Can you open slides to sleep while hooked up to truck.

pawags45 · 07-19-2019, 09:08 AM

We are going to sleep over night at a camp ground in NC while traveling. But this is just a stop over to avoid VA traffic. We will be getting up at 3.00am to continue our trip home. My question is can we leave the 5th wheel hooked up to the Truck and open the slides to sleep or do we have to unhook ? I realy don't want to wake up the people on each side of us during quite hrs. And should we drop all the jacks or just the front 2 ?

Joan617 · 07-19-2019, 09:18 AM

I can get mine pretty close to level while still hooked up and think it would be fine. See how she sits with your truck. Slap a carpenter's level on the kitchen island, and sure, I think the front 2 jacks will be enough for a short night. Depends on the site, too if you can get it laterally level so a slide isn't "pushing up hill"

-Angus

Mopar_Earl · 07-19-2019, 09:19 AM

Yep, I'd be more concerned that the fridge is level enough.

Earl

pawags45 · 07-19-2019, 09:31 AM

Thanks for the Feed back. Angus its a Thousand Trails site so I am hoping to get a level site, a lot depends on what time we get there. Mopar as for the Fridge its a residential Fridge not propane so that will not be a problem.

oh355mbqs · 07-19-2019, 09:39 AM

Hi pawags,

We have a 2017 MBQS with the Schwintek slide for the bedroom. I verified with Jayco last year that slide does not need to be out to be used. When we stopped over last year like you are, we didn't even put slides out. Put the front jacks down and that was it. Might want to do something to remind you of jacks, I did because I was worried about forgetting them at 3 am.

pawags45 · 07-19-2019, 09:45 AM

oh355mbqs In our pinnicle you can't get to the bedroom or bathroom with the slides in. Good advice that I will listen to on the reminder for the slides. Maybe a posted note on steering wheel or front seat.

Tunce the traveler · 07-19-2019, 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pawags45

oh355mbqs Good advice that I will listen to on the reminder for the slides. Maybe a posted note on steering wheel or front seat.

X2 on that one!!!

I was at Ocean Shores one year and someone with a 5th wheel tried to pull out early and forgot the 2 front jacks and he spent a week there waiting for repairs.

DonaandDon · 07-19-2019, 10:12 AM

I do, I have, and will continue....

Joan617 · 07-19-2019, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pawags45

oh355mbqs In our pinnicle you can't get to the bedroom or bathroom with the slides in. Good advice that I will listen to on the reminder for the slides. Maybe a posted note on steering wheel or front seat.

Yeah and Larry watch out for that interconnect/ safety switch behind the bedroom door- the one that keeps the slide from retracting if the door is not fully open. Despite Jayco's insistence that the switch would not prevent the slide from extending, ours did that when the door was loose, keeping us out of the bedroom and bathroom for 3 days waiting for repair. Their insistence in this is what stopped me from troubleshooting that cause. Someone said that there was a service bulletin on this matter but Jayco insists that there is not. We keep a pillow between the cabinet face and bedroom door when retraced to keep the door in place on the switch.

Angus

pawags45 · 07-19-2019, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joan617

Yeah and Larry watch out for that interconnect/ safety switch behind the bedroom door- the one that keeps the slide from retracting if the door is not fully open. Despite Jayco's insistence that the switch would not prevent the slide from extending, ours did that when the door was loose, keeping us out of the bedroom and bathroom for 3 days waiting for repair. Their insistence in this is what stopped me from troubleshooting that cause. Someone said that there was a service bulletin on this matter but Jayco insists that there is not. We keep a pillow between the cabinet face and bedroom door when retraced to keep the door in place on the switch.

Angus

I followed that post you had when this was going on and ever since then I make sure that door is back against the wall whenever that slide is about to be retracted and extented but as you know there is not much roon to see before you put it out. Another problem we had was on our first trip the slide would not open all the way, only opened 3/4 of the way out. Come to find out my wife had put a carry bag on the sofa and it fell on the floor and the slide was grabing it or a sensor new it was there. we sqeezed by and removed the bag and the slide worked perfect, we no longer store anything in the bedroom that is not in a closet ot draw.

Jagiven · 07-19-2019, 11:23 AM

Yes you can

triplebvalp · 07-19-2019, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pawags45

We are going to sleep over night at a camp ground in NC while traveling. But this is just a stop over to avoid VA traffic. We will be getting up at 3.00am to continue our trip home. My question is can we leave the 5th wheel hooked up to the Truck and open the slides to sleep or do we have to unhook ? I realy don't want to wake up the people on each side of us during quite hrs. And should we drop all the jacks or just the front 2 ?

pawags45, we do this quite often. In this case, although my FW is equipped with auto levelers, I will just use lego blocks to get the FW close to level. After that, I will run my rear jacks down manually to give the FW some stability.

JimD · 07-19-2019, 02:40 PM

I had to read this post due to the heading that asked "Can you open the slides to sleep while...". I wondered if you wanted to have the slides open while driving.

Whew.

rkymntsno · 07-19-2019, 02:44 PM

Residential fridge won't matter if you're not level. We did this on the way back from Pigeon Forge. Just stayed hooked up. Lowered front landing gear. If we do it again, will also just manually lower the back two legs also but since we got there late and wasn't up long and was leaving early a.m., figured as long as the bedroom was stable, the rest would be fine and it was. But after it's all said and done, in a 5er and auto-leveling, you're really not saving much time and energy. I realized I should've just unhitched and auto-leveled. So much easier.

2nOZ · 07-19-2019, 04:05 PM

Yes you can and we do it all the time when on a short overnight. Never a problem.

Jagiven · 07-19-2019, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimD

I had to read this post due to the heading that asked "Can you open the slides to sleep while...". I wondered if you wanted to have the slides open while driving.

Whew.

I have now seen 2 large MH's with a slide out, and traveling 60+ mph.

Jim Smyth · 07-20-2019, 08:27 AM

I just traveled from S Central Wisconsin to West Yellowstone Montana and never unhooked once. I do put all 4 feet out to stabilize it while parked but it isnt a issue at all.

Something else to consider if your not plugged in to a campground pedestal. I would unplug my Tow Vehicle so there is no way your camper can deplete your TV and your dead in the water when you want to leave the next morning.

Bayoutalker · 07-24-2019, 12:13 PM

I've done it several times. Didn't even lower any jacks. That works unless someone is sensitive to rocking then the jacks need to come down.

jamer · 07-24-2019, 12:41 PM

When stopped for a one night stay I always put front jack down to relieve the load on the truck suspension. Yes, I do put out the slides----but I also check for level, and have found in almost every instance we were (almost) level. Have not encountered a problems in two years with doing this.

Joetker · 07-24-2019, 01:31 PM

Confused. We have 2020 pinnacle 36ssws and cannot get to the bedroom/bathroom with slides in. We stopped at Walmart and stayed hooked up and it seemed level so we extended bedroom slide, lowered front legs for some stability and had no issues.

Are you saying you need a reminder to extract the front? If so, I understand now. Or, am I missing something I need to know? Thanks.

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