RV Cabinet Door Spring Stays

Like many, I got frustrated with the Hafele supports that eventually failed to hold our cabinet doors open. After enough knocks on the head, I decided to do something about it. I got this idea of using stiff spring stays off of an online Pleasure Way Forum. After looking into commercial stays, I was a bit put off by paying ~$30/door and having to drill new mounting holes, so being the cheap SOB that I am, I got to thinking. I found these 8”x0.4” springs online for $12 for a set of 6 (which happens to be how many cabinet doors I have):

I wanted to wrap these so they looked a little better and would not be as likely to pinch items in the cabinet, so I wound up buying some expandible plastic sleeving. The trick with this stuff is to cut it with a hot knife so it does not fray on the ends.

I popped the Hafele supports off of their mounts with a little persuasion from a screwdriver and them slipped the spring ends over the pins that remained:

I used some fine wire through the spring ends to keep them from slipping off the mounting pins. The total time to do all 6 cabinet doors was less than an hour with a total budget of about $20. These work amazingly well. If you pull down on the open doors, the doors bend before the spring gives. A simple knuckle on the spring and the door closes. The only caution is to make sure you don’t hit the spring when removing things from the cabinet, or at least keep your head out of the way.