This is a little RV repair post about a small problem we saw developing in our RV. As we noticed on the new 2016 Evergreen BayHill’s they have done away with the upper curved cabinets that go over the couches. We were curious as to why they would do that but I think we found out why. What is most odd is that they removed the cabinets but didn’t increase the window size above the couch so there is a distinct blank space there that Jen and I both thought was pretty weird.
As you can see above the cabinet above the couch is obviously missing. (not to mention I don’t much care for the new color scheme) So Jen was noticing an excessive amount of dust in this cabinet after each of our travel days. I said… meh… it’s just the cabinets settling in etc. But there became a distinct gap developing above the cabinet system there. In the bottom right photo above I put a flashlight inside and you can see how much that whole cabinet system is sagging.
I first thought I could just tighten the screws that held the cabinet up but quickly realized that the entire cabinet is only screwed to the 1/8″ thick panelling of the ceiling and some other structural braces on the back wall. The ceiling is what was pulling out and there really was no way to re-secure the screws to that same weak ceiling. So I took out all of the upper screws and bought some Liquid Nails Adhesive to squirt into the newly formed crack. I was going to then just screw the same screws back into the ceiling using new holes, but an obvious problem occured when I did that.
I initially bought the liquid nails at the hardware store knowing I had a caulking gun in my tool box in the RV. When I got down to the part of using the adhesive, I noticed that I never packed the caulking gun for the trip. So with a little Portuguese ingenuity…I was able to come up with an appropriately named “Jerry Rig” dispensing system. I used my flashlight to push up the bottom of the adhesive tube. Hey it worked.
So after I got all the adhesive into the crack… the aforementioned “problem” made itself obvious to me. Rescrewing it was not pulling the cabinet system into the ceiling and the gap was still there. I needed to somehow push the cabinet to the ceiling and hold it there while I screwed the cabinet in and let the glue dry. My solution…. A broomstick handle and the bottle jack from the truck. I was able to jack up the cabinet and re secure it, let the glue dry overnight; and it is now better than new.
So Evergreen RV… you don’t have to discontinue making that cabinet just glue it before you secure it to the ceiling and you will be just fine. (Don’t try these techniques at home…. you will most likely get laughed at)
…..Repairs from the road….. lol