# cupboard door catches



## lifestyle

Hi

I am having problems opening the cupboard doors in my Bolero,i have eventually managed to open them all .
The catches are only a flimsy piece of plastic,and maybe they have become distorted with the cold weather,i have not used the Mh this year.
Anyone else having this problem ?.


Les


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## Grizzly

lifestyle said:


> Hi
> I am having problems opening the cupboard doors in my Bolero,i have eventually managed to open them all .
> The catches are only a flimsy piece of plastic,and maybe they have become distorted with the cold weather,i have not used the Mh this year.
> Anyone else having this problem ?.
> Les


We always find the wood swells slightly in the cold weather and this makes the locker door that is closest to the wardrobe foul the side of the wardrobe. There's only the tiniest of gaps there.

The doors of the undersink cupboard also get very stiff when it is cold and need an effort to close.

As soon as we get on the road and it all warms up inside it will be fine again and back to normal.

This might be your problem - ?

G.


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## Zebedee

Post a photo Les.

If they are the same as ours I can tell you how to fix them - permanently.

Ours are rubbish - or they were until I fixed them. They work fine now.

Dave


Whoops - just remembered we have a new van, so I shall have to do all the new catches now. Bu***r!! 8O 8O


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## lifestyle

Thanks G,
The door below the fridge appears to be warped a little,and that was the trickiest to open .

I guess you are right,getting back on road may well do the trick.

Thanks for your time.

Les


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## lifestyle

Hi Zebedee,

Sorry unable to post photo,not very clever with pc`s.  

The handles are grey with a button push in the middle.

My MH is a 2009 Bolero.

Thanks 

Les


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## Zebedee

Hi Les

Different to mine then, but it could be a similar problem.

Can't do anything today, but if I have time tomorrow I will go to the van and dismantle one of mine. It will have to be done before long anyway as they are bound to seize up. :roll: 

I'll take a couple of photo's and explain what I did to fix it. May be useful to others even if it doesn't help you.

Regards

Dave


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## poleman

*cupboard*

Hi, ours are the same, went out to the van last week and could barely press the buttons and once pushed in the wouldn't come out again.
I unscrewed the catches to lubricate them with silicone spray but they just stick open (spring seems too weak).
I'm hoping they free up in the warmer weather because I now have two locker doors swinging free!


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## Briarose

Hi not much help, but it sounds as if we have the same handles as you..........but no problem with them, we have used the MH a few times this winter and when not in use we have had a small oil filled radiator in there, so maybe that has helped.

By the way to any Bolero FB owners on our recent trip to Peterborough, we found that by popping the towels we were using for the showers under the bed (not touching the boiler obv) aired our towels and made them lovely and warm, just like the airing cupboard at home.........don't know why we haven't thought of this before, Hubby draped them over the aliminuin pole that supports the bed.


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## Zebedee

*Re: cupboard*



poleman said:


> Hi, ours are the same, went out to the van last week and could barely press the buttons and once pushed in the wouldn't come out again.
> I unscrewed the catches to lubricate them with silicone spray but they just stick open (spring seems too weak).
> I'm hoping they free up in the warmer weather because I now have two locker doors swinging free!


That sounds just like mine, and they won't . . . free up that is!!

Well, not permanently.

The cure is tedious but simple, and as said already I'll post photo's and the remedy if I have time tomorrow.

Family problems are taking a lot of time at the moment, so no promises . . . but it will appear eventually!

Dave


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## jettdt

I noticed this on the one I'm just buying, they are fixing them in the PDI, looks like it may be a problem that will come back though, will be interesting to see Dave's fix.


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## Zebedee

You might have to wait until I've bought a new camera!! 8O

Unless Mrs Zeb has run both the batteries flat (_how could I accuse her of such a thing_ 8O :roll: ) it is stuffed!!

Can I explain without a photo?? :?

Take the catch mechanism apart - and watch out for the little spring which might "ping" and be lost forever!!

The latch bit itself will have an angled end which actually does the latching.

The sides of this bit of plastic need sanding down as it is too wide and sticks in its housing.

It's the trapezoidal faces that need sanding, and you needn't be too careful as they don't have to be a very close fit . . . they are that already which is why they stick!! I savaged mine on the sander until they rattled when I put them back together (without the spring to hold then in tension of course.)

I have a belt sander which makes it easy, but a bit of elbow grease rubbing the faces on a sheet of coarse sandpaper will do the trick.

They should then work fine without any lubrication - in fact I'd advise against it as some plastics swell when in contact with the likes of WD40.

I hope this makes some sense, but as I said earlier, it's tricky to explain without a photo. :roll:

Dave


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## jettdt

Yep that seems to make sense, I will see how well the dealer rectifies them when I take delivery then will do them as and when they inevitably stick, 

thanks


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## lifestyle

Dave, i will give your suggestion a go,and let you know how i get on,as soon as i purchase some sandpaper.

Thanks again

Les


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## CatSailor

Just been to check our Bolero in storage and all the cupboard locks are having the same problem.

I did notice this a few weeks ago and thought it might be temperature related (it was about 0 deg at the time) but today was 10 deg but no improvement.

The central buttons are all VERY stiff to push in and then don't pop out again when you do manage to get the cupboard open.

Wonder if Swift would like to comment or make a suggestion?

Catsailor


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## ThePrisoner

Come on Swift....give us a clue. Ours are the same  :x


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## neilbes

Squirted mine with WD40 about 3 months ago,all been perfect since
no sign of any swelling..

WD40 fixes everything don't you know ! 8)


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## brianamelia

*reply*



neilbes said:


> Squirted mine with WD40 about 3 months ago,all been perfect since
> no sign of any swelling..
> 
> WD40 fixes everything don't you know ! 8)


I had exactly the same problem last week .I sprayed them with wd40 but also had to slightly loosen the two philips screws which cured the problem
bri


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## lifestyle

Just to update you all.I have managed to get all the catches working ,without sanding them ,i thought i would try the WD40 first.and hey presto.I dont know why i was making a fuss.   

Thanks everyone for your help.
Keep :lol: :lol:


Les


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## Jented

Question.
Did Zebedee have a safety net when he was sanding the faces of his Trapez idols?
Ted


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## lifestyle

Jented said:


> Question.
> Did Zebedee have a safety net when he was sanding the faces of his Trapez idols?
> Ted


There must have been a big bucket of water for them to fall into :lol: :lol:

Les


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## Zebedee

lifestyle said:


> Just to update you all.I have managed to get all the catches working ,without sanding them ,i thought i would try the WD40 first.and hey presto.I dont know why i was making a fuss.
> 
> Thanks everyone for your help.
> Keep :lol: :lol:
> 
> Les


Fingers crossed Les - I did that at first but the improvement didn't last long. :roll:

Maybe they are made of a different plastic now, as this problem was well known by AutoSleepers, and presumably other manufacturers. Perhaps they got the catch makers to fix it?

Hope so, but am not holding my breath. 8O

Dave


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## peej

My 12 month old AS Symbol has this problem as well. I used silicon furniture polish effectively.

Peter


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## poleman

Quick update, Ive removed all 11 of my catches sanded, lubed and refitted. Some catches did need spraying with WD40 to strip them! I did spray all of my catches last year and they were fine until it was laid up for winter. Hopefully they are fixed permanently now.


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## Zebedee

Hi Poleman

Had a look at mine today - on the van which I collected on 2nd Jan this year!! 8O 8O 

Two of them are already quite stiff, so I think I'll be proactive and sand them all anyway. :roll: 

Can't be doing with the inconvenience of catches that don't work when we are on holiday.

Dave


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## Mer

My Ace Airstream is the same! The lock catches consistently jam and my son-in-law is a dab hand with the screwdriver! Haven't seen my van since December 18, but told I can collect it from the mh doctors on Monday - hoping all the ailments it went in for are now cured. The patient is only two years old next month and has only managed to struggle 6,000 miles so far, what with the recalls and problems.


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