Slide out toppers

[soconor]

We have a 2018 Montana ms3811. Purchased slide out toppers to install. First one has enough slope under gutter to install rail that came with toppers. Had to a stall rail over bedroom, no issue. Last one does not have enough slope to place under gutter. Gutter system looks like it has a slot for the toppers already. I’d rather use that than remove the factory install gutter. I can’t convince myself it won’t work. Has anyone installed new toppers using the existing factory gutter slot? Thanks!

[JRTJH]

My Cougar did not have gutters with awning slots. On the bedroom slide there was, similar to yours, enough space to mount the new awning rail under the existing gutter, so I did it that way.

On the main slide, there was not enough space to maintain any slope, the OEM gutter did not have an awning slot, so I removed the OEM gutter, installed it slightly higher on the trailer sidewall and installed the awning rail using the holes where the OEM gutter had been installed. For my application, that was the "inch plus a little" that I needed to get the slope. Maybe it's enough for yours, or maybe not.

[John&Genny]

We have a 2018 Montana ms3811. Purchased slide out toppers to install. First one has enough slope under gutter to install rail that came with toppers. Had to a stall rail over bedroom, no issue. Last one does not have enough slope to place under gutter. Gutter system looks like it has a slot for the toppers already. I’d rather use that than remove the factory install gutter. I can’t convince myself it won’t work. Has anyone installed new toppers using the existing factory gutter slot? Thanks!

Yes, it works fine. You do have to cut off the gutters at one end so you can slide the material into the slot, and I did that with a dremel tool as shown in this video:

https://www.etrailer.com/tv-install-solera-slide-topper-2017-forest-river-forester-lcv000165063.aspx

I rented a couple of 10’ step ladders and my brother and I installed 3 of them on my Avalanche. The only problem I had was that there was not much clearance between the dining room slide topper and retractable awning, only about 1” so the fabric and slide topper had to be positioned carefully before final installation.

[soconor]

Thanks all! Great help!