Repairing a broken floor/reinforcing an electric step.

[PiloteGeorges]

When we bought Pilote Georges we knew there was a problem with the step into the cell. The door frame was coming away from the floor and the cell wall so I was surprised to find the electric step worked at all.

But first time I used this step to get into the cell there was a loud crack and one side of the step dropped down.

On inspection it appears that the electric step was designed to be bolted to the aluminium frame through the first layer of floor of the motorhome. Of course aluminium is not a good material for tapping into. In a past life the bolts had obviously worked loose and the previous owner had solved the problem by "glueing" the steps to the plywood floor.

The loud crack I heard was the floor breaking under the weight on one side.

The steps appear to be undamaged and putting a new piece of marine ply into place should be straightforward but does anyone know how I should reinforce the structure to stop this happening again?

I will post some pictures when the step has been removed.

 

[Stealaway]

Would these inserts work pressed into the ply from the top

<Broken link removed>

 

[PiloteGeorges]

Knock in inserts are a really good idea, thank you.

I've had a much better look and removed the step, and the support that the step was bolted to.

Clearly there has been more than one repair here already and I get a sense of "they all do that, sir"