Lippert aluminum tread steps (Goshen rally special)

A pretty good deal Jim B arranged with these steps.
I have longed for 4 steps since the first day I saw the Cyclone at the dealer lot, parked next to a Landmark with 4 steps.
The $175 and $25 for installation was hard to pass up, especially since we would need two sets. Previous steps I had priced out were in excess of $400 without shipping.

I'm posting this for two concerns.

Since we have 2 sets, it was easy to see the difference between the rubber traction strips. One set has all 8 strips running the full length of the tread. The second set has 7 of the 8 strips cut short, up to a half inch. Anyone else notice this?

My main concern is ease of use. The steps are almost impossible for Deb to deploy, up or down, they are very stiff. And still recovering from shoulder surgery I also find them very difficult.

Anyone else have any issues with the ease of use?

I have between back and forth with Lippert over the rubber strips, and they are supposed to be sending them out. But, the "back and forth" has been going on since we were in Goshen, almost 2 months now and still haven't received them.

On ours, the lowest step doesn't fold easily. I have to hold the next step up with one hand while lifting the edge of the lowest step. It has gotten a little easier since day 1.

Duane was your mounting the same width as steps or did they have to modify to make fit. I ended up cutting top mounting flanges off and mounting to outside of trailer mounting brackets. Work fine now.

Dave, our steps were a match for size, no cutting, banging etc.

The pivots are very tight. The bottom step Dan mentioned actually just appears to be an additional step that is bolted on to a 3 step unit.
Bolted on, great, lets just loosen it a bit - nope - bolt - make tight - then weld.

Duane ours are a little tight but not any worse than our original steel steps. Overall they are easier for Jo to deploy and retract. Now one of my rubber strips is too long but I have not cut it down yet.

The issue I had with lippert had to do with rust all over the top two treads and they used brake cleaner to get it off but in doing so got brake cleaner all over piece of trim and my aluminum wheels. Needless to say I was not happy and still not even though they tried to clean up their second mess. Jamie was able to put some wax in trim piece and it does not stick out as bad as it did. Just p*** poor install/clean up of their mess.


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jassson007 said:

Duane ours are a little tight but not any worse than our original steel steps. Overall they are easier for Jo to deploy and retract. Now one of my rubber strips is too long but I have not cut it down yet.

The issue I had with lippert had to do with rust all over the top two treads and they used brake cleaner to get it off but in doing so got brake cleaner all over piece of trim and my aluminum wheels. Needless to say I was not happy and still not even though they tried to clean up their second mess. Jamie was able to put some wax in trim piece and it does not stick out as bad as it did. Just p*** poor install/clean up of their mess.


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Click to expand...

You are not the only one with a painted Landmark and "clean up in aisle 7" issue.

Big Country here but yes sir.


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Ours suffer from the first step issue, so we were getting used to using the Dan Mayer method. I hit all the hinge points with lube and that helped for a while. The bottom step is still a little stiff.

Rubber strips on ours were all fine. We have had the back of one of the steps rubbing on the top face of the top step when stowed. That is leaving a grey powdery mark on the step, but it wipes off. Will monitor the rubbing to see if it subsides. I just attribute that to tolerances.

First let me start with, I like the look of the steps and the price was great, Thanks JB for this promo.
Now, the install and the product, another issue. Bottom step is a two hand operation to open and close due to over tighten and welding of nuts.
When folding the unit under the trailer for travel in gets hung up on itself and I need to either bounce on it or slam it closed to get past a major rub between top tread and frame. This has lead to a bend in top right corner tread damage and it is obvious to the eye when using stairs.
I tried lube but did not loosen tight weld, yet to try and correct rub and straigten top tread that is twisted a bit. Oh, I forgot to mention where the installers damaged my full body paint in 3 area around the steps. We have a Landmark Key Largo and still awaiting a corrective reaction form Lippert. Other than that steps are nice but our dogs are having a tough time adjusting to them. They liked the rug covered steel steps better, and "NO" I am not carry my two beefy Rotties up and down the steps. Just in case someone was thinking about that. LOL

murry135 said:

Bottom step is a two hand operation to open and close due to over tighten and welding of nuts.

When folding the unit under the trailer for travel in gets hung up on itself and I need to either bounce on it or slam it closed to get past a major rub between top tread and frame.

Click to expand...

MCTalley said:

We have had the back of one of the steps rubbing on the top face of the top step when stowed. That is leaving a grey powdery mark on the step, but it wipes off.

Click to expand...

Yup, same as the above - forgot to add it to the original post.

I really like the the improvement the steps give us, regardless of the issues. We went from 3 steps and almost always needing a portable step to having a slightly better rise between treads to no portable step needed.

The top tread to the door frame is about 1" taller, that took a little getting use to, but now we don't notice it.

We were the second trailer to get steps installed by Lippert (so they hadn't had much practice yet). One thing the installer did notice right away was that the new steps "cage" was about 3/4" wider than the older metal step "cage". This is the main reason that most trailers needed some "elbow grease" to get the steps into place and I'm sure the main reason that many of our steps have some alignment issues.

When the installer noted that discrepancy and decided to use a Sawz-all to cut off a couple mounting bolts under our rig to move the right-hand mounting bracket, I almost decided to call off the install but didn't. It's holding up fine, but seemed like a bit of a hack to get it in place. I will say that they did a good job despite the need for some modification.