The Kitchen Sink

I’m beginning to think my Pod was built on a Monday morning or late Friday afternoon since it seems like it’s one thing after another I have to repair. At least I’m getting an education on RV repairs even if it’s the hard way!

My newest repair adventure is on the kitchen sink and the reason why I’m posting this information is to hopefully prevent some other Pod owner having the same trouble. I don’t know what earlier model R-Pods kitchen sinks are made out of or how they are mounted on the counter? Though if you have a late model Pod that has a stainless-steel sink that is mounted under the kitchen counter you just might want to take some time and look at how its mounted. It now my humble opinion that Forest River has made two major mistakes in their quest to maximize profits with the first being the substrate of the kitchen counter is made of Particle Board. Particle Board is fine product as long as it never ever gets wet but if it ever does it just sucks up water and sadly breaks down which is why in a camper trailer it’s a lousy product to use for a kitchen counter substrate. The second BIG fault that FR has done is how they mounting the kitchen sink and why if you have a Pod with an under the counter sink you need to take a look. For whatever misguided reasons FR only used eight wood square driver screws and only the lip of these screws holds the sink in place, crazy! All these screws need to be installed perfectly and if the just a couple are not or the silicon seal around the sink fails and lets water in between the sink lip and the Particle Board you’re in trouble!

My wife first noticed the sink had dropped on one of our camping trips and when we came home, I discovered FR terrible way of how they installed the sink. At that time, I just removed some of the mounting screws and installed some steel washers on the screws and reattached. Recently we returned from a trip where the cold-water supply in the bathroom sink faucet quit working. After removing the valve and blowing out the line I discovered some strange grit that somehow had gotten into the cold-water line and cleared that problem up. When I finished that repair I glanced at the kitchen sink and said what the heck when I discovered the sink cover board was not flush with the counter top. On further examination I found that the sink had dropped again off its mounting screws and worse had allowed a good amount of water to seep into the counter Particle Board. I want to stress my wife or I in no way misused or overfilled our sink but we all know that these little camper trailers take a pounding as we tow them down the road and it doesn’t take much water infiltration to start the Particle Board from breaking down.

I ended up removing the kitchen sink and was amazed at how much water the Particle Board has sucked up and its now sad condition around the opening for the sink. I had to sand around the sink opening because of the Particle Board has swelled so badly before I reinstalled the sink. I removed the old caulk from the sink and put a new bead of silicon calk on its lip before I reinstalled the sink. I also used larger fender washers on each of the eight screws that attach the sink but because of the water damage to the Particle Board I wasn’t satisfied with the screws holding and this repair. What I ended up doing is buying some 1/8” thick by ¾” wide aluminum bar stock and making eight mounting brackets for the sink which is what should have been done in the first place by FR. Let me tell you it was quite the contortion act getting my body under the kitchen counter to mount these brackets but its now done and hopefully I will never have to worry about this problem again.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my post about the problem I’ve had with the under mounted kitchen sink. You all passed on some great idea’s on how to repair and resolve the problem. It didn’t occur to me to use an epoxy-based product to stop decomposition with the Particle Board. If my solution of using fender washers and under the counter brackets that I made and re-caulking doesn’t work out then I will use such a product to stop the Particle Board decomposition and convert to a drop-in sink.

Of course, I also think maybe the ultimate solution is to completely remove the counter top and replace it with a Corian counter top with the integrated molded in sink. Being that the counter in my 180 isn’t that large I’m sure a competent counter top shop can build a replacement out of this or a similar material for a reasonable price.