Loose overhead storage screws

[sliderock]

After hunting for and finding the squeak/squawk noise while driving down the road, I find that the passenger side overhead storage compartment will move up and down at the front. Tried to tighten the screws but they are stripped so is it safe to drill new pilot holes and move the screws about a quarter of an inch or so from their original place? Is there plenty of solid material to hold more screws as long as I use ones of the same length?

[Blue~Go]

After hunting for and finding the squeak/squawk noise while driving down the road, I find that the passenger side overhead storage compartment will move up and down at the front. Tried to tighten the screws but they are stripped so is it safe to drill new pilot holes and move the screws about a quarter of an inch or so from their original place? Is there plenty of solid material to hold more screws as long as I use ones of the same length?

Are you speaking of the cabinet that runs along over the couch? Or the passenger side of the one over the cab?

Presuming you mean the couch one, then there is very likely a strip of plywood running the length of the roof where the screws go, so you could move them over a bit as you say. One thing I would check is that they "just" pulled out (which would not be surprising as they are not in shear but rather pulling straight down, and those MDF cabinets are HEAVY). What I mean is that another scenario could be that the plywood strip in the roof somehow took on water from above and is compromised. That's not the most likely scenario, but you'd want to know (I could suggest some things to do with epoxy if so). When you take the stripped screws out, you could poke around in the hole with something like a dental pick and get a "sample" to see the condition.

A stronger way could be to drill an oversized hole into the plywood, then fill it with thickened epoxy and tap that, or bond in a "G-10" (epoxy/fiberglass) tube and tap that; but that may not be necessary, and just putting in new screws would be easier if it would do the job.

Here is a document showing what is in the roof from 1999 (my era). You can see that there is a strip of 3/4" plywood where the upper/inner edge of the cabinet is attached to the overhead. Hmm, well okay, .pdf is not allowed to be uploaded, and when I took a .jpg screen shot the detail was all blurred. Anyway, there is a strip of 3/4" plywood (in '99 anyway) that runs along where those screws are at the upper/inner edge of the cabinets over the couch. It is 6" wide and 95" long and starts right where the roof goes up and flattens out behind the overcab.

[sliderock]

After hunting for and finding the squeak/squawk noise while driving down the road, I find that the passenger side overhead storage compartment will move up and down at the front. Tried to tighten the screws but they are stripped so is it safe to drill new pilot holes and move the screws about a quarter of an inch or so from their original place? Is there plenty of solid material to hold more screws as long as I use ones of the same length?

Are you speaking of the cabinet that runs along over the couch? Or the passenger side of the one over the cab?

Presuming you mean the couch one, then there is very likely a strip of plywood running the length of the roof where the screws go, so you could move them over a bit as you say. One thing I would check is that they "just" pulled out (which would not be surprising as they are not in shear but rather pulling straight down, and those MDF cabinets are HEAVY). What I mean is that another scenario could be that the plywood strip in the roof somehow took on water from above and is compromised. That's not the most likely scenario, but you'd want to know (I could suggest some things to do with epoxy if so). When you take the stripped screws out, you could poke around in the hole with something like a dental pick and get a "sample" to see the condition.

A stronger way could be to drill an oversized hole into the plywood, then fill it with thickened epoxy and tap that, or bond in a "G-10" (epoxy/fiberglass) tube and tap that; but that may not be necessary, and just putting in new screws would be easier if it would do the job.

Here is a document showing what is in the roof from 1999 (my era). You can see that there is a strip of 3/4" plywood where the upper/inner edge of the cabinet is attached to the overhead. Hmm, well okay, .pdf is not allowed to be uploaded, and when I took a .jpg screen shot the detail was all blurred. Anyway, there is a strip of 3/4" plywood (in '99 anyway) that runs along where those screws are at the upper/inner edge of the cabinets over the couch. It is 6" wide and 95" long and starts right where the roof goes up and flattens out behind the overcab.

Thank you. I would like to have seen your pictures but it is not necessary as your description is about what I thought it would be. No rust on the end of the screws so no sign of moisture anywhere. I drilled a couple of new holes close to the originals and replaced some original screws, eights, with tens. Problem solved, I think.

Ivan

[Blue~Go]

Sounds good. If there was no rust on the screws, I'd be thinking the same as you, that they just stripped from "natural causes."

I'm not surprised because when I removed the bathroom door from my Concourse (which is made of the same MDF as the upper (and other) cabinet carcases), I could barely carry the thing! I staggered out with it (put it in storage). Although there is no sign of problem from my upper cabinets, I definitely started looking at them with a wary eye due to knowing the weight of the MDF (plus the oak doors) on screws not in sheer. Using #10's was a good idea.

At least now if something does come adrift, we know how someone else handled the issue - always a plus! I fantasize about re-making those cabinets from something lighter, but since they are in great shape I compromised by moving my clothing storage to them (lightweight).

[sliderock]

Those cabinets have to be heavy! But they sure are well built and look great! I had an old (1974) Alaskan 10' OTC that I sold recently and the hard part about letting it go was how nice the interior was. NO PLASTIC used anywhere! And so far, I haven't ran across any plastic in this old 1988 Concourse. That's good.

[Blue~Go]

Somehow I glossed right over that you had an '88. So who knows how the exact roof details might have changed, but sounds like they were close enough. I think it's neat how Chinook basically made the same thing for so long. Seems like they had a good combination of tradition/experience about what worked well, but yet a willingness to modernize techniques and make small improvements over time. I appreciate that.

One of the few things I dislike are the MDF cabinet carcases. I notice many people think they are real wood (at least going by ad text), but if you look at the Chinook description carefully, they do only say something like "real wood doors." I don't even really mind the look of the melamine/MDF, but only how crazily heavy it is, and how it responds instantly (by puffing up) to the least drop of water - like on the floor by the kitchen, where spilling is not exactly unheard of.

Still, I am happy with it as compared to many other RV's I looked over. It should easily outlast the usefulness of the Ford chassis (by which I just mean that, unlike a trailer with no engine, etc., a Class C or B sort of has a finite life because eventually most folks won't want to drive around an ancient chassis). Of course the "classics" do have their own cool factor

****

I do love the warm/birch interiors of the old Alaskans. I'd take one of those inside my Chinook any day

[Blue~Go]

Testing on now being able to post .pdfs (thanks, Manitou!).

Roof and wall diagrams from Chinook/1999:

Okay, well I have another issue now. That is that each attachment is only allowed to be 256kb, and these are around 650 kb each (I did divide the document into separate pages, but each one is still around 650kb). But since they are .pdf, my normal ways of reducing a file such as a .jpg are not working.

Edited May 28, because Manitou fixed things up so larger files could be uploaded (thanks!)

Roof construction detail.pdf

(617.57 KiB) Downloaded 141 times

wall construction detail.pdf

(666.95 KiB) Downloaded 132 times

Okay, so these don't show up as thumbnails, I guess, and you have to "download" them to be able to view them (at least I had to in my test). I know I don't like to "blindly" download things, so I will try to put a .jpg thumbnail here to show what these are. The .jpg will not be very legible, but it's just to show what the .pdfs are. Since this would make for four things in one post, I'll put them in the next post.

Also, if anyone downloads these successfully, could you let me know? I can't really be sure since already have them.

[Blue~Go]

Blurry thumbnails to give you the idea of what is contained in the above .pdfs.

Roof thumbnail:

Wall thumbnail:

[sliderock]

Thanks. PDF worked very well, I think.

I know what you mean by the "almost wood cabinets " and" real wood doors." I have to admit that I was surprised when I saw what they were made of. Two of the door latch screws are either stripped or just tired and that presents a bit of a problem. Larger screws will work for a while but that stuff reminds me of end grain on soft wood.

Guess we can't have the best at everything.

[Blue~Go]

Glad the .pdf's worked. Thanks for setting that up, Manitou.

Well you can guess Chinook "didn't mind" if anyone read the brochure and assumed the cabinets were all (real) wood. Heh.

Interestingly, I looked at two lightly used versions of a "another brand" of smaller, high quality coach a few weeks ago (over $100k new), and they really made me appreciate some of the Chinook build. They had cables (as in, thick wires) running under the coach with no sheathing whatsoever, stapled drawers with cheesy/sloppy glide hardware, tiny angle brackets holding the cabinetry up (only it wasn't anymore), poorly fit window clamp rings, silicone (!!!) caulk from the mfgr, scanty systems documentation, etc. Still nice rigs, and certainly the Chinooks have plenty of things that could be better, but.

Still don't like thinking about that MDF weight "hanging" overhead (80# of cabinet with 10# of clothing in it, LOL), but so far so good