Hi, I’m Jeff Johnston. When we first ordered our Palomino camper, we knew we’d need some way to get into the camper from the ground, so we purchased this generic two-step steel unit. It fits into the receiver very nicely, it’s strong, it’ll support my weight, and it does the job exactly as it’s supposed to. Combine it with a little portable, foldable step here, and you can climb right in. The one thing that we failed to think about, or I failed to think about, my mistake, is the steps are mounted in the center of the truck, in the receiver. The door is offset to the side considerably, so the steps come up right about here. That’s why we have this orange safety tape on here, because climbing in and out is a little bit of a chore.
Fortunately, thanks to TorkLift, there is a much better solution for getting in and out of a camper these days. Jeff: Scissor type entry steps for campers and other RVs have been around for quite a few years, but the new GlowStep from TorkLift really steps that up, so to speak. It’s heavier, stronger, and is able to support my weight, which is saying something. This one is rated at approximately 275-pounds capacity, and other models are rated up to about 300 pounds.
They’re easy to install, fairly easy to move, and they provide a safe, solid, secure way to climb up to the level of a camper. We’ll show you how it’s installed.
We know there’s a solid aluminum frame member behind the skin, here under the door, so we start by marking a centerline here, about 13 inches, and with the centerline mark on the bracket, just kind of eyeball it for level, side to side, and mark all six holes. And start drilling. Insert the screws, continue with the other four screws, snug them all down, make sure they’re tight, ‘insert the spring pins here, clips, and the safety clip, and of course, the safety clip. With the retaining pin suitably installed, you can stretch this guy out, looks like a comfortable spot, and we’ll see how it feels.
Much better, much better, feels nice and solid underfoot. For my bulk, that’s pretty good. And another
little interesting feature about the GlowStep is these little glow pads that are on here, these little tabs absorb light, and then, after dark, they glow for several hours, which makes for a somewhat safer access up and down the steps.
Then, when you’re ready to break camp, you come up, take out the safety clips, that’s always a good idea, pull the pins, collapse this guy, and in our case, toss it inside the rig. We’ve got a rubber pad here to keep it from sliding around. Now, people do leave it, you know, collapse it and leave it collapsed with a hook on it, but then it kind of swings back and forth, people come up with different solutions for keeping it from banging into the bumper and whatnot. But we’re just gonna store it inside, gets it out of the way, makes a nice clean job
out of it, it appears.
So, the GlowStep from TorkLift, it’s a terrific solution to climbing in and out of something like a camper, highly recommended.
