Beware of the Telesteps telescoping ladder!!

[royboy]

I have owned 3 Telesteps telescoping ladders. The first 2 became hard to extend on the last section, so I took them back to Camping World and they gave me new ones. The third was made here in the USA by the company who bought out Telesteps. The new manufacture is Regal Aluminum Products. The new one gouges the paint. ($5000.00 worth) Camping World and Royal Aluminum Products both refuse to do anything about it, AND Camping World will not put a warning in their catalog about the problem AND they STILL sell the ladder to other unsuspecting customers!!!

[royboy]

I have owned 3 Telesteps telescoping ladders. The first 2 became hard to extend on the last section, so I took them back to Camping World and they gave me new ones. The third was made here in the USA by the company who bought out Telesteps. The new manufacture is Regal Aluminum Products. The new one gouges the paint. ($5000.00 worth) Camping World and Royal Aluminum Products both refuse to do anything about it, AND Camping World will not put a warning in their catalog about the problem AND they STILL sell the ladder to other unsuspecting customers!!!

[Cruzer]

You can post a product review on the Camping World online catalog. That'd help. I have a 12'-6" Telesteps ladder that works just fine for me. But, I am familiar with what you are saying. As a contractor supplier I've sold a few of these in the past to contractors. Mainly to estimators who would keep them in their trunk and use them to go measure a window or something for a job so it was light use.

I have heard of a number of cases where they have collapsed. Most of these were due to operator error by not locking the sections in the right sequence but that does make it a touchy ladder to use if you have employees who are not familiar (or careful) with it. We stopped selling them a few years back so that we never got into such a situation. I wasn't aware that Royal bought out the foreign mfgr (Danish or Swedish if I recall). I still use mine but I am very careful when extending it and I don't put any severe angles on it that could bend the tubes and make it stick. It sure is handy for saving space but it does have it's limitations and it's not for everyone.

[EngineerMike]

I bought a TSteps ladder because of the form factor (more ladder, less bulk) a few months ago. It comes w/a warning not to extend the ladder from the top rungs, only from the bottom rungs, as the former may cause collapse. The natural impulse would be to extend the top rungs first, so the warning is fairly central to proper opperation. I haven't done a detailed examination of the mechanism to see what the difference is; seems to me the locking gizmos oughta operate the same whether a lower rung is extended or not, but there could be an actual order-of-sequence element to the mechanism.

[Cruzer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by EngineerMike:
...... but there could be an actual order-of-sequence element to the mechanism. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

There is. Each rung latch releases as the rung above it collapses down into the tube. If you extend from the top, the latches don't fully engage. That's the biggest issue with the ladder. If you give it to someone who doesn't know how to use it (or doesn't like to read warning labels ) problems can occur. If you extend it properly and keep the ladder reasonably vertical to keep any side loads from stressing the hollow aluminum tubes, it's a pretty slick ladder.

[royboy]

It's not the ladder collapsing that is the problem, its the fact that Regal Aluminum Products changed the design and added wider steps which had to be fastened with screws. Did they put the screws on the front, or the sides? NO, they put them on the bottom side which lays against your RV and scratch and gouges the paint!! BEWARE!! Wrap the top rung with foam rubber and duct tape or wrap it with 2 or 3 layers of cloth towels

[Cruzer]

Well that sure sounds like a bad design. Prior to Regal, the Telesteps had a narrower rung at the top that never touched the coach because the big yellow bumpers on the end caps would keep it away.