Cabinetry
The cabinets in our Galleria are constructed with hard maple drawer fronts and laminated ply and veneer for the curved doors. The kitchen cabinet carcass is made of plywood and particle board, assembled using staples instead of glue and screws. The drawer boxes are built from pine fir lumber with CNC machined dovetail corners and plywood bottoms. A Horizon Solid-Surface acrylic countertop, round unmount sink, and induction cooktop are used in the construction of the kitchen cabinet.
Undermount soft-close drawer guides are used, and secondary latches (15 lb pull) keep the drawers closed while driving.
Parts:
Replacement drawer latches are available from Amazon:
ABA Set of 4 Grabber Catches 10 LB Cabinet Push to Close Latch for RV
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N77BKGH/
Drawers can be removed by extending them and pressing red release latches under the drawer and lifting the drawer off the guides.
Another item we noticed about the cabinetry was the raised panel doors are mounted with the raised panel facing to the inside. After searching Google, we discovered the raised panel facing inward (“reversed raised panel”) is a Shaker style of cabinetry that has been adopted by some Amish woodworkers for its simplistic appearance.
The cabinets used in Galleria vans are built a few blocks away from the Galleria plant by Cal Mullet, owner of Heritage Wood Designs, LLC. 13320 County Road 28, Middlebury, Indiana 46540. Phone: 574-825-4700.
As an avid woodworker, I was expecting more from the “Amish Craftsmanship” and cabinet construction. Drawer fronts are poorly aligned and crooked, and the gloss finish is rough and lumpy. For RV cabinets that are exposed to constant road vibration, construction is not very robust and repairs are required after long trips. Wood trim comes loose, stapled drawer mounting blocks fall off since no glue was used, and paneling pulls away from the frames. The floor in our van creaks like an old haunted house when walking around and can be especially annoying on long trips.
The drawers and doors have small clear rubber bumpers on the inside corners. These are poor quality and soon fall off. We recommend replacing them with larger diameter felt bumpers available at dollar stores. The rattling of the bathroom doors when driving is a common complaint from new owners. Add felt bumpers to quiet them down.
If you are tall, you may want to replace the bathroom door top latches with ones that don’t stick down into the opening. They do draw blood. 😉
Another woodworking project was to make a cutting board that can serve several functions. It protects the cooktop; placing it behind the counter, it keeps food from spattering the window when cooking; when placed on top of a drawer, creates additional counter space; and can be used as a serving tray.
If, like me, you bang your head on the upper rear cabinets when making modifications, consider adding foam edge bumper, available at Home Depot, Amazon, and others.
M2cbridge L Shape Extra Thick Furniture Table Edge Protectors Foam Bumper
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AAAQ2NS/
Older Galleria vans were built with quality luan plywood inside the upper cabinets. To cut costs, luan has been replaced with a cloth material that reminds me of 1963 Plymouth Valiant trunk carpet.
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Insulation
As discussed on another page, the Galleria lacks adequate insulation in the walls and ceiling. There is no insulation in any of the doors or front cockpit area. The ceiling of Gal_2.0 is a single layer of peal-and-stick CozyWrap sound deadener.
Our previous Gal_1.0 had Phase Change material in the walls even though we insisted it not be installed. Claims lead buyers to believe it is a new miracle insulation. It is not. It is a thermal mass storage material. When companies use it in buildings, the purpose is to ‘cold sink’ the interior by running the air-conditioning system at night, when electricity is less expensive. During the day, the cool mass extends the cooling period into the morning, requiring less electricity. Its use has been discontinued, and the new miracle insulation is CozyWrap.
CozyWrap is also not insulation; it is a sound deadener. It is a 1/2 inch thick bubble wrap foil sandwich. The claim is that it’s an “R-39 Reflective” insulation. To begin with, there is no such thing as a “R-Value Reflective”. Foil material has an R-value of R-1.0 and 1/2-inch of bubble provides maybe another R-2. One of the best insulations available is closed-cell foam with a R-10 per inch thick. The very best is Aerogel (used by NASA) and is R-10.3 per inch thick.
Another misleading statement is that CozyWrap increases Tensile Strength of the van sheet metal walls. Given that the walls are approximately 3/16 inch thick steel, the tensile strength is greater than 36,000 psi. You can see that applying a 1/2-inch thick CozyWrap will have little effect increasing that value.
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Lagun Tables
Galleria and many other vans offer a Lagun table option. The Lagun Table Leg System is an extruded post and arm-mounted table that can be locked in place by turning the lock handles. It can be adjusted vertically on the mounting bracket and can swing out of the way when not needed.
We have made several modifications to our table. (Modifications will void the warrantee).
– drilled an off-center hole in the table top mounting plate to provide even more rotation positions.
– Installed a floor-mounted round post up front and machined a round adapter to accept the table top arm.
– Swapped the plastic clamping handles for metal ones available on Amazon
Clamping Lever Handle M4/5/6/8/10/12 Level Adjustable Handles Knob Female Thread Machinery Adjustable Handle Clamping Handle Lever (M8)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L5KW3JX/
Note: Lagun” is NOT sold on Amazon and similar appearing items on Amazon are Chinese knockoffs and are NOT compatible with “Original Lagun” parts.
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Flipping the Closet Door
Some new owners have flipped the closet door so it opens on the other side and added a mirror inside. This is an easy modification with a minimum number of tools required. You will, however, need a square drive bits for most of the screws used in the construction of the van.
Inexpensive sets are available at Harbor Freight:
https://www.harborfreight.com/square-bit-assorted-set-6-piece-68461.html
https://www.harborfreight.com/3-in-screwdriver-bit-set-36-piece-68817.html
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Closet Drawers
One of our first woodworking modifications was to replace the closet shelves with drawers. We constructed dovetail drawer boxes from hard maple and mounted on Bloom Undermount Drawer Guides. Originally, we planned on reducing the closet door size and installing drawer fronts on the boxes. So far, we’ve been happy without the fronts.
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Flooring
The floor construction is a vapor barrier placed between the van floor and a particle board base. Vinyl flooring is laid on top of the particle board, and the Truma and other items are installed. Some of the last items to be installed are cabinets.
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Cockpit Overhead Shelf
One of the best additions we’ve made was adding the cockpit overhead shelf. It holds the windshield and front window covers as well as jackets and other clothing odds and ends. You probably don’t want anything heavy that might come down while driving.
You can also add a privacy curtain to the rear edge to reduce the volume needing air-conditioning.
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TIP#273: Sink Cutting Board – We replaced the sink cover with a plastic cutting board. It was cut from a large cutting board we purchased at Costco. We used the original sink cover as a template for a bearing-router to cut out the new cutting board. The thumb hole also lets the faucet drip into he sink.
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TIP#301: Faucet Replacement – On a recent trip, the kitchen faucet spout on our 2021 Galleria 24FL came off, spraying water all over the underside of the cabinet and ceiling. We never did care for the faucet style, and it seemed to always be dripping. We replaced it with a Crea kitchen faucet (Amazon) with a pull-out spray head with dual modes: stream and spray.
The original faucet and the replacement use the same diameter mounting hole and mounting style. Under the countertop, there is a rubber gasket, a metal thrust washer, and a threaded ring. The threaded ring has two Phillips head screws to apply pressure to the thrust washer, tightening the faucet. It is somewhat awkward getting to the two screws and threaded ring since they are partially blocked by the sink drain pipe, a breather vent pipe, and a cabinet corner bracket. Having small hands helps (not like my giant mitts). The screws are stainless, so a magnet won’t help if you drop them.
Removal and installation of the washer and threaded ring are blocked slightly by the cabinet corner bracket. When removing or installing, you may need to raise the faucet up as you tighten/loosen the threaded ring to get space for the threaded ring above the corner bracket. TIP: Remove the drawer to access the sink area. We used a couple of 1-foot-high step stools with a board and packing quilt on top to make a place to lay down while working on the mounting hardware under the counter.
Our water supply lines required 1/2 to 3/8 thread reducers (Amazon) to fit the new faucet along with the included O-rings for a tight seal. The pullout head has a weight on the hose to retract it back in, and we aren’t sure if this will clunk around inside the cabinet when driving. If it does, we’ll remove the weight. (2024/12) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MDVYCCG
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TIP#302: Hinge Replacement – The soft-close hinges used on the upper cabinets don’t last very long with frequent use. There is a small gas cylinder that operates the soft-close. The hinges still work, but the door will slam down. We found both soft-close mechanisms had gone bad on one door, so we replaced both of them. We purchased replacements from BJ’s RV & Marine – DGN RV 2953 Soft Close Door Hinge Adjustable, SKU: 2953. The mounting hardware used is square drive screws, and the ones inside the cabinet can be a bit difficult to get in and out. (2024/12)
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Shades
Like many RVs, the Galleria uses pleated window blinds on the side windows and a large pulldown is available for the rear doors. The rear blind has a habit of inching its way down when driving. A Velcro strap around the blind will hold it up. Avoid the temptation of tightening the string to keep it up as this will only wear out the string quicker. A better option for the rear windows are insulated magnetic window covers.
The windshield cover from Coachmen as an option ($$$) is heavy and bulky. A better option are ones offered by Quest Overland https://www.quest-overland.com/
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20 – Electronics
21 – Cabinetry
22 – Wheels