shibs Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Has anyone taken the top cabinets off a Winnebago? Can you please share how do I go about taking off the top cabinets. I want to remove all the top cabinets, reseal the roof edge and then add a support beam or beams across. Then put the cabinets back again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silverbox Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Yes, I have the same question. Any Luck on the answer yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wapiti Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 The cabinets in your motorhome are built outside of the unit on production line then installed after all interior panels are in. my experience with the cabs in my 83 dolphin is they all come out in one piece. The ceiling cabinets find all the screws attaching it to your roof rafters and wall studs & remove. You will need to remove the inner bottom cab skin on the inside to get access to screws and wires. For all the electrical things just cut your wire close to your light or speaker @ the original splice and pull wire thru cabinet chase and leave for re install. The metal grate that attach to counter top and bottom of cabinet can get removed also and either painted and re installed or go with something more creative to hold up your cabinets. In my toyhome i installed aluminum supports to take out a bad sag in the original ceiling then finished it off with some birch breadboard check out my project there are picks on ceiling renovation too http://s1379.photobucket.com/user/Andrew_Jahnke/media/IMG_1900_zpsa324ecb7.jpg.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shibs Posted May 1, 2015 Author Share Posted May 1, 2015 wapiti, So the cabinets are screwed from the inside to the studs? I have foam sandwich walls, I opened up a few cabinets and looked for screws but I could not locate any. Jodi has an 85, and he reported that his one, all the cabinets were screwed from the outside before the skin was put on. He had to cut the screws with a vibrating tool. I was looking at your pics, are those aluminum cross members from factory? Do they have a curve to them? I love this pic, it will really help to me to redo my cab, I like how you used kregs screws to attached the framing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WME Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 On my Escaper the cabinets have a false floor out of 1/8 ply. Removing it gets you to all the wiring. The cabinet is screwed to the wall at the top rear and bottom rear AND screwed to the ceiling through the upper front frame Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shibs Posted May 1, 2015 Author Share Posted May 1, 2015 hmm, maybe the screws heads on mine might be covered, I looked at the framing and could not see any screw heads. good info on the false bottom, I was wondering where all the wiring was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wapiti Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 The cross members are not factory. I did put a bit of a crown in the top or them to help with the water shed on the roof. A vibrating blade multi tool was my saving grace for the restore. I also had to cut some screws because i could not access the head Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Back East Don Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 I have a 87 Itasca that I removed most of the cabinets to rehab. When I pulled out the cabinet above the dinette I removed the screws that were driven up into the ceiling from the face frame. This still didn't release the cabinet. I pried further and found there was a screw secured from above. I am currently going completely over the roof and having stripped it down can tell you that mine has screws that were driven down right from the roof then sealed over. It was because of this that I did not pull out the fridge cabinet even though I needed to modify it to put in the new fridge which was larger. I just modified and repaired it in place. Look up on your roof and see if there is a circle of sealant at approximately the corners of those cabinets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Back East Don Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 I was up on the roof today putting up new lap sealant. Here is a picture of the screws that go through the roof into the cabinets and shower wall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shibs Posted May 3, 2015 Author Share Posted May 3, 2015 I was up on the roof today putting up new lap sealant. Here is a picture of the screws that go through the roof into the cabinets and shower wall. Don, Thanks, that makes sense, I dunno if I have these, but if I do, I will probably add steel/alu plates to the side walls and attach L-brackets to support the top cabinets from below instead of attaching them through the roof. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snail powered Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Don, Thanks, that makes sense, I dunno if I have these, but if I do, I will probably add steel/alu plates to the side walls and attach L-brackets to support the top cabinets from below instead of attaching them through the roof. You won't get enough support by only attaching them to the walls. You do need to have them fastened to the roof structure as well. So lets have a discussion on how upper cabinets are created. Cabinets are box shaped, that is what gives them strength. A modern kitchen cabinet is built as a box and then it is put in place screwed to the wall. The sides of the box are solid panels and they provide a lot of the strength of the cabinets. It is fastened at the top and bottom to the wall. An L bracket at the bottom would give not given enough support for that structure as it also needs to be screwed into the wall at the top to prevent it from pivoting off the wall which would provide enough force to bend that L Bracket into a V. RV's are designed to be lightweight which means using as little material as possible in the cabinets. So the upper cabinet structure is essentially a long L shape made up of the front face of the cabinet and the bottom of the cabinet. It might have one panel to close off an exposed side end. The other end(s) is borrowed from adjacent structure such as a bathroom wall. The other two sides of the cabinet box are created by attaching the front and bottom to the wall and ceiling of the RV. Doing it that way is the essential part of the weight saving instead of adding more material to build the cabinets. So structurally it is essential that the top of the cabinet front gets screwed to the ceiling and that the back edge of the cabinet bottom is screwed to the wall. If you tried to support the cabinet and its contents with an L shaped bracket on the wall once again the L shaped bracket would get folded into a V shape because the cabinet along with the contents is going to want to rotate down. You would need a triangle to provide support for heavy loads if you are going to support them at the base. But even so because of the movement of the RV you need the upper front face of the cabinet to be screwed to the ceiling to provide stability. Otherwise even if supported from below it would be slamming up and down whenever you hit a bump. Don't try to re engineer lightweight structures unless you understand structures and how loads are carried and how loads are transferred to other structural members. You don't have to be an engineer to understand the basics you just have to think it through and perhaps do a bit of research and reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdfrost64 Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 your cabinets will have a false bottom with screws going into the walls and your wiring for your lights. plus there will be screws around the top of the cabs going into the ceiling and on each end of cabs going into the sidewall. there will be 1 inch cleats were the screws are going threw. most of the time the factory will cover the screw holes with a thin strip of paneling the width of the cleat to cover the screw holes. and if you are real unlucky they will also put a few screw from the outside in like mine was. then all you have to do is run a viby tool behind the cabinets and cut the screws Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shibs Posted May 7, 2015 Author Share Posted May 7, 2015 You won't get enough support by only attaching them to the walls. You do need to have them fastened to the roof structure as well. So lets have a discussion on how upper cabinets are created. Cabinets are box shaped, that is what gives them strength. A modern kitchen cabinet is built as a box and then it is put in place screwed to the wall. The sides of the box are solid panels and they provide a lot of the strength of the cabinets. It is fastened at the top and bottom to the wall. An L bracket at the bottom would give not given enough support for that structure as it also needs to be screwed into the wall at the top to prevent it from pivoting off the wall which would provide enough force to bend that L Bracket into a V. RV's are designed to be lightweight which means using as little material as possible in the cabinets. So the upper cabinet structure is essentially a long L shape made up of the front face of the cabinet and the bottom of the cabinet. It might have one panel to close off an exposed side end. The other end(s) is borrowed from adjacent structure such as a bathroom wall. The other two sides of the cabinet box are created by attaching the front and bottom to the wall and ceiling of the RV. Doing it that way is the essential part of the weight saving instead of adding more material to build the cabinets. So structurally it is essential that the top of the cabinet front gets screwed to the ceiling and that the back edge of the cabinet bottom is screwed to the wall. If you tried to support the cabinet and its contents with an L shaped bracket on the wall once again the L shaped bracket would get folded into a V shape because the cabinet along with the contents is going to want to rotate down. You would need a triangle to provide support for heavy loads if you are going to support them at the base. But even so because of the movement of the RV you need the upper front face of the cabinet to be screwed to the ceiling to provide stability. Otherwise even if supported from below it would be slamming up and down whenever you hit a bump. Don't try to re engineer lightweight structures unless you understand structures and how loads are carried and how loads are transferred to other structural members. You don't have to be an engineer to understand the basics you just have to think it through and perhaps do a bit of research and reading. Corbin, That helps me understand how the factory designed it to be, thanks, and I agree with you. I will keep it as is, just a little worried that if I take off the screws and put them back in the same hole, it might not have the same support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shibs Posted May 7, 2015 Author Share Posted May 7, 2015 your cabinets will have a false bottom with screws going into the walls and your wiring for your lights. plus there will be screws around the top of the cabs going into the ceiling and on each end of cabs going into the sidewall. there will be 1 inch cleats were the screws are going threw. most of the time the factory will cover the screw holes with a thin strip of paneling the width of the cleat to cover the screw holes. and if you are real unlucky they will also put a few screw from the outside in like mine was. then all you have to do is run a viby tool behind the cabinets and cut the screws Jodi, I found the top screws, I will post a pic later, How do I remove the false bottom, does it pop out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WME Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 In my Toy the bottoms are 1/8 ply and were just stapled in a few spots. A knife blade worked to pry up a bit then went for it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shibs Posted May 9, 2015 Author Share Posted May 9, 2015 Here are the top screws, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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