Скачать или смотреть RV Living - Making the RV Safer for the Physically Challenged

Making the RV safer for those physically challenged

Most RV's have limitations to design that are related to being a private vehicle, space limitations, cost limitations, and on and on. Many manufacturers have tried to make things better, but in older coaches what was built is what was built.

The purpose of grab bars is to provide support to a person using it to pull yourself up, lower yourself down or bracing against movement of the vehicle.

One of the challenges our coach presents are the stairs going into the coach, these have a grab bar on the wall outside, one on the same wall on the inside and one on the dashboard. This might be enough for someone who has good mobility, but someone who has challenges with stairs this is not enough.

To address this issue I had a grab bar that had corrosion under the chrome plating and it was pealing off. After taking it apart and cleaning off the corrosion then painting the ends I attached it to the stair cover to give an additional place to help in going up the stairs. When we cover the stairs, when traveling, the grab bar gives Sherry a place to rest her feet.

Another place is the shower, this is where the grab bar I used for the stairs came from. I replaced that with a stainless steel ADA grab bar in the same location. This worked for a while but Sherry found that it wasn't enough, and it moved the wall, the ADA standard requires 2 bars anyway. The bar was on the wrong wall for getting in and out, especially with the base of the shower as high as it is. ADA grab bars are better for this because to comply with the standard they have to support 250 lbs, be of a size that is easy to hold, no sharp edges and give good grip.

To address the problem, with the help of our friend Brandon, I added another bar to the opposite wall where the shower controls are located.

Lowe's was close when I remembered that I had this project to do, so I sorted through all of the choices and found this to be a good choice. The other Stainless bar I used in the shower worked well except for one thing, the covers for the mounting flanges collect water and allow mold to grow behind the cover, this is just an issue for cleaning and everything else is working fine. So the new bar has no covers over the flanges to collect water, one less cleaning chore.

When adding a grab bar you need to look for support, the wall needs to have some strength to it. This wall has some support, but there are areas that have nothing but fiberglass to screw into. This just requires adding some support to the back. In this case there is access to the back for the plumbing so all I needed is some wood to add support to the back of the fiberglass wall.

The stud finder was helpful but gave odd results, this is not unusual in an RV, the construction is not what this devise was designed for, thinner walls, fiberglass with variable thickness and other things will give false readings. It's best to use the old let's look behind method if possible.

I marked and pre-drilled the holes with a small drill bit. This also told me what I was attaching to.

The new grab bar needs to be sealed to the wall to keep water out of the wall. Clear Silicon bathroom sealant, spread around the flange at each end of the bar and in the holes that I drilled. Then just attach the bar to the wall using the stainless steel screws that were included.

As I have been getting older, grab bars have been becoming more important in doing things. The ADA standard is a good place to start when thinking about grab bars, what size, how to attach them, where to put them, and how many are needed. This standard was developed from research that we can use as a guide into what we do to make our coach safer and easier to use.

https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/2010ADAS...

https://www.inprocorp.com/endurant-wa...

https://www.grabbarspecialists.com/AD...

https://www.barrierfree.org/grab-bars

http://pro.moen.com/news-and-insights...

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