Look For These 5 Things to be Positive Latching in Your Next Camper Van | Class B RV Buying Advice

Look for these 5 easy-to-spot things when you go touring your next camper van. Subscribe to my channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/ultramobili... ** More about this video ** Purchasing a class b camper van is a big, expensive and anxiety fraught activity. Between the high gloss eye candy and the hyped up marketing terms it's easy to forget to think about the basics. When I purchased my first motorhome I didn't even make it home before I learned of 5 things that I wished I knew about before I bought. The first things to look for is positive latching drawers and cabinets. What's a positive latch? It's a hook that's mounted on a door or drawer and physically latches onto a catch mounted onto the cabinet. It ensures that doors and drawers do not open while traveling and that their contents don't spill out into your coach. You can easily tell if the coach you're looking at has them: On doors, push the button and make sure you see a metal piece extend. It could be a hook or just a flat piece of metal designed to catch a receiving plate mounted on the cabinet frame. If you don't see this, you don't have a positive latching door. Some coach builders try to fool you and put the little button in the door but no latch. That's not good enough as it won't keep the door or drawer securely latched as you go down the road. The second thing to look for is a positive latching refrigerator door. Look for a metal hook that physically latches into the refrigerator when the door is closed. No flimsy plastic bits on the outside that latch into some metal. That's not positive latching and the plastic will wear or eventually break off all together. Also those little metal catches on the outside that pivot over a pin on the door? No good. The vibration of driving down the road will vibrate them open. You need to see a hook on the door that physically goes into the refrigerator and hooks in. Like the refrigerator you want a positive latching microwave door. All kinds of buyers curse their microwaves without positive latching doors when they take their first hard turn and the platter inside the microwave shoots out and smashes on the floor. Look for the same kind of positive latching hook on the microwave door and you'll be fine. The forth is check out that TV mounted in the van. Is it too positively latched to a wall? I mean an actual metal pin that hooks into the armature to keep it secure? A screw type knob won't do because vibrations of driving down the road loosen it and the TV flies off the wall and starts swinging wildly around. It's both dangerous and a real nuisance. I've had to pull over so many times on my first camper van to secure the tv back to the wall. A real pain. Forth is you want to ensure that all the coach ottoman and seat cushions including their backs are secured to the coach. Many coach manufacturers don't do this including coaches that are pretty expensive. If you can simply push a cushion or ottoman back onto the ground then they aren't secured and you'll find them flying all about in the van as you're driving. Make sure ottoman cushions are either physically attached to the frame or have some kind of peg system in their base that keeps them secured to the top. Ottoman seat backs should either be integrated into the ottoman or velcroed to the ottoman top so that they don't fly around. Finally, lift every counter extension and pull out every "hidden" table top and ensure that they are either magnetically attached to the frame or are positively latched. Kitchen counter extensions that are not magnetically locked down will flip up and bang back down every time you accelerate or brake. Likewise tops that pull out from inside or under cabinets will shoot out. Little plastic pieces designed to "hold" the trays in place won't due. The vibrations of driving cause them to loosen and gravity pulls them to an open position. Avoid those. You want some kind of positive latching on those extensions. So those are my 5 design annoyances that I've run into and that you can easily spot when you're looking for your next camper van. If you remember to look for these things you're first and every trip that you take will be much more enjoyable. Trust me. Check out my other camper van buying advice here:    • 2018 Winnebago Revel vs. Pleasureway Ascen...   Check out my class b van reviews here:    • 2018 Pleasure-way Plateau FL Review | A Fr...   Got camper van quesitons? I've got answers:    • What is a Mercedes Master Upfitter | Certi...   You'll love my 360 degree video tours:    • (360 Video) 2018 Winnebago Revel vs. Pleas...   Join me Thursdays at 11am PST for my Live Stream:    / ultramobility   Watch my past Live Streams for tons of tips:    • Recon Camper | VoltStart | AutoSleepers | ...