Leaving Slideouts Extended When Coach is in Storage

Question

We are former fulltimers and now snowbirds. We have now have parked our HitchHiker 5th Wheel permanently in a Mission, Texas RV park, leaving it on the site when we return to Canada for the summer.

We had a problem with carpet developing quite prominent ridges or wrinkles over the past 2 years and recently had to have the carpet re-stretched.

It has been suggested that pulling the slides in may have caused these ridges to develop. There are a number of other permanently parked 5ths in the park and about half leave their slides extended when unoccupied for the summer months and none we spoke to reported any ill effects.

We would welcome any feedback on experience with leaving the slides extended when unoccupied for the summer in southern states.

wildtoad · Answer

Button it up. More chances for wind, rain, critter damage wih slides extended.

mabynack · Answer

wildtoad wrote:Button it up. More chances for wind, rain, critter damage wih slides extended.I asked the head of maintenance at the RV dealer the same question and he told me the same thing.  You're better off leaving it closed.  It's more weather tight and it's less stress on the mechanicals of slide out awnings and slide out rails.  Also, if you have hydraulic slides, leaving the slides extended leaves the hydraulic rams exposed to the elements and they can rust or corrode.  That causes wear and tear on the seals of the ram and can cause them to fail.

c-bears · Answer

I agree with mabynack.  I would button it up totally.  Even in a cold storage climate your slide seals will take a beating with slides out all the time, let alone having it sit in Texas all summer.

aruba5er · Answer

more roof exposed to harsh Texas sun, the outer seals are not sealing anything and critters could get in. My vote slide them in. Heck, they sit in at the builder in their parking lots until sold, maybe 6/12 months.

lillyputz · Answer

Aren't the slides engineered to be extended? Does it say in the owners booklet, do not extend the slides longer than, lets say 30 days or they will be damaged. No.

It's like saying. Thing fall apart, because, towing them down the road is like a 3.5 earth quake. The are engineered to be towed. If they fall apart being towed, it's because of poor engineering/workmanship.

Lillyputz

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Leaving Slideouts Extended When Coach is in Storage

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