A slide-out adds from 20 to 64 square feet of living space to your motor home, a big advantage when you've chosen your camping site for the night and feel ready to stretch out for the evening. Some motor homes offer bedroom slide-outs, too, giving you more space to move around your bed. You can also buy motor homes with kitchen slide-outs, ideal if you enjoy cooking on the road. When it comes time to sell your motor home, RVs with slide-outs sell for higher prices than those without the feature.
Each sllide-out uses either electrical or hydraulic power to move in and out. Motor homes with slide-outs also feature an emergency system that lets you move the slide-outs in and out manually. Slide-outs work best on level, flat campsites where the mechanism will not get stuck. Otherwise, if it rains, water can accumulate, causing the slide-out mechanism to bind. Motor homes with slide-outs require more width to open, so choosing a campsite that offers plenty of room on the slide-out side is important.
One of the major problems with slide-outs involves getting them stuck. Quick retraction becomes a real negative when you're ready to get back on the road, and cannot because you can't pull in the sides of your RV without hand cranking them inch by inch. Bad roads and vibrations from traveling can also disrupt the way your slideouts work. You'll want to keep an eye on your campsite, too, to make sure no trees or utility posts get in the way of the opening slide-outs.
Points to keep in mind when contemplating buying slide-outs on your motor home include the fact that eventually, the slide-outs will fail. Manually cranking in the slide-outs requires some strength since the slide-outs can weigh as much as 600 pounds each. Slide-outs tend to work better for RVers who spend lots of time in one campsite. If you move frequently, the slide-outs may make the interior of your RV feel cramped while on the road. For those RVers who prefer as much space as possible, slide-outs may well offer the answer.
