Born Free Leap'n Lions RV Club Info & Discussion Forum

We've just purchased a 2005 24'RB. ( Lovely vehicle!) I've got a dumb newbie question on a grey, rainy day here in New England.

While the enthusiasm of new ownership is on me, I was thinking about waxing the body before putting it to bed for the winter. A possible problem did occur to me that maybe someone has experience with.

How does an aging man wax the nose of the cabover without
a) sliding off the roof
or b) stomping all over the truck hood with my size 12s?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Hi Tom,

I hope you get many years of enjoyment from your new purchase.

I'm able to reach all of the cabover nose if I come at it from all angles. If I use a tall stepladder, I can reach the sides. If I stand on the front bumper, I can reach the lower part. If I lie on the roof I can reach the upper part. Yes, I do have to be careful about not sliding headfirst off the roof. But I'm 6'1", so this may not work for everyone.

A long-handled mop or brush allows cleaning from the ground. If the wax doesn't require lots of elbow grease, perhaps you could do something similar for the application and buffing.

FWIW, I work in Westford (Tech Park) so if you have questions about anything, feel free to ask.

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 is a articulating ladder made by Climbtek available in most ACE Hardware stores. This unit can 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 you want to consider is the Climbtek CT416 and can be seen at the following factory website page set up as a scaffold:
http://www.climbtek.com/ct412.html

The model you want is the 4' high CT416 - not the shorter 3' high CT412. It is available at ACE Hardware stores for $169.99. Refer to this ACE Hardware website page: http://www.acehardware.com/product/inde ... age=family

This is the same unit though called a (84161) Item no: 17364 and shown on this page setup as an extension ladder rather than as a scaffold.

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. Climbtek makes such an optional board that you can buy for I believe $60 but just 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 Climbtek unit makes it easy to work on the upper reaches of your Born Free motorhome and it can also be folded up nicely for storage.

Bill had posted this solution a number of months ago. I happened to have a similar ladder, so I got the concrete blocks, found an old closet shelf that was just the right size, and tried it out. Works great - I just wish I had the room to take all the parts on the road with me.
Rick Huber

Hi -- I had the same problem with my born free -- I got a set of construction scaffolding with an "X" brace along with a 2x10 plank -- when I want to get access to the front of my coach I just set up the scaffolding -put the blank across at a position just higher than the hood -pull the mirrows in and drive in between the scaffolding and have a great platform to work from- on the lower part I can sit on the board -on the upper part I stand on the board -- don't have to worry about a ladder slipping or turing over ---

Thanks for all the replies.

It looks like the way to go in the future is with some sort of scaffolding. I will admit that this time around I did go with the scramble along the lines Bill suggested.

I've been looking for some good excuse to buy an articulated ladder and I think I''ve now found it.

Thanks again.