3051S Pantry Upgrades

[bgilly]

Originally Posted by trwmodela

The back of my sliding pantry has a full wall. There is very little room for an item to shift on the open side when closed because of the plywood panels (see pic 2) that hold the shelve slides in place. Also, there is no lip at the door frame opening to stop the pantry from sliding out. It was built with tight specifications by a professional cabinet maker.

I agree your design is unique. I did notice you basically "filled" behind the stiles using the cabinet grade plywood to mount the pantry slides to. My pantry had the sliding back wall that the shelves were secured to but the front of the shelves were open except for a 1" lip.

I mention more for the benefit of anyone that may try a similar setup but not consider the inside cavity and clearance. Also to note to carefully select the slides. Weight tolerances are important but so are the releases of the slides should you need to pull the pantry out. The finger release typically means you have to have a finger on ever single slide to release the lock. If you have 8 slides with lever releases, you will need 8 fingers to release all the slide locks at the same time. I had 4 slides on my pantry. I had to fashion paperclips to hold 2 slide releases while I did the other 2.

Any way, an awesome way you made use of the space!

Bobby

[trwmodela]

We did not use locking slides on the design. But, installed a standard drawer style key lock to keep it closed. Basically the same as the outside cabinets locks. Walt, my cabinet maker did not understand the need to lock it until after he built the unit.

[rbetzwieser]

Looks awesome! I have a Sunseeker 3050s with the same pantry. Totally stealing your idea! I have 2 questions for you. How did you fill the handle holes once you moved it? I can't even tell they are there. Also do you have a picture or part number of the lock you ended up using? Thanks for posting this!

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[trwmodela]

The handle holes were filled with a colored crayon stick I believe. Not sure if Walt (my cabinet maker) filled them first. The lock was added later, it is a basic cabinet drawer lock with a 1/4 turn. Walt never built anything for an RV and did not understand the need for locking it in place. One thing you should know, there are two large plywood panels mounted inside the cabinet on each side wall. These give you a solid foundation to mount the slides. They also protrude a little beyond the face of the cabinet opening. But it prevents any items on the shelves from getting caught when you slide the pantry open. I use Sterilite containers they have the best sizes available and stack easily. The top shelves we made to hold can goods etc.

BTW....Forest River took my idea and had their Engineering Department built a demo. They plan on putting them in some of the new RV's.

[ourflat]

A hat for trwmodela? Why not give him a Forest River jacket with a nice word or two embroidered from the factory?

Just a thought!

[bodzcampers]

Awesome!

[rbetzwieser]

Just finished mine. Still need to poly it and add a lock. Decided to keep the door as is and pull out the pantry. Wife is happy!

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[phelpo]

great job to all, maybe FR will add this as std equipment

Phelpo

[trwmodela]

The engineering dept already built a prototype of my design last year. Still waiting on a Forest River cap....lol

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[bclemens]

Should start seeing them on dealer lots soon.

trwmodela, I don't have any caps on hand. How about a shirt? PM me your address and size.

[raoulwv]

How soon? If I ordered a 3011DS next week, could I expect a pull out pantry?

[bclemens]

Should

[phelpo]

Brian, like how soon is soon? Or was that April fools?

My rig is supposed to be
delivered the first week of April, so can I expect
the pantry to be a pull out?

Phelpo

[bclemens]

No guarantees.

If it is on there it's a bonus since it was not a listed feature. But, let's not get me in trouble by saying "well Brian said..." Then no one will find out anything from me until a year after we do it

[rbetzwieser]

I saw one on a 3051s at a Rv show in February.

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[phelpo]

my lips are sealed

Phelpo

[AprilFool]

My new rig is at the dealer - I would love to find out that it has this feature. Afraid to ask the salesman to go look. We take delivery Friday afternoon! It is too far to drive to just go look.

[rapiniii]

Any chance for after market purchase?

[phelpo]

sure

[bclemens]

Form parts maybe. Probably cheaper to have it built.