Slideout Supports - Necessary?

[Bloodyhell]

We used to use them on the big slide on our old trailer. It was open all summer at our seasonal site and the constant pressure at the top of the slide was pushing the wall of the trailer outward, so I used them to take the pressure off of the wall. The point is well taken about the risk of a low tire or otherwise shifting trailer foundation, though.

Charlie

[Bloodyhell]

Originally Posted by Peddler

I understand the warnings against thier use but -- i'm still considering them. My wife is very suseptable to motion sickness and I'm trying everything I can to get the movement out of the coach when setup. Doesn't bother her at all on the road, I think because she can see out.
When I set up I first level close enough with ramps under the tires, then put the jacks down to raise the coach only 1/4 inch. That puts fairly equal weight on all six tires and four jacks. That makes for the best stability I can get. With three slides out there is still a slight swaying motion. Mock up with sissor jacks and boards under the slides resulted in much improvement. So - I'm wondering how big a chance there really is for the motorhome to settle enough to put real weight on the slide supports. In theory a flat tire would have no effect as the adjcent jack would carry the weight. A flat on one of the duals would have little to no effect and my TPMS would warn of either. A jack failure would only drop that one corner 1/4 of an inch or less.
Anyone have any thoughts or has anyone ever heard of actual damage being done by use of the slide jacks?

Aside from our bulging side problem, we are always on a quest to take the bounce out of our trailer and we had hoped bracing the slideouts would would offer better overall stabilization, but found that in our case it did not. We were using jacks with a base sitting on blocks, but succeeded only in changing a seesaw motion to a swaying parallelogram. The slideout stabilizers you buy are more like sticks, which I would expect to offer even less side to side stability than our arrangement. Sounds like it worked better for you than it did for us.

Charlie

[wa8yxm]

First do not believe everything you read. Epically in ads.

In this case the line you should not believe is "To Prevent Damage". Not only do they not prevent it.. Well think about this.

You park and using your hydrauiic jacks you level the rig.

now something happens.

1: For some reasons the jacks retract (That happened recently to me, I was trouble shooting a dash A/C issue and somehow released the parking brake, Instant jacks up)

2: A jack blows a hose and tilts your rv

3: A jack sinks into the ground and tilts your RV (I park in one campground where the idiots that do not work there (Upper management) got the bright idea to pave the sites with asphalt, Nice, soft asphalt, Of course there are many sites with jack size holes in them now)

The result is the center of your rig drops several inches.

And the sides are now pushed up by these supports, bending the blazes out of the slide frame.

And yes, I have seen a trailer where just this happened. (only one, but then I'm not in the business of fixing them).

So not only do they not prevent damage, odds are greater they will cause it.

I have seen a number of trailers which have slide supports (These are usually PUPS) that run between the bottom of the slide and the trailer frame. THESE.. Work as designed, if the trailer should change angles due to soft ground.. No damage will happen.

[distaff]

I don't see a real advantage with a newer RV, perhaps the old ones may have benefited from the help.

I do have first hand experience of why it would be a bad ideal. I don't have hydraulic jacks, just use the air bags to level. I usually dump the suspension and often don't even have to level as the coach sits nice and square. I also use a step support because I'm a fair size and we go in and out a lot and I hate hitting the last step with all my weight. On this occasion I had the coach level and set up the step support, and two days later came back and the leveling system on the Monaco's is active even after you shut down, so it had done some re-leveling. The passenger front corner was now about 4 inches lower than when I set up the step support, so the step was bent up about 4 inches. Had to start the coach and lift it to get the support out. No real damage but if that had been a slide with the weight of the coach sitting on it the damage would have been a catastrophe.

Even with hydraulic jacks the coach can move after you level it.

[pawnotes]

Take a ginger ale, pour in cup, heat in microwave, add tea bag...........Ginger tea is good for motion sickness. Use decaf for nighttime

Pawnotes
00 Monaco Diplomat

[Monacoach]

I highly doubt that supporting the slideout room would have any affect on motion. The slides shouldn't move, I would focus more on the coach frame.