Cardinal RV Club

My wife is usually the one to open the slides on our 30TS. I know she is very careful trying to watch everything while the slides are moving in or out but we never dreamed that the doors above the television would be open. Heck we hardly ever use them because we need a ladder to put anything up there, but low and be hold one had swung open and got wedged behind the living room slide. Lukily it only bent the door hinge and didn't hurt the slide or even scratch the door. whew! I took the hinge off the door and straightened it by using a soft head hammer and a block of wood.
The moral of the story is to look all around and even up before moving the slides in or out.

So true BOP11, we should all be looking around during slide operation. I should have posted tis type of warning earlier, we have had almost everything in the rig caught into the slides at one time or another and still learning daily. Everybody please look around and be ready to release the button quickly. It is too easy to get interference on an almost daily basis.

Thanks for the heads up. Glad to hear there wasn't any real damage.
Another set of doors that bear watching is the ones across the rear. Now we check all the doors before opening/ closing the slides.

It happened to us, but we were not as fortunate as you we caught it about the same time the door fell to the floor. The hinges were replaced and we use a small strap to secure those doors while we travel.

It happenened to us as well. We were also fortunate that it didn't do any damage. I wish that FR would of put a "Roll Up" type cabinet there. You can't completely open the left cupboard anyway. Also you have to make sure the recliner HANDLE doesn't get caught up on slide moulding. That happened to us as well. Luckily no damage.

Bop11 -thanks for the warning, wish it had been a month ago. This happened to us too -- the first time we set up on our own. We figured it was a rookie mistake, but are much more careful now. Glad yours didn't cause much damage, ours took one hinge off, but DH was able to fix it pretty easily. Also had a DVD on the floor in the kids room catch and start to take the molding off the slide -- now DH puts the LR slide out enough to open the door to the kids room and makes one of them crawl in and check it out before we open their slide.

Well with us it wasn't the door, but the trim around the slide itself. I was opening the slide and didn't realize something was wedged between the slide and the wall...the trim came off about an inch or so. D:H fixed it...wheww!!! We turn our chairs around, back to back, to put slide in...I had put the laptop in it's case in the chair closest to the slide. Well, when opening the slide...did not realize the laptop had "jumped" out of the chair...I caught it before the laptop itself got scrunched...another whewww....now I'll have to add doors to my watch for list!!

bob11, thanks for the heads-up. Every time we are going to move the slide we check.... and every time we check, something has jumped in the way.
It must be a "natural law" concerning owning slides.

I had a similar situation happen except the bottom doors came open and caught on the wooden trim on the slide and pulled the trim loose and had to be hammered back on! No damage to the doors. We now use a very small bungi cord to hold the doors closed when we travel.

We have also had a magazine get caught under the slide of the main (couch and dining table) slideout and it started lifting it out of the track.

We now check both of the slides for open doors and objects that might hinder the slideout coming in or going out.

I learned the hard way as well - rear cabinet door. Now all doors are secured with double sided velcro or bunji cords.

With the rear kitchen its hard to get back in there but we look all over before slide operation. Plus I go outside and knock on the side of the trailer for my wife to start the slides and if I knock again she stops. We had a major problem once with a slide and since that time somebody is always on the outside watching them go out and in.

Good idea Mike. I'm usually outside watching when the slides are going in or out.
I also always climb on the roof and sweep them off before we bring them in. Jury is still out on wether we'll add slide awnings.
Bill

bop11 wrote:Good idea Mike. I'm usually outside watching when the slides are going in or out.
I also always climb on the roof and sweep them off before we bring them in. Jury is still out on wether we'll add slide awnings.
Bill

Bop11, If you ever do go with the slide awnings I highly recommend to acrylic material instead of vinyl. Costs a bit more, but much quieter in high wind situations.
Bruce

Thanks for the advise CWC. I assume that the acrylic material would'nt be as prone to stretching. The wind is our biggest concern with the slide awnings. I have really been looking at these on other rigs and have seen alot that are so loose they look like a big bath tub. I think if mine were that loose I'd stick a beech ball under one end to take up the slack and to let the water drain off.

Have not experienced any stretch with my acrylics, however that could be a spring tension issue also. I really notice noise of neighbors vinyl covers when mine are quiet, but I originally bought them as they are supposed to be longer lifed. They work well and keep all the leaves and twigs at bay. A wothwhile investment if you do a lot of fall camping.