Oven trouble

I'm wondering if anyone out there is having an experience like mine. My oven keeps shaking itself apart. For the second time (1 last year, 1 last week) we have arrived home to find problems with our oven. This time the stovetop had popped off, last year the glass door fell off (but did not break). Upon inspection both times, I'm finding that just about every screw that holds the oven and stove top together has come loose and fallen out. Last year the fix was easy as all I did was re-install the screws and tighten them up. This years problems has been a little tougher. A screw that holds the bottom plate inside the oven (that covers the pilot assembly) fell out. It is mounted using a nut and washer on the inside of the oven screwing onto a screw that passes through the oven wall. As far as I can tell the only way to get this screw back in place is to disassemble the entire oven, which I do not want to do. ( I have gone as far as I can without disconnecting the propane lines) I have fixed it for the time being by using a sheet metal screw and connecting the plate to the side wall.
Do any of you have similar experiences? Does this happen on a regular basis? I guess I need to make screw tightening a routine part of getting ready. Thanks for any replies

Loc-Tite might keep the buggers from backing out. I'd use the low-strengh version (blue, I think).

Camperboy

[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by camperboy

Loc-Tite might keep the buggers from backing out. I'd use the low-strengh version (blue, I think).

Camperboy

Yep, blue is the medium strength stuff. Red is the high strength stuff. Just checked the loctite site.

[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by WNYChange

Do any of you have similar experiences? Does this happen on a regular basis? I guess I need to make screw tightening a routine part of getting ready. Thanks for any replies

After 10,000 or so miles I've had nary a problem with either the stove or oven. I think Texas Camper has the right diagnosis...one or both tires are badly out of balance or perhaps out of round. Take the trailer to a tire place and have the tires/rims checked for balance and roundness.

[G-V_Driver]

A tip from Kate Unruh at The Camper Store in Colorado Springs is to travel with one of the accent pillows from the sofa placed on top of the stove-top grill (which has theoretically been properly cleaned prior). Evidently this technique keeps the stove/oven unit from shaking by adding light pressure when the roof shell is folded down. If it does shake, the pillow keeps the grill from dislodging and flying about inside the unit. The grill has some sharp edges on the bottom of the two side pins (the ones that go though the stovetop, kept in place only by spring-tension clips attached underneath). Some owners have evidently found significant damage to the stove and other components if the grill comes loose in transit.

Kate also suggests putting a 1' square piece of ceramic tile in the oven, just above the burners, to create a more uniform heating pattern in the oven. She cautions that it must be CERAMIC, and not LINOLEUM tile, which was evidently used by a customer who didn't listen carefully to the recommendations. Cleanup evidently took a long time.

Wayne

I had problems with things burning in the TM stove at first (I seem to be one of the only people left in the world who doesn't use a microwave!). We bought a pizza stone and put that on the heat diffuser (is that what it's called?) below the rack. Now we can even bake cookies without them burning. I don't travel with the stone in place since I was afraid of it breaking, but I just place it in the cabinet below the stove when travelling.

Pam

We use an insulate cookie sheet and just leave it in the oven even during travel. Haven't broken one yet.

Hal