Cruisers Forum
Main Forum => General Discussion => Topic started by: Engineerlt on December 13, 2019, 08:45:14 am
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Are any of you having these Southco cabinet latches breaking? I see that there has been issues in the past by owners having to buy and replace them. Well I am done with these latches and decided to install a magnetic latch that I found on Amazon. They are 60lb pull and do a great job, and have the same holding power as the Sothco latches. Here is the description of the item if you want to look them up on Amazon "JQK Magnetic Door Catch, Stainless Steel Cabinet Magnet Closet Catches for Cupboard Closure Door Closer, 1.2mm Thickness 60 lbs Silver (Pack of 8), CC120-P8" It was $22.40 for 8ea. Its a little pricey but these are very durable and have a stainless steel housing and nickel plated strikers, virtually unbreakable. I did find that they would not work on the cabinet door for the pantry, as the magnets were too long and would block the pull out shelfs. Other than that they seem great.
Lance
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The original Bird latches that looked like Southco were junk. I have replaced most of the with Southco latches whch are expensive, but have not had any failures. When one breaks lately I find it was still an old Bird latch.
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I hope your lathes do better than mine. It just got annoying when my wife would be up moving around and then say another one of the latches broke, usually while we were driving down the road. So now you have a cabinet door swinging in the wind. When we would stop out came the screw driver and and the bag with the spare latches. Well I hope that is a thing of the past.
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Are any of you having these Southco cabinet latches breaking? I see that there has been issues in the past by owners having to buy and replace them. Well I am done with these latches and decided to install a magnetic latch that I found on Amazon. They are 60lb pull and do a great job, and have the same holding power as the Sothco latches. Here is the description of the item if you want to look them up on Amazon "JQK Magnetic Door Catch, Stainless Steel Cabinet Magnet Closet Catches for Cupboard Closure Door Closer, 1.2mm Thickness 60 lbs Silver (Pack of 8), CC120-P8" It was $22.40 for 8ea. Its a little pricey but these are very durable and have a stainless steel housing and nickel plated strikers, virtually unbreakable. I did find that they would not work on the cabinet door for the pantry, as the magnets were too long and would block the pull out shelfs. Other than that they seem great.
Lance
Nice! We just had another break. Mrs V tends to get a little impatient.. These look like they will work well.
Link to the referenced product - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07M9TKNB3/ref=twister_B07MYTQVGT?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Not sure if I would call them 'pricey' at less than $3 apiece. I couldnt make them myself for twice that price. :lol
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Good point just know that I bought 32 and it cost me a couple bucks, if you break it down you are correct they are a pretty good bargain.
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QUESTION??
I have replaced a lot of my original catches with the Southco that were either 5 or 10 pound pulls. 60 pounds on these magnetic catches seems a little extreme...or is it. Do you really have to pull that hard to open with these installed? Of course, on an rv you don't want them opening going down the road, but if the 60 is correct in actual useage, wow that's a lot.
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I am not exactly sure how they determined 60lbs. To me they are equal to what it takes with the Southco latches. I have been messing around looking at alternatives and this one seemed to be the best and closest strength wise to the Southco, when actually pulling on a door and comparing the 2. No moving parts, and I don't believe they wear out, so how can you go wrong.
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I bought these Southco latches almost 2 years ago, I only replaced the latch part, not the hook. I bought 30 of them (3 packs of 10). None of them have failed.
Yes, expensive, about $200 total, but I believe we'll worth it.
https://www.amazon.com/Southco-C3-805-Passivated-Plastic-Concealed/dp/B076FYL6N7/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=southco%2Bc3-805&qid=1576259187&sprefix=Southco&sr=8-1&th=1&psc=1
Don
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I bought these Southco latches almost 2 years ago, I only replaced the latch part, not the hook. I bought 30 of them (3 packs of 10). None of them have failed.
Yes, expensive, about $200 total, but I believe we'll worth it.
https://www.amazon.com/Southco-C3-805-Passivated-Plastic-Concealed/dp/B076FYL6N7/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=southco%2Bc3-805&qid=1576259187&sprefix=Southco&sr=8-1&th=1&psc=1
Don
Thats what we have. Somehow Mrs V gets the catch part of it 'toggled' the wrong way. Sometimes i can toggle the catch back with a screwdriver, sometimes the catch is damaged and the pivot pin is toast. I just install another. I have yet to break one personally. (WH)
Not sure if the hanging clothes aggravate it, but it happens much more on the hanging closets. But one on the passenger upper cabinet broke last trip.
Mrs V is a patient person, and not prone to slamming or forcing the latch. Very conscious of what it takes to care for things. They just seem to fail for unknown cause.
Magnets might be the answer. 2o2
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Hmmm... $62 or 98 cents?
98 cents seems to work fine for me. I keep a couple in my toolkit. I figure in about 5 years I will have replaced all those expensive plastic latches with cheap metal latches that actually work.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-Double-Roller-Catch-with-Spear-Zinc-Plated-1-Pack-9235976/303007532
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I accidentally ordered 10 pound latches. John installed two and will be removing them. They are too hard to open and close. We are gradually swapping the cheap ones for the Southco.
We are sitting in place for four months now and at another for three months next summer. Every time I open and close a cabinet I think the little life clock is ticking on the plastic latches. I was thinking of putting magnets on the bottom of the-most used doors so they stay closed without fully engaging the latch. Had anyone given that a try? I'd latch them all before doing down the road.
These little magnets might do the trick but I don't want to go back to having to yank the cabinets open and pound them closed like the ten pound latches.
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In our 2017 PC I had to replace those cheap latches like crazy with Southco latches the first year and a half as they broke. Our last two trips finally went without any breaking so I think we now have the upper hand. In our previous RV we had Southco latches and only had two break over the 10 years we had the rig, so I have reason to believe they are reliable.
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I'd sure like to find a latch that didn't sound like a firecracker every time you open and close a cabinet door. In a campground you can even hear your neighbors operating their cabinet latches.
Has anyone tried eliminating latches and replacing the hinges with self-closing hinges? Will they stay closed and quiet en route?
If I can get parked perfectly level the cabinet doors will stay closed without latching and we do just that. Maybe I'll try self closing hinges and just not latch them while stationary.
Dougn
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My rule is once level and I open a door I don’t fully close it (I have to always remind my wife. Haha). Just close them without latching.
Installed a Southco latch on utensil drawer and it doesn’t open while traveling.
With the magnets on the shirt closet, are two required or will one latch be sufficient?
Ron S
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Hello Ron
I believe one will do it, I have only installed one on the shirt closets and one on each of the doors with mirrors in bathroom.
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Soon after the great recession that started in 2008, Southco had their latches made in China, as did many of the other RV industry appliance and hardware suppliers. Our older Southco latches made in the USA break once in a great while. Fortunately I have many spares made during the same time period. The China-made ones have been a disaster for the RV industry....and for Southco.
Definitely find a different latching system.
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As well as the fabric made to cover our chairs and couches.
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As well as the fabric made to cover our chairs and couches.
Oh Yes! That inferior quality disaster has been most painful to owners with the vinyl seats they paid a premium for. At that time, they would have been much better off to stay with the standard cloth. But who could imagine such a problem on the horizon. The factory switched to real leather when they learned of it. But I wonder if the non-seating surfaces are still made of that same horrid China-made vinyl.
If I absolutely had to have leather seating, I would pay an even higher premium for all surfaces, fronts, backs, sides, skirts, armrests, everything made of top grain leather. Otherwise I'd stay with the standard cloth.
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The factory switched to real leather when they learned of it. But I wonder if the non-seating surfaces are still made of that same horrid China-made vinyl.
You are being generous with that statement since it was at least a 2 year period before they switched. Also it was a tad misleading to advertise use of "Ultra Leather" when it was a cheaper substitute.
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The factory switched to real leather when they learned of it. But I wonder if the non-seating surfaces are still made of that same horrid China-made vinyl.
You are being generous with that statement since it was at least a 2 year period before they switched. Also it was a tad misleading to advertise use of "Ultra Leather" when it was a cheaper substitute.
Yes I guess I was. I agree with you.
Going back as far as 2007, I thought I was paying more to get leather, just to find out after I had the rig a while, that it was generic vinyl. I did not feel good about that discovery. The name "Ultra Leather" was very misleading. Had we known back in 2007 it was simple vinyl, we likely would have opted for cloth throughout and save some good money. But at the same time, we have been happy with the vinyl. It worked out after-all for us. It cleans easy and is strangely comfortable. But we don't have any flaking going on like some of you here.
We originally ordered cloth for our dinette to save money, but those original cushions were so problematic in many different ways that I later bought vinyl cushions with upgraded foam. Since the change, we can sit at our dinette 4x more before needing to get up.
Here were our original uncomfortable cloth dinette cushions. They were thicker but my 180 pound body crushed the foam feeling the plywood bottom. The cloth did not allow us to slide either. We left glued to the cushions, unable to shift our weight without lifting ourselves.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/8415/29188381776_240709e940_z.jpg)
Here are our current day upgraded vinyl cushions. If you look close, you can see they are notably thinner. They are surely more dense. Not just more comfortable, but because the cushions are thinner, the dinette is more roomy. So in our situation, the change was for the better.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/8510/8462454519_10108c6774_z.jpg)