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Old 08-06-2019, 03:56 PM   #1
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What is up with steps?

I measured from the door frame to the ground. 23 inches and only one step. The first one was 13 inches. It makes me wonder why there is not a code for this in the industry. Your house steps have a drop of 7 to 7 3/4 inches by code. Why don't campers. I mentioned this on another forum and a lot of people said they have fallen due to this. I called Flexco who made my 24 in wide step and asked if they made a two step that would fit the same brackets. They said no. Now how silly is that? Build with a one step and then sell them a two step and make more money. Didn't made sense to me that they don't. I did purchase a double step and fabed it to work on mine. $107 fix and now it is so much better. Who else on here has had an issue with this?
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Old 08-06-2019, 04:33 PM   #2
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We all occasionally have a site where the door side is low which results in a long drop from the door threshold to the ground after you’ve levelled. Hard to explain why they would only use a single step but you must have known that when bought the trailer. It wouldn’t be an obvious problem to a newbie but should be to an experienced RVer.
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Old 08-06-2019, 04:50 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by itat View Post
We all occasionally have a site where the door side is low which results in a long drop from the door threshold to the ground after you’ve levelled. Hard to explain why they would only use a single step but you must have known that when bought the trailer. It wouldn’t be an obvious problem to a newbie but should be to an experienced RVer.
I knew it was going to be an issue. Not so much for me. I didn't care for the drop but it didn't hinder me. The issue became a problem when my sister was not able to get into the camper. She has bad knees and could not step that high. I could see where people could fall out and thought why doesn't the industry have a standard. Glad my father taught me how to problem solve. It really was not that hard to adapt the brackets for the wider step frame. A couple cuts...a few new holes and bam.... double steps. I considered the type that fold up into the door but that meant cutting off the bottom of the screen door. My BIL's came with the fold in type. He likes them but he has to remember if they are down when he moves the camper to level it and he has to adjust the step leg if the drop is too much. Sort of a pain but they sure are nice once set up.
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Old 08-06-2019, 05:00 PM   #4
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In building the rule of 17 has always been around with regard to rise and with of tread however houses are fixed units. Trailers are not and are built to accommodate great variations not just campgrounds but also unimproved areas. More steps mean less ground clearance. My rig has a two step unit but, I also carry a small step stool for those times when I have to level to the slide side.
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Old 08-06-2019, 05:28 PM   #5
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I get what you are saying. My bottom step folds up onto the top step and then that slides back into the bracket. It is higher than the drag bars in the back of the camper. I think each step is around an 8 inch drop so it works out really well. It is a good idea to carry a small platform incase you need to raise the step side to level.
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Old 08-06-2019, 05:39 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by PaGroundhog View Post
I measured from the door frame to the ground. 23 inches and only one step. The first one was 13 inches. It makes me wonder why there is not a code for this in the industry. Your house steps have a drop of 7 to 7 3/4 inches by code. Why don't campers. I mentioned this on another forum and a lot of people said they have fallen due to this. I called Flexco who made my 24 in wide step and asked if they made a two step that would fit the same brackets. They said no. Now how silly is that? Build with a one step and then sell them a two step and make more money. Didn't made sense to me that they don't. I did purchase a double step and fabed it to work on mine. $107 fix and now it is so much better. Who else on here has had an issue with this?
There is no rhyme or reason why manufactures do the things they do . i have seen triple steps on unist that could not open all the way because they were to close to the ground and single steps like in your case that leave a 2' gap between step and the ground
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Old 08-06-2019, 08:41 PM   #7
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I've set up a ramp to help my wife get in and out of our trailer. It was an aluminum loading ramp that was re-purposed to help my old dog get in and it's worked so well we kept it after he passed.
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Old 08-08-2019, 08:16 AM   #8
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I don't remember what our old 2005 Flagstaff TT came with, I think 1 foldout step ?
Our new 2020 Flagstaff 2500FBLS has a fold in set of 3 steps, that set on the ground, GREATEST set of Trailer steps ever !!!
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Old 08-08-2019, 09:08 AM   #9
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with my 5ver morryde steps must be adjusted every time we camp ... on occasion after level the first step may be 1-2 inches more than normal really no issue ... there are 3 steps ... hard to imagine only 1 step???
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Old 08-08-2019, 09:28 AM   #10
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We would not buy a TT or a 5th wheel with out them !!!
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