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SCAFFOLD FOR CLEANING/WASHING/WAXING YOUR BORN FREE

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 1:09 pm
by whemme
This neat articulating ladder/scaffold will solve your problems trying to reach the hard to get at areas of your Born Free.

Here has been my solution for easily reaching the top of the cabover section and it also makes for easy access to reaching the top 2 feet all around my Born Free for cleaning and waxing those hard to reach upper areas.

There was a articulating ladder made by ClimbTek available in certain hardware stores. This unit could be set up as a scaffold that will reach across the hood of the Ford E-350/450 so that you can stand on it with your feet right up to the windshield wiper area. The unit was the 300 lb rated ClimbTek CT416 and unfortunately is no longer available.

A very similar ladder/scaffold is the Keller KKL-16 articulating ladder which is available from Menards at a current price of $189. It appears to be and exact copy of the ClimbTek CT416 and is has a rated load capacity of either 250 lb or 300 lb depending on the website specifications you are looking at. Click on the following website link to view that product: https://www.menards.com/main/paint/ladd ... 670870.htm.

Another very similar ladder/scaffold is the Werner M1-8-16B articulating ladder which is available from ACE Hardware at a current price of $219.99. It has a load rating of 300 lbs. Click on the following website link to view this source: https://www.acehardware.com/departments ... 3wQAvD_BwE

The Werner M1-8-16 is also available from Home Depot at a current price of $220.00. Click on the following website link to view this source: https://www.homedepot.com/p/WERNER-16-f ... t-overview

Now you will need two other items to make this work well for working on your Born Free. First you will need a 3/4" plywood or composite board cut approximately 7' long and 12.5" wide to fit between the horizontal rails of the scaffold so that you can stand and walk on it properly. Go to Home Depot or Menards and have them custom make this board for you for probably $20 or less.

The other thing you will need are four (4) standard 7.5" x 7.5" x 15.5" concrete construction bricks. One to be used at each end of the scaffold to raise the height of the scaffold and additional 7.5" for a total height of 4' 7.5" so that the bottom edge of the upper rails of the scaffold will just clear the hood area of the E-350/450 right up to the windshield wiper area.

This scaffold will make it easy to work on the upper reaches of your Born Free motorhome and it can also be folded up nicely for storage.

For those that want additional information about this product and how I use it including photos, click on the attached pdf file below titled Climbtek Articulated Ladder-Scaffold.pdf.
If you think this easy-to-use scaffold is not strong enough for a heavy person, it works for me and I weigh (sorry to say) 294 lbs.

NOTE: This post lasted edited by the author on August 27, 2013.

Re: SCAFFOLD FOR CLEANING/WASHING/WAXING YOUR BORN FREE

Posted: Wed May 29, 2019 1:19 pm
by whemme
KevinVT has provided below a lower cost scaffold solution.

Hi Bill,

I wanted to give an update on your post related to ladder/scaffold.

Subject: SCAFFOLD FOR CLEANING/WASHING/WAXING YOUR BORN FREE

I was looking for a solution like yours and considered the Werner ladder but in the end took a chance on a cheaper Amazon ladder. It arrived today and and looks like it might be a good solution. The link to the ladder I picked up is here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GB ... UTF8&psc=1

The nice thing about this ladder (aside from a price tag of only $132) is it is just long enough at 19+ feet to span the front of the Born Free without the need for cider blocks. In addition, it comes with aluminum scaffold plates - so it is a bit of a complete solution.

It is raining today, so I didn't test it out fully, but I think it is going to be a good alternative. It isn't a top quality ladder by any means - but for me I think it will do the trick nicely.

Here are a few images - feel free to update the post with this info if you think it will be helpful to others.