If you read Tony Barthel’s RV Reviews, you know he talks about slideouts a lot and whether or not you can access things such as the kitchen or bathroom with your slideouts in.
Tell us, please, if you can easily get to your RV’s kitchen with your slideouts in. After you vote, please leave a comment and tell us if you wish your answer were different or not and why. Thanks!
The FREE RVtravel.com newsletter is filled with great RV information, advice, and news written by RV experts, delivered right to your inbox. Never any SPAM and we will NEVER sell your information! When you subscribe, you'll get three checklists that every RVer should have as a thank you!
A Permanent Address for RV Freedom — Full-time RVers trust America’s Mailbox for mail forwarding, residency help, and reliable support from the road.
Our most popular articles this week:
SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR RV?
Good news! We have more than 3,500 articles in our “RV Maintenance and Repair” category, so we’re confident we can help you solve the problem. In addition, did you know you can search our website using the search bar at the top of every page for keywords or topics that interest you or that you need help with? Yep, we’ve got you covered!
Everything on sale for RVers right now. Yes, right now! Click here.
Please follow our rules for commenting.
Our Mesa Ridge 23RLS we can walk from the door to the rear with the slide in, and we can use the kitchen, but one of the loveseats at the rear is blocked as well as the TV. All cabinets on the road side are blocked but we can sit in the dinette unless it’s full of stuff we moved into it so the slide can be retracted. Lol
We have a Cougar RLI 5th wheel. Bedroom & bathroom always accessible- kitchen, table, chairs, TV, completely blocked.
We can use every function in our Phoenix Cruiser, slide in or slide out. Not a problem.
That is also one of the many reasons we love our Phoenix Cruiser.
Major reason we chose the trailer we did, we can’t extend the jackknife sofa, we don’t need too as their is also a dinette at the rear, we don’t use the sofa while the slide is retracted, found out the slide can be damaged if we do!
We can access everything in our 2002 Kountry Star motorhome with the slides in, except one set of cupboards in the kitchen, and a few drawers in the bedroom.
Thank God, I don’t have Slides. Never will have slides failing to work, no slide leaks, no trash on the roof, never worry about cracking my head on the corners. Of course it means I am stuck with an old coach as no one is making 34′ Diesel Pushers without slides anymore.
amen … us too
AMEN! Brothers. So HAPPY to see so many non sliders aboard.
In our Winnebago Navion 24V, everything in the MH is fully accessible with the theater-seat slide in. But the beds, fridges, and bathrooms were accessible with the slides in in our previous travel trailer and fifth wheel. Fully accessing the bathroom at a rest stop, the fridge in a crowded Walmart parking lot after grocery shopping, and the bed in a very narrow Flying J RV overnight parking space without opening slides has been a top priority in selecting all our RVs.
Access to all functions while the slides are in was a screen out factor when sound good or current RV. Only a small shelf, main TV & DVD player are unusable with slides in. And we rarely use the entertainment system. Like 3-4 times in 11 years.
Grand Design imagine xls 22rbe. Slide in and fully accessible.
We have a Class A and have no trouble accessing both kitchen and half bath with the slides in. I often start lunch or use bathroom while hubby drives, but we stop to eat and hubby uses the facilities. We Get out and go for a walk and fresh air as well. Nothing but time when retired!
No slides. I ordered it that way.
Non slider here too! Happy to see so many in the same non slider club!
In our triple slide 5th wheel, we can easily get to any area of the kitchen, bathroom, & dinette. We can also get to the living area, but not to sit & relax. We’ve now parked the 5th wheel on a lease lot as a home base & added a triple slide truck camper for our travels. With the truck camper, we can’t get in the door without opening up the slides, but they only take 10 seconds to open.
Only the refrigerator.
We have a toyhauler so I can use the back door and have full access to my kitchen/living area.
I have a Jayflight 29RKS and I put the dangerous table sideways with pipe insulation on the wall side and cabinet side of table. Experimenting with also using bungee cords. This way I can move thru enough to use kitchen or open fridge enough to grab something within reach. If the idiot engineers would only put a different 6” shorter dinette or cabinet it would make it easier to get around. RV manufactures must hire flunkies for engineers. Designing is so much easier with Cad Cam.
Why we love our motorhome a 2002 Newmar Dutchstar. In a pinch don’t even have to put out the bedroom slide. Bed is north/south. Slide is up against bed…husband’s side…lol…so no issue for me. We’ve kept slide in for various reasons; strong winds/rain, one less step in am if we are getting an especially early start, long ago staying at Walmarts & parked with slide to traffic, etc. When just doing overnights to get to destination we never put out main slide. Plenty of room to use everything.
We really like our Redwood. But we have to extend the slides before accessing either the kitchen or the bathroom.
I refuse to own a trailer with slideouts. Don’t need the extra room (its just the two of us), don’t need the extra stuff to break and extra places to leak.
Good for u! Another non-slider here!
We don’t have slideouts in our 5th wheel. While we could benefit from the extra room I don’t want the hassle of a slideout or the inability to access all of my 5th wheel with the slideouts in.
Good 4 u! another non-slider!
No slides
Good for you! Another non-slider!
Tiffn Phaeton 2012 with 4 slides. Everything in the kitchen is accessible. We have some storage in cabinets that require a blind reach for access. I suppose we could change our storage plan to fix that – after 10 years it isn’t going to happen 🙂 Bedroom is a different issue with Queen E-W bed limited access to half the back closet and NO access to the other half (DS) of that closet as well as no access to drawer below the window totally blocked by the bed. We have lived with all of that and just open and close the appropriate slide as necessary. In 10 years you adjust to a lot.
Tiffin Phaeton 2006- one of the major reasons for buying was access to kitchen and bathroom without hopping over things. 40 QSH DP.
Everything in our trailer is available, slide in or out. It is a main requirement when we look for a new trailer.
Luckily, our Arctic Fox 25Y is totally usable with the slide in. Everything is accessible. Our slide mechanism went south on our first night of the 2,000 mile trip back to the Reno area. We managed to get the slide in with the help of a McGiver guy in the RV park. It was over 100 degrees in all but one RV park on the way home, but we managed. Northwood has upgraded the slide mechanism and we had Thunder RV in LaGrande, OR install the upgrade. We are now “Happy Campers”.
Access to the bathroom, kitchen, dinette and even bed during transit are some of the best parts of traveling with an RV. The only thing we can’t do is watch TV. Would never own one where the bathroom and kitchen was not accessible.
not only kitchen but stove and frig and bath
Access to the kitchen is unaffected whether the slides are extended or retracted. However, access to the refrigerator is affected. The refrigerator is accessible, but awkward when the slides are retracted
We purposely chose a winnebago 26he because you have access to bath and kitchen with slide in.
We can access the refrigerator, the bathroom and the bedroom with the slides in. Nothing else is accessible. In that situation, though, we eat out or eat cold food (sandwiches and salads). It only happened a couple of times where weather or traffic delayed us getting to our destination and we had to overnight at a rest stop.
I didn’t answer the questionnaire as there was no answer stating “deliberately chose a TT withOUT slides. It was part of why I decided the RPod was not going to be my final choice, so glad because that was when I stumbled across molded fiberglass trailers (which is the one we finally went with)! As I explained to hubby, it was just more space to heat and/or cool, more stuff that offered a possible escape route for the cats, more stuff that could break down and need repairs, and more weight to pull and drag down our mpg. He was very agreeable to all of the above. I LOVE our 17 foot LilSnoozy! and no slides is only part of it!
When my kitchen slide is in I have no access to “nada”.
I take that back. I can get into one side of my double door refrig.
Absolutely!!
Why would you buy an RV that you couldn’t get in all areas with the slides in?
We will even overnight occasionally with the slides in when there is a bad storm!!
You need to check EVERYTHING before you buy!!