Chinook RV

Can you look at below photo's and tell me how I can correct rear steps? I think the bracket attaching bottom step to top is wrong? When you put the bottom step up you cannot open the backdoor.

From pics on web I think the bottom to top step bracket is either bent or is incorrect brace? I cannot find closeup of correct brace on web so if someone has one please send along with length of bracket. I spoke to ASAP Metal Fabricators and they said they made the steps and can help me on parts if I send pic and dimensions.


1st closed option

2nd closed option


Both closed options block door.




Thanks in advance....

Chuck

That step arrangement looks exactly like mine (later years have an electric step and the whole kit and caboodle was moved upwards). I actually have my lower step off right now (because car towing), but I can tell you that it flips up with ease and then sits perfectly flat on the top step (so the lower step becomes the top step when you are traveling).

Those long arms with the slit in the middle for the step to slide up on? Those should not be bent like yours are, for starters.

Let me see if I can find any photos of mine to help. (I won't be reunited with my lower step until November.)

Okay, here are a few photos that may help. They were taken for another reason so aren't the best, but.... In the last photo the lower step is in the up and stowed position.

I'll see if I can find some of the outer side of the step brackets on the fixed chrome "slopes."

OK, something seems to have gone wrong with the photos above (I get "attachment no longer available"). Here is one more showing the "outside" that may help. Then I'll go back and see if I can fix the previous ones.

Blue~Go wrote: August 20th, 2018, 6:29 pm OK, something seems to have gone wrong with the photos above (I get "attachment no longer available"). Here is one more showing the "outside" that may help. Then I'll go back and see if I can fix the previous ones.

IMG_4142_2.jpg

Thanks Blue~Go for taking time to post pictures, here is pic of mine at same angle of your last photo, clearly the braces are bent and next photo show different hardware so there looks like repair was done.





Looks like I need new brace that goes from bottom step to top, can I ask what length your braces are? I think the rest of my steps are OK, except for these braces.

Big thanks!

Your bent slotted struts are definitely the problem. You should be able to straighten them out, however, and the step should work fine. They need to be flat so the step can slide the whole length of the slot, and the strut then fits between the step and the outer strut when it is folded. They can be straightened with a vice and/or hammer and anvil. If you can't do it, any metal shop can. Your hardware looks like it would work if the struts were straightened. The design is quite ingenious.

That's pretty tough steel, so I suspect a previous owner backed into something with the step down.

I don't mind at all measuring mine, but I won't see them again for a couple of months, so probably not that helpful (I removed the lower step this summer for car towing; I could just have flipped it up and left it up, but then the step is kind of high in comparison to just removing it for the time being).

It is a cool design and I really like it. Now with the lower one removed I'm using a folding metal step-stool thingie, and although it is a nice one..... it is just not the same as having both the stock steps. With the built in steps they are always in the same relation to each other and always stable. With the stool it may be higher or lower than the "normal" lower step, and sometimes is a little bit tilted or whatever. Meh.

Again thanks, I know guy that does good metal work locally so I'll ask him to straighten out and hopefully it works as it should. Slowly getting through punch list of items needing attending since buying this....luckily all pretty small so far.

You actually have all the dimension, since yours is a working one, once you get the slotted bars straightened out. The rod on the edge of the lowest step should able to glide freely up and down the slots making it flat on the upper step once you flip it over, and your door should be able to open without problem.

Good gravy! I've owned mine for 3yrs and had no idea the step was supposed to fold that way so you could use the rear door. Mine isn't bent but it's so hard to slide in the track I didn't think it was supposed to. I've been flipping the step up like 68's all these years. Just ran outside and with some force, got it to work. Now I need to do something to make it slide a lot easier. Learning this was almost as cool as Blue's stick-in-door device!

Anyone with the rod/bolt bent? Mine was working nicely, until I forget to flip it up, and back up a driveway

I assume I can just remove the rod and use a vise to clamp it and bent it back, correct?

(BTW, Skillet's comment prompted me to look up the stick-in-a-door post, and I finally figured out what is in Blue's avatar. I thought it is some kind of special maritime device, and feel too embarrassed to ask him directly.)