Secure Your RV Chairs for Travel
Use Your Noodle 2
Here’s an RV Do It Yourself tip to help you secure your free standing dinette chairs to make sure they stay put and don’t bang into anything during travel.
Over the past summer, we bought a fifth wheel that has a dinette with free-standing chairs. The previous owner (it’s a three year old rig) hadn’t used it much and said he’d never even seen any tie-down straps for the chairs. Some RVers don’t secure their dinette chairs. Others report damage caused by unsecured chairs during a panic-stop or accident. We opted to be safe rather than sorry.
Having used the noodles to make pads for the RV cover, we started thinking about how we could use them to solve this problem. The pictures show what we came up with:
We leaned the chairs into the table so that the chair backs touch the edge of the table, making sure the chair legs clear the wall and the couch.
The noodles we used are about 3 inches in diameter and approximately 52 inches long. We used two noodles. First we slit each of them lengthwise through one side into the center hole. Then we cut each of them into four 13 inch pieces.
The pieces could now be slipped over the outer stiles of the chair backs as shown to provide padding between the table and the chairs.
To hold everything together while on the road, we considered rope, bungee cords, and nylon strapping. We ended up using Velcro One-Wrap strapping and it works great. This stuff sticks to itself and holds firmly, so no knots, hooks, clips, or buckles are needed. It’s easy to remove and simply wrap around the noodle pieces for storage between trips. We bought two 3/4 inch wide by 12 foot rolls. The strip securing each opposing pair of chairs is roughly 9 feet long.
The sketch attempts to show the whole thing from the top of the table. You can see how the Velcro strap (in red) runs around the backs of of the chairs, then under the table and around the center pedestal. There’s another strap for the other pair of chairs, but I just showed one for clarity. One side of the Velcro strapping is soft and fuzzy. We’d suggest you make sure that side is the one that comes in contact with the table and chairs so there is no scratching of the surfaces. Finally, adding a short strap at the top of each pair of chairs, as shown in the last photo, made everything very stable and secure.
There are other ways to secure dinette chairs, and some RVers don’t even bother (sometimes to their regret). We decided to do it and we wanted something that would work and would be inexpensive and fairly easy to use. The two noodles and the Velcro straps cost us less than $30 and everything is lightweight and reusable. While you do have to crawl under the table a bit to put the straps on, it’s pretty easy to do.
However, if you are interested in looking at other ways to secure your RV chairs, I’m adding this section about a product I just ran into: the Chair Buddy by MORryde. Now, honestly, I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks good, gets good reviews and it would obviously be a lot quicker to secure the chairs than using the noodles and Velcro straps. I don’t know that it would be any more effective, but certainly more convenient and no worries about where to store the noodles and straps.
My only concern, given the close spacing of the table and chairs in our rig, would be the possibility of whacking a knee on the mechanism. The bracket mounts on the table’s center post and the hold-down bars fold up against the under side of the table when not in use.
If you want to take a closer look, there’s information on the MORryde website, or here’s a link to the Chair Buddy on Amazon [affiliate link] where you can read some reviews or even order a set if you like what you see.
So far we’ve used the pool noodles to pad slide-out corners, to make protective pads for an RV cover (post is here), to help secure chairs for travel (this post), and to help winterize the refrigerator (post is here). I’m beginning to think these foam noodles may join good ol’ duct tape in the “don’t leave home without it” category.
We’d love to hear how you secure things for travel. What has worked for you? What hasn’t? Leave a comment
I really like the idea of using Velcro straps to connect the chairs to each other while the RV is moving! I’m sure that alone makes a big difference in whether or not they move around, although the noodle idea is great for added protection! We live in our fifth wheel and are currently parked stationary, but I am going to save this blog post on Pinterest for when we start traveling!
Ashley, I really like your site – rvinspiration.com. Lots and lots of super ideas! I just bookmarked it and I’d certainly recommend it to other RVers. Yeah, the Velcro straps are pretty useful for a variety of things. We also live in the 5er over the winter and are pretty much stationary then. During the trip south, and back north in the spring, however, we hit a lot of roads with pot-holes and sharp bumps. The noodles just provide a bit of extra cushioning for the chairs (and the table).
Take care – Pete
Thanks for pointing out that I can use safety straps to secure that placement of RV chairs in my vehicle. I’m planning to take my family to a fishing and picnic trip soon so I’m trying to figure out how to fit in all the equipment in my RV. Buying new RV chairs might be something I have to look into as well since the once I have are pretty old and might break any time soon.
Thanks for your thoughts. Boy, if you can solve the more-stuff, less-room problem, you’re a miracle worker! The Velcro straps to hold the dinette chairs in place works out well for us. It’s a bit of a pain at first, but becomes pretty easy when you get used to it.
The Coleman Big-N-Tall is the best camping chair for RV I’ve ever bought. When I saw this chair and the price, I had doubts about its quality. But I can happily report that it met or exceeded my expectations at every step. The armrests really help me relax. Plus, the mesh cup holder can really hold anything from mugs to beer bottles. One feature that I like about this camping chair is the durability of the materials used. The steel frame didn’t flex even when I placed a 325-pound object.