Well that is interesting to say the least!!!

[woodworker414]

Went to go into the C Sat. morning to put some stuff in it. Open the door and the electric step came out as normal. Put my foot on the step and stepped up, as I did I hear a noise, that I didn't like and felt the left side of the step go down. I stepped back down on the ground and looked at the step and yep the left side of the step was down, lower than the right site. The side toward the rear of the coach. DRAT. Later that day the son in law crawled under to see what the heck was going on, since I have bad vision. The step well is made of light steel sheet, maybe 1/16" thick. Like a steel box, with the top cut out and the side cut out where the door is. The electric bolts to the bottom of this box. There isn't any extra metal across the oopening where the door is. So the best we can figure, over the years of people stepping in and out of the coach the metal tore at the corner, where it is folded to go from the bottom up for a side. It happen so slightly that it wasn't noticed until Sat. when it gave way a lot more. The metal is split at least half way back along that corner on the rear side and the front side is tearing also, not as much.
The fix will be, we will remove the electric step, jack up the floor to the position it should be, stitch weld the corner, then place angle iron on the corner and stitch weld it in place, and then run bolts through the side wall and bottom through the angle iron. Should be a good fix and long lasting. Yep very interesting indeed. Very fixable. Will post photos if possible.
Safe travels
Bill

[woodworker414]

BTPO1, yep, a brace under the step is a good idea. I usually use a old scissors jack that was my Dad's. He had it for one of his cars in the '30. And I found it in the garage years ago. When we are going to be in place for awhile I will put that under the step. On Sat. morning we were just going to place a few items in the coach, so no brace. Glad that it happen here at the house. Now just have to wait for the weather to warm up and get it fixed.
Safe travels
Bill

[garyhaupt]

A note of caution, if I may...I just dealt with a similar issue and it was a bear to get right. One of the problems I faced, and I suspect you may as well..there are two flammable materials close to the metal box you are going to be welding. Wood and that foam insulation. Just check, if you are going to be close to the wood, do a stitch and let cool and have water close to hand...and if near the foam? That is unstoppable if it should ignite.

There were two tearing and stress issues. The box itself had torn, so that was stitched welded and then the stairs were really weakened by the years of weight being applied unevenly. (the left side is the one that get the most weight) Ultimately we welded where we could safely and then pulled the stairs out, like 4 times...and welded and re-enforced the heck out those.




Gary Haupt

[BTPO1]

Sounds like you have a plan to do the repair and to me it sounds like a good one. On a side note they do made a brace to go between the step and the ground to support the step. I don't have one yet , but have been thinking about making one to extend the life of the step. JMT