Cabinet door knobs - weird problem

SueJean

Active Member
I was thinking about starting a thread about interesting problems/dilemmas that have happened to people while traveling. I'm sure this problem falls into some category called "Weird problems". The solution that I'm looking at is to replace all of the cabinet knobs with single piece knobs instead of the two part thingies we have now, but let me tell you what actually happened due to the knobs on our cabinet doors.

We first became aware of the annoying habit some of our knobs have of coming apart in our hands when we're trying to open a stubborn cabinet door. We have two critical knobs in particular that we have to be mindful of in the kitchen and living room area. The knobs have a stem that attaches to the cabinet door and then a cover/cap that makes them beautiful. Their connection seems to be little more than a "squeeze play" between them. The majority of our knobs are stable and never come apart.

However, one knob on the one of the two large mirrored doors over the power stuff always comes off in our hands unless we're careful to grab it as close to the stem as possible. We've learned to open that door by opening the left door and using the edge of the right door to pull it open. Adaptation is good. :p

The other knobs that come apart are on the bookshelves over the back window. There are two that come apart regularly as DannyLee has had to deal with the books constantly falling off of the shelves during our US tour. (We're trying to work out a seatbelt solution for this problem. No success so far. Easier to get rid of books! ;))

One of them got tossed into a drawer never to be seen again one day. The other was waiting for just the right moment to become a major problem. We think this happened somewhere near Rawlings, WY. It was not a good day for us. We had pulled into a park and were in the process of setting up.

Now we've learned about the sneakiness of sliders that like to mash bananas beyond recognition and we've had books that have fallen and gotten into the slider's path so we now know to check all such things before opening or closing sliders. We thought we knew all about such things, but this one caught us totally by surprise.

As I was opening the slider on the left side, I heard a strange crunch. :eek: I immediately stopped and started a thorough investigation to determine what had gone wrong. I couldn't see a thing wrong and nothing seemed out of place. We tried a little more movement - more crunching. We tried grumbling and growling at each other for a bit as to what was wrong, but nothing was evident. :D

Finally, with the help of a flashlight and by mashing my face into the carpet, I was able to see that one of the stupid knob caps had managed to get into the slide pathway and was jammed there. :confused: We were clueless in that moment as to what to do with this situation. We had one slider out, one half out and one starting to go out and.............

In the end, by using an off-set wrench and a long screwdriver, DannyLee managed to pop the thing out and nothing, not even the knob cap was damaged and DannyLee had saved the day. We added counting cabinet knobs to our checklist of "things to do before moving sliders". Hmm......:cool:
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
SueJean, Interesting post! What I'm wondering is, what trailer you have. We don't have any knobs that are 2-piece in design. Maybe you could post a picture? You might consider replacing them 2-piece knobs with a standard knob that has a screw through the back of the door into the knob.
 
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JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
We've not experienced that either with the BH, or the TT we had before. The knobs were one piece, with a threaded hole for the mounting screw. Now, in our S&B, we used to have plastic knobs with a threaded insert glued into the stem. Those started coming apart, similar to yours, so we replaced them with a better quality knob.
 

Dragoon

Active Member
We've had the same problem. The knobs are molded onto the stem and do NOT take much pressure to pull off at times. They even get to a point that they spin, while the stem is stationary. Ours is a BigHorn 2008 3400RL
 

SueJean

Active Member
???

We have the same 2008 Big Horn 3400RL as Dragoon it seems. I don't know a whole lot about the various layouts/models. We walked into this one, fell in love and walked out with it.

I found the info in the FAQ's on how to load/downsize photos so I'm working on this . :eek: Here's my first picture attempt.

There's not much help for this matter other than to replace the knobs. The biggest drawback to that is to have quality knobs that match throughout, we'd have to replace 35 of them and that would be a bit costly as well as the problem of finding a source for them. I like the color/finish on these knobs. I'm wondering whether or not it would be worthwhile to try to somehow glue them together. There's no real need to have them come apart. The mounting screw is accessible on the inside of the cabinet door like any other kind of knob.

This problem could just be a small annoyance except for this one knob's adventure of managing to wedge itself under the slider. Then it becomes something else entirely. :(

Some things are just funny until they're not! :cool:
 

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tweber

Founding Wisconsin Chapter Leader-Retired
SueJean, have you called Heartland service and talked to the rep for your area? They may have a creative solution to the situation. It may be worth dropping the dime and spending the time talking to one of Jim Fenner's highly skilled crew members. Best of luck.
 

Dragoon

Active Member
We have the same 2008 Big Horn 3400RL as Dragoon it seems. I don't know a whole lot about the various layouts/models. We walked into this one, fell in love and walked out with it.

I found the info in the FAQ's on how to load/downsize photos so I'm working on this . :eek: Here's my first picture attempt.

There's not much help for this matter other than to replace the knobs. The biggest drawback to that is to have quality knobs that match throughout, we'd have to replace 35 of them and that would be a bit costly as well as the problem of finding a source for them. I like the color/finish on these knobs. I'm wondering whether or not it would be worthwhile to try to somehow glue them together. There's no real need to have them come apart. The mounting screw is accessible on the inside of the cabinet door like any other kind of knob.

This problem could just be a small annoyance except for this one knob's adventure of managing to wedge itself under the slider. Then it becomes something else entirely. :(

Some things are just funny until they're not! :cool:

We haven't had one fall off and get in any areas to damage anything, yet... Usually just pulls off the stem as we try to open a door. Have moved two of the culprits to doors we don't use much. Of course, we'll run out of doors eventually. Have also thought of buying new ones, but gets pricey when there are so many needed. We didn't bother factory with this, out of warranty. However, I will say, the factory has come through with some things we didn't think they would, so sure cannot fault them, and won't.. These units aren't top of the line, but the factory tries to put them in that category.

Bottom line, you may want to check with them as mentioned above. Good luck. We'll be interested in your outcome. Maybe they have a few laying around :D.
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
You could get some clear two-part epoxy, lay out all of your dismembered knobs, mix up a small batch and epoxy the inserts back into the stems. Even J-B Weld would work, just don't smear it all over, and wipe off the excess before it sets.
 

wdk450

Well-known member
Super Glue Gell?

I haven't seen the knob assembly close up (I couldn't get the picture to enlarge), but a GOOD quality super glue gell seems like it would be a good, quick fix.
 
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