Drawer latches

[Mongobird]

I just bought my first RV, which is a 2004 Itasca Meridian 34H. It was nice an clean, and I have been happy with it, except that rolling down the road the drawers and cabinets pop open and bang back and forth.

It appears that over the years several different latches have been used, and when I tried to duplicate the ones most recently installed, I found them to be useless.

The latches, like for can drawers, that use a thumb operated unlatch mechanism, appear to be all working fine. It's just all the others.

So what recommendations are there? Any one drive on rough roads and found the magic latch? It's difficult to always tell what works from the catalog description.

Thanks.

[mr_andyj]

Push button latches work great. I used them on a 4x4 truck camper on a giant heavy drawer with no issues.
They look great and when pushed in (locked) are flush with the drawer front, so no catching on clothes or bumping into, when out it makes a handle to pull open. They are a little more work to install bc you need to make holes in the drawer front, but well worth it.

[down_home]

I do believe shocks and... a sway bar would stop some of the throwing of dishes, silver ware and pantry items all over the RV. Don't hear much of this in Motor Home do we. Even Fifth Wheels and Trailers with shocks don't have sway bars.
I think they should. No big project to install one I think, once you determine weight an appropriate sway bar.
Also Air Ride hitches really do help a lot. Going west on I40, when it was like driving on rail road ties or boulder field, back then, we saw a lot of pitching and heaving of Firth Wheels and Trailers.Ours rode smooth. Looking out the rear glass of the F350 we could see the air bag adsorbing the beating from the road.
I bet the shocks were hot too.

[Lynnmor]

Mongobird wrote:

Lynnmor wrote:
Years ago when common sense was common, positive latching was used. Here is one source of this type of latch.

Thank you for the link, but there are several latches at this site. Can you point out which one you are suggesting?

Thanks.

Any latch that has a push button or other operator input will stay closed. Friction latches don't have a positive catch and will come open with enough of a bump. Choose one that fits your cabinets or taste, the website has a few and searching should bring up more. Modern trailers don't have the positive catches because they cost a bit more.

[Mongobird]

Lynnmor wrote:
Years ago when common sense was common, positive latching was used. Here is one source of this type of latch.

Thank you for the link, but there are several latches at this site. Can you point out which one you are suggesting?

Thanks.

[Lynnmor]

Years ago when common sense was common, positive latching was used. Here is one source of this type of latch.

[F1bNorm]

We also have a Winnebago product and it came equipped with this style LATCH
We’ve had other rv’s with a variety of latch systems and these have been the nicest. They do occasionally misfire if something is sticking out of the drawer, but that would be with any latch system. I believe they are available in different holding strengths if staying shut is a problem.

[Gdetrailer]

For drawers, the easy fix is to add a little block of wood or piece of stiff metal UNDER the drawer provided your drawer has enough up/down slop..

Here is a pix of my drawers..



In my case, I used a piece of aluminum which I bent to create a small ramp on one side. Push the drawer in and the metal ramp contacts the bottom of cabinet and pushes drawer up slightly. Once past the metal the drawer drops down and the metal now holds the drawer in.

To open drawer, you simply pull up slightly while pulling the drawer out. Pulling up allows the metal piece to go past the bottom of cabinet front.

This works like a charm and was modeled after my Dads old 1960s TC which used similar idea.

For your cabinet doors, go with some REAL catches, I would highly recommend using Double roller catches.. These babies WILL hold even under the worst possible road conditions and will take considerable amount of pull to open them.



You most likely will need to add a bit of blocking at the door edge but they will hold far better than magnetic catches.

The only downside to these is they do have that little metal clasp that you can scrape a hand or arm on but at least my doors don't fly open..

Those can be found at Home Depot/Lowes or Amazon..

[Sandia_Man]

Previous owners used velcro, bungies, even duck tape to secure drawers and doors while in transit, pretty unsightly not to speak of the wear on the finish of the wood cabinetry. After purchase we replaced a few latches from our drawers and cabinet doors that had failed, they were readily available on Amazon and Ebay. Bought a pack of them and now have a couple of spares, very easy to remove and install.

[doxiemom11]

Or buy some quality latches and replace everything. Ours are going on 21 years old and none have ever come open when traveling. Neither have any drawers.

[Dick_B]

Childproof latches for drawers. Get extras because on occasion you will forget they are on and will break them. Worked for us for years. No problem with cabinet doors.

[down_home]

Best return for your money is to ask a cabinet maker and possibly have him put proper hardware on the drawers. Ours have magnetic closure and secure latches and ball bearing rails, I was told. I never had need to inspect them and we never had a failure. Probably someone in the RVing community with experience can give type and mfg etc for the hardware but...

[Guy_Roan]

On one of our trailers my wife came up with the idea of using velcro.
It worked great on the drawers.
No reason why it wouldn't work good on cabinet doors also

Guy

[OkieGene]

Contact Colaw RV Salvage in Carthage Missouri. They are beyond huge with inventory. Excellent chance you might find what you need as an exact match.

[Mongobird]

Thanks for a couple of good ideas/