1976 Palm Beach
TZE166V100710
I noticed early on in my GMC ownership experience that the bathroom door would not open all the way. Instead of hitting the door stop on top of the drawer module it would hit the drawers. The problem with that was that I could not open any drawers with the bathroom door open. That was kind of a hassle if I wanted to open a drawer with the bathroom door open. I also noticed that there was a 1/2"gap between the monitor panel wall and the outer wall.
I learned that this is apparently caused by the weight of the stuff on the roof pressing down and causing the side of the coach to bulge out away from the interior. Emery S. may have been the first to describe this as Middle Age Spread. He has a good write up on what caused it and a way to fix the problem.
Emery's Middle Age Spread Fix.
I came up with a different approach by accident. It came about when I was installing a new refrigerator to replace the OEM unit which had failed after only 25 years of service. When I removed the OEM fridge I discovered that there was nothing holding the top of the refrigerator module to the coach. What ever was supposed to have secured it to the frame was long gone or had never been installed. The module was screwed to the floor but was free to move on top. I thought that as long as I was going to the trouble of installing a new LP gas reefer I would secure the module better. .
So I went to Home Depot and bought a pair of turnbuckles. I bought the kind that has a hook on one end and a eye on the other end. I also bought a pair of galvanized straps from the building department. I welded the eye of each turnbuckle to the end of each strap.
Page was last modified: 08/29/2006 01:19:22 PM