Slide out awning

[14george]

Have a 2015 Ladero 240MK is worth the money to put a awning over the slide out don't camp among trees

[chuckster57]

Slide toppers are a personal choice. I don't have any, and don't see myself getting any. There are those that say it keeps the trailer cooler in the summer heat, and yeah it keeps the debris off. Since my trailer came with a roof ladder, I use a $10.00 broom to clean the slide roofs before I retract them. Besides that, the slide topper fabric (vinyl) rots faster than awning fabric. You can get nice topper material but it comes at a lot NOT nicer price.

Bottom line: figure out the cost for materials/installation and if it's reasonable to you, go for it.

[Javi]

I won't own another trailer without them, but we camp in the trees A LOT...

If you don't... then you wouldn't really see much benefit from having them installed.

[Harleyhop]

I wouldn't own another unit without them. Especially if you camp under tress. Also it's nice when you're breaking camp to go home and it's raining,keeps the water off the top and in you're unit once you put the slides in....

[Ken / Claudia]

I say, your choice. This is 2nd rv I have had them on and here almost anywhere you camp the side roof gets covered with pine needles or leaves in a few days. If nothing was failing on the side while in use maybe I would pass. I was going to do this trailer myself but, the dealer labor was around 100 and total cost was 425 in 2013, so I had them do it. I have read or been told less heat gets into the side out with one on but, really I do not know if that is true or not.

[Steve S]

I have one and it really keeps the heat out. And a side note about worries about the topper and the wind. Mines out 24/7 and we have bad wind here at times and we've had no problems.

[MarkS]

I occasionally park under the trees. The broom takes care of that. But, I also push the ends of the season. The awnings would be very nice to keep the snow off. I'm not going on the roof when there is snow.

[{tpc}]

If you can get it for a reasonable price, I say do it. My dealer did not have a reasonable price on this, so I opted to wait the first season and bought a folding ladder and broom instead.

What I found is that while the ladder is perfect for most things, the one thing that is touch and go is being able to get high enough to clean stuff off the slide. I usually have to stand on a couple of 4x4 on the top platform step of the ladder (has wide steps) to use it for this, and its worse if the ground where the slide is out is unlevel or lower than everything else.

Luckily I never had to leave in the rain, but I could see this being a issue. I plan on this year getting one, I may install it myself or have it done (haven't decided yet).

What I mean by reasonable price is my dealer had a deal, it was $600 for any one topper installed, on any slide. So I asked them, what if the slide was 10 foot long? $600. What if the slide was 4 ft? $600. From what I was able to find online, the price of the topper varies by the length. SO if you had a short topper, you paid more for the install than someone with a longer one. Felt like a scam to me.

Not sure what CW does for this year, but last year you could get them to install it for $39 flat fee I believe, and you just paid what it cost for the topper.

Of course my local CW is over an hour drive away without towing anything.

[GMcKenzie]

I looked into these at one point, as my slideout does not have one. What I noticed is some (most) trailers have a track for installing the topper already. My trailer doesn't so I guess I'd have to remove the entire length of the rubber whatever it's called, cut it to size and put the topper in between.

If you look at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o-qWz-nDIM

around the 1 min mark, you can see the track they use. I don't have one like that on my trailer so I'm not going to bother with one.

[{tpc}]

Originally Posted by GMcKenzie

I looked into these at one point, as my slideout does not have one. What I noticed is some (most) trailers have a track for installing the topper already. My trailer doesn't so I guess I'd have to remove the entire length of the rubber whatever it's called, cut it to size and put the topper in between.

If you look at

around the 1 min mark, you can see the track they use. I don't have one like that on my trailer so I'm not going to bother with one.

My opinion always was, it is the other way around. Most don't have that track, unless your confusing it with the bumper or whatever is it called up closer near the roof.

Admittedly, I have not actually spent a lot of time looking at new trailers on the lots to see if they have this "track". But my thought was always that the track was added on after, as well as the brackets that mount on the slide itself.

I'm pretty handy when it comes to most things and was considering tackling this myself. But I am concerned that I don't think there is a easy way to determine where any studs or thicker wood is located when you start driving screws in. Then again, I doubt the guy at camping world knows this either, but its got to be on them to correct any mistake they make, right?

[JRTJH]

On many RV's, but not all of them, there is a "mounting strip" built into the sidewall of the trailer just above the slide framing. That "strip" is designed to support the weight and tension that a slide cover will create as the slide pulls in and out. On some RV's that "mounting strip" is not present and it will be difficult to install the "awning rail" to the side of the RV. On others, the "awning rail" is already mounted or there is a "drip rail" there already. Cougar has this "drip rail" installed above every slide, at least on the 2014 models. It's that way on my XLite.

Carefree ships the awning rail with every "complete slide cover kit" and the first step is to install that awning rail in the appropriate location. But, actually, even before you buy the "kit" the first step should be to determine if there is a "mounting strip" or a "framework support" built into the trailer sidewall that will allow the awning rail to be installed in a place where it won't pull away from the trailer during slide cover use.

Some trailers have it, some don't. If the "mounting rail" is not present, I wouldn't try to install a slide cover, but would defer it to the "experts" at a dealership, but I'd make certain that they really are "experts" and not trust just anyone to do the job. Without proper support, the awning rail WILL fail, probably just AFTER the warranty expires.

It's more or less, the same concept as trying to install a roof ladder on a trailer that doesn't have the supports built into the trailer framework. If that's missing, it "may be able to be done" but it's not a simple installation.....

[14george]

Going to have one installed at the end of the month by dealer

[fmitzen]

Did you get the slide topper installed on your 32rli, I have the same trailer and I don't see enough room above the slide outs for the topper.

[Andymil]

I just put toppers on the two living room slides on our Sprinter. It wasn’t a difficult project especially since I had access to a man-lift.

I purchased the Carefree toppers on Amazon for about $300 each including tax. I thought it was a pretty good deal. I got the SOKIII because I thought the cover would be a good idea. What I didn’t realize was the ones I bought (#UQ0850025) didn’t include the cover, just the wind deflector. After emailing Carefree, they said they would be happy to sell the covers for $209 each plus $35 shipping for both. I’ll do without the covers. As far as I’m concerned, this is a scam, or at least a poor way of doing business. The ad was not clear about the cover not being included. I now know the correct part number for the complete topper with cover is UP0850025 (the first three numbers indicate the length). The price difference is about $60. I haven’t purchased the topper for the third slideout yet. The toppers do seem to be a good quality product.

The only problem I ran into with the install was the drip rails. On the first side I did, the drip rail was high enough to get the topper rail mounted below it and still be within Carefrees specs (just barely). If I removed the drip rail, the topper rail would have been too high if I wanted it to cover the old holes in the trailer.

On the other side the drip rail was mounted at the right height for the topper rail so I removed the drip rail and installed the topper rail in place of the drip rail. Cleaning the old silicone seal off the side of the trailer after removing the drip rail was the worst part of the project. I never noticed it before but Keystone installed one drip rail about two inches higher than the other. At least they were parallel to the slideouts.

All screws bit into solid backing material.

Next week I’ll be installing a second A/C in place of the bedroom vent. The man-lift will make that easier too.

[14george]

Originally Posted by fmitzen

Did you get the slide topper installed on your 32rli, I have the same trailer and I don't see enough room above the slide outs for the topper.

That was on my 240mk I had. did not install on my 32RLI