Kwikee 25 Series Electric RV Steps - Triple - 7" Rise - 22" x 8" Bolt Pattern

Video Transcript for Lippert Kwikee 25 Series Triple Electric Steps Installation - 2012 Forest River Georgetown XL Motorh

Speaker 1: Today, on our 2012 Forest River Georgetown XL Motorhome, we're gonna be taking a look at, and showing you, how to install the Lippert Components Kwikee 25 Series Triple Electric Step, that's gonna be Part Number LC3658373.Having electric steps on your RV is a really nice thing, whenever we need to get in, we can open the door and our steps should come out, but then at the same time, when we close the door, they should retract. Now, as you can see, ours are having a little bit of an issue, they keep binding up on us and it's a really intermittent operation.Our new Kwikee 25 Series Steps are gonna make it a lot easier for us to get in and out of our motorhome, because they're gonna operate whenever we open the door, our steps will extend down, and then whenever we close the door, they'll retract back in. And you see, they're gonna have that nice, smooth operation.And the way they're gonna work, is they're gonna have a two-part switch, one is gonna be on the outside of the door, right here, which is gonna have a magnet, that'll signal the inside switch. And the inside switch is gonna be mounted onto the inside of the door jamb, and it'll find that signal and let the steps know whether to retract or extend out.Now, our steps are also gonna have a manual switch, so we can turn the steps off if we like to keep em' out all the time, so we don't have to worry about them going back in when we close the door. Now, our motorhome already had a switch built in, so we didn't wire it up, but if we turn the switch off, it will cut the power off to our steps, and then when we close the door, the steps will stay extended out.Our steps are gonna have a lot of built in safety features, so in case we forget to turn that switch back on, and when we close the door to drive away in our motorhome, the steps are gonna automatically retract as soon as we put the key into the ON position. Now also, as another added safety feature, our steps are gonna extend the first time that we open the door after the key is in the ON position, that way we don't have to worry about falling out of the door.And sometimes, whenever we're parked close to a curb, and we go to open our door, our steps may come in contact with that curb, luckily though, there's gonna be a control unit on the motor which is gonna prevent any kind of overheating and too much amperage draw, and it'll actually cut power.

So, once there's enough pressure on the steps, it's gonna stop extending them or retracting them. But keep in mind, if you do open the door and you're really close to the steps, hitting your leg is not gonna be enough pressure, so you still want to be mindful whenever they're retracting or extending.Our steps are even gonna have a built in light, it's gonna be an amber light underneath, so even in those low light situations it is gonna illuminate that first step, so we're gonna have confidence whether we're entering, or exiting, our motorhome. Our steps themselves are gonna have this textured material, so we're gonna have lots of traction, make sure we're not gonna slip even when the steps are wet. On top of that, they're gonna have this reflective coating on each step, so again, in low light situations, or anything like that, it's gonna be very visible so you know exactly where we're stepping.Now, our steps are gonna be made out of steel, and they'll have a black powder coat finish on them, so they are gonna resist rust and corrosion, and they're gonna old up to all the elements, including all the road debris that's gonna be coming up from underneath.Now, the steps themselves are gonna be 24 inches wide by 11 inches deep, so we'll have plenty of room to make sure we have a secure footing. In between each step is gonna be a 7 inch drop, or rise, that way it's gonna be a natural step whenever we're getting in.

Now, as far as the mounting dimensions, our step height is gonna be 19 and a half inches, and that's gonna be from the very top of our mounting bracket, to the very bottom of our lowest step. Now, our mounting bracket dimensions, meaning whenever the steps are fully collapsed and what needs to fit into the hole here, is gonna be 25 and a half inches wide, all the way from one side to the other, and it's gonna be 9 and 5/8 inches tall, and it's gonna be 11 and 3/8 inches deep. So, keep those measurements in mind, whenever you're looking for steps to fit the height, as well as the width and depth, to fit your RV.Our steps are gonna have a 300 lbs weight capacity, so we know they're gonna be really strong and durable.Our Kwikee 25 Series Steps are gonna come in a few different configurations. They're all gonna give you that three-step platform and have the same dimensions, but they're gonna have some that are only gonna be the step itself, with no motor, no switches, or no control units, but also full, complete assemblies, so whatever you need, we have something that's gonna work with your RV.Now, installing our steps is gonna be a pretty straightforward process. We're gonna have pre-drilled holes all the way on the bottom that we can use to match up to the frame on our RV, just keep in mind that the hardware is not included and you will need to pick up some bolts to get everything bolted in.

And the solid steel drive rods on our motor are gonna make sure that this can be extra strong and durable, and last for many years to come.And as far as the wiring goes, we are gonna have a simple four pull connector here, that's gonna plug directly into our motorhome. Now, if you're replacing them, you might already have this style connector on there, but if not, our kit is gonna come with the other end, so we can just use a few butt connectors and wire it in place. Then, we'll just have a simple ground wire that we'll have to connect, and wire up our door switch.So now, we've seen our steps and gone over some of the benefits and features, let's show you how to get them installed.To begin our installation, you're gonna want to open up the door so that the steps can come out, and we'll have a little bit of easier access when we go to remove em'. Now, if you have a manual override switch, you wanna make sure that the power's turned OFF, so that the steps won't retract when we close the door. If you don't have a manual override switch, or you can't get them to stay out, you will just wanna make sure that the door stays open, so that we can get underneath and disconnect everything.To begin our installation, you're gonna want to come underneath your steps to where your motor, and all the wires, are.

Now currently, all of our wires are still connected and we have a lot of zip ties holding everything in place, so I'm just taking a pair of cutters and we're gonna go through and cut all the zip ties, so we can sort out all the wires and disconnect everything needed.Now, our steps are gonna have a couple connectors on there, so we'll go ahead and loosen them up, pull on the tab, and disconnect it. You wanna make sure you follow all the wires up, coming off the step, and disconnect them everywhere where there's a plug. And then, we'll just have one more connection, as far as electrical, and we're gonna have this ground wire, that's gonna have a bolt going into the frame right here.So, we can grab a 10 mm socket, and we'll pull the bolt out. And you wanna make sure you hold onto the bolt, or the self-tapping screw, 'cause we're gonna be reusing this for our new ground wire.Now, the steps themselves are gonna be held in by four bolts and nuts, we're gonna have one on each corner. Now, our new steps are not gonna come with the hardware to bolt it in, so you either wanna hold onto this hardware, or get new hardware to replace it.Before you fully remove your steps, or even start to take those bolts out, you wanna make sure that you have some kind of support holding the steps up, because they are gonna be rather heavy and we don't want them falling down.So, I'm gonna grab a 9/16 inch socket and an extension, so that I reach the bolt, and then we're gonna take a 9/16 inch wrench and come on top of the steps, and I'm gonna loosen up each nut. Again, you just want to be extremely careful, and you might want to leave one or two in there, just loose, so that we can grab an extra set of hands if needed.All right, now that all the bolts are removed we'll lower our jack stand, and with an extra set of hands, we're gonna move our steps out of the way so that we can safely get them out of there. And since this hardware is a little old, with a little bit of rust on there, we're gonna go ahead and replace it. So, we're gonna be using a three inch bolt, and a flat washer, to go through each mounting location. We're gonna go ahead and put those in there now, that way when we go to get our step, we can lift it up and have the bolts drop down through, it's gonna be a lot easier rather than trying to support it, get the hardware from the top and then put the washer and nut on the bottom.And then, when we get our new steps, they're gonna be collapsed when we get em' out of the box. Now on the backside, we're gonna have that same four pin connector and a ground wire. Now, in order to help us get our steps in easier, we're gonna want to have them extended. So, we can grab the pigtail that comes with our kit, and it's just gonna have four wires coming out of the back, a red, a yellow, a brown, and a white, and this is gonna plug directly into the pigtail that's already mounted on the steps. Now, what we're gonna need to do is power and ground our steps so that we can extend them out, so we're gonna need either to have a car battery, the battery from our motorhome, or some kind of power source where we can send power and ground to it, so that we can make sure that the steps are fully extended, so it'll be a lot easier to get the hardware in place.So, I'm gonna take my ground wire and we're gonna hook it up to my jump box, to the negative cable, and then I'll take my pigtail end . And if you haven't already, you're gonna pull the insulation off of the red wire. Then we'll get a 12 V power source, in this case we're using a jump box, and we're gonna hook the red wire up to the positive cable. And when we turn our jump box on the steps are gonna extend out, so you wanna make sure you have it on a nice, steady surface so that it's not gonna be moving around too much on there.So, you're gonna want to have your steps fully extended. Now, we did find whenever we we're applying power, it did only want to extend a little bit, but what we did was, is we turned our steps upside down, so there was no pressure on the bottom platform here, so it moved a lot easier. Again, you just want to be careful whenever you're doing that, because the steps are rather large, and they are gonna extend pretty far out, so you wanna make sure you have a nice stable surface when you're doing it.Now, with an extra set of hands, we're gonna bring our new steps in and we're gonna line up the mounting holes with the studs that are coming through the bottom here. Now, once we get our bolts going through the holes, it's not a bad idea to put a jack stand back under there to help support it. I'm gonna take a flat washer and the lock nut and we'll secure it in each one of the spots, making sure that we get it at least hand-tight, so we don't have to worry about the steps falling on us.With all of our hardware in place, and our steps supported, we can come back and tighten it all up. So, we'll grab our 9/16 inch socket and wrench, and we'll hold the bolts on top when we tighten the nut up on the bottom side.Now, the pigtail and the harness that's coming out of our motorhome. We can hook these directly up, and then we would need to hardwire it into our motorhome, however, our motorhome already has an existing plug, so we don't need to hardwire it in. But, if you do need to wire yours in, you're just gonna connect the wires in the same fashion, on whatever different plug you have, just get some butt connectors and connect it in. But for now, we'll just plug our harness directly into that plug. With our harness connected, we can take our ground wire and we can put it back in place.On the back of our steps here, we are gonna have one more connection, and that's gonna have a purple wire and a little bullet connector on it. Now, this is an optional connection, because whenever our steps are extended, we are gonna have our light come on, and when they retract, it'll turn off automatically. But this is gonna be if you want to hook up your step light to a porch light, so whenever you have your porch lights come on, this will come on as well. So, you just find your porch light circuit and tap it into there. However, we're not gonna go be doing that in this application.Now, more than likely if you're replacing your steps, the switch that's gonna be in there is actually gonna be reversed, so when the door's closed our steps are gonna be out, and when we open the door they're gonna retract. Now fortunately, our steps are gonna come with a switch, so we can switch them out.So, we're gonna have two separate parts to our door switch, we're gonna have one that's gonna be mounted inside the door jamb here, and we're gonna want to peel that off. If there are screws holding it in place, you want to remove those, but a lot of these are just mounted directly to the door jamb using double-sided foam tape. So, you can get a flat-bladed screwdriver, and we're just gonna pry it away till it disconnects from the door all the way. Now, you can see we're gonna have a couple of wires on there, we wanna go ahead and remove those. Now, we don't necessarily have to keep the terminals on there, because we're not gonna be reusing those. So, we'll cut the ends of our wires, and we're gonna remove this switch.Now, on the door itself, we're also gonna have the other part of the switch, and this is what's gonna activate the steps, to let them know whether they're closed or open. So, we're gonna want to remove this as well. Again, we'll just carefully take a flat-bladed screwdriver and pry it away from the door so that we can peel it all the way off. I'll pull the cover off, and this one is actually held on by two screws, so we can just pull those two screws out.Now the two wires that we cut earlier, we're gonna want to push these back down into the motorhome, but you do wanna make sure that access them from underneath before you push them in, because our new switch is gonna have plenty of wire length on it, so if we make the connection up here, we may not be able to get the buck connectors through the hole. But, if you have enough room, you can make the connection up here and then shove all the extra wire underneath, but it's very limited right here, so we're gonna push our wires in and then reach underneath to find out where they are.Now are switch wires came out right by this insulation, so you may need to pull it back a little bit so you can reach your wires and pull them through. So, our two wires are gonna be pretty stripped on each end. So, we'll pull the little bit of insulation off, and we'll take our other two wires and we'll strip back the end of those. Then we can take a buck connector . now, these aren't included in our kit, but you can find them here at etrailer.com. We're gonna crimp our buck connector on end of the wire that was from our old switch, and we'll take one of the wires from our new switch . now, they're both black wires, it's not gonna matter which way we put them in, but since this is a littler bit thinner wire, I'm gonna fold it in half, that way that buck connector has a little bit more to grab onto. And we'll take one of them and put it in our buck connector, and I'm gonna crimp it down. And we're gonna do the same thing for the other one, just connecting the two other wires.Now that we have the connections made, we can come back up to where the switch is, and we're gonna remove the backing off of the double-sided tape. And we'll push the excess wires back in. And we're gonna wanna line up the large piece with the edge of the door, and we'll just press it against there. And if you want, there are a few screw holes in the back to where we can actually screw our switch in place, but it's gonna hold on just fine with that double-sided tape.Now, on the outside door, we're gonna have another part of our switch, just like the other one, to mount up. And again, it's gonna have two holes, so we can screw it in place or we can use that double-sided tape. So, we'll remove the backing, and this time you wanna make sure that large piece, again, is towards the outside of the door so I'll line up with the other one. And we're gonna get it roughly in about the spot that we have the other one. So, make sure that sticks nice and good.So, you want to make sure the power is on, and we can close our door, and we see that the steps are gonna retract. And just to make sure everything's working properly, we'll open the door, and we can see that they're coming out, as well as the light coming on. So now would be a good time to go ahead and tidy up any loose wires underneath, bundle them up, and make sure that everything's gonna be out of the way and not get caught in anything.That'll finish up your look at the Lipper Components Kwikee 25 Series Triple Electric Step, Part Number LC3658373, on our 2012 Forest River Georgetown XL Motorhome.