Drawer Trouble - Roads 3; Brays 0

Sorry it's been a while since we posted but Kim and I have been fighting off the flu. It hit Kim first with a severe headache like a migraine and then sore throat, body aches, chills, and the usual stuffy head. 4 days later, it hit me too.

I am finally at the point that I can think through the headache enough to put some coherent thoughts together so here we go!

We drove up I-17 from Phoenix and are camping at Verde Ranch RV Resort in Camp Verde, Az. I-17 was pretty rough in spots. (Come on Arizona, you can do better!) When we arrived we didn't notice anything amiss but a little later when we went to make dinner, we found that the middle drawer next to the oven wouldn't slide out at all and neither would the bottom one! Here we go again, more damage from the rough roads!

We pulled the top drawer as far out as it would go, figuring we would remove it so we could see what was blocking the middle one and then remove the obstacle. Naturally, the slide wouldn't release on the right side. The left side released just fine but the right side would start to and then hit something hard that wouldn't give.

It did leave enough of a gap that we could see down into the next drawer and find out that the bottom of the middle drawer had broken out and dropped the contents down into the bottom drawer. That's why neither would pull out. The bottom of the middle one was hitting on the cabinet frame and wouldn't move and the bottom one was locked in place by the drawer bottom above it hanging in the way. To complicate matters, the glass bowl in the middle drawer had slid all the way back and was forcefully holding the bottom in place because it was wedged under the back support for the cabinet! Talk about a pickle!

We kept trying to get the top one to release but it eventually wouldn't even release a little bit on the right side and we noticed that the tiny screws holding the rails in place were falling out. Had to fix that first. Then we forced the middle drawer to come a bit forward so that we could get a hand in there to move things around and empty it out. The more we got out the further it would come forward until we got the whole thing pulled out. Luckily, it would come off the rails.

The drawer bottom is slid into grooves along the sides of the drawer frame and then the front and back are just held in place with short little staples. The staples had pulled out allowing the thin bottom wood to bend enough to escape the grooves. (Come on Grand Design, you can do better!) First, I pulled the staples up so the wood would go back into place. Then I had to gently bend the wooden bottom to get it back into the grooves and then I could drive the staples back into place. Clearly, the staples don't provide enough support on the front and back of the drawer to keep the bottom in place. I'm thinking about adding some quarter round trim along the inside of the front and back which I can attach with screws up from the bottom and through the sides to give it more support. I could put some along the sides as well for additional stability and maybe, if I'm lucky, use screws through the rails so the rails have more support.

I probably need to do all three drawers, though I don't know yet how I'll get to the back of the top one.

Anyone have this issue before or have a better idea how to handle it?

Update: We picked up some quarter round molding at a local Ace Hardware, some screws, and a saw and set to work strengthening the bottom of the drawers. My first thought was to screw the molding into the front and back of the drawer but the material is so thin I worried about just cracking it. Instead, I used some 1" nails I had to attach the molding to the back and front and then screwed the bottom up into the molding to assist the staples. While I was at it, I put better screws in the rails to keep them from coming loose so often. The tiny little screws the manufacturer uses work loose so easily.