Kitchen Drawer Problem Found*

[GrayGhost]

Are you sure one of you doesn't sleepwalk with a sledgehammer?

 

Don't know why or when Oliver switched over to the drawer mechanisms you have, but it looks like they need to rethink the change. The ones we have are rock-solid, screws are in the sides of the drawers, and do not come open underway. I don't have anything to measure the force required to open our drawers, but it's at least 10lbs and they never come open on the road. (Ours has a short drawer under the sink rather than the one that pulls down like yours.) With the location being so low on the door for those short screws means a lot of leverage is being put on them. The manufacturer should have provided longer screws. Looks like Oliver (and customers) are learning the hard way that Oliver will need to use different screws..... and probably fill the screw holes with 3m 5200 when putting the longer screws in.

[KarenLukens]

Are you sure one of you doesn’t sleepwalk with a sledgehammer?

 

Karen does turn into the Hulk when confronted :) I think it's from the Fukushima water that we all love to drink here on the west coast. It's gotta be good if it's made in Japan, right? :)

 

 

Actually Jason sent us an email today warning us about the sponge drawer.... Just a few minutes to late... Apparently the 3 new 2017's that went out with ours, are all having the same problems and Oliver as you know, will make everything right. Unfortunately, I think it is mostly being caused by using pine as the cabinet backing. Are the 2016 and before cabinets made from pine or a hardwood?

We might end up with Cocobolo wood or abalone faces if I get inclined, it would be a simply beautiful fix :)

 

[Overland]

Is it not a veneered plywood? It doesn't look like the back of that door has been sealed either. I'd think it would have a coat of poly like the drawers.

[geO]

I'm getting nervous about picking up my Oliver this month with all these drawer issues!

[GrayGhost]

I just checked our drawers. I'm usually pretty good at identifying wood types, but it's hard to tell. Ours is either pine or poplar. I'm leaning towards poplar because the wood (coated with urethane) does not dent with a fingernail, but the color is not as green as poplar usually is.

[cptgringo]

We got one of the first 17's in March. Haven't had the drawer issues yet, But wait till you see what passed thru my sewer hose. Gotta get the grandkids to show me how to do photos.

[Monlezun]

Like geO, I am getting very concerned about picking our Oliver 1 week from tomorrow. Living in Colorado, don't relish the thought of having to travel back to Hohenwald after a brief ownership because of drawers falling apart at a rapid rate like Reed and Karen are experiencing.

 

Hopefully, Jason and OTT is on this. I do know our Oliver is complete and has been through the final inspection according to Jason yesterday when we spoke by phone.

 

I has full confidence that OTT will make this good. Because of our state of residence mentioned above, I will not be leaving the factory until I'm satisfied with a modification/fix to rectify this unfortunate issue OTT and its customers are dealing with at present.

 

"Custom Designed Storage Drawers with Dovetail Joints" This is a quote on the Legacy Elite II site. I do take this to mean quality, shouldn't I??

 

Like I said, OTT will make this good. Very bad for business otherwise.

 

Malcolm M.

 

 

[Hikegsm]

I too spoke with Oliver today. I am very concerned. We travel on some rough dirt/rock forest service roads when camping. I asked Anita about the old drawer glides and the possibility of getting those. She said there had been problems with them and that was why they switched to these. She advised me not to get them. She did say they would be looking into other options. She is suppose to update me tomorrow on possibilities. Even though I think the soft close and open draws are very attractive and "high-end" I would prefer a drawer that can hold a reasonable amount of weight and remain securely closed during travel-- even on rough roads! I know Oliver would make it right if we were to experience a problem but I would rather have no problems and save myself a trip back to the factory. I will let you know what I find out tomorrow.

 

Yvonne

[GaryJona]

I have over 40,000 miles on my Oliver II purchased in 2015 hull #81 and friends we travel a lot with in hull #82 with probably more miles than we do have never had any problem with our drawers or anything that Oliver did not bend over backwards to fix, even when it was not their issue but purchased product issues. We have traveled the Rockies, Desert, Hot Summers in the south and frost heaves in Alaska trips, not to say this can't happen but when you are in something mechanical you should always be prepared. Happy travels for all and see you at the rally or the open roads I just had to drop my 2 cents worth on the forum, Thanks Gary

[GrayGhost]

As stated in an earlier post in this thread, I too, have had no issues with my drawers with the previous style drawer slides; I find them to be quite rugged, and never have opened regardless of road conditions- so I am surprised that Anita said that they switched to the current ones because of issues. That said, I do think there should be some guidance or some reasonable expectations as to how much weight should be placed in them. As I have read through this forum over time, it is clear that there are different types of traveling "styles" from being minimalist to carrying everything including the kitchen sink. I can't help but think that how the drawers are used will impact the performance regardless of the hardware used. It is clear to me though just from the photos, that the switch from the old style to the new was not an improvement.

[KarenLukens]

I also spoke to Jason today and they have replaced the short screws with the longer. I ended up pulling the drawers out, checking all of the screws and fixing the sponge drawer by addin a piece of tooth pick to each hole. It is a soft wood laminate with simply the wrong screws. OTT is taking this seriously and has already secured a fix for the trailers still in their inventory. I scored the plywood face easily with my index fingers fingernail.

 

On another note, the page doesn't let me run in "Visual" mode anymore, so I have no spell check anymore and sometimes I peck too fast on this little tablet... So I am appologizing for some of the incorrect spelling that you guys are seeing of mine because I'm just to lazy to go back and fix it when I see them all. It's nothing serious, so please take my bad spelling with a grain oif salt :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KarenLukens]

... OTT is taking this seriously and has already secured a fix for the trailers still in their inventory, and they have already got the new screws, 2 new drawers, and a new mirror in the mail to us, so they are on the ball and making the changes needed immediately. This is a small issue and easily fixed, even on the road. Oliver has made some big changes in the last few years and they continue to do their best to give us the highest quality product out there. These Blum slides are supposed to be the top of the line and as far as sliding, they work great, they looked at my fix today with the extra screws and called me up to talk about the slides. I told them that I like them and also we talked about how to improve them. So Oliver is on it, and there's no worries about that on our end :)

[SeaDawg]

Off topic, but has posting from your tablet improved any?

I haven't been able to post from WiFi in months, but recently, I can turn off data and post. I'm so excited about that, as my data drops to 3g after 2 gig, and I've wasted that on the forum in a week....

 

Thanks for the updates and photos. Not surprised that Oliver is taking care of your issues, and forward looking, but very glad, all the same.

Hope you make it to the home port soon, and safely. It's been an interesting trip, following your adventures.

Sherry

[KarenLukens]

Off topic, but has posting from your tablet improved any?

It seemed to improve but then this morning it switched to the text screen, so in came the small fonts and no more spelling or grammar checks. when I click visual, it's just not there... I never thought that I would actually miss the spell checker, but...

I never post without first saving the text to my clip board, and it took me 5 tries to get one post to load in today. It kept saying it was a copy but never showed the original, so I kept adding words, re-pasting and submitting until it finally took and I could see it. Pretty ridiculous actually but, I remember how we used to have to fight the 90's style forums... This one brings back old triggers, so I always save now before sending :)

 

 

Do I need bigger glasses? Or do we all :)

[SeaDawg]

Oh, thats not great. Are you on Android, or iPhone? iPad? If not iPad, which tablet? I haven't tried my tablet lately.

I was just gloating a few minutes ago, because I've been able to post, for the first time ever in months, from my verizon Android turbo on wifi, without chewing data minutes.

I, too, back up every potential post on copy/clipboard.. Just in case. It's been a bear lately. Hope it improves for you, too, very soon. IT is migrating our forum to new format, as we type. It will be awhile, as there is a lot of old data and photos.

We have no ETA for the end product. Could be a week or two... Or?

The last time we did a data migration, the forum was down for almost a week. Moving it live could take longer.

Thanks for hanging in.

Sherry

[KarenLukens]

Its a Verizon Ellipsis 10 Android... Im hanging :)

[donbob3]

My hull is 140. Picked up May 2016. Could someone summarize what I should be doing to determine if I have this problem? So far, no drawers have fallen out. However one drawer front is loose. I understand the problem with short screws on the closing mechanism, but I get lost after this. Thanks.

[KarenLukens]

My hull is 140. Picked up May 2016. Could someone summarize what I should be doing to determine if I have this problem? So far, no drawers have fallen out. However one drawer front is loose. I understand the problem with short screws on the closing mechanism, but I get lost after this. Thanks.

 

If you have the bottom Blum runners with the Orange handle then so far, only the front screws are being replaced by longer ones. You can see if you have the Blum runners by using a mirror to look under the top drawer. If you see this

 

Then you simply squeeze the edges to open the lock and lift the drawer out and off of the runner. Oliver is replacing the short front screws you can see in the picture with longer screws.

Then on page 1 there are links to 2 youtube videos that go into the Blum runners and how they work extensively if you do have these drawer runners.

[Try2Relax]

Reed, it's been a long time since I built kitchens, but that clip looks installed backwards (left and right are swapped) you should be able to squeeze the orange clip towards the outer edge of the drawer. And the metal should be up against the side wood.

 

Edit - Sorry, just made the picture bigger and can see that screws aren't actually attached.

[KarenLukens]

Reed, it’s been a long time since I built kitchens, but that clip looks installed backwards (left and right are swapped) you should be able to squeeze the orange clip towards the outer edge of the drawer. And the metal should be up against the side wood.

 

Edit – Sorry, just made the picture bigger and can see that screws aren’t actually attached.

 

 

Thanks Randy, I was just showing the screw length :)

[ScubaRx]

I just walked in the door after being in Hohenwald since yesterday. I looked at the drawer problem and it has been corrected. It is my understanding that they are retrofitting all the ones that are still there on the lot to be picked up by future customers. Surprisingly there are about 12 finished trailers waiting on customers to come pick them up. I do realize that there are folks that live further away from the factory than I do but if one of them was mine I'd be on my way! Anyway, back on subject they have built a jig mechanism that aligns the longer screws and puts them in at a proper angle. I believe that this will end the problem coming out of the factory. For those that have the shorter screws it should not be a very difficult job to replace them at home.

[Mainiac]

I have heard from a customer that my unit of was done. She said it was waiting decals. I am waiting the call from the factory that that is so.

Guess it was fortunate for us, it should have allowed for the drawers to be 'fixed'. Guess we will inquire tomorrow. 3000 mile round trip, is not something we would do for 16 or so short screws...

[Jason Essary]

Please see TSB regarding Kitchen Drawers: TSB: Galley Drawers

[KarenLukens]

They sent us new drawers last week and also a set of longer screws for the other 3. We haven't had a problem since and the new screws are 3/4" full thread so it looks fine. What I did do different was I changed the magnet plate distance on the back of the drawers so that they make full contact with the magnet. Before, they were 1/8" away from hitting.

[KarenLukens]

Well.... The 3 drawers that I fixed work great :) The other 2 below the sink were open yesterday... Lol At least they stayed in. Karen asked me why I hadn't fixed them yet.... My answer was pretty simple... Yes Dear... Lol.