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Old 06-27-2004, 08:54 AM   #1
Montana_70
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A little ladder dilema?

I hope everyone is have a very pleasant Sunday. I have been busy preparing to pull out on Thurs and I need to rethink my ladder situtaion.

I have a 6 ft aluminum ladder and it is not really tall enough for all my Montana needs. I have looked a the fold up ladders at Camping World and Lowes. They are so heavy. Since I put my toy box in the back of LadyRam I find I can't carry things the same way.

My two dilema's right now are my bike and ladder. I see ladder's mounted on the back of 5'r's on the ladder and bikes too. But don't think I have ever seen both. I'm thinking of buying a bike rack from Camping World for my bike. I know there a discussion sometime ago about building a bike rack for the bumper but I"m not going to mess up my warranty doing that.

So how about it? Does anyone out there have a handy dandy ladder that gets the job done and is easily transported?
 
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Old 06-27-2004, 09:57 AM   #2
faeb and genb
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fla native what if you put the ladder monunt bike rack on the ladder, your bike next & your ladder on last with it fitting over the petal. Not sure this will work,but worth a try.
Gene
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Old 06-27-2004, 12:04 PM   #3
H. John Kohl
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I got a fold up ladder from Home Depot 17 feet total length and use a lawn chair rack that hooks on the ladder. I did get a cable and pad lock to keep honest people honest. I use a bungie cord to keep the ladder from bouncing around.
Good luck.

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Old 06-27-2004, 03:49 PM   #4
sreigle
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I stored our standard folding ladder and bought a seven foot ladder from Camping World, the one that folds down to roughly 3 inches by 3 inches by 7 feet. Slides in the front of the basement quite nicely and is easy to get out and put back in (unless I store things on top of it). It's still not quite enough to reach the top of the Montana except when I put the ladder in the bed of the truck but the top part I can reach from the roof.

Until a couple of weeks ago we toted two standard adult mountain bikes on a ladder rack and had no problems with the ladder at all. Keystone told me it will support it and it did. With our first Montana I had a "mishap" coming out of a very steep driveway and caught the bike wheels on the ground. Not a good thing to do. It bent a couple of the horizontal ladder supports but didn't do any damage at all to the Montana itself nor the mounts on the Montana. So I can attest to that ladder being plenty strong enough. We had one of those "standard" bike mounts that slip over a rung on the ladder and have two bars curving outward to mount the bikes on. Worked fine but was a pain when I wanted to get on the roof. We only used the bikes once in 15 months so our youngest son and his wife are now using them.
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Old 06-28-2004, 12:51 AM   #5
harleyrider
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What I have is the telascoping ladder.It extends to 12 feet-and when retracted it fits perfectly in the storage compartment.I use it all the time to clean windows and get bugs off the front cap.We love it.
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Old 06-28-2004, 01:26 AM   #6
nkwist
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We just bought a telescoping ladder too. 12 feet long and 28 lbs. It fits under the bed. I was going to buy it on the www for $200, but the local Ace Hardware had an advance flyer for a sale coming up in November where they are pricing it at $139. (...and a manufacturer's rebate of an additional $20.) They couldn't give me the rebate, but I paid $139.

You can see it on the www. Xtend & Climb brand, not the Telesteps.
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Old 06-28-2004, 01:47 AM   #7
Montana_70
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Thanks for the info. I guess it will be the bike rack and maybe one of the telescoping ladders. I see they carry them at target. I'll go have a look.
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Old 06-28-2004, 04:39 AM   #8
Montana_621
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On Saturday we watched an infomercial on the Little Giant ladder... LOL, it was a very slow day. What a really neat ladder, light weight but comes with a pretty hefty price tag (around $360).

Although it would be the only ladder you would ever need, and being 35# anyone could use it.
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Old 06-28-2004, 04:59 AM   #9
DHenry
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Melissa and Mike S, I have one of the Little Giant ladders at home, I must say that it is the heaviest 35 lbs. I have carried around. The ladder is great for around the house but I would not tote it around with me in the 5th wheel. So far I have not had a need for a ladder. To clean the high spots I use a telescoping pole with a window cleaning head on the end, this has worked great for me so far.
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Old 06-28-2004, 07:37 AM   #10
Montana_621
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by DHenry

Melissa and Mike S, I have one of the Little Giant ladders at home, I must say that it is the heaviest 35 lbs. I have carried around. The ladder is great for around the house but I would not tote it around with me in the 5th wheel. So far I have not had a need for a ladder. To clean the high spots I use a telescoping pole with a window cleaning head on the end, this has worked great for me so far.
Thank you, that's good to know. We don't have one but I thought it looked like a great concept.
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Old 06-28-2004, 07:43 AM   #11
NJ Hillbilly
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I bought a ladder made by Werner that's identical to the Little Giant for $99. I found it at Costco but I think I also saw it at Lowe's or Depot.

John
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Old 06-28-2004, 08:53 AM   #12
Joyce H
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We picked up a nice lightweight fiberglass ladder at Lowe's on sale a few months back. Small enough to store in the basement but tall enough for Tom to reach the front and sides for cleaning. So far we have found it enough for our needs.
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Old 06-28-2004, 11:41 AM   #13
Thunderman
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I have noticed many do carry ladders, is this for cleaning only and more so for fulltimers? Thanks!
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Old 06-28-2004, 11:50 AM   #14
sreigle
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I don't know about others but we didn't start carrying a ladder until we started fulltiming. Just made sense to have one with us. Mostly I use it for cleaning.
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Old 06-28-2004, 03:25 PM   #15
vickster
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FlaNative - We purchased a lightweight 6 foot fiberglass ladder from Menards a few weeks ago. Keep it in the basement. Hubby is tall enough that it works great to check out the top of the slides before we bring them in and wash Monty.

We are still trying to figure out the best option for us to carry our two bikes. Looks like it may be a ladder rear mount unit. Thought we could place them in the bed of the truck, but no room.
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Old 06-29-2004, 02:54 AM   #16
Flastro
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I have not really looked at this, I throw mine in the back on the truck each time we head out, but one thought , if a lightweight compartment was built the width of the ladder (say 24" wide x 10" deep and 8 ft long)and the width of the rv, Im wondering if it was mounted tastefully in front of the trailer axles, might be an option freeing up the basement storage? Im just thinking outload here (dangerous for me!) Need to look at whats right there under the rv, some aluminum sheeting and a mig welder, I could knock that out in a couple hours. The Montana's seem to have plenty of road clearance.
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Old 06-29-2004, 10:03 AM   #17
sreigle
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Kenny, that sounds like a good idea. As for clearance, I agree with you there seems to be plenty of room. I mounted some scissor jacks on the frame behind the wheels. They hang down a few inches and there's still plenty of clearance. If I recall, there's something like 27 or 28 inches clearance back there, excluding the dump pipe on the one side.
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