My 2010 Interstate (Twin bed) has a small cabinet with 2 shelves and 2 drawers mounted above the roadside bed. The cabinet is attached to the aft side of the wardrobe module. I noticed a couple of days ago that the door to the cabinet was closing differently. I discovered that I could push up on the bottom of the cabinet and cause it to move vertically by maybe 1/4". This isn't a lot but I didn't think it should move at all. When I started taking things apart to find the root cause of this I found that the screws attaching the right side of the cabinet to the wardrobe module were a little loose. But what really surprised me was finding that the lower part of the aft side of the cabinet was attached to the roadside wall of the vehicle with 2 angle brackets MADE OF PLASTIC! :angry: Not the high grade fiber reinforced plastic but plain old transparent plastic like what mirror mounting brackets are made of. Well, neither of these brackets were supporting any weight at all. One was completely broken into two pieces and one of the two screws had pulled through the hole in the other one. I'm chocking back full rant mode here but really, Airstream! Wouldn't it have been better to use metal brackets? This cabinet could easily weigh 75# loaded and the dynamic forces as the vehicle moves down the road could be expected to be quite high.
In case you were wondering, I do not drive my vehicle aggressively nor do I do much driving on rough roads. If I'm on a back road (it happens rarely) I drive very conservatively.
I replaced these two brackets with double wide angle bracket from Home Depot. These brackets have 3 screw holes in each leg vs 1 hole in each leg for the plastic ones so things are much stronger now. Oh, I also found more of these plastic brackets in the similar cabinet mounted above the curbside bed and attached to the aft side of the bath/shower module. They will be finding themselves in the trash can soon!
Anyway fellow Airstreams, you might want to check your rigs. One of these cabinets detaching itself and falling could a be dramatic experience! Not to mention dangerous to anyone that happened to be napping beneath it!
In case you were wondering, I do not drive my vehicle aggressively nor do I do much driving on rough roads. If I'm on a back road (it happens rarely) I drive very conservatively.
I replaced these two brackets with double wide angle bracket from Home Depot. These brackets have 3 screw holes in each leg vs 1 hole in each leg for the plastic ones so things are much stronger now. Oh, I also found more of these plastic brackets in the similar cabinet mounted above the curbside bed and attached to the aft side of the bath/shower module. They will be finding themselves in the trash can soon!
Anyway fellow Airstreams, you might want to check your rigs. One of these cabinets detaching itself and falling could a be dramatic experience! Not to mention dangerous to anyone that happened to be napping beneath it!
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