Emergency RV Ladder Repair on the Road
Join us in this episode where we fix an issue with the RV. You never know what will break or fall apart while you’re on the road but some things can be patched up to get you by temporarily.
RV Ladder Issues
We’ve dealt with RV ladder issues before but today I need to make an emergency repair to keep us on the road.
Last summer we ventured down the west coast of the U.S. along Hwy 101. This windy, somewhat unforgiving, the road meanders its way from the northern tip of Washington state all the way to Mexico.
Along this route, there are several dips and hairpin turns making traveling in an RV or towing one, quite a challenge. We loved the scenery of the west coast and had such a great time on that adventure.
Unfortunately, we did have one casualty during that trip; our RV ladder.
RV Ladder Fail
Our Heartland Bighorn ladder is designed in such a way that the lower “loop” of the ladder extends well below the bottom of the rear cap of our coach. Because of this low hanging bottom section, we managed to drag it on one of those major dips on 101 Hwy in northern California.
Nothing we could do about it; the road was simply too steep to prevent the drag. The “drag” about all of this is that we lost a little over 2 feet of the bottom section of the ladder.
This really isn’t all that bad since I didn’t use the ladder for roof access anyway. Our ladder is primarily used to hold our flagpole and directional wi-fi antennae when needed.
I never really trusted the RV ladder design. It always felt unstable when I climbed on it and I was afraid it would pull out of the back of the coach so I rarely used it. Instead, like most full-timers, I carry a real ladder for roof access and other needed access on the RV.
As some of you may have seen we recently purchased the Camco Rhino RV tote tank that has a convenient ladder hook for storage on the RV ladder when not in use. I have never been a big fan of “hanging” things on the ladder due to the lack of confidence in the RV ladder design I mentioned before.
DIY Temporary Fix
However, I have been storing the tote tank on the RV ladder with some complications bringing us to this emergency repair today. Granted, our RV ladder has been compromised with the damage last year but I expected it to at least be able to support the tote tank. Well, not so much.
I realize that, at some point, I will need to replace the ladder completely. In order to get us back on the road and to complete our Alaska adventure this summer, I am simply going to repair it with a few parts from the local hardware store.
I purchased “L” brackets and hose clamps that I will use to strengthen the connections of the ladder. I am also replacing a couple of the screws that are badly bent from the ladder sagging.
This repair will get us back on the road and should suffice until this coming fall where I can take the time to replace the entire ladder.
Thanks for joining me today. Hopefully, this was useful to you in showing that you can use simple techniques to make emergency repairs to get by until the proper replacement can be made.
Be sure to check out the video for the tips on a quick fix you can do yourself.
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