Step Coming Out While Driving

[41ford]

Last week, we took out 5th wheel out for it's 3rd trip, approximately 725 miles round trip from SE Washington state to Seaside, Oregon.

Prior to leaving, checked everything out, including lubricating the stairs, since they were a little difficult to extend. On the home, the stairs came out twice within 35 miles of home.

I drilled two holes in the stairs and installed two PTO clips, one on each side of the stairs, with chains to allow them to not get lost when they are pulled out. Why two PTO pins, redundancy I guess. The chains were mainly for the wife, she has a tendency to lay things down anywhere when done, sometimes never to be found again and this resolves that issue.

Here's a picture of my fix, with one pin installed, the other out. I'm sure this has been done many times before, but appears to work for us.

[lbrjet]

I like it.


2010 F250 5.4L 3.73
2011 Flagstaff 831FKBSS
Equal-i-zer 4pt 12K

[Skyliner]

Darn it, I like it so much that I won't be using my bungee cords anymore to keep my stairs in.

[ernest917]

Wonder if that would work on my power steps that open and close on their own as I'm driving my coach down the road?????


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[Canadiancrew]

Great idea. We have the same steps which came out a couple of times in our travels last year.

[bob caldwell]

When the pivot rivets loosen or break, replace with a bolt and nyloc nut and you can set the necessary tension to keep 'em closed

[wanderingbob]

You can just leave them down and Mother Nature will fix em so you will not have that problem anymore !

[41ford]

Originally Posted by ernest917

Wonder if that would work on my power steps that open and close on their own as I'm driving my coach down the road?????

It might if you can remove power from them. I would suggest pulling a fuse or simply install an inline toggle switch to remove power from them.