King of the Road topper?

[dmascheck]

I see several trailers with slide toppers. Good, bad, advantages, disadvantages??? How hard are they to install?

[wingnut60]

This subject has a lot of pros and cons by people who have them--seems many who have them don't like them, others would not be without them. They usually work well until they get stretched out some and sag--they also seem to flap noisily in high winds when they have stretched. I had them once and don't see a need for them on my new unit, but I do have to get up and sweep the slide tops before running the slides in after being under trees.
Have seen two types--ones that are attached to the trailer and those that are attached to the slide frame.
It's a personal choice and you probably need to visit with some people who have them before making a decision.

[dmascheck]

I like the idea and understand what they do, but wonder, bang for the buck are they that much of an asset. I can see shading the slides is a plus, also keeping the debris off is great and I heard it can keep the sun off the seal, but the noise? Of course I'm not as agile as I once was and climbing a ladder to clean them off although I might try a Dewalt air blower I have.


I just wonder if the money would be well spent somewhere else??

Thank you!

[Rhagfo]

We installed on our Copper Canyon 293 FWSLS, 6' bedroom slide and 12' Super slide. I installed the bedroom without help, needed DW to support far end of super slide roller for install. We have seen less heat gain during the summer. an additional seal against wind driven rain. Yes the supper slide does rattle some in the wind on the Oregon coast.

One of the best investments we have made for full timing.

[dmorse68]

Ours on or DRV 36RSSB3 or a blessing and a curse. I think the blessings outweigh the curses but I wont really know until a few years down the road. Been full timing since Oct of 2017 and been through one Oregon fall, winter, spring and now going into summer. We had that driving, heavy, Oregon downpours, freezing rain, snow, and now 95 degree here so far.

The blessings are, the toppers do protect those slide outs from the elements, debris, and most of all, keep wind-driven water/rain away from the top slideout seals. I will gladly live with the occasional noise when it is windy, to know that the Oregon rain wont be penetrating inside that top seal.

The only curse I really can see for having them is, I can't clean and condition the top seal of the ODS slideouts. And this is why I say I have to wait for some time to go by to see if it's better with no toppers than with. Not conditioning the top seals once or 2x a year could make them fail/crack quicker and have to be replaced sooner than if I didn't have toppers to begin with.

If anyone has come up with a good way of cleaning those top seals under the toppers, please feel free to share. I would love to hear how you guys with toppers do it or don't do it for that matter.

David