How do you keep your fridge shut and cabinet doors in one piece on a bouncy road

[MRA]

We generally do not camp in campgrounds. We usually end up 10 miles down some dirt road at a hot spring or fishing hole. As I understand it, this is what Wally Byam originally intended. Thor, on the other hand, appears to build our beloved tubes for smooth as a baby's bottom paved roads.


See the attached photos for what happened to me AGAIN today. The cabinetry hinges do not stand up to a well graded dirt road. Neither does the fridge.


Someone else here must have had this happen to them too - and replaced their hinges and latches with something more robust - and come up with a solution for the fridge doors flying open (this time they flew completely OFF!)


What do you do?

[majorairhead]

That's some wild stuff right there, I'm having trouble with the idea this happened on a "well graded dirt road" but hey, who am I anyway

With that being said, I'd consider a nice cooler for a trip like this, load the fridge upon destination arrival, tape things shut.

I'm always checking my hinges, tightening things up, have spare hinges/parts on board.

[CBWELL]

I live on a sometimes "well graded" gravel road 5 miles from pavement. I keep my speed down to 20-25 mph and my biggest problem is dust. If I went 60 mph, the doors and fridge would probably do the same, fall off!

[ChristyB56]

Same issue here so we bought these for the refrigerator. Work like a charm and aren’t very noticeable. I put heavier items from cabinets in tubs on the floor while under tow.

Jool lock straps from Amazon. https://a.co/d/iipjONG

[Rich Jenkins]

What tire pressures are you running?

[Lily&Me]

As mentioned, check your latches.

Don’t overstuff your refrigerator.

Try tension rods inside your frig to keep contents from hurling themselves about.

Maggie

[SlowPokePete]

Honestly the plastic shelves in the frig of my 2020 Globetrotter seem barely strong enough to support much weight while we are at the campsite.

I wouldn’t trust more weight than a container of lettuce in there when we are rolling down the road.

SPP

[SlowPokePete]

Kind of feel the same with traveling with anything in a storage compartment that is not at floor height.

SPP

[waninae39]

bungie chords are very useful

[uncle_bob]

Hi

Most likely (= simple) answer: You are going too fast for that road. Not just by a little, to fast by a lot. If you are at 20 MPH, try 5 MPH. It's not the road, it's the speed on that road.

It's not just the doors swinging open that you need to worry about. The combo of to fast and to rough can damage a lot of things.

Other far less likely answers:

Way too much WD bar tension can mess things. Still not by the amount your damage indicates.

Crazy tire pressures would not help. Again, not a real big deal.

Bob

[richard5933]

On my fridge I installed straps to keep the doors closed. They are made from an old belt that I cut pieces from. They can be totally removed once we're parked in a camp site by twisting the mount on the left, and they can be snapped in the fully closed position for travel or left in the slightly-ajar position to ensure air flow when the trailer is in storage like in the photo.

They've worked like champs keeping the doors closed. Simple solution that just works. Cost me less than a few bucks for the hardware bits.

[Doc Foster]

What tire pressure are you running and what speed are you going on those roads? How about W/D hitch setup? I have traveled on many dirt roads and have never had this happen in 10 years.

[PaulinVA]

We’ve used stick on Velcro straps. Easy to install, prepare for travel, and pull back to operate the fridge and cabinets at the site.

[Trowbridge]

Slow down. Thin bungie cords and velcro can help but with them you will rip handles off if you're hitting bumps fast.

How old is your trailer? Axles older than 10 years will often have stiffened (or frozen) torsion elements in them. No suspension movement - not good.

Definitely release tension on your leveling hitch.

Again, slow down.

[canyonjoy1]

Believe it or not, our refrigerator door flew open (but the hinge held) throwing the contents all over the Airstream on a PAVED road in NM. The road conditions – US 491 from the Colorado border to Gallup – were the worst I've ever seen and I drove as slowly as I thought necessary without being a hazard. Thankfully the cabinets held altho things were messed up inside them. Will look into some of these solutions as the "baby locks" we got just don't quite fit.

[PatLee]

Originally Posted by MRA

We generally do not camp in campgrounds. We usually end up 10 miles down some dirt road at a hot spring or fishing hole. As I understand it, this is what Wally Byam originally intended. Thor, on the other hand, appears to build our beloved tubes for smooth as a baby's bottom paved roads.


See the attached photos for what happened to me AGAIN today. The cabinetry hinges do not stand up to a well graded dirt road. Neither does the fridge.


Someone else here must have had this happen to them too - and replaced their hinges and latches with something more robust - and come up with a solution for the fridge doors flying open (this time they flew completely OFF!)


What do you do?

OMG. Slow down. Go 4-5 mph if necessary.

[emelaich01]

We run a tarp bungee around the handles of the under sink doors but the others seem to stay shut. However, faced with some really bad roads, look into the simple, 'press to release' child-resistant locks for your other cabinet doors. Each set that we have in the house goes on with four small screws and made of Nylon so they're immune to breakage.

For the fridge...hmmm. I'll watch other responses!

[Spitking]

We have traveled all over on all kinds of roads. We started to just automatically putting blue painters tape on microwave cabinet, two large drawers under sink, closet door, and refrigerator. It is easy to remove without residue and have not had any problems. Better safe than sorry.

[G8trwood]

Also blue tape on the fridge latches. Marine latches on problem cabinet/ drawers

[david.steed]

Yes. For me as well. Every cabinet has a bungee cord. My fridge doesn’t open so I am ok there, but it too has a cord across