Question on Setting Up With Slideouts

[Bob Landry]

I just picked up my new Outback. This is my first experience with slideouts and I'm not sure what happened. The TT is a 277RL, two slideouts, both on the street side. Here's my setup procedure.

I parked the trailer, leveled it side using a bubble level in the middle of the floor. After that, I leveled it front to rear using the tongue jack. Standard procedure so far. After the I set the corner stabllizing jacks as usual, touching the pad and going one more turn on the crank, same on all corners.
Then I extended both slides. I didn't notice it until later last night when the bathroom door closed by itself, that the trailer was off, leaning towards the slideout side. It was late and I know we we leaving this morning, so I let it alone. When I went to pack up this AM, I noticed that the trailer had been lifted off the pads on the curb side by about an inch.

So, what happened? Do I need to change my setup procecdure now that I'm dealing with slides?

[W.E.BGood]

No expert here since I just got my first slide BUT, from everything I'd read in educating myself, it's best to actually level "off", that is bias to the side opposite the slide(s), before actually extending them. I set-up our 250RS in the driveway (concrete pad) when we first got it home, got it perfectly level before extending anything, put the dinette side slide out and the bubbles in the fridge, on the frame and the power jack all showed how much it changed. From now on I know how many lines on the levels to compensate for it. I can only guess your double slide really took it over. Hope this helps. Regards, BGood

[Handysam]

Bob its all a learning curve. When we had our TT the same thing would happen to us, until I compensated for the extra weight on the slide side. I would put the orange leveling blocks, one under each wheel on the slide side which would put the TT out of level with the slides in, but after extending them it would level back out. I would try that first. You might have to do your own experiment to see what will make you level AFTER the slides are out. Currently our fifth wheel is a little heavier on the right side and I applied the same technique to be level with the slides out. It may just take a 3/4 in. board or so to help out. Congrats again on the new unit. Happy Camping, Sam

[THedges]

I would try to crank your stabilizer jacks down more. Those jacks can take a lot of weight.

[Mr. Dan]

Originally Posted by THedges

I would try to crank your stabilizer jacks down more. Those jacks can take a lot of weight.

I agree. I turn my slide-side jacks another twist or two to help with that "lean".

[woodsters]

Sometimes you will need to go back and retighten the stabilizers after being in it for a little bit. Sometimes the weight of the weight of the people and moving around will loosen some things up. It's possible that the weight of the slides extended moved some of the stabilizers.

[cdevill]

Ours stayed almost dead-on after the slide was extended. I did have the stabilizers cranked pretty good though. One thing I like is that the slide out roof itself slopes away from the TT so even if you would over compensate to allow for the slide weight the rain will still flow away from the TT.

[JRTJH]

I find that the older I get the more difficult it is to crank the rear stabilizer jacks down firmly enough. What I've started doing, and it seems to work well for me, is to level the trailer, then lower the front of the trailer (raise the legs) just about an inch, crank the rear stab jacks down until they are firm, then raise the front legs back to level which puts the extra weight on the rear jacks to make them much firmer. I'm not talking about "frame bending" stress here, just enough to do what could have been done by 2 "big boys" with the rear stab crank that this "old man" can't manage to do any more.

If you compensate for your slide weight and have the trailer firmly anchored on all 4 corners, you should find that after extending the slide, it's pretty level. Using the electric motors in the trailer to level and stabilize the trailer sure beats the "muscle" needed to do it by hand.

[Retired_Jim]

If I level my trailer with the slide in, it will drop a good 1/2 inch or so with the slide extended and raise the non-slide side of the trailer. I start by leveling the trailer with boards and or plastic leveling blocks and lower the stabilizing jacks both front and rear. I purchased additional Jack stands which I place under the frame both before and after the wheels corresponding to the corners of the super slide (on the trailer frame not slide itself). After extending the slide I tighten all supports. Even after a day or so I find my jacks will need additional tightening on the non-slide side. I think I will also try as an earlier posting suggested raising the slide side (out of level) before extending the slide to compensate for the added lean when extended.

We also have two slideouts, and noticed on our first outing that the trailer went out of level after extending them. The stab jacks didn't help to bring the level back. I rolled the slide-side of the trailer up onto one row of lynx levelers and put the slides back out, then dropped the stab jacks. Did great after that.