The other day coming down one of the mountain passes with switchback curves, my big pull-out cabinet slid out. It has done this before and usually I secure it with a bungy, but that day I didn’t and it slid out.
This time though the base, the metal slides pulled off the board to which they were screwed. When I got off the road for the day, I pulled the entire thing out and discovered that it had only been secured with 4 tiny screws, and one ancient elbow macaroni.
I thought this will be easy. Take the slide off, get some longer screws.
Fasten down the slide and shove the cabinet back to where it belongs.
I tried to get the slides off inside, but this is a small
space so I wrestled the thing outside, propped it up on a picnic table, and proceeded
to poke and prod it with a screwdriver, and plyers. Finally, after cutting my thumb,
I figured out how to get the side rails off, but the center rail held fast. Now
usually there is a spot where the rail will lift off and go back on. This one
had nothing like that. Finally, after a while I figured I needed professional
help, and since I had scheduled service for noon the next day that would give
me plenty of time to find someone to help.
My first thought was to find a cabinet shop, and one of
those fellows would know how to zip that slide right off, and there was a shop nearby, so
after giving the van a much-needed bath I headed over to the cabinet shop.
I found the shop It is in the fellows house. He answered the
door when I knocked. He had no shirt, and I hope he was wearing shorts and not
his undies, but we talked about what I needed, then I said I really liked his
Willies Pickup
He said he had a Morris Minor the grandfather of my car, and
got his shoes, so he could come out and show me the car. We were drifting
further and further away from my cabinet, and so I asked him if he could take a
look at it. No, he said not today, as he had to go to Boise for a install. But
he said bring it by tomorrow and he could probably get to it in a week or so. I
said ok, see you tomorrow. Little did he know I wouldn’t be in Idaho tomorrow.
Camper world in Boise was three days out just to talk to a service person, but there is a local RV repair shop. Terry's Truck And RV Accessories . I thought I would give them a try.
It was a nice-looking business, so I walked right in, and I think it was the owner who I talked to because when I explained my issue, he said let’s go take a look at it. I showed him the 4 puny screws, and he agreed I needed bigger ones.
He proceeded to push and pull the track, and then went and
got one of his guys, who came out with longer screws and tools to install them.
They thought they could pull the cabinet out and why one fellow held it, the
other could reach over top and screw it down. This proved to not be the
solution, and so they decided to take the cabinet into the shop where they have
all the tools to build a RV from scratch.
I thought yikes this pesky cabinet is probably going to cost
me $500.00, but I got to have it.
While the cabinet was in the shop, I walked around the store
to see if there was anything in there I needed. There wasn’t so I went back out
to the van.
Not long after the fellow with the tools came out with just
the rail. He had cracked the code, by undoing the side rails with the little
lever I found the other day and then unscrewing the center rail from the base
of the cabinet. He didn’t even cut his thumb.
He fastened down the rail with some industrial screws, slid
the cabinet onto the side rails and then refastened the center rail to the cabinet.
I went inside to the office to pay, and they wouldn’t take
any money. I did have to listen to one of the fellows Alaska military stories. They
should have paid me for that. I thanked everyone, and then violated all rules and regulations, and
entered the mechanics area and slipped the fellow that cracked the code $40.00.
Now its onto the oil change.
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