Adding a Bunk Ladder
One shortcoming of our RV is that it did not have a ladder to access the cabover bunk. Initially, we did not think that this was such a big deal, as the older kids could climb-up on the back of the dinette, and we could heft our younger child up onto it ourselves. He is not getting any smaller, though, and we are not getting any stronger - so we finally broke-down and purchased a bunk ladder from our local Camping World.
The ladder is manufactured by TopLine, a California company that makes ladders, bicycle and cargo racks for RV's and cars. It came with well-illustrated instructions, brackets for securing the ladder in position, screws and a template for properly locating the brackets.
The leading-edge of our bunk is covered in fabric, but there is a wooden frame behind it, so I determined that I could mount the brackets by screwing directly through the fabric, into the frame. I used the provided template to locate the brackets, measuring from the floor to each side of the template to ensure the brackets would be parallel with the floor. The self-tapping wood screws did not require any drilling.
The end-result is a very clean, factory-looking installation. The ladder is easily removeable, for travel, by raising the bottom of the ladder and lifting it out of the brackets. In the brackets, the ladder is very stable and secure. This was an easy 15-minute installation, and only required a tape-measure and a Phillips-head screwdriver.
