Queen Bed Overhead Cabinet Mod - 26BH (and others)

duke_26

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2015
Messages
387
Hello Everyone!

I did the first real mod to our new 2016 Jay Flight 26BH Elite Yesterday, replacing the center panel section of the queen bed overhead cabinet with a matching door that I ordered from the dealership. Jayco does not ship directly to the customer.

This mod greatly increases the accessibility to the center section of the overhead cabinets. I specifically ordered the door to match the right overhead cabinet door, with the hinges on the left and handle on the right, so we could open the center door from the right side of the bed and not have to go around the bed to the other side to access.

I am kind of surprised that this is not included. It seemed like many of the models we looked at have this same scenario. Maybe it used to be there in previous years, I'm not sure.

This mod was fairly straight forward. The panel was only attached with staples, no glue, so it knocked out with a rubber mallet fairly easily.

The opening behind the door is the same exact size as the opening behind the other two overhead doors.

Tools used:
- Sheetrock knife to open cardboard box
- Rubber mallet to gently knock out panel
- Flashlight to see inside overhead cabinet
- Needle nose pliers to remove remaining staples from back of the cabinet face frame
- Pencil to mark new screw locations
- Cordless drill
- 1/16" drill bit to pre-drill holes
- #2 Phillips bit
- #2 Square drive bit
- #2 Phillips hand screwdriver
- 2ft level to align bottoms of cabinet doors

First and foremost, here are the before and after pictures:

Before:
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1457872708.268841.jpg
After:
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1457872726.509998.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1457869040.898370.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1457869092.824189.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1457869105.030440.jpg

The new door just barely clears the center button on the LED ceiling light, but this is no different than the right overhead door when opened up all the way, just barely clears as well.

For those interested in the details:

Ordered the new door assembly and hardware kit:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1457868283.767147.jpg

- Door Assembly:
- Door (measures 18-3/4" X 12-3/4")
- Handle
- Hinges

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1457868313.865507.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1457868326.455407.jpg

- Hardware Kit:
- Latch
- Catch
- Screws

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1457868350.967822.jpg

There was a couple of issues I must warn about:

1) The hinges on the new door were not in line with hinges on the left door next to it. They were each about 1/4" off. Functionally, this would have been totally fine, however it was easy enough to move the hinges on the new door to be in line with the other hinges, so I just removed the screws, marked the new hole locations, pre-drilled the new holes and screwed the hinges back on. Two of the old holes are covered up by the hinge, the third hole is visible. This is not a big deal since it is on the inside of the door.

2) The handle that came on the new door is about 1/2" lower than the other two door handles. I did remove the handle and try to seat it all the way to one side of the holes, but there was not much adjustment. The holes for the handle screws are about 3/16" - 1/4" or so in diameter. At this point in time, I've have decided to leave well enough alone. Since the handles are about 20" apart it is not too noticeable unless you are looking for it or it is pointed out to you. This could be fixed by removing the handles on all 3 doors and slotting them in the right direction to align closer. It doesn't appear that you could move the handles any more than 1/4" up or down before the holes start to show. If I did decide to fix this someday when I'm bored and looking for things to do, in my situation, I would slot the center handle holes to raise the handle, and slot the outside cabinet door handles to lower them. This would be about the best I could do to get them more in line.

If I had to do it over, I would order the door, handle and hinges separately so I could measure the existing hardware and mount them myself.

If I remember correctly, these doors are the same as the doors under the dinette seats.

Cheers!

Duke
 
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Nice job!

Its things like this that make you just scratch your head and wonder what the engineers at Jayco were thinking when they designed this cabinet. It just makes sense to have three doors.

The cost cutting by Jayco just seems to go too far sometimes.
 
Nice job!

Its things like this that make you just scratch your head and wonder what the engineers at Jayco were thinking when they designed this cabinet. QUOTE]

There are a lot more of these "Engineering Wonders", probably because none of the engineers own TT's.. it is like programmers designing software...
Yes, I was a programmer, but was an end user first

VERY NICE JOB!!

Don
 
Duke 26 - you do good work. Pics are great. We have same issue and I have been wondering about this for 2 years. Thanks for the parts numbers and the info about the 1/2' alignment on handle. I will order separately as you suggest cause that 1/2" difference would drive me absolutely nuts each time I walked in the BR. LOL
Happy RVing,
Jeff
 
Duke_26 what a nice modification! Great job documenting and detailing your work for all of us to see.
I want to order those same doors to replace the dreaded padded doors under the dinette of our 2015 Jayco.

Did the dealer have the doors shipped to you? Or did you have to pick them up from the dealer?

I'm a novice when it comes to wood working. But your detailed notes will help to make it easier to do. I am going to call my dealer this week and get the parts ordered.

Thanks! :)
 
Duke_26 what a nice modification! Great job documenting and detailing your work for all of us to see.
I want to order those same doors to replace the dreaded padded doors under the dinette of our 2015 Jayco.

Did the dealer have the doors shipped to you? Or did you have to pick them up from the dealer?

I'm a novice when it comes to wood working. But your detailed notes will help to make it easier to do. I am going to call my dealer this week and get the parts ordered.

Thanks! :)

Thank You! I like to putter with things like this.

I could have had it delivered right to my house, however, the parts counter at the dealership told me that if there was anything wrong with it when it arrived it would be my risk. If I had it shipped to the dealership, they said they inspect it first to ensure it is as expected, if it wasn't they could return it for a replacement. I opted to go this route since it wasn't exactly cheap, door wasn't bad but the shipping and handling was almost as much as the door assembly. It did mean another 45 minute trip back to the dealer to pick it up, but that's ok, we didn't mind the trip back to the city, we made a few other stops at the mall and for lunch, was a nice day for a ride.

When I ordered it, it was over the phone and then e-mail communications up to the point when it arrived and they called me. It took a couple of weeks for them to get it in. They said that Jayco had to make new part numbers for these parts the way I spec'd it out since they are replacements.
 
I did that same mod, but made the door myself. I also added a shelf across the whole cabinet. Jayco certainly could include this, but, if we look at all the "why didn't they include" items we would be $100's or $1,000's of dollars higher in price. They offer what most people want to keep the price affordable. And, half the fun is modifying your RV to fit your life style. I also added shelves in one of the wardrobes since we rarely use clothes that need to be hung. Put a deep pull out tray on the bottom and then shelves the rest of the way up. Works for us.

Nice job on the mod, just a tad pricey.
 
Also by adding all the things we would want, not only would the price go up, but the dry weight of the trailer would skyrocket, leaving very little room for stocking your trailer with all your personal goodies and food.

You did a fantastic job with that cabinet door.
We usually store our reading books back behind that solid panel. But last fall, I added a pull-out drawer in the space below the night stand counter on the left side of the bed. We now store our reading books there. Much more convenient than crawling to reach them up above.
It extends into the pass-through storage area, but we only load that from the curb side anyway.

Here's the drawer front I used bought at local big box home store:
80Zgkbal.jpg


And here's the drawer mechanism from Amazon:
img_386600_1_3032054dc181b523cb3345633d33cf07.jpg
 
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