Slide Outs

[AF75]

Just bought a 2020 2993 Astoria. With the slides in there is no way to access fridge, cabinets etc to load. We live on a low grade hill and I'm wondering if opening 2 of the 3 part way without landing gear down would be to big of a risk? The Montana we owned had a hydraulic system with the slides and opening the main slide half way worked fine. Nott sure if the cable system in the Dutch is more robust or about the same.

[dsol]

I think many dealers open slides without landing gear down. Personally, if the slope was front to back and not side to side I wouldn’t worry about it.

But, I am just guessing here.

[franktafl]

They recommend not putting any weight on the slides until they are fully opened and locked in. Most slides crook upwards when they get locked in place.

[Wgjr]

I know it's a little redundant, but can you use totes to put everything in the rv then pull up the hill to organize?

When you return, do the reverse process to unload?

[B&RBrody]

We used to move our slides repeatedly before the rig was level. Worked fine for a while until it didn’t. Having the rig level keeps it square so the slide fits through the hole in the wall the same way every time. When ours failed, it got just a bit out of whack side to side and a little top to bottom. We burned both the forward and rear motor units trying to correct it. We were on a week vacation 800 miles from home and spent two nights up with a mobile RV repair guy trying to get the motors replaced and the slide working again. We ended up just getting the slide in, he sealed it and we got on the road this way (with the limited access to our fridge and kitchen area.

It may work for a while, maybe forever, but when it fails you will wish you had just taken the steps to ensure it was level before moving it. It is inconvenient sometimes, but we always level before moving slides.

[HappyCamper7]

Several good reasons already for not extending slides until stabilized. Doesn’t have to be perfectly level, but stable. Another consideration I haven’t seen on this thread yet is that the slides do not seal completely unless all the way in or all the way out.

[dsol]

I think the OP just wants to open enough to load his fridge. It won’t be that long and therefore wouldn’t worry about a weather seal for a few minutes. If it is dumping rain or snow then that is a different story.

Obviously, if the angle is steep then there absolutely could be problems with the slide getting hung up or damaged. But opening and closing cable slides part way is not an issues with my Voltage. I know when I had a repair guy out he told me that my cable slides do not have to be all the way out to be safe. Again, I wouldn’t put 4 people on my sofa with the slide partly out but I don’t see an issue opening the slide just enough to get in the fridge.