Are there clamps for covers over slides? High winds!

[TaterSr]

We just got back from Snowbirding on St. Patrick's Day. Our last leg of the trip should have been 4 hours from Jackpot, NV to Boise. Unfortunately, we did not know that we were heading into a horrible wind storm. It was 70 when we got there & the next morning it was snowing & on the news they said up to 60 MPH 'gusts'. If we knew how bad it was, we'd have stayed in Jackpot another night, but our cats would have been left alone in the house 2 days (sitter left)...

My question is, are there clamps that hold down the covers that roll over the tops of slides? Four semi's were blown onto their sides on our terrifying ride home & we had to pull over in Twin Falls for hours. When we finally felt it was safe to try again, our left slide cover was rattling something awful. Someone behind us told us it was coming off. We pulled over again & couldn't see it coming off. Took 9 hours to get home.

Husb got up on a ladder today to look at the canvas cover over the slide & wondered if a clamp or bolt was missing. Is there supposed to be one there? There's a bracket up there that goes nowhere, serves no purpose, and husb wonders if they left something off. We bought the rig brand new & have never spoken to the dealer again; had a bad experience with them & laughable walk thru. First RV purchase. I don't feel up to going again, it was so awful.

We don't know if the horrible rattling with just due to the high winds. If we'd KNOWN it was sustained high winds, we wouldn't have left. It felt like the whole RV was falling apart but the cover over this slide sounded like it was going back & forth in the wind. We didn't want to kill anyone else on the freeway by having it go thru their windshield.

Sure appreciate your help/advice. Lets all avoid high winds. 2012 30' Forest River SunSeeker

[TaterSr]

Thank you for answering. We don't have an iPhone & didn't always have internet on our trip. I bought an iPad on the trip and later found out you can pay $15/mo to have service away from home but now that we ARE home I can use our regular wifi for everything. We heard on the news last night that other drivers in that storm were wondering why there wasn't a better warning from the transportation dept or police.

[ronfisherman]

Here is a link to Dometic slide topper manual. Look at page 8 for direction on the anti-billowing arm.

[ronfisherman]

High winds can be a problem with RV. There are covers that fit over Slide Toppers. I have them on our RV. Here is a link. There are similar covers from Carefree.
There is a short arm that sticks off of a slide topper roller that should hit a metal pad on side of RV when wind tries to unroll it. This will not stop noise but will save the topper.
When traveling I always look up weather reports on my computer before leaving for the day. Looking at the hourly forecast it will have winds and direction. It will also show how much rain/snow will be falling. I use my smartphone a lot also with weather apps that give me instant weather info.
Another way to keep on on weather is get a weather radio. I have a Midland HH54VP2 Portable that can be set to give continuous weather reports. My CB radio also has weather channels on it.