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LETMGROW · 08-04-2017, 11:23 AM

Last evening someone in my group was looking for something under my awning. Walked over to turn the porch light on for them. The screen door was shut but I stepped up onto the first step, slid the little door open on the screen door and reached in to turn the porch light on. I have a panel just inside the door opening with 4 switches. The porch light, the step power, the luggage compartment master switch and an overhead lamp inside the MH.
When I turned the switch on with the screen door still shut the steps instantly retracted and parked themselves in travel mode. I fell over backward with the sudden drop to the ground and luckily I didn't get hurt.
Obviously what I did was to have thrown the wrong switch never giving a thought to the screen door being activating the open and close switch on the door.
I am thankful I wasn't on the top step. My feet might have gotten pinched between the step opening and the step. Who knows what this may have resulted in.
I consider myself very fortunate I escaped unharmed. But I wanted to share this with my friends here as a warning.
Think twice - Act once.
Lynn

John Stott · 08-04-2017, 12:15 PM

Thanks for the heads up Lynn and glad that you're ok. We all have made many opps moments and this is another good reminder to be mindful and careful.

Mr_D · 08-04-2017, 12:22 PM

I had a little of the same happen to me and I did get my feet out almost in time. It hurt to have my feet pinched like that!

Redapple · 08-04-2017, 12:40 PM

Glad you're ok.

windsorbill · 08-04-2017, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LETMGROW

Last evening someone in my group was looking for something under my awning. Walked over to turn the porch light on for them. The screen door was shut but I stepped up onto the first step, slid the little door open on the screen door and reached in to turn the porch light on. I have a panel just inside the door opening with 4 switches. The porch light, the step power, the luggage compartment master switch and an overhead lamp inside the MH.
When I turned the switch on with the screen door still shut the steps instantly retracted and parked themselves in travel mode. I fell over backward with the sudden drop to the ground and luckily I didn't get hurt.
Obviously what I did was to have thrown the wrong switch never giving a thought to the screen door being activating the open and close switch on the door.
I am thankful I wasn't on the top step. My feet might have gotten pinched between the step opening and the step. Who knows what this may have resulted in.
I consider myself very fortunate I escaped unharmed. But I wanted to share this with my friends here as a warning.
Think twice - Act once.
Lynn

really glad you're okay. You may be sore tomorrow.

When my coach was new, it was in for warranty service and the tech guy was in a rush. The step was in the retract position and when he opened the door the step automatically deployed. He stepped on it BEFORE it was fully extended and stripped the gears. They did fix it, but my point is did your step have the same fate?

StephenW · 08-04-2017, 02:35 PM

Thanks for the heads-up. I just checked mine and the steps will only move if the solid exterior door is opened or closed. Screen door will not operate the steps, which could do some serious damage to my grand-kids.

Craig1960 · 08-04-2017, 03:41 PM

Glad to hear you were not hurt. I had a similar thing happen one time that I make sure to watch for now. We were stopped in the mountains somewhere to take a break and let the dogs have a run. The wife decided to grab coffees from Tim Horton's across the street. When I saw her coming back with her hands full I went to open the door for her. Unfortunately she had her foot between the curb and the step. Thankfully the step didn't have enough power to do major damage but it to scare the both of us and her foot was a little sore for the next couple days.
Craig

LETMGROW · 08-04-2017, 07:25 PM

Thank you all for the well wishing. I was lucky as I am perfectly fine. It was a stupid mistake which I will remember for a long while.
After I wrote this post I went out and checked the clearance between the upper step and the MH chassis. Had I been on the upper step I would be typing this from a hospital bed. No doubt in my mind.
Pass this along to your friends.
Lynn

**JohnRR** · 08-04-2017, 07:36 PM

There are just way too many things that can happen with these things and cause injury. Good to hear you came out OK.

firedoc · 08-04-2017, 07:56 PM

Luckily I can't reach those switches through the slider in the screen door.

UFO Pilot · 08-04-2017, 08:07 PM

Another step warning. A member of our RV Chapter turned the ignition key on for some reason which causes the steps to retract. He completely forgot about it and later stepped out the door into thin air. He broke his leg in 5 places, never fully recovered and had to quit RV'ing.

Isaac-1 · 08-04-2017, 09:41 PM

I had a step incident this week too (thankfully I was not standing on it, and I looked before I stepped, I had the engine running and went to step outside, the wind blew the screen door shut, just a moment after I had opened it, and when I re-opened the screen the step got confused, it was half way back in on the retraction and could not decide if it should extend or retract. Flipping the switch from extend where I normally keep it to auto solved the problem.

Mudfrog · 08-04-2017, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by firedoc

Luckily I can't reach those switches through the slider in the screen door.

I like the set up on ours. Can reach through the door to turn on porch and ceiling lights because they are up high. The step switch is down about 6 inches lower and all by itself. It's hard to hit the wrong switch by mistake.

I rarely leave the switch in auto mode since i'd either get hit in the shin when opening the door to go in, or i'd step down on the step during extension coming out and break it or myself.

LETMGROW, glad you didn't hurt yourself or booger anything up.

SuperGewl · 08-04-2017, 10:47 PM

thanks for the Lesson Learned. Maybe you should bring this up to the MH manufacture so they can relocate the switches so this does not happen again. It just so happens that on my MH the Step switch along with the coach and Chassis battery Disconnect switch are located down low so you can not reach them thru the screen door opening. The inside and porch light switches are up so that you can reach them. As I said maybe it's just the MFG choice of placement.