G.G. Schmitt & Co. Ladders

[wingless]

My 2000 380DA has a sliding / telescoping ladder within the swim platform, under a door.

There are metal parts between each of the three U-shaped telescoping ladder rungs. On my boat the metal parts deteriorated. Some parts fell off, other parts failed but are still attached.

These failures made the ladder unusable.

This a G.G. Schmitt & Sons L08E3105 ladder, (888) 252-5446. They sell a kit w/ replacement parts. The requirement is that the ladder is the latest design, w/ button head Allen screws, not the older design w/ flat head screws, that hold the ladder together. They don't sell a kit for the older design.

The repair kit P/N is L08E3105-BLK. The cost is more than I'd like, but I'm the only one agile enough to scamper up onto the swim platform w/o a ladder, so this falls into the required category.

http://www.ggschmitt.com/ladders.htm

http://www.ggschmitt.com/ladders.htm

[wingless]

Note that some of the button head Allen screws holding the mechanism together would not budge, so I reverted to one of my favorite old school methods.

A cold chisel and a hammer were used off-center on the screw head to rotate the fastener loose. This works almost every time.

The first step was to use the cold chisel to create interference for the Allen wrench, to see if it would grip enough to make the wrench work to loosen the fastener. That was good enough for 1/3 of the stuck fasteners. The rest unscrewed w/ the cold chisel.

[wingless]

The replacement parts did the trick!

The ladder sections now slide like a hot knife through warm butter.

All of the surface rust stains were removed from the ladder and hardware. The sliding and rotating parts were then all lightly lubricated w/ marine grease.

Some of the fasteners use Nylock nuts. Those fasteners were just cleaned, assembled and tightened.

The threads on all of the new stainless button head Allen screws that screw into the new coated steel slides were coated w/ Loctite thread locker before assembly. My expectation is that the Loctite will seal these threads for corrosion protection.

If any ladder has operational problems, then I would HIGHLY recommend this kit to restore normal / new functionality!


http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m52/wingless-pics/Boat/Swim%20Ladder%20Old%20Hardware.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m52/wingless-pics/Boat/Swim%20Ladder%20New%20Hardware%20Kit.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m52/wingless-pics/Boat/Swim%20Ladder%20Assembled.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m52/wingless-pics/Boat/Swim%20Ladder%20Installed.jpg

[wingless]

@cbruck,

Here is my G.G. Schmitt & Sons L08E3105 ladder restoration.

[wingless]

@Clarence Bruckner
Here is my G.G. Schmitt & Sons L08E3105 ladder restoration.

Old images in Photobucket extortion...

[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49460565041_6512e0c00c_c.jpg[/img]

[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49460798722_d72bb23a2b_c.jpg[/img]

[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49460798772_64ce557068_c.jpg[/img]

[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49460088993_cef7e13fd5_c.jpg[/img]

[Buceye]

Thanks Wingless, perfect timing with this post.

[Drago]

Man you can't be that old! Your always the first to answer here!