Front Cabinets shook loose

[Jobert]

I am looking to see if anyone has assembled, disassembled or had to repair their front overhead cabinets on either side of the TV.  We have a center TV and have modified it to fit a 43".  That part is OK.  Both front cabinets on either side of the TV and the thin side ones over the door and driver seat, are coming down from the ceiling.  They are currently held up with 2x2's to prevent further damage while we got to our destination.  Both corners were down about 3/4" when I caught them at the end of the day.  This happened on a stretch of 69 in Oklahoma heading south from Big Cabin to Checotah. I have been on some rough roads with a motorhome in the last 23 years, but this was by far the absolute worst, even at a reduced speed.  Never again.

I can see where the cabinets are sectioned off, the larger corner ones and the side ones.  What I do not know is how they are attached from above and what will be there to reattach and reinforce them to keep this from continuing. If you have been there and done that, I sure would appreciate some info on what I may run into.

Thanks in advance and have a great day.  Happy Trails Bert

[Mark B]

My 2002 Windsor has a steel angel iron running across the top of my front cabinets. The strapping is attached to it. Not sure about your late model coach but I bet there is a similar support up there.

[RNMCBR]

Bert,

On my 07 Diplomat, the front cabinets are attached at the face frame by brackets screwed to a square steel tube that runs from side to side. Where the cabinets wrap around to the sides, they are hung from screws that were driven down through the plywood ceiling panel, probably before the roof was put on. 
 

In my cabinet rebuild I obviously was not going to remove the roof so I broke the hard screws off and drove new ones from the bottom up through new wood cleats I screwed to the inside of the face frames. I added several new screws to ensure their security. 
 

Unfortunately I did not take pictures of the attachments but here are some of the work in progress where you can see the square tube.

Roy

[jacwjames]

8 hours ago, Mark B said:

My 2002 Windsor has a steel angel iron running across the top of my front cabinets. The strapping is attached to it. Not sure about your late model coach but I bet there is a similar support up there.

Mine is the same way.  The trick will be finding other cross support that you can attach to. 

On my small cabinet over the door the thin laminate ends can be removed to access next to the front cabinet.  You have to remove the trim work and hook it and pull it out, a paint can opener makes a good hook.  This area is where my CB antenna was installed and I had to gain access to check antenna and add grounding plate to chassis frame. 

 

[vito.a]

See Post 21    https://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/50-tv-install-in-overhead-lift-signature-executive-dynasty-and-navigator-362163-2.html  

I installed a 50" Samsung smart TV in our 2007 Executive.  It should be very similar to your Dynasty.  I gained the extra width by relocating the cabinet doors on each side of the TV.  

[Jobert]

Thanks for the pictures and suggestions.  I do have a 1 1/4" Square tube running across the front above the tv opening and the larger cabinets on each end.  It does not seem however that they use the tube for support of the cabinets.  I can use pipe strap as in one picture to add some extra support in the interior side but getting to the outboard side will be a challenge.  It appears that there may be a multilayered plywood header just to the rear of that tube that the tv area is anchored to. The tv area does not seem to be moving, I had reinforced that well when changing the tv.  I assume that the header goes all the way across and may be able to anchor the top front inside of the face-frame up into it, but not sure that will hold up the cabinet the way it should be. I can try a screw up through the padded ceiling on the inside of the narrow cabinet overhead and see if the header extends edge to edge, that would help. I know the padded ceiling on plywood will support nothing. I may be forced to wait till spring when I get back to where my tools are, and head north with 2 x 2's supporting it. I think I attached a couple of pictures of the cabinet area in ours.

Thanks so much for the pictures, they are a great help.  Thanks for any suggestions to come.  Have a great day. Bert

 

Edited December 14, 2023 by Jobert
pictures did not show, deleted

[wamcneil]

On 12/14/2023 at 11:27 AM, Jobert said:

 I do have a 1 1/4" Square tube running across the front above the tv opening and the larger cabinets on each end.  It does not seem however that they use the tube for support of the cabinets.  I

  Bert

 

Originally, mine didn’t really attach to the steel tube and had 3/4” plywood all the way across the front which had sagged under the weight of the old  crt tv. 
I reworked that area to cut the CRT cabinet back almost flush with the side cabinets and tie up into a 2x2 that is fastened to the steel tube. 
Does yours have a 2x2 behind the steel tube?

[Jobert]

It appears that aft of the 1 1/2" tube, there is a laminate header maybe 1 1/2" thick and feels like it extends back about 8-10" or so. It also appears that neither side cabinet is attached to either of these.  The next post has my semi-solution at this point.

Thanks for the information.  It appears that there is a 1 1/2" square tube running the width of the coach just in front of the TV mount.  It is not used to attach or support anything, just part of the framing.  To the aft of that tube is what appears to be a 1 1/2" thick laminated header maybe 8-10" wide, going by feel not vision here.  The top of the TV mounting area is screwed to this and it also seems to extend all the way to nearly both outside walls above the cupboards also. I can remove a screw to get the length for this and reinforce it further.  Neither of the side cabinets seem to be attached either to the tube or the header. The plan that is formulating at this point is to reinforce the upper inside of each side cabinet with a 3/4 x 6 using Kreg jig to attach them to the plywood sides of the cabinet.  Using this, I can then go up into the tube and also the header and get some real holding power to support the cabinets.  At the same time I will reinforce the TV area further. The side AV cabinet above the passenger seat appears to be attached from above and the screw tips ground off, but is presently OK. I will look for a way to add some reinforcement to this also. At 135k miles, this is the first structural problems I have had to deal with other than reworking the TV area when I put in the 43" flat screen.

The kicker here is I will wait till I get back up north in May to do the repair work. There I have better access to the tools needed, no sense in buying duplicates.  In the mean time I will gauge screw lengths and things like that, but at least there is a plan in place. That means traveling north with the 2 x 2s in place to support the cabinets, but it is what it is.

Thanks again for the information and suggestions. When started, I will post a few pictures of the work.  Have a great day.  Happy Trails Bert

 

Is there any place on here with instructions for posting Pics and what format they must be in?  Thanks