HOST , LANCE , slide-outs fiberglass skin fatigue.

[todsme]

There is no way around it, camper slide-outs compromise structural integrity.Being said,I offer two factors that can attribute to stress cracks on slide opening corners.First possible is, over-tightened rear turnbuckles(tork-lift,etc.). Second, My experience is that electric corner jacks will retract at different rates when Remote is pressed -for all up or down.Having one your rear jacks off the ground, retracting faster than others stresses camper framing.you might notice on your camper that rear door, slides work best when all jacks have similar downward engagement.

[tmartin000]

Well,
I’d say some RV brand’s definitely have Slides designed and implemented WAY BETTER than some brands. So saying how bad they are may be a reflection of whom you’re buying your RV from.

[HMS_Beagle]

I've seen WAY too many problems with slides of all types to want one again. Had one once on a high end class A. I can't say they are more problematic than many other things on a typical RV, but that is a very low bar to clear. If you want the space, and you are willing to put up with the problems, then you are like 80% of the Rv buyers out there. Which is why they continue to offer them. But calling them generally problem free is a fantasy.

[notsobigjoe]

tmartin000 wrote:
I've had my new 1172 for almost 3 years now. I have had ZERO issues that were not solvable in 20 minutes. I have used mine at least 40x and drive it 400miles each trip.

I am 100% convinced problems with the slides are SOLELY due to not leveling the truck/camper EVERY SINGLE TIME before you open the slides.

Are you an impatient guy? Then I highly recommend that you do NOT buy a truck camper with a slide, especially a Schwintec slide.

I love my 1172. Works for all 3 of us as a portable Motel for every soccer match all over the state in some seriously warm weather too.

I was waiting for this. I couldn't agree more. My lance 2007 1181 was sold to me in 2009 and I went to get it in Massachusetts on the shore. It was a bank repo. The pictures did not do it justice, It was a mess and bent all to heck. To this day I have a bent slide out room and all four corners the filon is cracked. I cleaned it up and took it to the lance dealer in Amsterdam NY. Sensing my financial situation the tech said we can fix it for X or his advice was free. I took the advice. He said to drill a small hole at the end of all four cracks and cover it with Eterna bond tape and leave it alone. I've changed the tape over the years but have never experienced any structural fatigue what so ever. Granted I had to be creative in keeping the rain out. Once I got it figured out no problem. I have pics... We got about 5 inches of rain in one hour at the beach here last night and not a drop. The Lance and Host dealers will never tell you it's a house that goes down the road at 70 MPH.

[tmartin000]

I've had my new 1172 for almost 3 years now. I have had ZERO issues that were not solvable in 20 minutes. I have used mine at least 40x and drive it 400miles each trip.

I am 100% convinced problems with the slides are SOLELY due to not leveling the truck/camper EVERY SINGLE TIME before you open the slides.

Are you an impatient guy? Then I highly recommend that you do NOT buy a truck camper with a slide, especially a Schwintec slide.

I love my 1172. Works for all 3 of us as a portable Motel for every soccer match all over the state in some seriously warm weather too.

[Grit_dog]

^Oh really? Lol

And I’ve been wondering why I see all those 30’ long slide outs falling out of those big pushers going down the road….

[HMS_Beagle]

3 tons wrote:
It’s been my experience that when it comes to truck campers, the notion of ‘engineered’ is often generously applied…

3 tons

Not just truck campers, RVs generally.

When you knock the side out of a box, there is significant and heavy structure required to replace the stiffness that side provided. With small slides there is still enough wall area to maybe make up the structure, but with large slides the side is simply compromised.

[Grit_dog]

todsme wrote:
There is no way around it, camper slide-outs compromise structural integrity.Being said,I offer two factors that can attribute to stress cracks on slide opening corners.First possible is, over-tightened rear turnbuckles(tork-lift,etc.). Second, My experience is that electric corner jacks will retract at different rates when Remote is pressed -for all up or down.Having one your rear jacks off the ground, retracting faster than others stresses camper framing.you might notice on your camper that rear door, slides work best when all jacks have similar downward engagement.

So is this something you dreamed up “might” be an issue or was there a real world genesis for your post?
I’m a rookie, only had 3 campers with slide outs now, 2 of which were TCs with full wall slides. One Al frame one wood frame. Never an issue.

[3_tons]

It’s been my experience that when it comes to truck campers, the notion of ‘engineered’ is often generously applied…

3 tons

[jimh406]

todsme wrote:
There is no way around it, camper slide-outs compromise structural integrity.

You are making the assumption that the manufacturers didn’t engineer for slides. You mgiht be right. Similarly, the designers of TCs without slides could have engineered incorrectly as well.