Loose cabinet hinges - Montana Owners Club

dcowie · 06-05-2006, 11:55 PM

Has any come up with a solution to tightening the screws on cabinet door hinges?
The screws in most hinges just keep turning.

Doug

stiles watson · 06-06-2006, 12:25 AM

One way to deal with the stripped threads is to remove the screw and fill the hole with the fat part of round tooth picks and wood glue. After it dries, cut off the excess and replace the screw bringing it just tight, but do not over tighten. Drilling an undersized starter hole in the repaired area might be helpful. It's and old carpenter's trick and there are others.

steves · 06-06-2006, 01:35 AM

I went to the hardware store and bought a slightly larger screw and replaced the ones that were stripped.

OntMont · 06-06-2006, 02:30 AM

We had a few loose screws, (I think they get overtorqued during assembly). My fix was to drill out the holes, and use those plastic plugs that you can buy at hardware stores. Stiles fix is also good. I also considered drilling them out and gluing in a short piece of hardwood dowel. So far, the plasitc plugs are working well and they are quick and easy to use.

mike johnson · 06-06-2006, 03:14 AM

hello,after getting back from a 3400 mile trip to arizona,there were probably 20 loose screws on our cabinets,i was pretty surprized.a couple of the doors were actually falling off the hinges.we went to ace hardware and just bought bigger screws,it seemed to work.how montana expected those 3/8 inch screws to hold those solid doors is beyond me.for such a well made unit they do some pretty stupid things when they put it together, well good luck.

richfaa · 06-06-2006, 03:34 AM

Strangely enough those little screws are called "hinge screws" Went to Home depot to get some hinge screws and that is what was in the package.. The problem is the quality of the wood the screws are screwed into. A lot of our hinge screws were over torqued and one cabinet door fell off our new 3400. I used the" screw and glue" method as described by Stiles and many others. My guess is that eventually all of them will need that treatment (154 I think). The solution would be solid wood cabinets , more weight and greater cost.Check for loose hinge screws should be added to the PDI listing.

Trailer Trash 2 · 06-06-2006, 05:01 AM

I did mine differently than all of you guys.
If you notice the construction of the face frames are the new type construction, they dont use dowles any more the use the Kreg fastining system in doing this it removes wood in the same area where the screws for the hinges go, and being MDF wood with a photographed wood grain there is not enugh wood there for the hinge screw to grab. I did mine differently and it works realy good for me anyway.
I went and purchased a pack of 8/32 x 1 1/4" brass phillips machine screws, nuts, and fender washers, 3/16 hole for the inside to give the bolt support when tighting the nut to prevent it from colapsing into the Kreg hole. I remove 1 screw at a time and drill through the face frame and incert the new screw set up, tighten the nut and bolt then do the other screw, this way you dont loose the alignment of the doors margarine with the other, also if the door is crooked now is the time to do your adjusting then drill that hole and repeat the process. the doors that I found to give the most problems are the long ones they are heavier and with all the bouncing when in motion they do put a lot of strain on the hinge screws. I can get some pictures but right now the RV is in the storage lot so they will have to wait for a while, if you are interested I'll make a special trip and post the modification in a day or two.

TT2

OK here are the pictures of what I was doing, the first jpeg is showing the out side appearance of the screw head and it looks like the original.
the next shows the inside of the frame with one hole and how it affects the amount of wood on the lower hinge screw and showing the retro fit with the fender washer.
last shows the face frame where it is mounted to the other face frame notice how much wood is missing in this application also the fender washer has to be cut on one side to be able to be mounted properly. I could have used smaller screws but I ordered the wrong length, I could have cut them if I wanted to but I was in a hurry if you know what I mean and nobody is going to see them anyway, even if they opened the cabinet they 9 times out of 10 would think it came from the factory that way and that had to be good.

TT2

Montana Sky · 06-06-2006, 05:49 AM

I took my coach back to the dealership to have them fix it. The shop checked or fixed each and every screw they could find (and they found more than I did). Have not had any trouble since.

richfaa · 06-06-2006, 08:03 AM

TT2..now that is a super fix and I think that you or someone else posted that before.I am way to lazy to do all of that.I choose to wait till a cabinet door falls off..curse Keystone and Montana then attempt to do the least labor intensiver fix I can come up with..

mfoss · 06-06-2006, 12:11 PM

There's a product just for this problem. It's called Titen For Screws. It comes in a small tube. You just squirt some into the hole and replace the screw. I've used this around the house many times when I've accidently stripped the screw. Works great! I think I got it at True Value.

Trailer Trash 2 · 06-06-2006, 12:48 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by richfaa

TT2..now that is a super fix and I think that you or someone else posted that before.I am way to lazy to do all of that.I choose to wait till a cabinet door falls off..curse Keystone and Montana then attempt to do the least labor intensiver fix I can come up with..

Yes to that I did post it once before, but I dont know how to get it, somebody else had this problem and I made this same sugestion. OH well I'll get some pictures Thursday at the storage lot and post them for all to look at if they want to. and nothing out there sayes that you have to do all of them just the ones that brake and before you know it there all done.

dcowie · 06-07-2006, 12:26 AM

Between the hinge screws and the doors poping open while in transit, I would think Keystone would come up with some better solutions. I got solutions to the doors poping on here as well.
Some good ideas on fixing the hinges. TT2 solution sounds like a permanent solution and doing at least one screw on all the doors sounds like it would lend some support to each of the doors.
Thanks all.

Doug

richfaa · 06-07-2006, 03:23 AM

We use velcro tie wraps to keep the doors from opening in transit.That is a problem in any camper..as for the hinge screws don't know who's problem that is Keystone or the vendor but one of them should come up wiuth a fix.

Silverbird · 06-07-2006, 03:43 AM

On the 06 2955RL the big drawer under the refrig where I store kettles opens. We installed 2 more clasps on the drawer (like the one already there) - so far it has stayed shut

Wrenchtraveller · 06-07-2006, 06:09 AM

That big drawer under the fridge is full of heavy pots and pans in our Monty. The clasps are just not designed to hold that weight back so Parrothead gave me the idea to use a child proof drawer lock and this works terrific and we are now used to pulling the drawer open a bit and pushing doen on the lock to open it it up. This drawer only opens on rough roads and now it can only open one inch. So far no problems with the hinge screws but if I do I will use some of the excellent ideas posted earlier. I believe the biggest reason the screws are stripped is over torquing by electric guns which have to be used in production. For my own repairs I do the final tighten by hand.

sreigle · 06-07-2006, 02:01 PM

We recently got our first two loose hinges because of loose screws. I didn't have any round toothpicks around so used our flat ones. I just broke several off inside there and put the screws back in. It's been about a month and they're still holding. This is on the little tray drawer below the kitchen sink. It gets used every day.

On the latches, they hold much better if you make sure the male part is perfectly centered in the female part so both springs are holding it. Enough weight and even that won't do it but that takes care of it for nearly all of our drawers and doors.

DCP · 06-07-2006, 03:18 PM

I have used the toothpick method for years and it works great. Make sure you let the glue dry!

ols1932 · 06-08-2006, 01:19 PM

We must be the lucky ones. Have only had to retighten a few cabinet hinge screws in the 6+ years we have had our rig. None of the screws have stripped out. But if they did, I would use the round toothpick & glue method. Had to do that in our stick house.

Orv

Searchers · 06-08-2006, 02:03 PM

I've never had an issue with loose cabinet hinge screws, but have had a couple of the cabinet door frames spread apart at the joints. They weren't glued originally but are now.

dsprik · 06-08-2006, 05:01 PM

Orv & Don,

When your Montanas (1999, 2000) came out of the plant, I'd be willing to bet that they weren't pumping 22 units a day through those doors either, do you think? Could be the difference...

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