Falling down the stairs

[seidcon]

We have a Forest River Signature Ultra lite 5th wheel. At night, only the middle step is illuminated. When it's dark it's easy to miss the bottom step.
After both my wife and myself fell when we missed the bottom step, I installed additional LED step lights to light up all of the steps.

I found the led step lights on line and installation time was less than 1 hour.
I removed the panels from the back of the steps (inside the storage area) to facilitate fishing the wires.
It makes a big difference.

Forest River should consider making this standard equipment.

[OldCoot]

We've never fallen and hope we don't, I put a handrail on and added step lights.

[Wobbles]

Originally Posted by OldCoot

We've never fallen and hope we don't, I put a handrail on and added step lights.

I have seen your mod on another thread, very common sense solution that both of you have resolved.

I grinning while writing this and want to ask of you, what is that in your first picture at the end of the hand rail?

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by Wobbles

I have seen your mod on another thread, very common sense solution that both of you have resolved.

I grinning while writing this and want to ask of you, what is that in your first picture at the end of the hand rail?

It is a folding privacy screen we've never used. Unsnapped it once just to see what it was.

[Wobbles]

I saw what looked like a metal band at the top. Reminded me of one of those tire thumpers that truck drivers use.

Going to the dark side I wondered if it was a knocker for those that knock on your door late at night.

[bob caldwell]

Cane...

[justwinginit]

A lot of the problems with these steps are the different heights between the risers. They need to make them uniform. I know my old 5er had one step 13 inch and another 9 inches. That kills my knees. Hubby fixed it by adding another step making all new steps over the old ones. It worked great.

[bob caldwell]

Another idea

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by Wobbles

I have seen your mod on another thread, very common sense solution that both of you have resolved.

I grinning while writing this and want to ask of you, what is that in your first picture at the end of the hand rail?

At the bottom what you see is the top of an umbrella that we have velcroed the handle to the wall and door frame to keep it handy.

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by justwinginit

A lot of the problems with these steps are the different heights between the risers. They need to make them uniform. I know my old 5er had one step 13 inch and another 9 inches. That kills my knees. Hubby fixed it by adding another step making all new steps over the old ones. It worked great.

I think RV manufacturers should absolutely make residential step-height steps. I HATE our steep steps and would change them if I could.

[Swift 2]

I cut a 1" piece of nonskid tape and put it on the front edge about an inch back. We slipped often until we put the tape down. Haven't slipped since.

[Iwritecode]

Originally Posted by ependydad

I think RV manufacturers should absolutely make residential step-height steps. I HATE our steep steps and would change them if I could.

I remember watching a video once of a large stairway in a public place. It was like a subway station or something. There were like 15 or 20 steps and just a single one was like 1/4" off compared to all the others. They showed a ton of people tripping on that single step.

So I don't know if the actual height matters so much as long as they are all uniform. I go up and down my steps all the time in the dark with no problems.

[scootingranny]

The young man who delivered our 5er to storage for us told me that we needed to be aware that at night, the stairways of 5ers were very dark and could be dangerous. So DH installed a solar powered, motion activated light similar to the ones we have on the outside of the 5er. Works great for us. Really do like the LED lights and we're going to be working on getting a handrail, too

[bob caldwell]

I just leave a little lamp with LED bulb on all night

[pashooter]

Very nice mods both seidcon & OldCoot... I've got entry stepwell lighting in the works as well for the new MH. Seems like an accident waiting to happen in the dark, especially given my DW has rather limited mobility.

[Witch Doctor]

Originally Posted by seidcon

We have a Forest River Signature Ultra lite 5th wheel. At night, only the middle step is illuminated. When it's dark it's easy to miss the bottom step.
After both my wife and myself fell when we missed the bottom step, I installed additional LED step lights to light up all of the steps.

I found the led step lights on line and installation time was less than 1 hour.
I removed the panels from the back of the steps (inside the storage area) to facilitate fishing the wires.
It makes a big difference.

Forest River should consider making this standard equipment.

That looks great, plenty of light and looks classy.... I might steel that idea, where did you get them?

[aceinspp]

Nice mods but that is one reason why I traded my 5er for a tt. As we get older the more unstable one tends to get. Like buying a two story house with bed rooms upstairs. Later RJD

[5picker]

Our control panel is on the wall in the stairwell. Several of the switches are lighted (water heater, water pump, etc.) and there is always one or more of them on no matter whether hooked up to shore power or boondocking. Those switches, along with the LED ambient lighting under our kitchen island, provide the perfect amount of light for the steps at night.