When we saw this photo, we cringed. How can this be safe? How can this be legal?
We wondered why anyone would travel this way. Isn’t this dangerous? The slide is only about halfway out. Will it continue to extend?
One woman noted this had happened to her. “Our slide motor broke a tooth off a gear and then the slide just slid out as we rounded a corner. Luckily we were not on the highway and could pull over. We put 2×4’s on four corners inside until we got to a safe place.”
Another wrote: “I realize this isn’t very safe, but maybe, just maybe he’s trying to get to a place to have it fixed?”
Another person suggested that perhaps the RVer was headed to a repair shop. Another one noted “Hope he doesn’t go through a toll plaza.” Yet another one speculated, “I wonder if maybe they couldn’t get it to pull in all the way and decided to just go with it.”
Heaven knows this is something that most RVers with slideouts have worried about or even experienced. It’s not uncommon to hear about an RVer who realized an hour before checkout time that his or her slide wouldn’t retract. And they couldn’t stay because the park was booked solid for later that day, and that included their own site.
What would you do? Would you drive with a slide partially extended to get to another campsite or a repair shop in such a situation? We invite your comments.
##RVT965
You do what you have to. First I would try to get it in as far as possible by me pushing on it while DW presses the switch. I’m sure we could get it most the way in. I’d wedge stuff behind it so it ant move, or even try cargo straps to hold it in place until I could find a shop. Remember when you’ve done your best you got to say “that ain’t going anywhere…”
Thankfully I don’t have slides and never will.
I used to say that too, with our old 97 Nash. We upgraded to a 2012 Arctic Fox with one slide. It’s like moving from a tent to the Taj Mahal. We had the factory show us how to pull the slide in with a socket wrench.
I feel bad for this RV’er. 1-In most RV’s there would be bells, whistles and alarms going off because the slide is not in. 2-This has to be nerve racking to drive..now he has to ride the right side of the lane in order not to cross over. 3-All of the “what if’s” that are going through his mind.
I keep a roll of reflective caution tape in my tool bay just in case something happens and I need to clearly mark something. If this were me I would gently tape caution tape all around the slide to warn others.
I placed permanent reflective tape on both corners of my slide. Cheap enough from HF. Same as big trucks use. Can really see the edges.
Most slides (at least in our experience) have a manual override. It’s not easy and it requires the right tools but you might be able to get it in using the override. On multiple slide units, sometimes you can switch motors between slides to get both closed. We have moved our coach with slides out in an emergency situation (the unit directly behind us was burning…and had a propane tank), but I don’t think we would ever take it on the road without all slides in and secured in some fashion.
We had a slideout malfunction while near Yellowstone a few years ago, the motor was not secured properly, causing the gear packs to misalign. Heard a big bang when some teeth broke off. Got it retracted by alternating between pushing by hand and running the motor. Found a new gear pack in Sturgis SD. Used a 55 gal trash barrel under the slideout to get the weight off the gear pack, changed it in under an hour. The campground manager came by in her golf cart while I was working- “We can get that trash can out of your way.” Told her no thanks, I’m using it just now…
We were in Seward, Alaska last summer, staying at a small RV park/campground when a motorhome arrived with its bedroom slide fully extended, but with straps securing it. Apparently their slide mechanism had failed and they were to meet a roving/mobile RV mechanic at our campground. Thankfully, the slide was repaired and functional a couple of days later. We discussed their situation and concluded that we would stay in place if the slide refused to retract when we were preparing to leave somewhere. However, that would depend on there being availability, putting us at the mercy of the campground.
As far as bringing in a slide that won’t retract. I have bought two cable pullers to pull it in, if that possibility happens. As I have had several times had problems with the slide not going in or out.
Our Leisure, Canadian-made, came with a slide lock that we use when traveling any distance.
Ikes! Can’t even see via the sideview mirror with the driver’s side slide extended, even a little bit. Probably a mechanical problem here. And hopefully no harm done on the trip to get it fixed!
Well, our RV is and been in the shop since May because of this very reason. We bought a 2021 forest river in April and took our grand children camping in May , to my horror as I was fixing supper and they were sitting at the table all of a sudden the side started coming in. I started yelling at there pawpaw to see if he was fooling around with the internet outside the RV. He wasn’t. Forest River has had this to happen to quite a few of these RV’s and they don’t know what is causing it. Needless to say I’m terrified of riding in it now, when we get it back!!
Yowzers! Brand new, used it once, and been in the shop for how many months? No pride in craftsmanship, that’s for sure. (But we already knew that).
Well I thought every RV is/was just like mine (Winnebago). If the Slide fails I have two bypass rods that I can attached under the slide and manually crank the slide in (or out) if needed. I also have turnbuckles on the inside to anchor the slide to the floor so it will not slide out on it’s own while in motion.
We have a tool to bring ours in if that happens too. Bob, do you like your Winnebago? It’s on our short list.
I am glad our rig doesn’t have slides. They seem to be more trouble than they are worth,
I feel the same way. I think we’re the minority.
I’m with you. I like our 17′ Casita with no slides. Big enough for two and we do most of our living outside when we are camping anyway.
Yes, we definitely seem to be in the minority. As far as I’m concerned, the simpler, the better.
Thumbs up with simpler the better and taking advantage of the outdoors!
When people ask if my RV has slide-outs, my standard response is “No, that’s just something else that will break”. I’ve replaced my electric stairs gearbox and motor after two years of use. With my luck, the whole slide-out would fall out on the highway and if there was more than one, they all would fall out at the same time. And I’m sure it would make the game “What the hell was that noise?!?” much more complicated.
Years ago we had our slide move out a few inches. Took a while (an RV repair was no help) to figure out my husband had bumped the lock thus unlocking it. I had to go online to find out where it was to lock it. Then we built a box around it so that could not happen again.
The RV service tech said slides don’t come with a lock. After we got it fixed, I took a copy of the information about it and where it was located to him. He still told me they don’t exist.
I’ve done this. Once. We stopped at a roadside rest area and bumped the dinette slide out 6 inches or so for convenience sake. We finished lunch, turned off the lights and water pump, closed the door, put up the steps and went on down the road. Oops! A glance in the rear view mirror revealed my omission. A good lesson learned!
Maybe they can’t move around in the RV with the slide fully closed. Definately not a GOOD reason, but we can give them the benefit of the doubt that they’re on the way to a repair shop.
On a winding mountain road I had a slideout creep out on me (about four inches) and it was probably 30 minutes before I noticed it. It happens and looking at the picture the slide is not fully extended.
My second 5th wheel, a Carrilite by Carriage had locks built into the inside when the slide was in, I thought that was very good. I was sorry to see that one go.
This happened to me once after experiencing a tire blowout. The shredded tire tore off a couple of hydraulic lines for my stabilizer, and the loss of hydraulic pressure allowed my slide out to migrate out a few inches. I crimped the open hydraulic line with a pair of vice grips, and ran the slide back in.
We could not get a slide in at a KOA on the day we were to leave. As all spaces were taken for the night, the campground owner insisted that we drive out of the space with the slide out to a dry camp area. We were skeptical as there were tight turns and didn’t think he could really force us to do that. With Tiffin’s phone help, and trying various sequences we managed to get it in so we could move. There was an intermittent relay problem which a mobile mechanic resolved.
It still made us nervous the rest of the trip that it would happen again. Slides are still worth it!
We had to travel about 30 miles with a slide out. We tried everything and called everyone we could but no one would come out to help. Everyone said we had to bring it to them. We got plenty of looks and several people pull up beside us and point. We just shock our head and said OK.
Depends how far out it was and the total width of the vehicle. T factor trailers are always on the road with over width loads. If they were doing it so it was more convenient to get to the bathroom, then they should change their vacations to hotel stays. More than likely it was a mechanical failure. I would try to find an area I could park in while trying to get it repaired. It would be illegal to take on the road if it went over a specific width without a wide load permit.
Our slide out motor broke on a cross country trip, and this happened to us as well. We didnt have enough time to get into a repair facility so an rv park tech cut us some pieces of 2 x 4 and we bought some slide out stabilizers and made it back to the east coast without issue.. although with continuous monitoring. The slide was still able to used by pushing it in and out manually; quite easily actually,
In this picture, the slide is not that far out. If they could guarantee that it wouldn’t come out any farther, they’re good to go, far as I can tell. Worst case scenario, get a Wide Load sign and hang it on the back. 🙂
One reason I will never have slides.
Jayco, at least back in 2015, must have realized the slide out issue as they installed manual cranks to retract ours in an emergency. I strongly recommend that when reviewing your new RV you have them demonstrate those cranking mechanisms. All of them.
I can’t recall owning an RV with slides that did not have an emergency manual slideout retraction process. I see the unit in the picture is a Winnebago/Itasca model. Both Winnie DP’s I had, that were sister models to the Meridian, came with a manual winch and emergency retraction procedure.
We were in Alaska at a wonderfully small campground outside Seward and a motorhome came into the campground one day with a bedroom slide fully extended and with lots of straps attached to the slide. Apparently their slide had stuck in the extended position and they were able to travel from their previous destination to this one without major incident. They were awaiting the arrival of a mobile RV technician. We departed the campground before the RV was fixed, but we think that the problem was rectified eventually.
Another reason not to have slides.
Yup, it’s just another costly thing to have to maintain/repair.
I had that happen with a Thor venetian. I stayed put till I could work it out. I worked with my dealer service mgr. He finally came up with a solution that fixed the problem. I wasn’t going to risk more damage to slides.( I was in a dry camp at the time) it took a few days.
You do… What ya gotta do….
Happened to me several years ago. While I was bringing the main slide in, it STOPPED about 4″ shy of being fully closed. I called a local mobile RV service provider. He determined that one (or both) electronic control modules weren’t working. He spent another 30+ minutes and talking with Lippert who finally told us that NEITHER of the control modules were available! I spoke with someone at Dynamax who told me it would be safe to drive it back to the factory (~ 1100 miles) BUT, that it would NOT be “weatherproof” (it was summertime). Fortunately I had good weather all the way and, the factory had the necessary part. It was, however, unnerving. In RVing (like the rest of life) feces occurs.
To the people that read the article and commented that is the reason they would never have slides. I have a question, Do you have tires? I ask because sometimes they go flat