Kwikee Step Rebuild

Jim’s turn, and I like to do the techie stuff.

At 6 years old, our front entry steps are looking kinda beat. After dragging them thru a ditch outside of Silverton, Colorado a few years ago, followed by a roadside repair, they don’t work as smoothly as they once did either.

Here’s what we are starting with:

Taking them apart was pretty easy, other than laying under the coach to get it done. Don’t forget to kill the power, these things can eat fingers! Ours had a connector right up under there that I disconnected to be sure the steps wouldn’t try to move while my fingers were up in there.

There is 1 pair of main brackets, with 3 bolts, and 2 pairs of “followers” with 2 bolts each. I soaked it all down with PB blaster a few days before D-Day, and it all came apart fairly easily.

I applied a “ford tool” to straighten some bent pieces, pealed the nasty old anti-skid off the steps, and took the 2 steps and 6 brackets to my local power coater.

The hardware was 12 shouldered bolts, wave washers, bronze bushings, and nuts.

The bolts and nuts were saveable, and I sourced stainless steel triple wave washers and 3/8 x 1/4 iolite bronze bushings (they didn’t have 3/8 x 3/8) from McMaster-Carr.

Sandblasting and powder coating cost was $150.
I found genuine kwikee replacement antiskids (21″ x 6″) for roughly $30 with shipping.
The hardware was about another $30.

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I still haven’t completely figured this out, but I attached LED truck marker lights to the underside of the steps, and have a third to install to the main bracket above them. They should light everything up really good, much better than that “hockey puck light” they come with. In an ideal world, I would run the extra wire from my starlight motion sensor porch light down to the door handle light and the step lights, but I’ve yet to figure out how to do that…

I drilled and countersunk holes through the steps to attach the lights (with stainless screws and nuts) before I stuck down the new anti-skid, it completely covers the screw heads.

I put everything back together today, it took about an hour and a half, and involved a bit of cursing, mostly due to not having all the tools I needed with me at the storage lot, and also having to crawl under the RV to get it done.

I gotta say I am very happy with the finished product, here’s some pictures.