When figuring out the layout for our camper, I struggled with the entry ladder situation. The side door on the flatbed is a little higher than the door on the slide in camper, and entry/exit from a FWC is already a little awkward due to the hobbit door. I spent way too much time perseverating on this, but eventually came up with a pretty good solution - half of a 'little giant' step ladder. This provided, large, flat, grippy and stable stairs - perfect for backing out of the camper, after dark with two beverages in hand. These have worked pretty well over the past couple of years, and I think a few others have adopted the idea:
Unlike some of my other ideas, this one worked pretty well first time, and hasn't needed a complete redesign. But there was some room for improvement. The first issue is the length of the ladder. I have the 4-step model, and on flat ground it was a tad too short - not a huge deal, but this did give the steps a slight downward slope away from the camper. On uneven ground this could be pretty significant slope (particularly with leveling blocks under the wheels) leading us to use a 2x4' under the feet to make it more level, and sometimes rocks and logs and whatever else was at hand. This did not contribute towards my goal of a stable ladder, or help with the evening beverages. So revision B of the ladder includes adjustable legs, short mode:
Long mode:
The tuning used in the ladder is an odd size (neither metric or imperial), but luckily the now removed 'safety rail' is the same size tubing as the legs. I machined up two pegs for each leg, drilled a series of holes in the tubing from the rail, added a some M6 threaded knobs to hold the leg extension in place, and moved the rubber bumpers to the new legs. This gives 6" of adjustability for each leg.
The other issue was the attachment to the side of the camper. The previous system fixed where the ladder was attached. The new system uses a section of always-handy 80/20 bolted to the flatbed below the door. I milled down some U channel to make J channel which grabs the top slot in the 80/20:
Now you can slide the ladder a couple of cm left or right for when my excellent parking job places a ladder foot right on top of a rock/root/wildflower.
The whole thing folds flat and stores in the under tray drawer:
Unlike some of my other ideas, this one worked pretty well first time, and hasn't needed a complete redesign. But there was some room for improvement. The first issue is the length of the ladder. I have the 4-step model, and on flat ground it was a tad too short - not a huge deal, but this did give the steps a slight downward slope away from the camper. On uneven ground this could be pretty significant slope (particularly with leveling blocks under the wheels) leading us to use a 2x4' under the feet to make it more level, and sometimes rocks and logs and whatever else was at hand. This did not contribute towards my goal of a stable ladder, or help with the evening beverages. So revision B of the ladder includes adjustable legs, short mode:
Long mode:
The tuning used in the ladder is an odd size (neither metric or imperial), but luckily the now removed 'safety rail' is the same size tubing as the legs. I machined up two pegs for each leg, drilled a series of holes in the tubing from the rail, added a some M6 threaded knobs to hold the leg extension in place, and moved the rubber bumpers to the new legs. This gives 6" of adjustability for each leg.
The other issue was the attachment to the side of the camper. The previous system fixed where the ladder was attached. The new system uses a section of always-handy 80/20 bolted to the flatbed below the door. I milled down some U channel to make J channel which grabs the top slot in the 80/20:
Now you can slide the ladder a couple of cm left or right for when my excellent parking job places a ladder foot right on top of a rock/root/wildflower.
The whole thing folds flat and stores in the under tray drawer:
