Slide-out cover

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.

tlmgcamp

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 16, 2016
Posts
812
Picked up new RV yesterday. First experience with slide-out. Salesman strongly recommended a $1000 cover for the slide-out. Saw them on line for $300-$400 so the rest is profit and installation labor cost. Looked on youtube and the install isn't rocket science, but it is a good chunk of change. Looking for opinions
 
You will find 2 camps of thought. Those that have them generally love them. And those that have never had them hate them. Personally I would never own an RV with slides that did not have them.
 
As stated above, some like and some don't. Ok, now the reality. A slide topper is fairly easy as a diy install. It will keep your slide cooler when the sun is on it. It will also help preserve your top seals as it keeps debris from landing on the slide roof. No more cleaning the slide before running it in. The biggest complaint is that they flap in strong winds. We have put over 80,000 miles on our units and had the topper make noise a couple of times. My opinion is that they are well worth having.
 
I agree the topper is worth it. If you open or close the slide with snow or ice around, care is needed to avoid a lockup -- ice/frozen snow can become pretty solid -- but otherwise, they tend to keep debris (pine cones, tree leaves, tiny branches, etc.) from needing to be cleaned off before closing the slide, in addition to protecting the seals, so the protection is worth it to me.
 
$1000 is maybe not too far out of line for a dealer-installed feature. Dealers charge more for parts than online discount sources and also get $150/hr or more for labor. You and a friend could DIY for around $400, but paying a shop to do the same could easily run to $1000.
 
They on work if you use the all the time. Many buy and after a couple of times and many want to generator once a month which means off the cover. Then take coach out to keep up on motor or tires rotation then put on cover. How about a carport large enough for it and less chance of falling off.
 
They on work if you use the all the time. Many buy and after a couple of times and many want to generator once a month which means off the cover. Then take coach out to keep up on motor or tires rotation then put on cover. How about a carport large enough for it and less chance of falling off.
Uhhh the OP is asking about slide out toppers not a car port or total RV cover.
 
Our prior rig did not have a slide topper - never had any water issues but ordered our current rig with one. The biggest benefit for us is our last trip of the season is in a park heavy with pine trees. I would have to climb up on the roof and sweep off the slide before retracting. Not any more! The topper sits at a fairly shallow angle so it does pool some water - when Kim closes it, I have to be sure not to stand too close or I'll get a shower (or a splashing mud-bath depending on the site)!
 
Be nice to have toppers tomorrow when we need to pull in the slides after a snow.
Not really. I was in Mt Laguna, near San Diego for the winter. Towards the end we got 18" of snow. I didn't think to pull the slide in during the storm and it was like 4 days before the snow melted enough I could retract the slide. Luckily it all melted before I had to move. I just didn't feel comfortable getting on a ladder with that much snow on the ground.
 
Bringing this one back to life because I decided to get a cover for the slideout. Does anybody want to share opinions on brands or features
 
Solara was easy to install but there is not a lot of difference how they go on. Two people are needed to finish but all the prep can be done alone. If you have a fridge on the slide it may make the install a lot harder. Some cannot have one installed die to the upper vent using the space.
 
Solara was easy to install but there is not a lot of difference how they go on. Two people are needed to finish but all the prep can be done alone. If you have a fridge on the slide it may make the install a lot harder. Some cannot have one installed die to the upper vent using the space.
Thanks...it's a small slide, containing only the dinette so fridge vent is not an issue. My hesitation is that all of the youtube videos on it so far are on RVs that already have the metal strip that holds the end of the vinyl to the fixed wall of the trailer pre-installed. I wouldn't think that there is a lot of force there but wondering if I need to find structure in the wall to mount that piece
 
You can find and read installation instructions online before you buy, e.g. for the Carefree SOKIII cover. I've not seen any that require attaching only to structural points. That said, the awning rail generally mounts just above the slideout flange, which is typically a reinforced area anyway - the sidewall opening for the slide is boxed in.
 
Back
Top Bottom