Securing Residential Refrigerator

[boxers-rule]

Earlier this week I was heading out for our 3rd trip in our new Berkshire XL 40BH with a fully loaded Whirlpool 3 door refrig with water/ice in-door. Having my daughter notice before that the refrig has a tendency to lean out a bit on right hand turns, I had already checked the bracket that holds the unit in on the topside. Feeling that Forest River had designed it correctly, I didn't really concern myself. Well, I was wrong! 2 miles away from home, touched a curb on back side right hand turn and instantly heard crash. Wife turns and yells the refrig fell over. Was able to stop immediately and notice bracket had pulled out of the simple little wood trim strip it was attached to. Thankfully nothing real bad as the refrig had actually wedged itself so it didn't fall over to the other side of the rig and damage anything else. Wife and I pushed the unit back and carefully drove to Home Depot. I bought a couple of screw eyes and a strong bungee. Grabbed my tools and secured the screw eyes into the wood that I could reach on the top space of the refrig cabinet. Unfortunately while I could reach the inside on the left, I couldn't on the right. So that screw eye is on the outside, way up top of the pantry. Bungeed it thru the door handles, breathed a sigh of relief and went on our way.

Bottom line is the wood trim that the refrig bracket is attached to is way too weak and need to be be built up to handle the weight shift. Bad design by FR.

Has anybody had an issue with this bracket and how did you handle it?

[Campin Cajun]

I would contact your dealer if still under warranty or FR directly. I'm sure they would fix it correctly.

[OldCoot]

A Z bar on the front and rear adjustable legs would keep it from tipping.

[15berkxl]

Originally Posted by boxers-rule

Earlier this week I was heading out for our 3rd trip in our new Berkshire XL 40BH with a fully loaded Whirlpool 3 door refrig with water/ice in-door. Having my daughter notice before that the refrig has a tendency to lean out a bit on right hand turns, I had already checked the bracket that holds the unit in on the topside. Feeling that Forest River had designed it correctly, I didn't really concern myself. Well, I was wrong! 2 miles away from home, touched a curb on back side right hand turn and instantly heard crash. Wife turns and yells the refrig fell over. Was able to stop immediately and notice bracket had pulled out of the simple little wood trim strip it was attached to. Thankfully nothing real bad as the refrig had actually wedged itself so it didn't fall over to the other side of the rig and damage anything else. Wife and I pushed the unit back and carefully drove to Home Depot. I bought a couple of screw eyes and a strong bungee. Grabbed my tools and secured the screw eyes into the wood that I could reach on the top space of the refrig cabinet. Unfortunately while I could reach the inside on the left, I couldn't on the right. So that screw eye is on the outside, way up top of the pantry. Bungeed it thru the door handles, breathed a sigh of relief and went on our way.

Bottom line is the wood trim that the refrig bracket is attached to is way too weak and need to be be built up to handle the weight shift. Bad design by FR.

Has anybody had an issue with this bracket and how did you handle it?

Yes sir I have been fighting this issue since my maiden voyage in April. DW spent return trip sitting on couch across from frig with feet up against frig. Did I mention trip was 10 hours and she was not pleased. I contacted FR and dealer and arranged meeting to discuss. They felt making the top bracket larger would keep it in place. Fast forward to July 1st with trip planned July 2nd. Loading frig I notice new bracket is again on top of frig and frig is leading forward. Calling dealer and emailing FR
Dealer tech makes a house call and 3 hours later they added shims in front to keep bracket in place. Determine 4 screws 3/4 inch long hold bracket to trim with no chance of holding anything. While laying on the floor tech determined real reason frig drops and comes out of bracket. Floor in area of kitchen slide bows down from weight of frig and slide which causes frig to drop and bracket to come loose. Also no roller on left slide of frig. Frig is attached to cabinets but not to slide floor. He put in 5 screws through cabinet into floor plus added a piece of 2 x 4 on top of frig cabinet to keep it from tipping. Good news frig did not move during last trip but tech explained this is a temporary fix to get us on the road.
Fast forwarding to today still waiting for FR to determine what they are going to do as a permanent fix.
Attached are some pictures.

Wayne

[Hallen01]

Originally Posted by boxers-rule

Bottom line is the wood trim that the refrig bracket is attached to is way too weak and need to be be built up to handle the weight shift. Bad design by FR.

Has anybody had an issue with this bracket and how did you handle it?

Have any photos? That would be helpful. I don't even understand how to get the wood trim that secures the Dometic in my 2013 off, without destroying adjacent trim.