Slides outs while hitched to truck?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
danajdelarosa

danajdelarosa

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 2, 2017
Posts
48
Location
Sierra Vista, AZ
Good evening!

This weekend we will be hauling our fifth wheel out to our son's soccer tournament. For the latter part of Sunday we will need to check out of the campground and park in a parking lot near the tournament. My question is, while parked in a lot, hitched to the truck, is it ok to pull our slide outs out without being level and disconnected from the truck?

I'd like to cook and we will all need to hang out waiting for the next game for a couple hours.

Thanks in advance!
 
I always try to get close to being level side to side before moving the slide out. We remain hooked quite often when traveling for several days when stopping at night and have never had a problem.
 
In this case, "level" means starting with the slide side slightly high.  When the slide extends, the shift in weight will pull that side of the trailer down a bit, so if you start out with that side high you'll be level with the slide extended.
 
I wouldn't and what I do (which is in accordance with my manual) : Level the trailer front to back and side to side. Next stabilize it, and lastly put the slides out.
You should be able to do that even with it hitched to the truck

Jack L
 
I assume you are moving due to check-out time. You gonna be gone by, say 5:00 or so? Try talking to the park manager to see if you can just leave late? If nobody is scheduled to move into the site, they may just let you stay late. Explain why you would like to stay there, and just be honest about how late you will be.
 
kdbgoat said:
I assume you are moving due to check-out time. You gonna be gone by, say 5:00 or so? Try talking to the park manager to see if you can just leave late? If nobody is scheduled to move into the site, they may just let you stay late. Explain why you would like to stay there, and just be honest about how late you will be.
Click to expand...

Yes, even with a late check out, we need to pull out of the campground at 1300. There's one more soccer game at 1300 and potentially a championship game at 1600. So we will be in an empty parking lot near the site for a few hours. Unfortunately, we can't just stay in our spot as I have already asked. The campground/resort stays booked and our spot has someone moving into it.

Thanks everyone for your input! :)
 
I understand. If you are close enough to level to be comfortable moving around in it, that should be level enough for the slides. Look at units on the dealer's lots. A lot of dealers also move them around with the slides out.
 
As long as the rig is reasonable level there should be no problem.  About the worse that happens is the slide motor stalls if the run is too much uphill (remember that the downhill side becomes an uphill climb when retracting the slide!).  Some types of slide mechanism are fussier than others, but common sense should tell you if it is struggling.
 
On long road trips where we hit the rv park about dark and leave early next morning we never level  and use all the slides. No issues with a Skyline brand......Fleetwood brand.......Thor brand with gear or hydraulic slides.
 
longhaul said:
On long road trips where we hit the rv park about dark and leave early next morning we never level  and use all the slides. No issues with a Skyline brand......Fleetwood brand.......Thor brand with gear or hydraulic slides.
Click to expand...

we do the same all the time if we are just passing through and only staying the night i will often leave it hooked up, slides open and the front jacks down to stabilize a bit
 
Any time we are overnighting in a parking lot, we always use the slides and never unhook the trailer. We are as level as possible as I can't sleep in an off kilter bed.
 
We ended up pulling into a very level paved parking lot, put the front jacks down just to ground them and pulled the slide out. It worked well. Cranked up the generator, and I cooked lunch, we hung out and enjoyed the afternoon of soccer games. No issues getting the slide back in and hitting the road after the tournament.

Thanks to everyone for your recommendations and knowledge :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 496 (members: 12, guests: 484)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,913
Posts
1,387,273
Members
137,666
Latest member
nativoacai
Back
Top Bottom