Norcold hinge problem

[sunshine 1]

My right fridge door is saging. Do I have a hinge problem? The door have not come of the hinge. Attached is 3 pictures on the right side door one picture of the tops on the left door.

[Gonefishing]

The hint looks bent to me. Try and straighten it or replace

[sunshine 1]

Thank you Gonefishing for your reply. I got a little discouraged there were so many who had viewed the post, but you were the only one who cared to respond. Thanks again.
I fixed the problem by replacing the broken plastic washer on the bottom hinge with a regular washer.

[rohrmann]

When we had a cooling unit replaced years ago, the mobile tech showed me that he bent the bottom hinge up a bit before putting the door back on. He said a washer added would do the same thing so the door would be raised up a bit.

[sunshine 1]

Thanks Rohrmann for that info.

[Robev]

It’s an issue we have had on our 35’ 3120 manufactured in 2019. We boondock a lot and so much of our travel is off the main highway and so we are exposed to a lot more rough roads in our travels. The bent hinge we have corrected about three times over our four years of ownership. No 1 cause is rough roads and No2 cause is too much weight in the fridge door. Typically large drink bottles of milk etc, that stresses the door hinge lower, hitting or going over large pot holes. The double doors will cause the centre flap not to close and that’s just because the height of the doors has dropped. You can use washers to lift the door a little, but eventually the door support needs bending upwards. On mine, I have recorded the distance from the hinge bottom to the floor when it’s perfect. I use a 10” crescent to bend the hinge back up again and make sure both doors are the same distance up from the floor. I have photos on my home computer which I will post here later this evening when I get home.

[Robev]

As promised, here are the measurements I promised I found after it was set up on my Montana 3120 2019.

[Daryles]

Maybe cut a block of wood and put it under the Hinges on Travel days AFTER you get it set to the correct height.
IF you go this way, you would want to put some felt on the bottom of the block of wood to prevent scratching the linoleum.
Also attach ribbon flags to the blocks trailing out on the floor as a reminder to remove the blocks before putting the slide out.

[Robev]

Brilliant suggestion Darly! I'm going to do that and will post a pic here once its completed.


On the 3120, there is a small ledge, from memory, on the bottom outside edge of the kitchen slide, that I am hoping will hold a block of wood from falling out while the RV is underway. The felt is a great suggestion. I have a lot of carpet 'off-cuts' that I can use instead of the felt, that will do the same job. (use what's available). Rather than use a flag, I'll use some bright paint on the wooden block, so it stand out and looks out of place!


Like most RV'ers, we have a pre-departure check that we go through before we lock the door and go, and this will be another part of that check list. My wife doesn't like having to lie milk containers etc on their side in the fridge, rather than using the door, which is much more convenient. So using a block in future will mean she 'can' instead use that space in the door. Further, if the block and felt/carpet is a tight 'friction fit', is should take maybe up to 75% of the weight in the door, rather than all that weight being transferred to the lower door hinge. As the 'Good Book' says, Iron sharpens Iron. So thank you fellow RV'ers for sharing your ideas on here. You are all contributing to a better ownership experience, using and living in our Montana RV's.

[Daryles]

You are right. There is a bit of floor there under the fridge you can set the block on.
Maybe drill a small screw hole through the Hinge.
Set the block then put a screw through to keep it in place permanently.

[daboom11]

The teflon washer is worn out or missing between the door and hinge. 20 cent fix!

[sunshine 1]

Thanks for all the help and suggestions. Yes I do a lot of disbursed camping with bumpy roads and also to much weight on the door pockets causing the problem.
Anyway when the door was taken of to replace the washer one screw broke of so the door is hold up by 2 screws instead of 3 screws. See attached picture.
Any suggestions how to take out the broken screw?

[Daryles]

I can only think of drill the screw and use an
EZ- out.

[sunshine 1]

I tried a extraction drill bit little smaller than the screw, it didn't do anything the screw is to hard, I had the drill on counter clock wise. I don't have any experience extraction screws. Do I need a smaller EZ out than the screw?

[Robev]

Update on the fridge door dropping situation.



Thanks to the great suggestion by Daryl, I followed up on his suggestion of supporting the bottom hinge, so that it can't be bent any further on rough roads. Initially I thought about making a block that I could remove and only use when we knew we might be going on rough roads, but as we boondock about 95% of the time, we are always coming across roads that are less than perfect. So I decided to make the block a permanent fixture. I score BIG with my wife who likes to place bottles of milk etc, mainly on both front doors. Because we are both right handed, we tended to use the right hand side of the fridge door more, and this was the first one to have a reoccurring bent pivot support problem. Over the last four years, I've had to reset the door four times and got to the point of noting on the fridge lower door, the ideal 're-bent' height setting.


There is a horizontal plastic strip that runs along the bottom face of the door and I had to cut a recess into the wooden block so the block didn't interfere with this decorative and non structural addition. There is a ledge that comes out from the bottom of the fridge floor/slide, that comes out about 2-3" and on the outside of that slide is a black painted wooden decorative and protective piece of timber that is nailed into the front side of the slide floor. This works perfectly to stop the wooden block from moving out from under the hinge when the RV is mobile and falling out on the floor. Additionally, the lower hinge has a strengthening 'crease' in it as it extends out to the lower fridge door pin/pivot and this is designed to strengthen the hinge and I assume prevent it from bending like it does!! In this modification, I used this to provide a 'jockey detent' in the top of the wood, so it would be locked into position and wouldn't move. The block I made out of some old waste 4 x 3 timber. I sanded and filled and fared them before finally painting them gloss black. The timber was about 1/8 to 1/4' lower than the hinge, sitting underneath. So I covered the hinge in green masking tape and then used a fiberglass impregnated with builders bog to build up the area on top of the wood, so it would mold into the shape of the underside of the lower hinge. In other words, I used the hinge covered in masking tape to make a mold of the hinge. As the bog was about 80% dry, of removed the wooden blocks and shaped them so they were starting to look a bit more presentable. As you will see from the finished pictures, unless you knew the fridge wasn't supposed to have the door support like I have made, they just look like part of the construction. To get these wooden blocks into and out of place, I had to use a hammer to knock them into place sideways, from the direction of the oven, as they were a friction fit. There is no way they will come out and I know they will be taking about 95+ of the normal weight of the door and 100% of the weight when we hit a bad bump in the road, and that I will no longer have to adjust the fridge door. Again thanks to Daryl for the suggestion of using a block. It was just what I needed to set my imagination rolling and this solution followed. Hope this helps others as they have helped me. Rob

[Robev]

Sorry these attachments didn't attached the first time I tried it. Rob

[ChuckS]

Very nice looking permanent fix to the fridge door hinges... This would also work on the Dometic RM1350 four door fridge I think... Very nice job