Awnings on Slideouts - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Tony and Eileen · RV-Dreams Family Member

Awnings on Slideouts

Joan On The Road · RV-Dreams Family Member

Do you mean the slide topper that rolls out with the slide out? If so, YES...it keeps leaves and stuff off the slide and helps rain run off. We just had to replace our old one which jammed the slide. We lost our sun awning in the process and since we have unusual sized awning requirements we opted to put sun/heat film on the windows while we decide what else to do. We're liking the film....and may forgo the sun awning...but the slide topper...a must.

mikeway · RV-Dreams Family Member

Yes, they appear to be worth it.

Mine has ripped and is almost not functional, but it will be replaced when we get to a place that can do it.

Just keeping water out is a major benefit. Breaking down in the rain allow a lot of water to run inside. Dirt and leaves are largely kept out also. We had a 5'er with slide that didn't have a slide topper and water, pine needles, leaves, dirt and bugs all visited.

Mike

Jack Mayer · RV-Dreams Family Member

I refuse to have them on mine. But my reasons are may be a little special. We windsurf and are in VERY windy places, when we do. The slide toppers do not tolerate most winds very well. It somewhat depends on the angle they are being hit at, but in general you may be in the position of bringing your slides in if you are in high winds.

On the cleanliness of the top: yes, they help some, but you will also get stuff under them - like leaves, and it is really hard to get them out. I would rather just look at my slides before pulling them in, and sweep them off if required. It is rare I have to do that.

On wetness: they definately help some with the roof, but our experience is that the rubber seal squeegees the water off pretty well. We never had any problems with water pulling the slides in when it rains. In general, we do not do this anyway - that would imply you were travelling in the rain, which we do not do. Just our opinion. Your needs may be, and probably are, different.

Judy · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have no awnings over the slideouts themselves but do have ones over the windows to keep out the New Mexico sun My hubby Bob takes that "swiffer product for floors" with an old towel and ladder of course and wipes our slides off if rainned on and we need to put them in for traveling that day and it works great

Southwest Judy & Bob & 2blackdogs

Darrell and Judy · RV-Dreams Family Member

We hadn't had them on our past rigs but had them installed on our new one. The verdict is still out. The awning over the large slide collects rain water and grows algae if left very long. Also, they are noisy when the wind is blowing. We never had problems with rain but did have to sweep the slides off in the last coach, that's why we opted for them on this one. Like everything there are pros and cons - and at this point I haven't decided which cons I liked better.

Luvglass · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi,
Our trailer didn't come with them and we've never had the need to look into getting them.

I've only swept off the slides once when we were in a state park with very heavy leaf fall. I just press the buttons and we've never had any leaves in the trailer and never any water leakage, with the slides in or out.

Could this be caused by the design of the sweeps and moldings used on the various brands?

Fred

Tony and Eileen · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks to everyone for your very helpful comments.

Exseedman · RV-Dreams Community Member

If you are sensitive to noise, they also lessen the sound of raindrops above your head. Of course, this only applies if your head is in the slide-out. Then the next issue is flapping in the wind. The angle of the wind makes a difference. One solution, as mentioned is to bring the slide in for the night.
On our last Travel Supreme, we added all 3 slide toppers after a year. We put them on ourselves to give them increased pitch to insure that the rain would run off. This worked pretty well except for the big slide which was about 14' long. Water would always puddle on it. It would always come in, but sometimes the water was a little stale if we had sit somewhere for a while.
We also thought that the toppers provided some relief from the sun keeping our rig cooler. Acorns were another issue along with the seemingly constant barrage of leaves, pine needles, sticks, etc.
With all that said, on our current trailer, we have them on the bedroom slide but not the 2 big slides due to length concerns.
Steve Dobbs

Kentucky Traveler · RV-Dreams Community Member

We had them installed on our last travel trailer and liked them. They kept water, leaves, etc off the top of the slideout.

We bought a fifth wheel this past summer and have not installed the slide toppers yet. We have found that in the heat of summer, the slideout is noticeably warmer than the rest of the fifth wheel. We will definitely be installing the slide toppers soon. By the way, we haven't noticed any problems, yet, with the wind.

Dwayne & Lisa Roberts

Auburn War Eagle · RV-Dreams Family Member

I had posted a message(a few days ago) under RV maintenance about noisey/rattling slide toppers and how a viewer on RV Today show had tried to eliminate some of that using insulation board that you buy at Lowes or Home Depot and cut it to fit the space over your slide-out (under the awning) It would be a problem to store these pieces when not in use.

I looked at the Interactive RV issue that Howard posted on his journal today and on about page 40 (somewhere around that page), they had awningairwedge.com. A new neat product that someone came up with that helps with your awnings over slide-outs. It's a in/deflatable wedge that would be easy to store when not in use. Maybe something like this might help those awnings to hold up better, not rattle in the wind, and not collect so much stuff on them (especially snow and rain)

We don't have an awning over our slide-out, but wish we did. I think it would cut down on noise and help with keeping it cooler. I take towels and clean our slide off inside once we slide it in. I try to do this each time so that it always stays clean.

Ann

Tmcblane · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have a 5 slide 5th wheel and have no slide toppers on any of them Having said that I am going to add one to the Kitchen slide because as stated earlier the sun creates a lot of extra heat and our refrigerator is in the slide. It has a hard time keeping up in really hot weather plus the cabinet beside the fridge gets pretty warm.

LIKENIT · RV-Dreams Community Member

We visited the NuWa factory before ordering an 07 Discover America 339 RSB. I asked them about slide out covers and they said they did not recommend them because of a number of things mentioned in earlier posts.

Imagine a manufacturer that suggest you not buy something because they can be more of a headache than they are worth, even though they would make money on them. Now thats the kind of people I was glad I was doing business with.