Easy Steps to Install a Thule Van Ladder on Your Van

right now if I want to get up on the top of the van I have to have a step ladder something like this that'll allow me to get up clean the solar panels do any work put down the antenna for the Wii boost or if I have to do any maintenance up here I have to be able to get here somehow so since we decided not to put an exterior ladder on the van we got to come up with a different solution so what we ended up doing after this last trip because I needed to get up there and didn't have the ability to we found a ladder that I think is going to work for us so because a stepladder isn't something we're interested in I didn't want to put a van a ladder on the side or one on the back we decided to go with something else and that is the Thule of van ladder it's got nine steps it goes up eight feet and it's got a magnetic bar that attaches to the van um so that the ladder is secure at the top and I think that's going to be a great solution it's compact it'll fit in the garage below the bed and I think it's going to give us the access that we want without having a permanent ladder on the outside so this is something you're interested in please stick around for the video we're going to do an unboxing if you're new to the Channel please consider giving us a thumbs up subscribe leave a comment when we're done it'd be great so let's get to the unboxing all right so I haven't obviously opened this up should be fairly simple so this is the box that's model 301404 and it is the van ladder with nine steps so it comes with a bag [Applause] and the thing that I like about this is that it's Compact and it's going to fit in our garage I guess these are some things that you can stick on the van if you have a ladder that goes in the same spot to protect your paint so this is the magnet mechanism and basically this just uh attaches to the van with these magnets right here and we'll show that in just a second and then you basically you just put this in like that and then the the ratchet strap this is what holds the top of the ladder together or it holds it to where the van is so it has its own bag some extra pieces and this ladder has a 350 pound weight capacity so that's going to allow just about anybody who wants to use this thing the ability to use it all right so it's made out of aluminum which makes it relatively light so there's the ladder it has nine steps and then you use those levers to unlock it so we drop so let's uh let's put it to use all right so I'm going to go ahead and say I want to get up there and clean the trash out of the way clean the solar panels so we'll put that right there you can see where I attached the top of it on the upper rail so before we put it on you have two rubber feet that come with it and basically they slide in to the end cap so that when it sits up next to your van or whatever you put it onto it just comes with four screws with a Phillips head once you just feel it touch the plastic the rubber that's all you need to do I don't feel like I put a whole lot of force on it but you can see it pull tight on the edge and that's all you need to do now we'll just extend it place that right above where it needs to be and then just to make sure that we're safe foreign this down so these little things act like a ratchet and so it's nice and secure you can climb up do the things that you want to do and climb back down so I'll take you up so you can see how it attaches and here's where the ratchet straps come in and then down here you notice that the the feet of this come right out on top of the the magnet and it's secure so I'll take it down just so you can see how that process works so push this in so the little levers act as a ratchet but they also act as the release so you pull that out slide it back underneath a little traveler to keep it tight come down and then all you got to do is just push in These Bars and it'll start to collapse so that way you can adjust it however you want to or you can do the bottom one and it'll automatically adjust everything for you it's got like a little air piece to it an air system so that when you drop the legs like on some of the ladders if you do that it'll fall automatically and get your fingers this one's got a little like a little air chamber in it so it comes down nice and easily and I'll show you how it's going to fit into the garage real quick before I do that we'll take the magnet off and really it's as easy as sticking your hands up underneath it and rocking it back and it comes comes right off so it's not hard at all to get this on and off and I really like the way the system is set up we'll put everything back in the bag so the magnet goes into that bag like that it's got a nice little carry strap and then the main bag for the ladder to keep it not only protected but also to make sure maybe it doesn't rattle or anything like that and it just filters down and it also has a strap if you want it so the dimensions of this are about 29 inches by 20 inches so that makes it fairly compact to put in your vehicle it's only about three inches wide if that the system costs about 299 dollars and if you compare that to a ladder that you're going to put on your vehicle whether or not it's on the back door or on the side you're going to spend it easily four to five times that much depending on what brand you have and it has to attach to a roof rack if it's on the side of your van so if you don't have one of those you're going to need that too so I think it's a very cost effective solution to those of us who either custom build our roof rack system or we just don't want a ladder on the outside of the van so I got my ladder from Amazon I'll leave a link in the description below we do have an affiliate account so if you consider this or any of the other products that we use please consider using our link it doesn't cost you any more but it does help us out a little bit so as you saw it was pretty easy to put it on the side of the van and it'll also go on the back door as well one of the cool things about this thing is it's adjustable and I'll show you how to do that that way if you want to climb up to the back if your back doors are open you have that ability all right so we still have our stuff in there from basically this is just slide in just like that we'll put our solar stove will fit right next to it put that in and and we're done so one of the things that I noticed was that the bag that has the um the magnet attachment to it has got a piece of foam padding in the bottom of it and I didn't really realize what that was for you can see inside the bag there's a piece of foam pad and then this is supposed to slide in like that well the reason for the foam padding is because these are magnets and so that you have a way to put this in a bag and put it wherever you want to and then this isn't going to try and stick to something because it's touching metal so pretty smart fulfilled to think about that that was our new addition the Thule nine step van ladder made specifically for Vans it's going to be a great addition for us it's going to make getting up on top to clean the solar panels or to do anything up top super easy and we can bring it with us and that's the biggest thing is that I didn't want a ladder on the outside because one it gives anybody access to the top of your van but two they're super expensive and it's just one more thing to add to your system when this fits very easily in the garage and we had the space for it so I think it all works out so hope you guys got something from the video thanks for watching like I said if in the beginning if you like what we're doing please subscribe give us a thumbs up leave us a comment we really appreciate it and we'll see you on the next video this is Dan from Rambling ambition and we'll talk to you later

Channel: Rambling Ambition

Views: 1,624

Keywords: Thule van ladder

Id: PfYArcKcZbM

Length: 12min 50sec (770 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 06 2023