Drawers opening while driving 2018 Vista 27PE

[Don C]

We have a, new to us, 2018 Vista 27PE. Have only used the coach twice and we have a problem with all but one of our drawers opening whenever we go around any kind of corner. I tried adding a magnetic latch and they didn't hold. Do I need to replace all the latches with a similar one or double up all the latches? Is there a proper fix for this? The OEM latches seem very weak. Comments and observations appreciated.

[navnaz]

I had a similar problem on a 2013 Vista 26HE. On ours we had a similar problem with one drawer. It was one of the lower kitchen cabinet drawers that had all the heavy pots/pans. I went on Amazon and found a duplicate latch and installed it. That double latch did the trick. We now have a 2017 33C Sunova and have never had the drawer opening issue you are experiencing. Maybe they went to a cheaper latch.

[Morich]

It took us some time to get down to how and why the drawers come out.
Part of it is the lathces but they also need to be something you can open, so bigger harder latches is only part of the solution. A bigger ,better idea for us was to NOT do it like we do at home as there are lots of different forces in an RV. One is to understand that thge force that opens the drawing on corners is much greater when higher in the RV!
Simple physics but if you put heavy items down low and lighter high, all the drawers stay closed better! At home you organize to be easy to use, while in the RV, you do it so the stored items stay stored!
Where to put the heavy stuiff like soda, bottels of syrup, etc.? It has to be a combo of desiions on what level of damage happens if it comes out and where else might be less convenient?
An air burst of a bottle of syrup says that it better be in the more secure place, even if it is not in the kitchen but under the bed! Five pounds of flour is bad news in an upper drawer or shelf!

Then when we found no totally reliable storage layout, we went for simple added security. Bungy straps added to tie the doors and drawers closed is a pretty simple thing to do as you break camp.

RV camping is what we call a hybrid between the convenience of home and the added attractions of travel, so we are willling to adapt what we see in the RV to make it also work for what we want to do!

[Eagle5]

Hi Don C,
I had the same problem with my Minnie Winnie, so here is how I upgraded it:
Stronger Drawer Latch on a Minnie Winnie 22M
Welcome to the forum.
Eagle5

[wyocamper]

I had the same issue on my Vista, and did several things to resolve it. First we moved the heavy pots and pans to a lower bedroom drawer that is held closed by the bed when the slide is in. Then I bought stronger drawer latches from Amazon and installed those, and I also installed child locks on the drawers as a fail-safe.

[powercat_ras]

I too had occasional situations where drawers and pantry cabinet doors would come open while driving. Here is my $ 4 in hardware store parts fix.

I use three 1 1/2 " phillips head drywall screws and large flat fender washers, with a stacked second washer that holds the head of the drywall screw. Then a piece of clear duct tape, trimmed, to hold the washers together and on the screw to keep the screw and washers together to simplify use and storage.

One centered between the bottom and middle drawers in the kitchen.
One centered between the top 2 bedroom drawers.
One centered between the top and bottom pantry cabinet doors.
(this one uses four washers taped together due to the larger gap)

I drilled pilot holes. It takes about 3 minutets to install or remove them all.
The holes are almost un-noticable. I keep a phillips head screwdriver in the top kitchen drawer for quick access to install / remove them.

I have never had problems with them opening while driving since I adopted this method.

[Ray,IN]

I'm cheap, I bought 3 pieces of dowel rod 1/4" dia. 3' long, some I had to cut shorter. I drop these down through the drawer pulls during our pre-departure check. If a drawer comes open it's only about 2" at most. The dowels are thin enough to bend from the weight of the drawer opening instead of breaking.

[wyocamper]

Originally Posted by Ray,IN

I'm cheap, I bought 3 pieces of dowel rod 1/4" dia. 3' long, some I had to cut shorter. I drop these down through the drawer pulls during our pre-departure check. If a drawer comes open it's only about 2" at most. The dowels are thin enough to bend from the weight of the drawer opening instead of breaking.

LOL the first time this happened to us we were on a rough forest service road. I stopped and found a 3' long stick with a fork, broke that off and dropped the long end through the kitchen drawer pulls, with the fork hung on the top pull. That stick is still in the MH, laying behind the dining table.

Never had an issue with the bedroom drawers opening though.

The 10# pull drawer latches seem to work pretty well, and doing the CHF reduced the body roll enough to make it much less of an issue.

[Morich]

Any REAL camper has a story to tell about breaking something!
Mine is the first trip in the first camper. Something like a late 50's Aljo trailer.
Two small kids and we put a bike in the center aisle. A 5 pound sack of flour in a high compartment along with a LARGE bottle of syrup! At some point along the first couple hundred miles of the trip they both came out and did an airburst on the bike!
That trailer smelled like syrup on any hot day from then on!

[IOS 3]

On our Vista 27N there was room above and below the drawer stack to add matching drawer pulls. One on the kick plate, and one above the top drawer on the cabinet face between the drawer and the countertop. I then ran a velcro strap through all of the drawer pulls, both fixed and the actual drawers, and that stopped the stack from ever opening. If you didn't know what you were looking at it was hardly noticeable when the velcro wasn't in place. As has already been outlined, there are many ways to do this. Just adding to you list of alternatives... Cheers!

[Wayne M]

Search Amazon for RV door latch. The ones with the hook have different pounds of pull force. Adding a second one to the size you have will help, or replacing with a stronger pull.

I also have them on the top of the double door commercial refrigerator. Work well.

[Seymour2Lane]

On our 2016 View we have a couple of the galley drawers that come open on bumpy roads.
I always have some velcro onboard and was able to add strips on the cabinet and the back of the drawer face as a temporary fix... 3 years ago. Still works fine.
Regards, Michael

[Eagle5]

Originally Posted by Morich

Any REAL camper has a story to tell about breaking something!
Mine is the first trip in the first camper. Something like a late 50's Aljo trailer.
Two small kids and we put a bike in the center aisle. A 5 pound sack of flour in a high compartment along with a LARGE bottle of syrup! At some point along the first couple hundred miles of the trip they both came out and did an airburst on the bike!
That trailer smelled like syrup on any hot day from then on!

Hi Richard,
This just might qualify as the biggest mess of all time! Almost sounds like a tar & feathering. Certainly something nobody will forget.
Thanks, Eagle5

[Ray,IN]

FWIW, Correllware will shatter into millions of shards when it falls out of an upper cabinet and lands on a marble countertop. That ended us walking barefoot in the 5er, even after many times being cleaning the carpet with an upright Hoover sweeper.
After that incident I applied velrco fasteners to the upper cabinet doors.

[Eagle5]

When I was about eight years old, I demonstrated to a visitor to our house the unbreakable strength of Corelle Ware by dropping a dish on the kitchen floor from about six feet up. It broke into a ton of pieces. Oops!
We still have most of that dish set (except that one dinner plate) so under normal wear, it is great stuff.

[Brooks]

Child proof locks worked for me

[AlanO]

I simply added magnetic latches next to the existing latches and have never had a repeat of the draw/door opening while in transit

[Wyatt]

I added these marine style latches to any drawer or cabinet that I had issues with.

Simple to lock in placed before leaving…

[jayelldouble]

Had the same problem with my 2016 Navion. Went to the factory during a trip back East before the one year warranty expired and they replaced the latches with stronger ones - 10 pound vs. 5 pound I believe - no problems with the latches holding together since but the drawers are slightly more difficult to open. I have had some of the latches come loose from the "wood" because the factory screws were too short in my opinion. The force pulling on the screws is perpendicular to their length so it really shouldn't make that much difference but as there is plenty of room for longer screws I just replaced them all with screws about twice as long as the factory ones. That was several years ago and they are holding fine.