Slide w/out awning

Over 20,000 miles in 2 1/2 yrs. no topper and no problems. I climb the ladder, take a quick look, clear any debris or snow, and we're good to go.

I have a slide topper on my Lance 1121. It has kept the slide dryer during the rainy season in Fl. while offering some shade from the sun; kept out the leaves, sticks, pine cones and needles in the WV & Carolina mountains during the fall; kept the snow and ice out of the slide in NY and PA during the dead of winter. Unlike other RVs, a TC topper is relatively small and I've never been annoyed or concerned with high wind. Several years ago, I camped in Ohio when the remnants of hurricane Ike rolled through with 60+ mph wind. The topper kept a lot of debris out of the slide and I never heard it floppin'.

Only once have I needed to address an issue. While camped during the winter in NY, my slide was out for a number of days. I'm a Florida boy... what do I know about snow? Had plenty of it though with temps hovering around freezing. The snow partially melted during the day and froze at night. The eventual build-up of ice on the topper was a problem when bringing the slide in. Today, I simply run the slide in and back out once a day under similar circumstances. Count me as a believer in slide toppers, particularly for a TC.

About 1 year now with our 855S. No slide awning. No problems.

Up the ladder, look for any debris- if there is some- a few seconds to clear it off. Then retract the slide. Done.

We have two slide outs with no awnings. We prefer it that way. Many we see have to put a ball or other device under them to keep water puddles from forming, and/or flapping in high winds.

Many, many folks have them and are very happy with them. I prefer not to have deal with them.

If I have to climb a ladder, I will do so only once, to blow of the slide before closing. Not twice to put the ball in and again to take the ball out.

When we first got our 5th wheel the slides had no toppers. I bought an 18 volt blower to blow water and debris off them before bringing them into the camper. This meant climbing up the ladder with the blower in hand everytime we wanted to break camp. When we took the camper back to the factory for some service we had the toppers put on. I will always have them on anything with a slide. There is an added benefit as it shades the slide from the direct heat of the sun. Really made a difference when it came to the A/C keeping up.

Had both..rigs without and rigs with slide awnings. There are positives and negatives both ways.

My experience: the positives far out weigh the negatives. If you decide to go with them, get the ones with the metal wrap that protects the material when it is rolled up.