Slide-out jack stabilizers. Good or bad?

fpresto wrote:

Miles Away wrote:
The instances where they MAY have caused damage is almost too small to quantify. Most naysayers point to the loss or air in your tires. Most tire failures occur on the road, not while parked, and what are the chances of both tires going flat at the same time while parked?

I have to respectfully disagree with you for several reasons. First the reason cases of damage being too small to quantify is because very few people use them in part because, like my Cedar Creek Owners manual says specifically "do not use slide out supports or the warranty is voided". They must have put that in for a reason. Second to have any effect the supports would have to be cranked up tight leaving no room for any settling. Third the tires do not have to go flat. You pull in after traveling any appreciable distance and the tires are hot and while you set up they then both cool down and the pressure drops as it drops you get more settling and as small as it is it could be enough to bend the rails. Fourth and most important if you do get damage you may not be able to retract your slide and also the repair could involve removing the slide and changing the rails. The cost could easily be in the thousands of dollars. The risk in my opinion for very little if any gain is not worth it. That, of course, is just my opinion and you are welcome to yours.

The model I speak of has the raised slide above the floor not the level with carpet flap. The rails are actually loose so they can tip down as it comes in. I believe that is the reason that some wood floor installations are scratched because of the leading edge tipping down as it drops off the rollers that are just inboard of the rv wall. As the top outside edge contacts the top of the rv the bottom is sucked in for a tight fit. So in order for the "box" to do this the rail has to be loose enough yet keep gear contact. As someone mentioned above, when the slide is out the top inner side is bearing the horizontal "pull". You could probably actually lift the outer edge of the slide a little and it would just take up some of this slop. 2 or 3 inches would not be good. My top edge actually looks as if it is tweaked at a slight angle which one could see happening if there were 700 pounds in the dinette area plus any cargo in the cabinets and couch area. The end panel to top edge gaps are still pretty uniform but right now, at times, depending on anticipated load I error on the side of putting the supports in. Not always, just sometimes. Like other things, it just depends.