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A School buses roof is curved
so when I installed the Ladder on the rear
of the Bus , I had to figure out whether I
wanted to install it in the middle of the
roof or off to one side . I figured the
easiest way to go about it was to install it
directly in the middle, where the curvature
of the roof was less abrupt . We wanted the
Back door to still be operational so I
designed the ladder assembly to work as two
separate pieces .
( NOTE: on locating where you should put a ladder on a School
Bus or any other rig...I've seen a few
Schoolies where they've attached a ladder to
the side of the bus. But, I don't think you
should consider doing this...for a number of
reasons.
First, you don't want anything that might
catch on something when you're backing into
a tight space. |
 |
And even more
important is ...all States have regulations
on what they consider the maximum legal
width of vehicle should be. You don't want
to expose yourself to being endlessly pulled
over by the Police...having them check if
you're over their width Limits.)
When I
received the ladder from Camping World...I
measured off the area where we'd locate the
ladder ...then using a hack-saw , I cut the
ladder into two sections.
And then (helps to have two people for this
part)...held the bottom part of the ladder
against our buses back door...and made marks
where I'd drill out the holes for attaching
the ladder.
Drilled the holes and using self-tapping
metal screws attached the ladder to the
door.
Next, I
climbed up on the roof and attached the
brackets that come with the ladder to the
roof ( pic below shows details)...then I
attached the upper portion of the ladder.
Remember to use a good exterior-grade
caulking on all the screw attachments for
protection against leaking.
Here's some pics
The 1st one shows the door closed and what
the ladder set-up looks like .
The 2nd pic shows what the two ladder
sections look like up-close . Those white
rubber caps you see there keep you from
scraping your hands and such on the bare
aluminum ends of the tubing . I drilled a
hole through the rubber caps and the
aluminum tubing and pop-riveted them into
place .
The 3rd . pic shows the back door open .
The last 2 pics show the attachment details.
I feel really
good about the assembly ... It seems to be good and strong .
Since the ladder only protrudes a little under7 inches...the Bus
door opens almost all the way.
A side note...
Do you
really even need an RV-Type ladder on your Schoolie Conversion?
Not really.
You could always get a folding ladder and attach
it somehow to the back of the Bus (or under it)...then unhook it
when you want a way to climb up to the roof.
Or...you could
climb up on the front engine section on your Schoolie (wouldn't
work for you Folks with Flat-Nosed buses) and boost yourself up
to the roof. That's how I did it to work on installing our vents
and such.
But...it appears I was really lucky in doing
this.
I've read that some Schoolie owners have cracked their
front windows accidentally and cracked the Fiberglass nose on
their rigs when they stood on them.
So...I'm not going to
climb up that way anymore !
We picked up our RV-Style Ladder from
Camping World for around $81.00 + Shipping
Here's a link to
the Ladder
CAMPING WORLD ROOF ACCESS LADDER
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