Need to shim up me drawers!

[TinaLes]

Over the last month or so we have been blaming ourselves for leaving the odd kitchen drawer unlocked, which has inevitably flown out across the motor home when travelling around a roundabout....guess most will have experienced this at some time.
They fly out with such Gusto, a great crash, bang, wallop, that you feel almost sick to your stomach with the worry of what you may have broken, neither of us now wants to go back instantly to inspect the damage
You then start to console yourself by applying the rationalisation method of, well, if we have got away with only one broken plate, or one bone china mug then its not that bad eh?
I can now announce that despite performing the check list of locking all doors, windows, skylights, etc, and witnessing before leaving any stationary position, that ALL the drawer locks have indeed been locked, they will still fly out and catch you unawares!

No!, its not that they are overloaded with weight, its simply because the drawers can & do bounce up & down even ever so slightly when we are on the move.
The tolerance of the drawer catches are very minimal, in that the drawer locks striking plate that it locks behind only a offers couple of millimeters for the lock to grab hold of.
The cure for this is to remove the striking plates and shim them out with small spacer washers, thus giving the drawer locks more striking plate to locate behind, and so be more secure.
So its a big problem, but this time a simple fix hopefully
Even though Carthago dealers have given this feedback directly to Carthago for years, the problem has not been corrected as far as I know, except for the Liner Class, as they have automatic drawer locks when the engine is started...Flash or what?
So until we win the lotto, I will be mainly shimming up me drawers
Les

 

[Cavs]

Over the last month or so we have been blaming ourselves for leaving the odd kitchen drawer unlocked, which has inevitably flown out across the motor home when travelling around a roundabout....guess most will have experienced this at some time.
They fly out with such Gusto, a great crash, bang, wallop, that you feel almost sick to your stomach with the worry of what you may have broken, neither of us now wants to go back instantly to inspect the damage
You then start to console yourself by applying the rationalisation method of, well, if we have got away with only one broken plate, or one bone china mug then its not that bad eh?
I can now announce that despite performing the check list of locking all doors, windows, skylights, etc, and witnessing before leaving any stationary position, that ALL the drawer locks have indeed been locked, they will still fly out and catch you unawares!

No!, its not that they are overloaded with weight, its simply because the drawers can & do bounce up & down even ever so slightly when we are on the move.
The tolerance of the drawer catches are very minimal, in that the drawer locks striking plate that it locks behind only a offers couple of millimeters for the lock to grab hold of.
The cure for this is to remove the striking plates and shim them out with small spacer washers, thus giving the drawer locks more striking plate to locate behind, and so be more secure.
So its a big problem, but this time a simple fix hopefully
Even though Carthago dealers have given this feedback directly to Carthago for years, the problem has not been corrected as far as I know, except for the Liner Class, as they have automatic drawer locks when the engine is started...Flash or what?
So until we win the lotto, I will be mainly shimming up me drawers
Les

Mine has angled plastic striking plates, so I've drilled a small hole in them so the solenoid pin goes into the hole and bears on a vertical surface rather than the angled one. I used the marks made by the solenoid pin on the plate to locate the position for the hole. It's worked so far, touch wood.

I'm told that others simply turn the angled striking plate round, to the same effect.

Oh, and the automatic locking is useless if the mechanical restraint fails - it's the same problem either way.

 

[Vic. Parsons.]

In our Hymer, the drawers do get bounced around a bit and like you, we had some open when cornering.
I found that in our case, it wasn't the catch striker plate thay needed shimming, it was the fixing screws of the drawer runners that had loosened enough to allow the whole drawer to drop slightly which left very little of the catch to grab the striker plate.
I went round and tightened all the screws and where possible, added a few extra ones and we haven't had the problem since.

 

[mike mcglynn]

We used to have an Arto and that had a very good draw locking system just a simple but most effective rod and knob to turn why don’t all makers build a similar system it must have cost about a tenner .

 

[tony_g]

In our Hymer, the drawers do get bounced around a bit and like you, we had some open when cornering.
I found that in our case, it wasn't the catch striker plate thay needed shimming, it was the fixing screws of the drawer runners that had loosened enough to allow the whole drawer to drop slightly which left very little of the catch to grab the striker plate.
I went round and tightened all the screws and where possible, added a few extra ones and we haven't had the problem since.

Yes, we've had exactly that problem in our Hymer. I'm now keeping a close eye on the screws holding the runners now.

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[Wagoneer]

In our Hymer, the drawers do get bounced around a bit and like you, we had some open when cornering.
I found that in our case, it wasn't the catch striker plate thay needed shimming, it was the fixing screws of the drawer runners that had loosened enough to allow the whole drawer to drop slightly which left very little of the catch to grab the striker plate.
I went round and tightened all the screws and where possible, added a few extra ones and we haven't had the problem since.

Agree, on our Carthago it was not only the striker plate that needed reshimming but the screws to the draw runners needed retightening.

 

[WonkyBass]

Ditto our Hymer where (after six seasons) it was the runners that have loosened and dropped that caused kitchen drawers to fly open in transit.

Open the drawer and lift the handle to check for movement.

 

[Sunlovers]

I just brought Mrs T a new pair of spectacles and asked her to "look again" before sitting down and buckling up .... seems to have cured the problem

 

[robnchris]

Now then we have an Autotrail Apache, not the best built interiors by any means but have to say we have never had a problems with the drawers, the wardrobe door fell off after 20 mins of owning the brand new motorhome whilst driving along the A27 but apart from that trouble free.

 

[Sunlovers]

Now then we have an Autotrail Apache, not the best built interiors by any means but have to say we have never had a problems with the drawers, the wardrobe door fell off after 20 mins of owning the brand new motorhome whilst driving along the A27 but apart from that trouble free.

Oof, I bet you were chuffed when that happened

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[bigtwin]

I get much more pleasure shimmying up the OH‘s drawers. Oo err misses! ?

Ian ?

 

[TerryL]

We never have problems with drawers flying open.


We haven't got any!



Cupboard doors however............................

 

[awg]

In our C-tourer I put a couple of washers between the drawer keep and the surround on each screw. The existing screws wre long enough. We only had a problem with the top drawer under the cooker but I put washers on all the drawer keeps just in case.

 

[haganap]

Over the last month or so we have been blaming ourselves for leaving the odd kitchen drawer unlocked, which has inevitably flown out across the motor home when travelling around a roundabout....guess most will have experienced this at some time.
They fly out with such Gusto, a great crash, bang, wallop, that you feel almost sick to your stomach with the worry of what you may have broken, neither of us now wants to go back instantly to inspect the damage
You then start to console yourself by applying the rationalisation method of, well, if we have got away with only one broken plate, or one bone china mug then its not that bad eh?
I can now announce that despite performing the check list of locking all doors, windows, skylights, etc, and witnessing before leaving any stationary position, that ALL the drawer locks have indeed been locked, they will still fly out and catch you unawares!

No!, its not that they are overloaded with weight, its simply because the drawers can & do bounce up & down even ever so slightly when we are on the move.
The tolerance of the drawer catches are very minimal, in that the drawer locks striking plate that it locks behind only a offers couple of millimeters for the lock to grab hold of.
The cure for this is to remove the striking plates and shim them out with small spacer washers, thus giving the drawer locks more striking plate to locate behind, and so be more secure.
So its a big problem, but this time a simple fix hopefully
Even though Carthago dealers have given this feedback directly to Carthago for years, the problem has not been corrected as far as I know, except for the Liner Class, as they have automatic drawer locks when the engine is started...Flash or what?
So until we win the lotto, I will be mainly shimming up me drawers
Les

Just joined the club.
In Dover after 250 miles of driving, last roundabout.. top draw for the second time requested departure from van.
Now have a big chip in drawer.

Second time its happened, last time i blamed nikki for not shutting it properly..

So annoying, all this money and this happens.

 

[Roger S]

Thats so annoying, i had the middle draw fly out the other day, no damage thankfully. It may have been me not closed it

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