Cabinet Doors and Slide Outs

[Sweetfire]

This hasn't happened yet but I have been thinking about it. We have a 3295RK. When the slide outs are in the stowed position it is darn near impossible to check to see if the cabinet doors near the desk area are closed or open. I worry that a cabinet door will come open while traveling. That I won't see it when setting up, and will not know they're open until I hear the slideout ripping them off the cabinet face. Ive thought about re-hanging them so they open from the other direction or putting child-proof safty catches on them. Has anyone had a problem or come up with a remedy?

[Glenn and Lorraine]

It will only happen once and you won't forget to check ever again. Lorraine will bear witness to that statement.
A year and a half ago we were setting up and Lorraine was running the big slide out when we heard a noise. She immediately stopped the slide and investigated. What had happened is one of the cabinet doors had opened while traveling. Unknowingly she proceeded to run the slide out and the door caught the wood trim around corner the slide and popped it off. We ran the slide back in an inch or so, closed the cabinet door and ran the slide all the way out. The only damage done was to the wood trim and within a half hour it was fixed with no visible damage to the door or the slide. Using Velcro, we now secure the opposing handles together and have not had a problem since. For a long time, even with the Velcro in place, Lorraine made sure all doors were securely closed before touching the slide button.

[Parrothead]

Like Glenn we use velcro strips to close the doors. Only takes a couple of minutes and makes us feel secure. On the first trip out we had done this but forgot about the little drawer in the end table. Slide caught it and pulled the front of the table off. A couple of nails and some glue fixed it. There is a small scratch on the wall if you look real close. Little things happen. I was scrubbing the wall behind the stove in our stick house yesterday and got carried away and took the paint off the wall. Don't ask me why I am still in this house and scrubbing walls. I don't know.
Happy trails.........................

[jrgwdenner]

When opening our slides, especially after a bumpy ride, we open the bedroom slide enough so we can walk around the bed and check. Next we open the dining room slide enough so that we can walk to the rear and check to see if anything has slipped into the track of the slideout. Most of the time, everything is still secured, but once in a while something has slipped down so it would really mess things up if we had opened the slideout. We're always glad we checked.

We haven't needed the velcro yet (except in the pantry cabinet to keep the sliding drawers in place) but part of our routine before hitching up is to give each cabinet a little pop to make sure that it's closed tightly, plus an extra push on the refrigerator door as this has come open a couple of times. So far this has worked for us.

[RADHAZJOE]

As an aside on this, I have ripped off two cabinet doors and one slide trim because in our 3400 the roller latches were installed crooked. I have since reinstalled all of them but still worry every time we put the slides out.

Has anyone come accross positive latching devices like on air craft overhead bins that will fit in Monty?? We used velcro and childproof loks now but each time I hook and unhook them I get a little &^*%%$$#, you know.

[Montana_4221]

I agree with Judy's method of opening the slideouts. We had an unpleasant experience with a previous 5'er. Fortunately it wound up being only a hinge to fix it.(It could have been much worse)Glen is right as well. It only took the one time for us to learn.

[Charlie]

We have never had any mishaps on doors and drawers but it has always been a fear that one might come open and get hung on a slide. We either drop a yard stick down through the handles on the drawers or wrap a bungee cord through the cabinet door handles, works so far for us.

[CountryGuy]

Sweetfire,

We have same unit, we velcro the cupboards under the tv, the kitchen cabinets on the back wall and the cabinets over the desk. Those have all popped open at one time or other, if you visit our web site and snoop around our travel log for 2004, New Orleans, you can read our experience about the cabinets over the desk opening, and stuff all over the floor.

Before we put the slides IN for travel, I walk around and give each one a little snuggy fit push. Just to be sure.

When we arrive, I stand on the bedroom level and look to see if those doors over the desk appear to be moved (they were open when we arrived in NO, and that is how I discovered the problem BEFORE I opened the slides.)

Also check around for obvious movement or loss of something, I have little knick knacks on the valances over the couch, I count those, if one is missing (happened ONE TIME) I go find it before it gets caught UNDER the slide. I

do like Judy does and open the slides a bit at a time. I usually open the bedroom slide and the others part way, then I walk down the length of Montana and look very carefully around the slides on the floor. When I determine all is clear, open the balance of the way.

[sreigle]

We have the same model, same concern. Never had a problem with it for the first 30k miles but then I started to worry. We put a long dowel rod through the handles to the floor. It's unlikely all three drawers could open and also push the dowel through the carpet enough to cause a problem. 10k miles with the dowel in place. No problem so far.