Cabinet Hinges

We have a 2010 29RKSA. All of the cabinet doors above the dining table and sofa are coming loose. The hinge that is on the side of the piston are popping out of the holes and basically coming unhinged. The hinge pins can be pushed back into the pre-drilled holes but as soon as the door is closed and opened again, it pops back out.

It appears that there is not enough bite between the pre-drilled holes and the plastic insert that the hinge screws into??

Suggestions and fix greatly appreciated.
Dean

I'm not sure exactly what you are talking about but it sounds like a drop of GORILLA GLUE or = may solve the problem.

This past week while visiting Arches National Park I also spent 30 minutes with the Gorilla glue and a Q-tip re-attaching hinges on 4 cabinet doors in our 3010. Easy to do but it would be nice if the factory was aware of this issue and decided how to best eliminate this problem. Three of the four repairs were doors where the door pull is low and the door catch is high so the door flexes substantially when opening. I suspect I'll be needing more of this glue in the future... Hope this help!

I used the glue method, but have since just started replacing the screws with ones that are a little longer. On a couple of the doors, I had to use a c-clamp to force the hinge bushing into the holes as they apparently came from the factory incorrectly seated.

Hi Dean--We are having the exact same problem with our 2011 Elkridge 34TSRE 38', just 4 months old. We have 3 broken hinges now & are afraid to open any other overhead doors. Hubby says, " the holes have been drilled too large & cannot grab onto the plugs of the hinges". There has to be a logical solution to this ongoing problem. It would be nice if the factory of the doors & hinges could correct this problem. We really don't like using glue, but if there is no other choice, I guess we will have to.
Thanks so much for your input.
Bob & Sharon

I have had to glue three of ours so far and our Greystone is not quite a year old. It really is a factory problem and should have been corrected by Heartland.

There is a thread about this and how to do the repair. If under warranty, your dealer can do the repair. Try typing in "cabinet's" in the search box on the Portal page.

In our 2011 Sundance I had one hinge pull the inserts out, tried to glue it back in, no luck. Fix for good: hole for plastic insert is 5/16" and too loose for a 5/16" dowel, got a 3/8" Oak dowel, cut off a short piece, chucked it in my 1/2" drill and sanded down the piece to where it is just larger than the hole in the cabinet door. Make two for each hinge use gorilla glue and drive them in the holes until bottomed, wait for glue to dry, cut off excess dowel and sand down flush, pre-drill the center of the dowel with a small drill and re-install hinge with new screws that will not go all the way through the cabinet door. Make sure the screws are not too long. Problem solved.

I have had my 2011 Elkridge in the shop twice for the the cabinet hinges - feels like I am starting on the second time for some of them. Makes you afraid to open the cabinets. My nearest "authorized service center" is over 90 miles away - so not a very simple fix.

I have had every cabinet hinge pop off on my 29RKSA. Used gorilla glue on the plastic inserts with a q-tip and then press them back in, wait 30 minutes then reinsert screws and no further problems. Did this about 5 months ago.

We have a four month old 2011 27RLSS and have had the exact same issue with four of the cabinet doors as well. So far I have just reseated them, but he gorilla glue sounds like a good fix.

Had every one of my cabinet doors on my 29RKSA do the same. The gorilla glue is the way I fixed all of mine and no more problems since last summer. With so many complaints you would think the factory would change the hinges.

We have a 2011 Elkridge, and have the same problem. It is now a year old, and I'm sure the ones that didn't break before will break this year. Our dealer did fix the ones broken, but as we all know they don't break when we are 10 miles from the dealer. I really wish Hartland would step up and send out a recall to fix them all. This is my biggest issues with our rig.

This has been addressed several times but if you have the problem that won't matter it still needs fixed. I've been a wood worker many years. While there are several ways to fix the problem the simplest but still effective way is to fill the existing holes with wooden match sticks or toothpicks coated with yellow wood glue (Titebond). When that dries it will be stronger than the original wood. You can also soak the wood with titebond thin superglue. That stuff will soak into the wood and make it quite strong. Then add your wood pieces with the titebond glue. Longer screws would work but there's always the danger in going through the door and you still haven't addressed the issue of the weak wood. Also always use screws with wide spaced threads when dealing with soft woods. You are all correct HL should be addressing this at the build stage. I think the problem is the fact that there's a lot of force on the corners of the door with the lift piston and the soft wood can't handle those forces. It's OK with regular hinges but not with the pistons.
TeJay

garydb said:

I have had my 2011 Elkridge in the shop twice for the the cabinet hinges - feels like I am starting on the second time for some of them. Makes you afraid to open the cabinets. My nearest "authorized service center" is over 90 miles away - so not a very simple fix.

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A final reply - my local RV repair guy - certainly not my "authorized Heartland service center" discovered that the tension adjustment on the hinges was to strong and with a bit of adjustment stopped the problem.

We have a NT with the same type hinges. I found superglue worked great. A few drops on the insert, shove it back in, and they have held for 2 yrs now. Takes a few mins to do one. Easier than hitching up and driving to the dealer.

We have a 2012 Bighorn and had the same problem with the cabinet doors that pull or swing up. The plastic insert that would hold the hinge in place pull out. I used Gorilla Glue and it worked. I haven't had a problem since the first repair. Didn't know their was a tension screw but will have to check that out.

Found this thread that started 2 years ago. Felt it should be started again. We just checked our struts and there is no adjustment screw.