Had an accident with my new camper yesterday, I removed the door when i put the slide out.

[marknewbill]

I had an accident yesterday. I checked all the doors and brought in the slide. all was normal. drove the camper home. when I got home I put the slide out. When the slide is in, the door in question is completely covered by the slide. my slide is within 2 inches of the cabinets at the rear of the camper, a door came open during travel, and since you cant see in that area, I just smashed it with the slide when I put the slide out. see picture.

As an engineer I am tempted to say, shouldn't a switch be in those doors if they open that the slide wont run? anyway I take full responsibility but again it was disappointing.
It is not much damage, the door was not broken, just the hinges. I stopped when I heard the lantern glass smash that fell out of said cabinet. I will try the child locks, but I am afraid those will still let the door be open enough to catch. I appreciate any suggestions.

 

[jbeletti]

Sorry this happened to you. Many of us that have been RVing a long time have similar (and worse) stories involving a slide room catching something.

Consider using one of these on that cabinet and maybe other vulnerable ones.

 

[JohnDar]

I once broke a mirrored cabinet door in the bedroom while retracting the bed slide during a maintenance visit at the storage yard. Snapped one of the stiles clean off but didn't break the mirror or rest of the frame. I, too, heard what sounded like a gunshot when it snapped. I was able to fully repair it so you couldn't see where it broke.

We did have some cabinet doors that would open while in transit, however, but never broke one. The remedy was to use the elastic hair bands wrapped around the knobs of adjacent doors to prevent them from opening. If they did come ajar, the bands pulled them back in close. For doors that were singles, I attached small wooden knobs to the frame near the door knob to wrap the band around. Rubber bands will work, but tend to snap too easily after a while. The hair bands were also great for securing our Levolor vertical blinds, pulled open, in bunches while traveling, too.

 

[marknewbill]

Sorry this happened to you. Many of us that have been RVing a long time have similar (and worse) stories involving a slide room catching something.

Consider using one of these on that cabinet and maybe other vulnerable ones.
View attachment 65232

thanks guys. i ordered some of those latches and will keep in mind the tie down idea also.

 

[MTPockets]

No damage, but we had a drawer under the oven that kept coming out. Fixed that with a short strap and snap. Sorry you had damage.

 

[RoadJunkie]

We have not had this issue and I attribute that "luck" to assuring all doors are secured prior to opening any slide. I use a flashlight and even feel under the end of the mattress to assure the drawer has not opened during travel. We also never store anything that can slide out and block the slide from freely opening.

 

[Gary521]

I had an accident yesterday. I checked all the doors and brought in the slide. all was normal. drove the camper home. when I got home I put the slide out. When the slide is in, the door in question is completely covered by the slide. my slide is within 2 inches of the cabinets at the rear of the camper, a door came open during travel, and since you cant see in that area, I just smashed it with the slide when I put the slide out. see picture.

As an engineer I am tempted to say, shouldn't a switch be in those doors if they open that the slide wont run? anyway I take full responsibility but again it was disappointing.
It is not much damage, the door was not broken, just the hinges. I stopped when I heard the lantern glass smash that fell out of said cabinet. I will try the child locks, but I am afraid those will still let the door be open enough to catch. I appreciate any suggestions.

Being an engineer, you should be aware of the Peter Principal. This is really true for RV's. If a door can come open. it will. If a drawer can slide open, it will. Develop a plan to secure everything before hitting the road. For doors, we secure them with small bungee cords. There are other methods. Time to engineer something.

 

[Chippendale]

Welcome to the club. On the shake down trip with my new Gateway 3300ML rear kitchen, the first time I opened the living room slide that had one of the kitchen lower cabinets in it, I heard that dreaded crunching noise and discovered the lower cabinet drawer had come open in travel. It was completely destroyed on the first trip. One of many lessons learned, check everything. I have learned a lot over the years but unfortunately, am still learning.

 

[carl.swoyer]

I once broke a mirrored cabinet door in the bedroom while retracting the bed slide during a maintenance visit at the storage yard. Snapped one of the stiles clean off but didn't break the mirror or rest of the frame. I, too, heard what sounded like a gunshot when it snapped. I was able to fully repair it so you couldn't see where it broke.

We did have some cabinet doors that would open while in transit, however, but never broke one. The remedy was to use the elastic hair bands wrapped around the knobs of adjacent doors to prevent them from opening. If they did come ajar, the bands pulled them back in close. For doors that were singles, I attached small wooden knobs to the frame near the door knob to wrap the band around. Rubber bands will work, but tend to snap too easily after a while. The hair bands were also great for securing our Levolor vertical blinds, pulled open, in bunches while traveling, too.

Nice work!

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[marknewbill]

thanks guys. i ordered some of those latches and will keep in mind the tie down idea also.

I installed the high pressure latches on every cabinet near the slide. I also put child locks on the high up cabinets that may contain food and such irregular items that may move around. I hope this will prevent this from happening again, with of course a good dose of inspection after each drive. As a side note the factory latches were similar in pressure (for the good ones, but others maybe half the pressure. they were very inconsistent, as they were greatly affected by the installation. the new latches either work or not, so when they are installed and work, you know they will hold.)

 

[bbcheermom]

Had same accident with slide - let granddaughter push the button and the door had unlatched for the FIRST time EVER and of course broke the cabinet door. Where the heck do you buy replacement door?

 

[carl.swoyer]

I had an accident yesterday. I checked all the doors and brought in the slide. all was normal. drove the camper home. when I got home I put the slide out. When the slide is in, the door in question is completely covered by the slide. my slide is within 2 inches of the cabinets at the rear of the camper, a door came open during travel, and since you cant see in that area, I just smashed it with the slide when I put the slide out. see picture.

As an engineer I am tempted to say, shouldn't a switch be in those doors if they open that the slide wont run? anyway I take full responsibility but again it was disappointing.
It is not much damage, the door was not broken, just the hinges. I stopped when I heard the lantern glass smash that fell out of said cabinet. I will try the child locks, but I am afraid those will still let the door be open enough to catch. I appreciate any suggestions.

Looks like the hinges are flush mount ? Push some tooth picks in the holes touch up with a little stain then reinstall.

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[southernlady5464]

The other option is just run your hand in to close it. We cracked the facia between that set of doors on our Landmark and the kitchen slide. When we ordered our replacement with our vin # apparently the wood shop supplying those used a similar profile but one that was a good 6 inches too short. We had the repair shop use the bottom of the old to kinda match up with the rest, that’s why we know the profile wasn’t an exact match. But honestly I don’t even notice it anymore. But I still check.

 

[TXgearhead]

I've got bungee cords with the 1" diameter plastic balls on about all my cabinets. If 2 pulls are close enough to each other I bungee them together. Also use them on the wire shelves in the pantry. I'm looking to replace all the latches. Maybe with magnet style.
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