Closet Rod

We just drove our new 2009 3600RE home to WI from AR, about a 600 mile trip. We did hit some pretty rough road in WI on I-39-90 near Milton. After we got all set up at hoem the wife opened the main closet door and said "oh my God". All our clothes were on the floor and the rod was bent at about a 60 deg. angle and both ends were out of the holders. One support bracket from the shelf was somewhere in the clothes pile and the other was hanging by one screw. I have since replace the rod and the brackets adding longer screws. I hope the longer screws solve the problem, but was hoping someone would have an idea of what I could do additionally to make sure this doesn't happen again. I was thinking on getting one of those adjustable shower rods and supporting the middle of the closet rod with it to the floor. Maybe drilling a hole thru one end and putting a wire tie thru it to attach it to the closet rod. By the design of the closet rod intallation I'm sure this has happened to someone else. I know this was a problem when the Big Horns first came out but thought they would surely have it solved by now.

Welcome to the club of closet rod failures. Our rod didn't bend though. When I remounted the rod hangers, I had to make sure the hangers were centered on the "stud" in the closet shelf and I drilled all the way through the shelf/stud and used longer bolts with fender washers on top to secure the hangers. The rod was OK so I just reused it. I have not had any problems since. I guess this is one thing we all forgot to bring up at the factory round table?

I bought a adjustable Steel Closet Rod from one of the Home Building Centers. I bolted it to the above shelf using 2 long Eye Bolts, fender washers and nuts on top and bottom of the shelf.

The Rod was long enough to go from side to side... with wall contact on each end which I attached it to the walls using the attachments that came with the rod.

Here are a few photos of what I did. You can see where the old rod was attached to the left side... and the scar left when it too fell to the floor of the closet.

Good Luck !

Mine collapsed on the way to Omaha after last years ralley in Branson. I rehung the rod, then predrilled and drove long brass screws through the oak fascia board on the top shelf. I also took a 2x2 cut to length and centered in right behind the center support for the rod, and attached it with long brass screws drilled straight down through the shelf into the end of the 2x2. I sanded and stained the 2x2 to match the shelf and have not had a problem since.

I haven't had the bending problem with campers but have had similiar problems from many years working with horses and horseshows. I learned to spread clothes out evenly across the rod with the heavier stuff (coats, etc) closest to the strongest support which is usually the end supports. That is how I load our BC now. Now that's not saying that Heartland might be having a quality issue at the factory but I've learned the hard way at horse shows having to ride in dirty riding coats and having one judge tell me that I would have been in the ribbons if I hadn't looked like I just came from the fields. Lesson well learned!!!

I also used an adjustable steel rod that SmokeyBare referred to in his post above.

However, I used the rod as a verticle support for the closet rod that came with the trailer. I simply placed the support at the midpoint of the closet rod, screwed the bottom end of the rod into the floor of the closet and attached the top end of the rod to the existing closet rod bracket.

DH took a 2x4 board, cut it to length needed to stand vertically under the center of the rod, cut a V-notch in the top, inserted the support board and no more fallen rod problems. Note: We continue to use the vertical board although we had no mishap in our Augusta. We had the problem in our '06 BH 3400RL. We use the board now simply as a precaution. We no longer have the number of clothes we had in the BH. Just wanted to clear that up.

CJ

Don,

Sorry this has happened to you. While no consolation, you are in good company as it's happened to many of us. Happened to me on my 2005 LM. But in going on 2 years now, all is well with my current LM. So I think Heartland has gotten this right more often than not, but sounds like there is room for improvement.

Take a look at this thread from 2005 to see a lot of different fixes. My fix is described in post #1 of that thread. In a nutshell, I purchased, cut to length and installed a heavy walled chrome clothes rod. No worries thereafter.

Jim

I did use the same replacement rod as SmokeyBare. I think I'll add two or three eyebolts too. That's a great idea. We're not moving the fifthwheel now until Oct. when we start heading to south Texas. So, got plenty of time.

On my Landmark, I cut the metal rod and added a center support with wire rack support rod.


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Those are not rods in the closet for hanging clothes on, they are strictly for hanging mens ties. I've found you can a whole lot of ties on the rod.