How To Manually Retract RV Steps
RVs are known for their big size and height, so the fact that they have steps to facilitate the entrance to the RV is no surprise at all, regardless of the physical condition of the passenger, making such a jump and effort over and over without proper support can cause lesions or accidents, especially in small children or elderly adults.
Current step models are different depending on the manufacturer and vary regarding the materials of both the support and surface, size, sturdiness, supported weight, some have landing gear to adapt to the ground where the RV is parked, (sand, dirt, concrete), etc., so you need to make sure they are adapted to your needs and especially your RV. Most of them are not difficult to install and they are designed to completely hide from our sight when they are not in use, is stored under the RV or in a special compartment. Unfortunately, electronic steps as useful as they are, they can malfunction just like it happens with anything else that is electronic.
On this blog we will give you some basic troubleshooting that you can do to manually retract the RV steps without the need of a professional, all this assuming they are stuck and the system is not working properly. Because you can obviously not go on the road with your steps still fully attached, it can be very dangerous and illegal as well because you can cause an accident.
Removing the pin: This is the most basic and common troubleshooting measure for this problem and luckily, it’s also very user-friendly.
- Under the steps, you will spot the mechanical device that controls everything
- Remove the thin metal pin from the frame that is on the side
- Remove the linkage pin in which the pin was inserted
- The step frame and the step linkage will be immediately released
- Slide the frame over to the side
- Manually fold the steps and secure it with rope, ties, etc.
Make sure to have your proper tools for this, some clasps can be very useful in disarming the small pieces. If your steps do not have a linkage pin it might have the other variant that has a bolt. The process will be the same but instead of removing the linkage pin you will have to disconnect the bolt attached to the frame on any of its sides.
Don’t forget that this quick troubleshooting is just to get you out of the way but not something you should be doing every time. Once you are done with your trip and on your way back home, remember to take your RV to a professional with experience in steps so they can permanently fix it or maybe replace the entire part if it can’t be fixed.
Thank you for writing this article, your instructions are very simple and easy to understand, I will try to follow these steps.