These things are really inexpensive and available everywhere including hardware stores.

For the ultimate solution, ditch the drawer slides that come standard in RVs and replace them with Nape & Vogt RV 8400 series stay-close slides. I've installed them and they are EXCELLENT. They work like a soft-close one in a house except to open, you have to give them a tug. You'll never have a drawer open again. Link: K&N RV drawer slides



ps: just noticed RV.net won't allow c*ck-eyed to be spelled out in full, even though it's a legit. word. :S

[MitchF150]

My drawers have notches on the bottom that hold the cabinet frame very nicely.

Seen this in TT's since the mid 60's..

I've never had a drawer open on me.

All you have to do is lift up on the drawer when you pull on it and it pulls right out. Close it all the way and it's locked in..

Mitch

[Jagtech]

I removed the tracks and cut a small notch in the fixed track on each side, which allows the roller to drop down about 1/4" when the drawer is fully closed. You just need to lift the front of the drawer abut 1/4" to be able to open it.