Rear Kitchen - good idea or bad idea?

[Lonnie07]

Hi all,

I am very interested in the Highland Ridge Open Range 2804RK, so I asked my local dealer about it. He said that Open Range has discontinued this model because rear kitchens take a beating during towing due to the bounce effect.

This was surprising since I still see it this model on the Highland Ridge website, but whatever - there are some used ones available, so I thought I’d check here.

Can people with rear kitchens please comment? Do you love your RK? Hate it?

Thank you!

[Lonnie07]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. As it happens we’ve decided on a rear living floorplan for now, but won’t hesitate to get a rear kitchen in the future if that’s the one we like.

[Jframpey]

I have a Jayco Eagle 31 RKDS. Rear kitchen - love the layout. And never have had any issue with any drawers or cabinets popping open. No dishes broken. The fridge is on the back wall and couldn’t keep the gas burner lit - I think it was the buffeting and vacuum at the rear face of the trailer while driving. I swapped for a 12 volt compressor fridge and have not regretted the change.

[hussbuss]

We have a Cruisers Enterra triple slide with a RK. First RK in over 50 years of camping. Love it. Should have got one years ago. 2 big windows out the back and full windows on the campsite side. It has setback axles on a frame built for a rear kitchen with trail air suspensun and shocks. Pulls and rides like a dream. Nothing ever moves off the counters. Buy what you want and remember, if the sales mans lips are moving, he is probably lieing.

[RICK-ards_Red]

We have a Catalina rear kitchen now going on 5 years and we have not had any issue with the fridge, cupboards, stuff moving around, items breaking, nothing. The turn table plate in the microwave moves around but we jammed a pool noodle between the plate and the top of the microwave oven top, solved that issue. Get the floor plan you want.

[MikeDupont]

kellem wrote:
Your local dealer is a fruit cake as he/she wants you to buy what floorplan they have in stock.
Get the trailer you desire and suits your needs...

That right there is the Absolute and Final Truth.

[Huntindog]

You guys are all nuts.
Sane people know that the bouncing is not bad until you hang a bike rack off of the rear bumper.:B

[CapnCampn]

RickLight wrote:
Looked like an axe murder scene.

We had the same thing happen when the fridge didn't get latched before leaving home. The poor spaghetti sauce leapt to its doom, and left quite the crime scene. I'm still not sure how it got on the ceiling!

This was in a mid-kitchen, apparently I take corners too hard. So, I think the rear kitchen is not the only one with mess making opportunities.

CC

[RickLight]

We too were warned of fridges in the rear, breaking eggs. 2 years no issues.

We have been down some baaaad roads. Smooth driving with hidden dips, breaks and worse. Last summer after 100 miles of that, a jar of spaghetti sauce leaped out of the upper cupboard and hit the sink edge. Looked like an axe murder scene.

Turns out the cheap bin on the shelf had broken releasing enough weight to open the cupboard. Took a while to clean up and get the smell out,

Our canned food now lives in drawer.

[Blazing_Zippers]

Two travel trailers and one fifth wheel with rear kitchens. One time the silverware drawer swapped a couple items, but no issues. That is after tens of thousands of miles. Buy the unit you like.
The sales person is just that---SALES!

[Edd505]

Your dealer full of BS. I'm on my second RK son has his first. That model maybe discontinued but they still make RK's. Highland Ridge is a Jayco product, here is a similar 2021 Jay Flight 29RK.

You will find some of the RK's have 3 tanks, 2 gray and 1 black so you end up with two discharge outlets. Mine did, for about $50 I was able to tie the two outlet drains to a single discharge.

[cougar28]

We've had a rear kitchen in our 02 Cougar had 17 years it till we bought out 2019 Eagle with a rear kitchen and never had a problem with either with stuff bouncing around or breaking. Wife loves the rear kitchen models due to more counter space and people not having to walk around or through the kitchen area while she's cooking.

[mbopp]

The only issue we had was a 1/8" thick drawer bottom broke from having a 12" cast iron skillet in it. I replaced it with 1/4" plywood.

[Lynnmor]

Of course the rear bounces the most, it is simple geometry. I had the cheap plastic pantry shelves collapse, probably because of the bouncing. After adding shock absorbers I had no other issues.

[valhalla360]

Used to have a RK...much preferred the layout and never any issues.