Broken entry stairs

[seatosea]

A rivet(or bolt?) on our manual stairs broke today almost causing an injury to my daughter in law. Does anyone know what to use to replace this with? I have put in a 1/4 bolt as a temp fix but the steel in the bolt is too weak and bends. Any ideas or fixes out there?

Thanks
seatosea

[Chewie]

Try to find a stainless bolt that's higher rated than what's in there now, grade 5 or 8 should be more than enough. Use flat washers on both sides and then a nylon lock nut so it won't back out but still be loose enough to fold up and operate as normal. Use all stainless hardware so it won't rust again. Glad to hear she didn't get hurt.

[jsilvius]

we had this issue last year.
We took the camper back to the dealer and they fixed the step, and it broke again 2 trips later when my wife stepped on it.

We went to Home depot and got a grade 8 bolt and washers like Chewie suggested, but we also noticed that the a couple of the bolts that attaches the entire stairs to the camper where loose so we tightened those up. Since then (4 more 2/3 days trips) we haven't hand any issues (knock on wood).

[Derick441]

The same thing happen to my brother and sister in-law on there Rockwood the first one we about 3years ago and the 2nd one happen at Christmas both times I had some closet bolts in my tool box works great. Just fyi closet bolts are the bolts that hold your toilet down to the floor in your home.

[OldCoot]

That was the first mod I did to our 12 Flagstaff 8528 when we got it home. Replaced all the rivets on the steps with 5/16" gr 8 bolts, washers & nyloc nuts. Can't believe any mfg would use rivets. FR needs to find a better supplier.

[SALTY]

Replace with grade 8 5/16" bolt and nyloc nuts
easy fix and better then what you had

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by Derick441

The same thing happen to my brother and sister in-law on there Rockwood the first one we about 3years ago and the 2nd one happen at Christmas both times I had some closet bolts in my tool box works great. Just fyi closet bolts are the bolts that hold your toilet down to the floor in your home.

As an emergency fix, they will work great, but all I have seen are brass and won't last long. Gr 8 5/16" are much better and will last until the steps themselves start to elongate in the holes.