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silvercorvette's avatar
Jun 05, 2013

Please give me a guess as to when slides were introduced

I had a small trailer about 17 t0 19 foot long back in the 80s and I do not recall seeing slides. I took a 30 year break from camping and never paid close attention to new camping gear. Now a days almost all campers seem to have at least one slide. When were slides first introduced and how long did it take before they became as common as auto transmissions and A/Cs in cars?

By the way they seem common in 5ths, T/Cs and motor homes but I do not recall ever seeing one in a travel trailer ( I have seen them in pictures on this forum but never on the road or camp ground)

18 Replies

  • Newmar is often credited with introducing the world’s first RV slide-out – they debuted their patented power slide out in their Class A units and fivers back in 1990 - but the technology behind a vehicular based slide out solely intended for use in a recreational vehicle was actually patented nearly 70 years earlier in the United Kingdom.
  • More RV's have slides now than don't by far and wide. Non slide models are becoming the exception and generally are only available on the smallest TT's.
  • Thanks for the replies, the current unit I own has 4 slides and I am guessing it increases space by over 50%. For someone like myself that took a 30 year break then got involved againI feel like someone that was stepped out of a time capsule, all the stuff we take for granted now did not exist way back then.
  • I think it was an evolutionary thing. I remember "tip outs" in the early 70's on some park models. Then I believe manual slide outs came along with a few trailers, where the owner had to pull them out manually. I don't recall seeing electric or hydraulically operated slides until the 90's.

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