Top RV Accessories And Upgrades: Way Better RV Stairs

Do you still have the factory RV stairs on your rig? The ones that feel like you’re about to do a back one-and-a-half somersaults, tuck off the high dive? All the while your rig rocks back and forth like it’s experiencing 3.5 magnitude earthquake? Y’all know the ones I’m talking about! That’s what we had on ours and for a while, we figured it was just one of those things you just had to deal with. But not now!

Sturdier RV Stairs

Our discovery of sturdier RV stairs happened while browsing around an RV dealership. Angelica and I were looking at 5^thwheels, we LOVE to look at 5^thwheels! Well, we walked up to a Redwood and noticed it had stairs with legs that sat on the ground. It was like, “Wow we’ve never seen these before!” and upon stepping on to them, it was “Wow!” again. They were solid, with no rocking, or bouncing! Those RV stairs were amazing, and we knew that we had to have a set.

Finding The Right RV Stair

We had gotten into the final stages of our renovation that we got around to purchases our new RV stairs. I searched online and found 2 manufacturers of this type of RV stairs, the Lippert SolidStep and the MORryde StepAbove. After looking at both brands I went with the SolidStep, mainly because the feet are attached to the bottom of the side rails, instead of at the top. This reduces the chances of tripping on them. Besides that, both brands make a nice pair of stairs.

Size Matters

Before ordering a pair of these stairs though, you must make sure you are ordering the right size. Both of the manufacturers have in their documentation about how to measure to get the right size for your rig. For the SolidStep, you first measure the width of your door opening and round that number up to the nearest width they make. Then with you rig level, measure the height of the floor of your rig to the ground. For rigs with a height of 35 to 44 inches you would choose the 4 step model and for heights between 27 to 36 inches, you would choose the 3 step model.  

The model I purchased for The Tin Can was the 3 step, 28-inch model, which is not the model I should have purchased. I obviously did not read SolidStep’s documentation very well beforehand. Because when I measured the door opening width, I did not round up to the nearest size but chose the nearest smaller size. I was afraid of ordering a set too wide. Well, when the stairs came in, I placed them in my door opening and the latches did not catch on my door frame. They were too narrow.

Correcting My Mistake

For a moment I didn’t know exactly what to do. I did not want to rebox and send them back, but they were not going to work like they were. So I called Lippert Components and told them about my situation. About how I had ordered the wrong width stairs and also that the bracket the latches were attached to had been bent somewhere during shipping. The gentleman at customer support was really nice and agreed to ship me the correct width bracket and other latch pieces needed for it to work. I was very relieved at his helpfulness and happy that I wasn’t going to have to ship them back for an exchange. The 30-inch bracket came in and after drilling out some rivets to remove the latches from the original bracket I was able to assemble the new bracket and latches together. I did, however, have to drill new holes in the new bracket to attach it our stairs. 

Installing Your New RV Stairs

The installation of the stairs is pretty straightforward. The first thing you have to do is remove the door threshold transition piece. Then lift the stairs in place and make sure the mounting plate is touching the floor and butted up against the threshold. Next measure the distance from both sides of the stairs to the door frame to get it centered. There are two holes in the top of the stairs that allow you to fasten screw into the floor when you get the stairs centered. After installing the 2 screws, lift the stairs up and latch them to the door frame. With the stairs latched you can now access the rest of the mounting holes in the plate and finish securing them in place. That’s pretty much it! Depending on the ground outside you may have to adjust the legs a little. You may also have to adjust the latch some if it is hitting on one side. Other than that, you’re done! 

Conclusion

We love our Lippert SolidSteps and have no regrets in getting a set. I do regret getting the wrong size, a little, though. They make a huge difference in the solidness of the rig. You can now go in and out of the trailer without the whole place rocking! 

The only complaint I have heard anyone say about this type of RV stairs is that they create a good place for ants to get into your rig. We have not had that problem yet but a little peppermint essential oil can help deal with that.

Who else has changed out or is planning on changing their RV stairs? Which ones did you choose and why? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Please Like and Share us on social media! Also, subscribe to our email list to stay up to date on new posts! Please leave a comment telling us what you think.