Slide Toppers

[i4110peter]

New to RV forum, not new to RVing. Looking to purchase slide toppers for our 5th wheel. Looking at Dometic, Lippert, and Carefree. Would love to hear opinions. Thanks in advance.

[ms60ocb]

Welcome to the forum.  I have three Carefree toppers. I haven't had slide toppers before.  That said the awning I have always  wring up but the fabric droops, holding water. or flop in the wind . I have watched expensive Class A's that that don't seem to have the problem. My short Carfree topper is less than 8 foot, no problem.  The toppers were ordered when I ordered my 2016 Fifth Wheel

Happy shopping. Talk to users not salesmen. Clay

[SWharton]

We have had slide toppers since 2001. I have no idea what brands, we have had 3 trailers in that time frame. All have worked fine with no problems.

[ARGO]

Slides are made to be rained on. I made mine from sunscreen material, no flop, no pool & keeps debris off.

[SWharton]

12 hours ago, ms60ocb said:

Welcome to the forum.  I have three Carefree toppers. I haven't had slide toppers before.  That said the awning I have always  wring up but the fabric droops, holding water. or flop in the wind . I have watched expensive Class A's that that don't seem to have the problem. My short Carfree topper is less than 8 foot, no problem.  The toppers were ordered when I ordered my 2016 Fifth Wheel

Happy shopping. Talk to users not salesmen. Clay

Have you ever h your toppers adjusted?

[SWharton]

2 hours ago, ARGO said:

Slides are made to be rained on. I made mine from sunscreen material, no flop, no pool & keeps debris off.

Where did you get the hardware?

[justRich]

Installation instructions on my last slideout topper (that I installed) stated that it is best to have a 3-inch slope.
Meaning, from where the topper is attached to the wall to the outside edge of the slideout, there should be an incline difference of 3-inches. 

(I hope that I explained that right)  Using personal observation, I've noticed that some RV manufacturers build the slide out box opening  in the wall right at the roof line.  That is a poor design for a slide topper to work properly because it doesn't allow enough slide topper slope incline.  (If the slide topper is nearly level, then it tends to collect water and eventually gets a belly sag.  After Which, the stretched belly sag fabric tends to "flap" in a high wind. 

The RV slide out box opening should be a few inches, preferably 3-inches, below the RV roof line.  That will allow the upper side of the slide topper to be mounted at the roof line - and the lower edge of the slide topper on the slide out to be low enough for water to quickly run off.

[remoandiris]

Lippert's appears VERY easy to install and I have been seeing more and more on factory RVs.  Not a surprise since Lippert supplies a LOT of parts to RV factories.

I ordered one Lippert topper for one of my slides.  Wanna test it out before going all in.

[ms60ocb]

1 hour ago, SWharton said:

Have you ever h your toppers adjusted?

The long toppers were adjusted & tightened at an age of about 2 1/2 years. It didn't help much for long. ARGO has the correct solution, use sunscreen as the main benefit of have a topper is to keep debris off the seals and offering shade.

Clay 2016 DRV

[bobsallyh]

We have had toppers that also serve as window awnings which Carefree discontinued several years ago. Argo, in his post has the key, make sure it is sunscreen material. It won't pool water. Our original fabric lasted 14 years and this is full timing, so the slides are out 99.9% of the time.  

[ARGO]

3 hours ago, SWharton said:

Where did you get the hardware?

There are several RV salvage yards in the US, like www.colawrv.com. I bought mine from Ebay & a local RV repair shop, piece by piece in some cases. I am a canvas fabricator on boats, so making the screen itself was easy.  Look on Craigs, not only under RV parts but under "wanted". Some ads on there say will buy RV's, call them too for parts. 

[FL-JOE]

I had 2 fivers without slide toppers and was okay without them.  Never seriously considered spending the money to have them installed.

Last two class A's have had them.  They are just "okay" in my opinion.  If I am in a site that is under a bunch of trees I still have to get up on the roof prior to bringing my slides in and make sure the toppers are all clear, just like I used to have to do with my fivers that didn't have topers.  They "might" help keep my slides cooler, can't really tell.  I have never had a slide leak so I don't really think they help as far as that goes.  I do know they can make a lot of noise when the wind blows over 30mph and hits us in a certain direction.

[SWharton]

We have had slide toppers since 2001 and have never had the need to clean them off before bringing in the slides, never had any sort of a problem.

[FL-JOE]

I guess I'm more the type of "preventive maintenance" sort.  Just in the past 2 years of full timing we have experienced one incident of small twigs and a lot of leaves on top of the toppers after a storm that needed to be swept off prior to bringing in all the slides.  Another time there were numerous pine cones that had dropped on the toppers.  That debris has to go somewhere when the slide comes in.

[SWharton]

On all of our the debris has come off as we slide them in. Leave, water, ice etc.

[justRich]

Whether your rig needs a slide topper depends a lot on where you park it.
Pine cones, twigs and needles?  Not in the open paved areas.  Probably never need it.

 

[FL-JOE]

On 8/9/2019 at 6:14 AM, SWharton said:

On all of our the debris has come off as we slide them in. Leave, water, ice etc.

The only thing that will actually come off a slide topper automatically each time it is closed is water.  Other small debris has to either be rolled up inside the retraction cover box or get smashed in-between the closed slide and wall of your RV.  The problem is 99% of the folks have never been on their roofs, or on a ladder and watched what happens when slides with toppers are retracted.

We always try to land in a spot that is not under trees.  We have a Winegard satellite dish on top of our coach and if we get stuck on a site with a lot of trees obviously we will not have reception.  There are still times when it can't be helped and we end up with "stuff" dropped on our slide toppers.  

Keep in mind that this is our experience as full time travelers.  Other's with opposite views may just move their RVs to 4 or 5 different sites each year and never have the same issues in a variety of sites.

[Barbaraok]

Joe,  since ours is mounted on the OUTSIDE of the slide,  not sure how you think everything is trapped against the rig when retracting  - unless you think there is a huge pile up of debris under the topper while the slide is extended.   That has never happened to us in 14 years of having the coach and we don't get up and hose off the slide top underneath the topper before pulling it in.   We can watch everything coming falling off as the topper winders around itself and during heavy rains, or winds any stray debris under the topper comes sliding down because of the slide design to make sure it drains well.    We've never spent 6 months under trees, but most of the summer is in parks with quite of bit of tree cover in the Pacific Northwest.

 

[2gypsies]

We never had to sweep stuff off our toppers.  On one RV that didn't have toppers we did have to sweep the stuff off the slideout roofs.  That's why toppers are good to have. 

We did, however, get on the roof  occasionally to check for maintenance issues and to clean the roof.

[FL-JOE]

1 hour ago, Barbaraok said:

Joe,  since ours is mounted on the OUTSIDE of the slide,  not sure how you think everything is trapped against the rig when retracting  - unless you think there is a huge pile up of debris under the topper while the slide is extended.   That has never happened to us in 14 years of having the coach and we don't get up and hose off the slide top underneath the topper before pulling it in.   We can watch everything coming falling off as the topper winders around itself and during heavy rains, or winds any stray debris under the topper comes sliding down because of the slide design to make sure it drains well.    We've never spent 6 months under trees, but most of the summer is in parks with quite of bit of tree cover in the Pacific Northwest.

 

Of course the retraction cylinder/box is mounted on the outside of the slide.  If there is debris laying on top of the fabric it has to go somewhere.  If it is small enough it will get rolled up with the fabric, if it is large enough it will lay up there as the slide goes in and get forced against the top of the coach.  

I'm not saying that every time you pull your slides w/toppers in you have to first clear them of debris.  What I am saying is that in certain sites, especially after storms or high winds, there could be pine cones, leaves, twigs, or other things that you should blow or sweep off prior to pulling that slide in.

I guess the whole point is not if you do preventive maintenance to your slide toppers or just push the slide button in and out and not worry about it, the OP really just wanted to know what brand was better.  My intent was just to make sure he understood there was advantages and disadvantages to having slide toppers before he spent the kind of money described.

[ARGO]

Apparently not all slide toppers work like mine. The roller is on the outside edge of the slide, and sheds as it rolls "IN". Kind of like Gutter Guard or a conveyor belt. Very pleased w/ the sunscreen. It would not be hard to make your own out of that using the original topper as a pattern. Most "home" machines will run a stitch in 2 layers of sunscreen, and there is no place that there are 3 layers. The stuff I use is called "Pfifertex", and is available multiple online places. www.sailrite.com comes to mind.  The roller is not nearly under as much pressure as the awning, but be careful. Cripes, I can make them for you if you remove & install.

[Ray,IN]

On 8/8/2019 at 10:06 AM, SWharton said:

Have you ever h your toppers adjusted?

It helps a lot to oil the re-wind springs in the tube once a year.  They rust, rust does not slide against itself easily. There should be a small hole in the end caps, just use a spray can of oil. Mine have never been adjusted-yet, none sag now.

[Barbaraok]

Joe,  ARGO's slide topper is like ours, when it winds the fabric comes OVER the roll and debris going sliding down the slide.   Makes quite a 'show' if we have had rain the day before - that side its a wash down!

[DJohns]

check out girard slide toppers. Pricey but roller is attached to side of rv not putting weight on slide out.

[FL-JOE]

On 8/7/2019 at 5:27 PM, i4110peter said:

New to RV forum, not new to RVing. Looking to purchase slide toppers for our 5th wheel. Looking at Dometic, Lippert, and Carefree. Would love to hear opinions. Thanks in advance.

Mine are Carefree.  Enclosed in a cylinder on the outer edge of the slide when retracted.  They are the only brand we have had and they have worked well for almost 2 years.

From the description Barb gave, others may be designed differently and not enclosed when rolled up, not sure.