Kwikee kwality

[Mr. October]

Or lack thereof. As part of my ongoing rust repair project, I removed the Kwikee steps. To say the amount of attention needed for 2 year old steps is disappointing would be an understatement. We had Kwikee steps on our old motorhome for 12 years and not a scrap of rust. All fasteners were painted or stainless steel. The motor housing was either anodized or painted but didn’t rust either.

Now that Kwikee is owned by Lippert and, apparently cost cutting, they use crappy steel covered by a poor paint job, cheap fasteners, and a Korean made motor they couldn’t even bother to paint. These steps are two years old. The paint is coming off in sheets, and every single fastener is corroded and disintegrating. One fastener sheared off altogether which will be fun to remove. The gear teeth are extremely rusted despite nearly constant application of Kwik Lube.

Not that I think it will matter but I plan to send Lippert/Kwikee a nasty letter with my opinion of their poor quality.

The RV industry is selling products as fast as they can build them. There is no need to cheap out. We are all okay payi g a bit more money for a little more attention to detail. I shouldn’t be spending the winter repairing rust on a 2 year old motorhome and it’s components.

The pictures here show the old rusty motor and the new replacement that has been painted. Note that the old still worked. I’m going to clean it up and keep it as a spare. Ignore the bit of brown on the painted one. It was primer I got on the plastic. The last picture is the sheared off bolt for the motor table I’ll need to remove. It is rusted in place.

[Chuckie]

Holy cow that's rusted! Unbelievable. I have a 2012 Georgetown and replaced the Lippert step control module last year (user error - I broke it). All the step components are just fine with no rust and I live in the Upper Midwest; the land of salted roads. After seeing some of your other pictures, it almost seems like your unit was stored in the ocean. Weird. I feel bad for your troubles. I'd be all over Forest River for some sort of Lemon Law replacement if it was me (not that it would do anything).

[Mooney 78865]

WOW! I'd be a bit underwhelmed as well.
I've followed your posts and you seem to be pretty diligent about the maintenance your coach receives. Sucks when in two years you have to be out doing "corrosion control". Didn't I just see a post where you have been doing the underside of the rig as well?
Ours fortunately lives in a warmer climate. We never see snow, let alone salt.
I've been under mine at length this week and looked it over pretty good. There were a couple spots on some of the struts for the baggage compartment supports, but that was about it. You would think someone does a rust inhibitor for commercial trucks out there....

[Mr. October]

Originally Posted by Chuckie

Holy cow that's rusted! Unbelievable. I have a 2012 Georgetown and replaced the Lippert step control module last year (user error - I broke it). All the step components are just fine with no rust and I live in the Upper Midwest; the land of salted roads. After seeing some of your other pictures, it almost seems like your unit was stored in the ocean. Weird. I feel bad for your troubles. I'd be all over Forest River for some sort of Lemon Law replacement if it was me (not that it would do anything).

In general the rust underneath the coach is NOTHING compared to the crappy work done by Kwikee/Lippert on the steps. Hardly worthy of lemon law action. In fact, we're overall pretty happy with the coach. I just I remember a time when "Made in America" meant something positive.

[Mr. October]

Originally Posted by Mooney 78865

WOW! I'd be a bit underwhelmed as well.
I've followed your posts and you seem to be pretty diligent about the maintenance your coach receives. Sucks when in two years you have to be out doing "corrosion control". Didn't I just see a post where you have been doing the underside of the rig as well?
Ours fortunately lives in a warmer climate. We never see snow, let alone salt.
I've been under mine at length this week and looked it over pretty good. There were a couple spots on some of the struts for the baggage compartment supports, but that was about it. You would think someone does a rust inhibitor for commercial trucks out there....

Yes. Been working on some surface rust underneath. It is very minor and mostly attributable to me not washing the undercarriage pretty thoroughly after our wintry/snowy delivery a couple years ago. The areas around the steps and the steps themselves are the biggest offender. I can't believe Lippert did not treat the motor housing.

[Mr. October]

If anyone has the 24 or 25 series steps I'd highly recommend proactively pulling off the motor table and performing the following preventative maintenance:

1. Clean and paint the motor housing and outward facing plate. (See my photos).
2. Put some anti seize on the motor table threads.
3. Remove and replace all fasteners with stainless. (3 nuts & bolts that hold the motor to the table, and the 4 nuts and bolts that secure the brackets the gear plate rides in. Cable clips. Get stainless Solar wire clips.)
4. Thoroughly grease the teeth on the drive gear on the motor. This is a really good reason to pull the gear plate. There is no way to access this raw, steel gear otherwise and its corrosion will surely kill the motor early.
5. Thoroughly grease the gear plate.
6. Redo any lost paint.

All of the above can be done in in span of an hour or so without removing the steps and wouldn't be a hard job. (Assuming the bolts holding the step table aren't already rusted.) Of course, paint drying takes some time.

[dbutton]

I serviced & painted my steps last year & agree the components used are very cheap for their importance.
I removed the motor cover & packed with grease. The motor wasn't as rusty as yours.
My step side rails & ball bearings were very rusty & looked awful.
Photo is of the side rail after sand blasting which cleaned the bearings very good without disassembling the rails.
Use dry lube on the bearings & the exposed gear yearly at the least.
This is on a 10 year old coach.

[Mr. October]

Originally Posted by dbutton

I serviced & painted my steps last year & agree the components used are very cheap for their importance.
I removed the motor cover & packed with grease. The motor wasn't as rusty as yours.
My step side rails & ball bearings were very rusty & looked awful.
Photo is of the side rail after sand blasting which cleaned the bearings very good without disassembling the rails.
Use dry lube on the bearings & the exposed gear yearly at the least.
This is on a 10 year old coach.Attachment 245819Attachment 245821

Your's looks very different from mine. Kind of like drawer slides.

[Jim G]

Thanks. I followed your advice. Fortunately the steps are pretty easy to work on after doing it a few times. I have had nothing but problems on my last two new RV's with Kwikee steps. They were about to go out of business because of crappy quality when Lippert bought them. I thought things would improve but they did not. I have had to replace the motors in my 2018 twice, once under warranty. I now carry a spare. I have found that it is easier to replace a motor than troubleshoot a problem, it usually ends up being the motor anyway.

[RELHUB]

Originally Posted by Mr. October

Or lack thereof. As part of my ongoing rust repair project, I removed the Kwikee steps. To say the amount of attention needed for 2 year old steps is disappointing would be an understatement. We had Kwikee steps on our old motorhome for 12 years and not a scrap of rust. All fasteners were painted or stainless steel. The motor housing was either anodized or painted but didn’t rust either.

Now that Kwikee is owned by Lippert and, apparently cost cutting, they use crappy steel covered by a poor paint job, cheap fasteners, and a Korean made motor they couldn’t even bother to paint. These steps are two years old. The paint is coming off in sheets, and every single fastener is corroded and disintegrating. One fastener sheared off altogether which will be fun to remove. The gear teeth are extremely rusted despite nearly constant application of Kwik Lube.

Not that I think it will matter but I plan to send Lippert/Kwikee a nasty letter with my opinion of their poor quality.

The RV industry is selling products as fast as they can build them. There is no need to cheap out. We are all okay payi g a bit more money for a little more attention to detail. I shouldn’t be spending the winter repairing rust on a 2 year old motorhome and it’s components.

The pictures here show the old rusty motor and the new replacement that has been painted. Note that the old still worked. I’m going to clean it up and keep it as a spare. Ignore the bit of brown on the painted one. It was primer I got on the plastic. The last picture is the sheared off bolt for the motor table I’ll need to remove. It is rusted in place.

Wow that is a lot of rust.
Our MH is 2013 with ZERO rust under it. We also have kwikee steps
I live near the ocean and some of our roads flood during high tides.
I will always avoid all of these roads with any of my vehicles.
I see many people drive through the salt water and then wonder why their cars are a total rusted mess. Even just an 1/4 inch of salt water is enough to cause lots of rust issues.

I am not saying you are doing that but some how your MH is being exposed to something that is causing all of this corrosion.

[RELHUB]

Originally Posted by Mr. October

If anyone has the 24 or 25 series steps I'd highly recommend proactively pulling off the motor table and performing the following preventative maintenance:

1. Clean and paint the motor housing and outward facing plate. (See my photos).
2. Put some anti seize on the motor table threads.
3. Remove and replace all fasteners with stainless. (3 nuts & bolts that hold the motor to the table, and the 4 nuts and bolts that secure the brackets the gear plate rides in. Cable clips. Get stainless Solar wire clips.)
4. Thoroughly grease the teeth on the drive gear on the motor. This is a really good reason to pull the gear plate. There is no way to access this raw, steel gear otherwise and its corrosion will surely kill the motor early.
5. Thoroughly grease the gear plate.
6. Redo any lost paint.

All of the above can be done in in span of an hour or so without removing the steps and wouldn't be a hard job. (Assuming the bolts holding the step table aren't already rusted.) Of course, paint drying takes some time.

Good Idea I will do even though mine look great.
They are 7 years old need to give them a good cleaning.

[Mr. October]

Originally Posted by RELHUB

Wow that is a lot of rust.
Our MH is 2013 with ZERO rust under it. We also have kwikee steps
I live near the ocean and some of our roads flood during high tides.
I will always avoid all of these roads with any of my vehicles.
I see many people drive through the salt water and then wonder why their cars are a total rusted mess. Even just an 1/4 inch of salt water is enough to cause lots of rust issues.

I am not saying you are doing that but some how your MH is being exposed to something that is causing all of this corrosion.

We only use it in the summer and it’s stored indoors in a climate controlled environment. I don’t know what we could be doing.

[NXR]

At the Tampa RV Show this week I was disappointed by all of the motorhomes and DP's using Kwikee steps. Most did feel a good bit firmer than ours does, though. I wonder if there is something that can be beefed up in how they are attached.

We had to have ours replaced under warranty at about four months because they developed a lot of slop in the rivet holes in the arms. Other people have complained about the same thing. Kwikee Kwap.

Ray

[Mr. October]

Originally Posted by RELHUB

Wow that is a lot of rust.
Our MH is 2013 with ZERO rust under it. We also have kwikee steps
I live near the ocean and some of our roads flood during high tides.
I will always avoid all of these roads with any of my vehicles.
I see many people drive through the salt water and then wonder why their cars are a total rusted mess. Even just an 1/4 inch of salt water is enough to cause lots of rust issues.

I am not saying you are doing that but some how your MH is being exposed to something that is causing all of this corrosion.

I remembered something else this morning. Kwikee was not purchased by Lippert until 2014. Like yours, our old motorhome didn't have any rust issues on the steps. They were much better built. I'm guessing when Lippert purchased them they forced some "economic efficiencies" on them.

[Mr. October]

I had several communications with Lippert/Kwikee including sending them some pictures of the completely rusted parts. I had asked if they could send me a couple of the plastic bearings that the drive gear rides on since one of them broke when I was trying to remove it to paint. They sent me the entire step repair kit! I didn't ask for that and, despite the poor initial quality of the steps, I'm impressed they stepped up to make it as right as they can.