You want to stay mobile with your RV, but you also want a
fuller living experience. The solution to both challenges is the RV slide out.
Extending your RV’s living space is an obvious advantage for comfort and
luxury—but are the disadvantages too much to handle? Let’s take a look at the
advantages and disadvantages of RV slide outs.
Why Slide Outs?
You park your RV and you want to enjoy some space. For most
fixed RVs, you have what you have—the walls don’t move and the rooms don’t
extend. With RV slide outs, that all changes.
The extra room provides more comfort and more of a home-like
atmosphere. The extra storage is great for maintaining a full lifestyle, even
while camping. But that’s not the whole story.
The Advantages
People use RV slide outs for a number of reasons, but most of
them tend to fall into one of the following categories:
- Room and
space. There’s nothing like more legroom when you extend your RV to the
sides—and there’s no more obvious advantage to using slide outs. - Comfort.
Adding more room lets you add more potential comfort and furnishings to your RV
living experience, making it feel much more like a true “home.” - Storage. Having
additional living space at a moment’s notice isn’t just important for leg room.
It also allows you to use other areas in the RV for storage. This makes the
overall space more convenient and efficient. - Ease. If
you use your RV on the road less frequently, you’ll find that using the
slide outs is easy and you don’t have to do much extra work to maintain them.
However, this becomes a disadvantage the more you take your RV on the road.
The advantages are easy. But what about the potential disadvantages of using RV slide outs?
The Disadvantages
As fun as it is to have an RV that transforms into something
else when it’s off the road, slide outs do come with some disadvantages,
depending on your goals:
- Additional
cleaning. You may have to take an extra step when cleaning your RV, which
adds to your overall investment of time. - Inconvenience.
If you frequently switch between living and traveling, you’ll have to spend
more time with slide outs. Getting them packed in and re-extended on every trip
can start to feel like a hassle. - Maintenance.
Slide outs don’t just happen by accident. They’re the result of inner mechanics
that need to be properly maintained in order to continue working. There are
multiple types of slide out mechanisms—including electric screw type extenders
and electric gear motors—and you’ll want to be sure to read up on whichever
type you have. You’ll also have to make sure that all gears are in proper
condition, lubricated, and ready to go at a moment’s notice. - Extra
scouting. Will you have enough space on the campground for your slide outs?
Is a parking place too narrow? You’ll have to do some extra scouting every time
you park your RV and plan on extending its width.
Maintaining your slide outs is all about what you want to get
from your investment. With enough work, your RV slide outs can be well worth the
additional inconveniences. Make sure that you make things easier on yourself
with the right RV products for
cleaning, maintenance, and sealing every aspect of your RV.
