Rear Kitchen Questions

I just bought a 29RKS and did a lot of research on rear kitchens before I bought one. Almost everyone I had spoke to in other forums never had any problems with the cabinet doors coming open in transit and their stuff falling out. In just the short trip from my home to the storage lot, on nice paved roads, opened it up and all my dishes from above the rear counter were on the floor and all the drawers were slid open. The cabinets were tight to a point where they were rubbing in the middle. I offered the wife to buy the child proofing type locks to keep them closed but she says this is a new camper and it should have been designed to prevent this from happening. In y'alls opinion, should these come open like this or should I have to buy the kits to keep them closed?

Chris, in answer to your question "should these come open like this" I don't think they should but they certainly could and do. The rear of the coach seems to have the most up, down movement when traveling. The latches on the cabinets are somewhat adjustable. You can loosen the screws and adjust the female part in or out and you can pry the center of the male part with a screwdriver to open it up a little so that it has a tighter latch. I think that if you do a little reading you will find that it is not recomended to put heavy items in overhead cabinets. However, we do keep our dishes in the overheads but always secure the cabinet doors with pony tail rubber bands. You still have to be carefull no matter what you do, because after travel sometimes things will jump out at you when you open a cabinet door. Just ask my wife.
Peace
Dave

I have used the Child proof Locks to hold closed the doors in our last fifth wheel. My DW... has a passion for reading... some of her favorite books are hard back and somewhat thick. She stored those above the chairs in the rear of our RV. There were times When I found a few on the floor... there were time when I found them all on the floor. The Child proof magnetic locks worked well to solve that problem.

I've not needed to use those on our BigHorn. We too use the small elastic bands for girls hair... wrap those around every place we have 2 cabinet handles next to each other.

The one place we did have a problem... was mostly our fault. The cabinet above the sink/stove area is where we store our cooking items. On occasion driving along the coast of Maine... Sunday move day... we discovered a bottle of pancake syrup launched it self out of the upper cabinet... of course it decided to open it self and leak a very sweet & sticky puddle of syrup between the dinette table and the couch. Thank goodness the grocery stores rent the carpet cleaners... after several tank full of cleaner I got the sticky syrup out of the carpet. We now are extra careful to pack carefully the contents of that cabinet...

Hey Chris I have a 29 rk sundance we dont have much trouble with them coming open. Sometimes we will get a drawer to come open but over all we dont have a problem. The only time we do is when we get in to a really rough or bouncy road and i do know that speed effects it more than anything but i dont tow to fast so hope that helps you some.

Chris, You didnt say if this was your 1st RV. In 35 years of RVing in every type of RV, you will have doors and drawers open while moving. The ones in your home don't because it isn't moving down a road. Never put heavy things in high storage area's. Buy lite weight plastic everything, dish's,etc-etc. Never any glass items. Adjust the latches and get the ponytail bands. My 2cts. Bob

This isn't my first, it's my second. I had a Keystone Outback 29RSDS that I never had a problem with doors/drawers coming open with. It's just going to take some getting used to I guess. I'm going to adjust them and then move some things. I'm going to steal some of my daughters ponytail holders then to use also.

Chris, those ball bungee things work well on the cabinets doors too. Lining up the cabinet spring latches will help too but we use ball bungees around the doors that are near the slide outs for obvious reasons.

I used the over head above the rear recliners for book storage and I quickly learned that was not going to work very well, as books slide from side to side even with a 30 or 40 pound book end. But the doors never opened and nothing fell.

DW uses strong rubber bands,(What are pony tail rubber bands?) and it keeps the cabinets shut. Probably to keep me from rummaging for food late at night as well as when we are traveling. Now until her wrist heals from surgery, she will have to do it one handed. LOL

Rear Kitchens

Our last rig was an Okanagan 29.5Q with a rear kitchen. We soon found out that the back of the rig had much more vibration and up and down movement. This tended to rattle the dishes and pots around and occasionally open cupboard doors. My wife found ways to minimize movement such as putting cushions in cupboards where things might move around. Friends of ours who had a similar unit said that if they kept the water tank, which was located over the axles, full, it helped prevent rear end vibration.

Our current BH is a center kitchen and we haven't had too many problems with cupboards coming open while travelling. No matter what kind of rig, it can happen.

Take a strip of velcro and attach it to the back of the cabinet door so it is along the edge. That is how we keep ours closed. It also works on drawers including the closet door. Velcro is a wonderful product.