railing for steps inside 5th wheel

There HAS to be exterior wall studs you can mount a rail to. Use a 'backer board' from some nice oak and make it long enough to stretch across 2-3 studs on that outer wall. Attach a hand rail to the backer with bolts and thin nuts so they are flush with the back side of the backer then mount the backer to the wall studs with some long, self tapping screws and gorilla glue. The rail should then be stabile for balance and at least partial weight bearing.

We had one installed when we bought our 5er. The dealer did it. It's on the outside wall tho'. It's the same as the one that's at the door. There must be studs in that outside wall as my wife uses it for balance and load bearing. So far so good since 2009. Use a stud finder.

A recent Trailer Life had a rail designed for the steps into the trailer. Maybe that design could be modified for your needs?

Another idea might be to add a back board like ours. I think you could hit a stud in at least two places, or even just secure like shown above.

Only one thing worse than not having a handrail is having one that isn't designed to hold like a handrail but you think it is.

We faced the same problem in our HitchHiker. The stairway walls are (at best) 1/8" thick plywood and I could find nothing in the way of a "stud" or reinforcement of any kind where I needed to anchor a railing. What to do? Being of a rather contrary sort of cuss I tried to live up (or down) to my personal motto - "Illigitimus non carborundum". That being said, or thought, I decided to have at it. The pictures below show the result. So far it has worked well for my wife and I. We were on the road for almost a month last summer, our first long trip with the 5er, and used the railing every day.

Finding a suitable anchor to use in the thin plywood wasn't so difficult. Making it a bit stronger to better support the railing and any loads placed thereon was. Remember, this railing is to maintain balance only. My wife and I know this and use it accordingly.

As you can see in the first picture, I selected the shortest expanding-type Molly anchor I could find. This will grip 1/8" thick plywood very well. The little #6 machine screw that comes with this size is only about .138" in diameter with 32 threads per inch. I elected to drill and tap the anchor to size 8-32 or about .164" in diameter. The anchor body is too small to allow for enlarging to 3/16".


The rail itself was cut from a scrap of 3/4" thick white oak I happened to have lying around the place.


Another view.


I drilled each end to as shown below. The holes are counter-bored to allow the screw heads to be concealed. The holes were used as a drill guide for locating the modified Molly anchors.


Detail of the finger clearance which is about 1".


I sanded and finished the rail prior to mounting it. When the lights are off, it matches the other woodwork perfectly!

Hope this long-winded dissertation is of some benefit. Good luck!:B

Why not put posts from the floor up, then the hand rail across the posts? Then light anchors (molley bolts) into the wall to stabilize it a little?

Ok. These are my thoughts on the subject. If I was to install a hand rail on a non- bearing wall, I would of course look on the other side of the wall to see if I can go through for adequate support. If that wasn't possible, I may look at supporting the rail from the floor. Maybe a 1/2" material along wall, supported on floor and able to support the rail. BTW, the rail needs to be weight bearing. That's what it's for.

Our fiver has a wooden vertical inside handle beside the door. I ordered a second one from Newmar and installed it at an angle on the wall beside the inside steps.

As noted it is not weight bearing, just for balance. I simply ran long 5/16 bolts through the wall into the toilet area and secured them with chrome washers & acorn nuts. Has been fine for five years.

I wonder if a piece of matching decorative 1/4 or 1/2 x 5" wood could be glued to the wall with "no more nails" or similar adhesive. Once its firmly in place a decent railing could be bolted to that as well as one or two screws through the wood and penetrating the wall 1/4"

I have used this technique a few times to bolt to areas like cupboards that were just thin Luan. Spread the stress over a large enough area and I think that it would be safe enough.

Daryll

I installed one, made it out of a 2 x 4 and painted it black. Since it is not weight supporting, I used wall anchors.

hand rail