swim ladder repair

[nybor]

Hi. This weekend I noticed that one of the white ladder's foot steps had fallen off the ss tube. It was glued on with I assume was 5200. As I was cleaning it, I noticed a series of holes drilled into the back of it, aligned in pairs along its entire length . There seemed to be something black in them, however, the material was hard (maybe due to age?)
Does anyone know what the holes are for? Maybe rubber nipples to grip the tube?

thanks

Nybor

[AynB]

Our swim ladder ( hull #17 ) has the steps riveted on with stainless steel rivets. Last haul out, we needed to re-rivet two of the points as they had simply rusted away. There was evidence of a bit of adhesive, but I suspect it was to aid in the manufacture rather than actually hold the step on.
Al

[jking]

Same thing happened to me except ours was only held on with glue. Glued it back on years ago, still holding. Attached is my email from Catalina - Jan #303

Jan,
The ladder tread can be reattached with 3M 5200, clean and sand both surfaces and clamp the tread in place for 48 hours before using.
Cordially, Gerry Douglas

[nybor]

thanks to all who responded. Plan to glue it back in place, but those holes have me baffled. Maybe they were the original rivet locations and not used????

dave

[TBOT422]

I noticed one of the treads on our ladder was a little loose on one end and have been wondering how I was going to be able to get it completely off to re-glue if it was put on with 5200. None of the other treads seemed loose at all.

Then on our last cruise, the Admiral fell in the water when standing on the ladder. Closer inspection found the third tread missing apparently at the bottom of the anchorage in Cedar Key. Given the severe bruises the Admiral experienced, I decided the treads needed to be bolted on instead of simply glued. I ordered a new tread from Catalina ($20/foot), drilled and tapped them and installed 2 round head flush machine screws in each tread. I can't imagine using rivets as some have talked about as I suspect that might allow water to get inside the ladder tubing, and you would need to add additional drain holes. The hardest part was drilling the holes. You need to use a carbide tipped drill with a very slow RPM, and a good deal of pressure to drill the tubing. Because of the neighboring rungs, I was only able to use my drill press on one rung, and a hand drill on the other rungs. It helped to use a block of wood between the neighboring rung and the hand drill to create additional pressure rather than sheer muscle power.

If you use the swim ladder frequently and it does not have a fixed mechanical fastener such as a rivet or screw on the treads, I strongly suggest that you consider adding them. The Admiral's bruises were pretty severe, but could have been a lot worse as there was no blood letting or broken bones.

Good Luck

[elk]

I need the long dimension of the ladder tread, does anyone know it?

I need to re-bond one of them and need to bring the correct size channel pieces in order to clamp them correctly. I'm 2 hours away from my boat.

Thanks,