Cabinet Door Hinges Pull Out?

chilidog

Member
Hey Campers, I've got a question for you. My wife and I just purchased a 2011 BC 3500RL and we have had 2 of our interior cabinet doors pull from the hinges. Has anyone else had these issues? Has anyone found a solution? I'm thinking it may be that the gas struts are too strong for the hinges (it only seems to happen to the cabinets that open bottom to top held up by the strut). Any help would be appreciated :)
 

mrcomer

Past Ohio Chapter Leaders (Founding)
Sorry to hear this. There have been others with this same exact problem. Please contact your dealer to have them fixed and/or replaced. If you cannot get to your dealer then try contacting Heartland Customer Service. Their number should be on a white sticker in your cabinet or look on the portal page of this forum.

Good luck,
Mark
 

Cimriver

Well-known member
I have one cabinet on my Elkridge with this problem. I am taking it into the repair shop this weekend to be addressed.
 

SJH

Past Washington Chapter Leaders
Sorry to hear about that issue! Our 2011 does not have the struts on any of the cabinets. Sounds like that may be a good thing in this case.
 

jbusa2004

Member
My 2011 Cyclone 3612 cabinet doors have done the same thing, took it back to the dealer, they said they had it fixed, just got back from florida on vacation and spent one day fixing 4 doors, i found that you can glue the plastic inserts back in and I got a slightly larger screw to put back in the inserts. Not to mention i have had a blind fall off the wall because the screws were stripped in the wall, I am not a happy camper I am starting to think this camper is poorly made.
 

garydb

Member
Just got back from our first trip with my 2011 Elkridge and at least four of the cabinet doors pulled out of the hinges on the piston strut side. My wife is afraid to use the cabinets and very unhappy. Going to take it toa service center to see if it and several other problems can be fixed. Wonder what happened to the quality control at Heartland?
 

pegmikef

Well-known member
This is a pretty common problem across most of the models when the cabinet doors have the piston. Most are just gluing the inserts in and using a little larger screw (3/4 inch seems to work nicely). You might check all of your doors and make sure all the hinges are fully seated. A couple of mine were not. The hinge came out on the first one and I found the other one. Once I rescrewed them I haven't had a problem.
 

JudyT

Member
I have this problem with two cabinet doors on my 2011 3355RL. I will fix them as suggested above and see what happens.
 

murry135

New York Chapter Leaders - retired
We have just returned home form our 10 day campout with our 2012 Big Horn. The first night onsite my son pulled a cabinet door from its hinge and this was the second incident like this. I used the screw and glue method to repair the two cabinets that came apart and checked the remainders. Several were loose and needed tighting however I am not confident that my problem is over. The gas struts seem to be too strong and improperly placed for this application. I too am not happy with the Heartland product right now since over this past trip I had to call for a refer repair, found a cracked grill on my livingroom a/c unit which also is acting up by shutting down and restarting repeatively as it is cooling, Flair recliners falling appart, keyless entry not working by constantly discaharging batteries and tonight when we parked unit at home I found where the black water holding tank was already sagging and bulging out the bottom of the unit. What did I buy?
 

olcoon

Well-known member
We had this problem with ours at the rally. I talked to the service guys & was told to use some silicone caulk & that should hold it in. He said that probably what had happened was the hole for the insert had probably gotten rounded out. Well, I put some silicone caulk in, and let it set for about a day before reinstalling the door. Nice try, but it didn't work. Waited until we got home, and used some good wood glue. It's still holding. We are work camping in CO, and had another one do the same thing. Used the glue on it, and so far, they are both still working. I'm carring glue with me now, as we've got about 12 more doors that can fail.
 

Coyote

Member
I've found that a little Gorilla Glue around the insert works well and just putting the original screws back in. I've had three go out and another getting ready to pop.
 

blacklabbob

Member
My one week old BC 3650 RL had two pull out on the first opening. Superglued the insert back in with original screws. Will lay in a good glue supply as the others are likely to follow suit.
 

Westwind

Well-known member
Yes Gorilla Glue seems to be the answer. I had the 3 door hinge on the cabinets at the rear of the trailer pop out, glued the plastic inserts back in using Gorilla Glue and it seemed to solve the problem, I then ended up having to do the cabinet door in the bedroom also. I think the cabinet maker needs to take a look at the diameter of the holes that are being drilled for the plastic inserts that the hinge is attached to.
 

donr827

Well-known member
Four of mine had the same problem. I also used the Gorilla glue and clamps. Used the same screws. No problem since using the glue. A easy do it yourself fix and only takes a few minutes.
Don
 

sengli

Well-known member
We had the same issue with our 2011 elkridge, and the gorilla glue is the fix. The issue is the piston they use to pre-load the hinge is too much pressure. We just bought a 2013 big horn and the same issue popped up on the first day of use. So I glued the plastic inserts and removed the piston, so no preload anymore. Installed push pin locks instead to hold doors closed.
 

TeJay

Well-known member
Toothpicks or round wooden matchsticks placed into the striped hole then either put Tite-Bond wood glue (but it needs to dry for about 12 hours before you put the screws back in) or soak the hole and sticks with super glue. I've used both methods and it always works. I always shy away from using bigger screws without doing something to reinforce the wood where the screw goes into. The super-glue method I think works best because it will soak way back into the wood and reinforce the area.

TeJay
 

ncc1701e

Well-known member
I have been using this on the hinges as they pull out. I believe at this point I've done nearly all the overheads in our Sundance.

Loctite.jpg
 

TeJay

Well-known member
I'm always up for learning what might be better. I've never heard of Power Grab. Is it a silicone or what??? I'll try and find it at the local stores. With the super-glue there is no wait time. I just fill in the stripped screw area then soak the wood with the glue and it penetrates and hardens like a rock.

TeJay
 
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