Slide-out - yea or nay?

[Gunslinger]

The difference between slides or no slides could be a life and death thing. The more room there is, the less likely the wife is to unalive you for being, well, alive.

[GHen]

I love my slide outs, but if I bought a rig for going to ski resorts or for lots of winter travel, I say no slide out. I did have a class A that I used just for ski resorts. Snow and ice build up even if you have slide toppers, that’s makes it very difficult to bring them in. Frozen slide seals will tear when you move them. In addition the slide have lots of gaps in the seals and less insulation than normal walls, making it harder to heat. The extra square footage also makes it harder to keep everything warm.
So, depends on your usage.
Slide outs may also make cooling in very hot weather also more difficult, but my experience is mainly from 100’s of nights in ski resort parking lots down to -22f.

[deano]

Originally Posted by Gunslinger

The difference between slides or no slides could be a life and death thing. The more room there is, the less likely the wife is to unalive you for being, well, alive.

Or in my case sometimes just breathing (what I do??)

[Mad5581]

I'm in the pro slide camp. Knocking on wood I've never had one fail to where I was unable to retract it without some assistance.
Yes they are more maintenance. But the additional space in my opinion is worth the risk. Also if you do some research you will find 80% of slide failures are user related. Lack of maintenance, lack of proper use, lack of knowledge how they work. Lack of know how to adjust them. All that said there are multiple different slide out styles. I personally prefer the rack style (oldest style) my least favorite are cable slides.
I have 2 rvs 1 has 1 cable slide and the other has 1 rack, 1 swinteck and 2 gear driven I have had zero issues with any of them. My northpoint had the dreaded electric 6 point stabilizers also and I've never had any issues with it either. You just have to be close to level before you use the auto level and you have to be level before putting slides out. If you fallow the proper process and do your yearly maintenance you can eliminate most of the potential for problems

Much of the yes or no depends on your camping style too. Do you camp in cold weather? Then no slide out is better. Do you camp with a family and or for long trips? Then yes the extra room is worth the extra risk.

[JDug66]

I would always have slides. I spent too many years in tents and a pop up to not like the space a slide creates. But I suppose you can't miss what you never had.

[Jay2504]

When we were buying our first RV, I wanted no slides for all the reasons mentioned. The DW wanted a slide, so we got one. She was right. The extra room far outweighed any extra work that having a slide requires. I only buy a unit with a rack and pinion type slide, and one that doesn’t have a lot of weight in the slide. Jay

[cekkk]

There were two large slides on our eagle. And I must say, virtually every time I put them out, I wondered if they were going to come back in! But they always did. And I don’t think we would have made five straight months wintering several years in Arizona without them. And when we moved here we continued to live in it for six or eight months during the remodeling. I don’t understand the airstream popularity. I have been in them and if I could get one for dirt cheap, I probably would not. They’re a bit like Harleys in my opinion. The only reason to get one is that you want one.

[hikerjohn7]

Originally Posted by wordsmyth

I see something out there that is piquing my interest, and I can immediately see the pros, but I know nothing about the cons side of slide-outs.

Any insights or wisdom will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Rick

I have been RVing for 22 years and had four RVs. On all but my earliest RV, I have had slide-outs. But, to date (knock on wood) I have never had a slide-out fail me and my last two RVs had three slide-outs each.

It's true that slide-outs are more moving parts that can fail but they offer one of the biggest improvements in an RV's comfort. Having the inside of your RV increase by a few feet in width is a very pleasing and now I am spoiled and would not want an RV without them.

But, slide-outs also can give trouble and you can see it if you read the blogs. They can get stuck in the out position and they can get out of alignment although, there are usually ways to get them in manually yourself or by calling a mobile repair guy. If you have a computer, you can frequently find Youtube videos to help you with the manual operation.

TIPS:
The best way to help prevent having slide-out problems is to use care in deciding which RV to buy based on its slide-out design. Some guidelines are...

1. Avoid RVs with very long slide-outs with heavy furniture and appliances in them.

2. Chose electric powered slid-outs with aluminum Schwintek gear tracks only for smaller slide-outs like those frequently used to expand bedrooms.

3. Make sure larger slide-outs with heavier internal furnishings and appliances have steel gear tracks.

4. Steel gear tracks under the slide-out can carry more load than the ones with tracks on the sides.

4. I have not had hydraulic slide-outs but I believe they have the most load bearing capacity.

USAGE TIPS
1 .Make sure you always have good voltage before activating slide-outs. Either be hooked up to shore power or have your auxiliary generator producing power.

2. Make sure your RV is fairly level before activating the slide-outs so the motors don't have to drag them up an inclined angle.

3. Keep slide-out tracks and motors lubricated and have a technician inspect them from time to time. I lost a roller bearing in a lower steel track once causing the slide-out to rock back and forth. I had to have a shop replace it.

Alway run slide-outs all the way out and all the way in. This is needed to keep the slide-out motor gear rotation angles synchronized.

[gypsmjim]

Originally Posted by Gunslinger

The difference between slides or no slides could be a life and death thing. The more room there is, the less likely the wife is to unalive you for being, well, alive.

Not having slides for me is a maintenance thing. How much room do you need? The wife and I are very comfortable with a single wide. In fact, some people complain about the crappy mattresses, but we are
SATISFIED with ours. In fact, Our $3000.00 mattress at home causes us to wake up occasionally. While our crappy Jayco mattress allows us to sleep all night long, We seldom wake up before 9 AM.

Maybe its just the camping thing and less stress.

In any event, If the wife is of that persuasion, maybe there is another thing going on not connected to camping....

Just saying....

[gymracer]

I had 3 C class without slides, never thought much about them. Then I bought a Seneca Super C with 3 slides, love the room. Yes I worry when I push the button. Would hate to get one stuck out. Even though mine is a older so far no real problems. Did learn the motorhome needs to be level for them to work properly.. A friend has a 3 year old DX3 and he had trouble with the bedroom slide. It is the cable type. The pulley bracket that mounts to the wall pulled the screws out and broke a cable. What a mess. We worked on that thing over a day to fix. I make him a L shaped bracket that bolted to the floor and wall, replaced the cable. To do this we had to cut holes in the slide and plate them over.

[hikerjohn7]

Originally Posted by gymracer

I had 3 C class without slides, never thought much about them. Then I bought a Seneca Super C with 3 slides, love the room. Yes I worry when I push the button. Would hate to get one stuck out. Even though mine is a older so far no real problems. Did learn the motorhome needs to be level for them to work properly.. A friend has a 3 year old DX3 and he had trouble with the bedroom slide. It is the cable type. The pulley bracket that mounts to the wall pulled the screws out and broke a cable. What a mess. We worked on that thing over a day to fix. I make him a L shaped bracket that bolted to the floor and wall, replaced the cable. To do this we had to cut holes in the slide and plate them over.

While we have a active conversation going on about slide-outs, can you experienced RV'ers out there give us your thoughts on how to properly lubricate slide-out Schwintek tracks and gears and how to lubricate slide-out topper bearings?

[Ceimo]

Love our triple slides on our 36’ 5th wheel.
Would never go back. RVing is constant awareness of mechanical devices and doing the PM’s.

[DonC757]

“Push the button and pray” sums up the main issue with choosing slide outs. Well worth the risk to me. I really appreciate the additional room.