Question about RV Slidouts

[cowboy]

HI my brother and I were looking at pull behind campers this weekend. I staued in a fith wheel with a slide out last year. And we had problems with it leaking. I was wondering how often their are problems with them. And any other good /bad points about them.

Billy

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Most of my camping has been in the smaller campers, so personal info is limited. I do know that leaking around the slide out is a problem with many of them, though they are in the minority. Some manufactures offer an awning type roll out that is permanently attached and rolls out and retracts right along with the slide out to keep rain off it. Have you taken yours back to the dealer to see if one of the gaskets is not fitting right?

[cowboy]

Thanks John

We do not have one yet. We are taking some of the money my Mom made as a subsutute school teacher before she passed away from cancer. And buying a camper with it. Mom loved camping although we did not go much. I think it would be good for all us kids and we could all use it. And a good way for us to rember her. We are looking a 26' coachman bunk trailer that can sleep 8. Or a 26' wildwood? Slide out that can sleep ten. The plan would be that it would be at the farm so we can stay there whenever any of us go up. And would be aviable for any of us to take elsewhere for camping. Both are pertty open and do not feel cramped inside. We also looked for one that the bathroom is big enough to change clothes and stand up and take a shower in. Without having to intrude into the main bedroom.

We are thinking of going with the coachman without the slide out. After the problems with my friends slider leaking. Also the coachman has a out door shower too so we can clean up before going inside if we are muddy. Both have roll down awnings. And I am planing on getting a outdoor carpet that will go under the awning to help keep it clean inside.

I wanted to get any ideas of anything else to look for before we got one. And the bigest problem I knew of was the slider and room in the bathoom. Oh yea head room as my little brother is over 6'1.

Billy

[FCUBMAN]

Are you talking about water leaks, or hydraulic leaks? Water leaks are often caused by the unit not being levelled. I have a couple of friends who have had several units with slideouts, and I don't recall any of them leaking water. One did have a problem with a dead camper battery, so the electric pump didn't work, so had to use the manual pump. It took quite a while to retract the slideout, and a fair amount of effort, too. I just have a little Compact Junior, 1974 vintage, with none of the luxuries, and none of those problems

[John(videodoc)]

I havent had the leaking problem in my slideout, you stayed in last year. I had a problem getting it to go back in at CubFest though. It was 12 yrs old at that point. But it went into the shop after cubfest, and got a clean bill of health along with new motors, thanks to the blow out tire... on the way to cub fest. Oh, i got new seals as well. My FIL leaves his slide outs out year round, says it helps keep the seals fresh. He has never had a seal go bad. He was the previous owner of my camper. I love it when he gets new stuff, that means i get new "ole" stuff. John

[calcub]

Cowboy...... go to the web site rv.net and post your question there. You can post it in the trailer section or one of the other sections as well. I am sure you will get a lot of responses from people that have what you are looking for. I have found this to be an excellent site for information.

Good luck!
calcub

[junkman1946]

R.V.s are a whole forum in themselves. The short answer to the slideout leak is. Slideout in; Rubber seal around slide is either broke, bent , stiff, or comprimised in some manner. if its broke replace it, if its just stiff, sofetn it up with something like WD40 or a commercial rubber lube. If it leaks when open; again check the gasket. More likely its the roof, most slides have flat roofs that trap rain water, pine needles, etc.. Best fix, recover the whole roof with a 1 piece rubber membrane roof.

[cowboy]

Hi Fcubman it was a water leak. Never even though of having problems with the hyd.

Thanks John and Junkman. We are going with the coachman with out the slide out. It has the arched truss roof. And for $14,100 brand new it has everything we need in it. The little extra room in the slide out is not worth another $5,000 to us.

Hi Calcub. There is a lot of great info on that site and it helped out alot. I wished I had found out about it before I went to the show.

Billy

[VinceD]

Billy, if you make sure the unit is level before opening closing the slide out and the top of the slide out is clean before running it in, you should not have any problems with leaks. People tend to run the slide in with debris on top and that tears up the seals.

A non-commercial site that provides really good info is RVers Online. It operated by a friend of ours, Tom Gonser. The info is straight forward and unbiased.

If you are interested in checking other aspects of RVing, check the Links page on RVing - The Midwest Connection. There is also a pretty helpful "How To" section.

[cowboy]

Thanks Vince

I'll look in to those. For right now it is going to be setup on our 120 acers in the UP. Keepin the property taxes down and getting us our own place to stay while we build our place. But I can see taking it out camping after we get our place setup.

Billy