Ever notice how rickety those RV stairs can be, and then one day, they just break on you? You could spend hundreds for part replacements or buying new stairs, or even worse: You buy a step ladder and destroy yourself while constantly using it as you receive dirty looks from the other campers because your setup looks trashy. Instead, try this less expensive idea on for size.
Camper stairs are easy to build, and are a great portable solution. Head down to your local hardware store and lumber yard, and here's what you'll want to get:
Two Pressure Treated Stair Stringers
2x6 Lumber
Exterior Wood Screws at least 2-1/2 inches long
Optional 2x4 Lumber
Exterior Wood Sealant
Optional Wood Stain or Outdoor Carpeting
For tools, make sure you have the following:
Circular saw
Some form of saw horse (use the back of your truck or a folding ladder)
Impact driver (drill might work if it's powerful enough)
Hammer or Rubber Mallet
Tape Measure and Ruler with Pencil
Optional Reciprocating Saw with Wood Blade
Paint brush
Safety equipment (Some might not want it, but we recommend it)
Before buying the materials, you'll want to measure the height from the ground to the bottom of the door entry, as well as the door width should you want to store your stairs in your RV, to see what size stringers and how much lumber you need to get. With our dimensions, we were able to use 3-step stringers at about 20 inches of height, and made our treads 20 inches wide so the stairs could go inside the RV. You could splurge on 2x12 boards or specialty stair treads if you really want, but 2x6 boards are your most economic solution for a single tread.
First, cut your 2x6 lumber to size. You'll need two boards for each "stair", but save any excess you might have, because you'll use it later. Once all your boards are cut, line up your stringers and start screwing in your treads. The second board on each step will overhang the stringer on the front, so do all of the rear boards before the front ones. Everything should line up, but it's OK if there's a little over- or under-hang, so long as it isn't too noticeable. Risers aren't really necessary, but you can do them if you want; not having them gives you a better way to "grip" the staircase if you need it to be portable.
Once the actual "stairs" are done, you'll need to put in some supports. This is where that excess 2x6 lumber comes in handy, but you can also use the less expensive 2x4 lumber should you run out of 2x6 pieces; we were able to do the whole thing with the 2x6 boards we had bought. Use vertical pieces from the back part of the stair stringer down to the ground. It doesn't have to go all the way to the top step; we stopped a little short based on the excess we had so we weren't wasting lumber. Once those are in, cut some horizontal cross pieces between your vertical supports to make sure the stairs don't wobble when you're on the top step. Some will put the supports on the outside, but for space saving purposes, we chose to tuck them on the inside; it seems to work just as well. You can do diagonal cross pieces if you really want to, but it requires some special tools to make the angles, and rectangular solutions are just fine. The same goes for handrails: You can do them if you really want, but there's probably already a rail on the outside of your rig, so just use that.
One to two hours later in the blazing sun, give or take for some product exchanges, you have yourself some lovely and sturdy stairs! Now time to seal them and either stain or put some carpeting on the treads, depending on what you want to do. After that has dried, you and your fur baby will have a much easier time getting in and out of your home. Not to mention, it looks a lot more sightly when you're at "higher end" resorts. Depending on the size, you should be able to pick this up yourself and move it around on travel days. Just be aware that it won't work for overnight boondocking at corporate establishments because it extends too far out into the next parking spot; you'll still need to use a step-ladder or something a bit smaller and more easily portable, but at least you can use that for other applications.
Don't let your old stairs, or the high expense of new RV stairs, keep you from Following your Internal Compass. Build yourself something that will work for you.
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