Old Kwikee Step Replacement

[Jason Worman]

Hi All,
So I spent the better part of the day under the coach removing the parts to our Kwikee 40 series steps. I suspect these were the original step parts. Got the motor, gear box and casing removed. Took parts to local RV parts place in Coos Bay. Parts  guys looked things over and declared everything had long since been discontinued. Options were all new parts, almost 500.00, all new complete step assembly was 900.00. Wiring in step area is 30 years old, so opted to replace with 135.00 manual steps. Got home, bolt patterns matched so proceeded to remove the four bolts, should have been straight forward, but hey this is a Beaver! The nuts had frozen to the bolts,  the tops of the bolts are encased in the frame so it was impossible to loosen bolts without nut and bolt turning together.

Will call a friend that owns a welding shop and have him cut the existing bolts off and weld some new posts to bolt the new steps too. On the bright side, when I ran a magnet over the inside door panel, the original control box still worked after all these years!

Jason Worman

[Fred Brooks]

    Jason, If you have a die grinder with a cut off wheel, you can just cut the old bolts off. Harbor freight sells them for $20.00 bucks if you don,t. Then remove the rubber mat or carpet inside the step well. That should reveal the tops of the carriage bolts going to the steps. (Sometimes there is a sheet of 1/4" plywood that covers these bolts). From the bottom, drill a new pilot hole upward where you can still hit the metal structure in 4 locations. Plot out the new locations on the replacement step and drill out with 1/4" or 5/16" drill bit and install with new carriage bolts. Fun 2 hour project!
   Soldier on Beaver friend! The adventure continues.......Fred

[Jason Worman]

Fred,

Thank you for your suggestion and help, the DW did the flooring in our rig and she said pulling up new flooring not an option . We are going to get them welded into place.

Jason