Slide Toppers - Mounting Questions and more

**JohnB** · 12-25-2007, 08:15 PM

Fellow Sunline Slide Topper Owners

I’m investigating adding a slide topper and have some questions on how yours mounts to the camper plus a few more.

I’m looking at the Carefree of Colorado brand. And the one with the folding frame under it to support the awning, “IF” it will fit on the camper. The Carefree web site is down right now so cannot link it in.

A few questions.

Has anyone had one of these Summit styles? The kind with the folding frame under it.

Or the Slideout Kover II LTD? The kind before the folding frame.

Next area is how these mount to the side of the camper. I already have a gutter rail with the channel like the regular awning attaches too. Will the topper mount in this slot or do I have to add an additional mounting rail?

Anyone with pic's of there’s? Even if it is an A & E brand? I’m trying to figure out how these attach to the side of the camper and the side of the slide.

And a few more questions. I know I’m loaded tonight.

How long is the topper over the length of the slide? They sell these in ranges and it seems that if you get them longer they cover more of the side of the slide where water or stuff can under them. But what is too wide?

Wind, how do you deal with wind with a topper while at camp? The big awning on the door side goes up when bad weather comes, but what about the topper? Is it close enough to the camper to not be a problem, or do you have to retract the slide in because of the topper? (Then what?? It gets tight inside with the slide in)

Here are some pic’s of the camper and slide gutter rail.

The entire slide.

The gutter rail

The slide extended. Sorry for the dirty pic. This one was at the dealers. It is a lot cleaner now.

Thanks for any and all input.

John

**Sunline Fan** · 12-25-2007, 11:34 PM

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rich2500 · 12-26-2007, 05:25 AM

John I have the factory installed A&E slide topper it installs using the existing rain gutter,mine is the same width as the slide roof and it needs to be like this for the mounting brackets that attach to the slide,I have camped in some very windy conditions already and never needed to run my slide in nor have I ever gotten any damage to my slide topper,If you need pics of how mine is factory installed John I will gladly pull my winter cover up and take some pics for you.my topper does pool water up if it rains but what I do if this happens is just run my rear stabalizers up a little and raise the nose of the camper about an inch and the water drains right off the topper.

**JohnB** · 12-26-2007, 08:35 PM

Jon and Rich

Thanks for the comments.

The Carefree site is again down tonight. So I just read for about 2 hours on their products on places that sell them. Seems the same 3 pictures are used all over. Here is an info blurb http://www.users.qwest.net/~respondg...gs/Summit.html

I down loaded this one pic, blew it up and here it is. This is the Summit model with the support under it.

Actually Carefree has install manuals on their site, if I can ever get to them….I found about 5 dealers linking to them. They just will not fire off.

The normal Carefree topper, The Slide Kover II LTD, looks it slides in the existing rain gutter like Rich stated his was.

And in my reading, the Summit model has a restriction that if the side lowers by a certain amount when it extends, you have to watch how much the slide drops as the linkage can only accommodate so much drop. Need more details to know if this is an issue or not and if I can use it.

The Summit model looks like parts of it mounts to the existing drip rail and then there is an upper track that is added. Again need the install manual.

On fabrics, Jon, from your thoughts the Acrylic Sunbrella seems to be the way to go over the vinyl. And Carefree does offer this.

Rich, to dump the water, dropping the TT nose down, yes good tip. And thank you for the offer to go out and take some pic’s. I don’t want to impose on you having to lift up the cover, “yet”. Maybe a fellow Sunliner will have some pics somewhere to post or email. I’m still in heavy research mode on this topper, so I’m not in a rush. Out of all the campers I have looked at, I never paid much attention to the toppers. Never needed to before with the smaller camper, now wish I did.

On the wind, this Summit version had some talk about it stiffening up the awning so it would reduce the flapping. But again I do not know yet if it will work on my camper.

Thanks again and anyone else with input, gladly appreciated.

John

**Sunline Fan** · 12-26-2007, 08:55 PM

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**JohnB** · 12-26-2007, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunline Fan

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnB

On the wind, this Summit version had some talk about it stiffening up the awning so it would reduce the flapping.

I assume you mean "talk" as people talking about it on RV.net, etc. In general, this type of awning should have minimal flapping because, like window awnings, it's always under tension. I've never touched one up close to know how much tension it has on it, but it's enough to prevent quite a bit of flapping. We hear the window awnings flap well before the slide topper. Here's a pic of ours, and it is a Carefree (all the rest are too):

Jon

Jon

The "talk" was actually from sales literature on Carefree Dealers sites. And yes that would be what I would of thought too. A tighter awning and it really cannnot drop down. But could whip up.

Thanks for the window awning offer. I'm not there yet..... Maybe in a few years. I allready have enough projects to keep me going this year and 1/2 way thru next year

Thanks

John

**PTHutch** · 12-27-2007, 06:10 PM

Hi John,

Sorry, this is the best picture of our slide topper I have.

Here's another picture, not much better though - sorry.

We, like Rich, have an A&E slide topper. We had it installed at the dealer when we purchased it. I’m very glade we have an awning over the slide and we are happy with the A&E. Though the Carefree unit looks really nice.

We’ve never had any problems with wind. When it rains, the awning loads up water. After the rain stops, we pull in the slide a little bit until all the water drains off the awning, then we open the slide all the way again.

I’ve heard of people using beach balls between the slide roof and awning to keep the awning snug and allow water to drain off. I’ve never tried it, but we do carry beach balls with us

.

Sorry I wasn’t more help.
Hutch

rich2500 · 12-27-2007, 06:43 PM

John I thought I would just mention something that I notice with that carefree topper with the support,if you look at Hutch's photos you will see that his topper is much closer to the slide roof then the carefree,mine looks just like Hutch's and when camping in wooded areas I still get debris on my slide roof now it's not alot but it don't take much to damage a seal,I would think that as high as the carefree sits you would get alot more debris on the roof,just thought I would mention this to you.

**JohnB** · 12-27-2007, 08:48 PM

Hutch

Thank you for posting your pic’s. This is very helpful. I see things I didn’t know what to look for before.

And then Rich joined in from your pic and talked about the debris possibility of the Carefree Summit style.

Both good stuff. That is what makes this forum so great. How to combine bits and pic’s of everyone’s ideas to build on.

Let’s look

First here is a close up of Hutches. I can’t zoom in any closer or it get’s too distorted with the pic res. I had to start with. But we can see some good things from this.

Notice here the length of the fabric is the length of the drip channel so the awning is longer then the slide top. Can’t tell how much, but longer. And as Rich pointed out it is fairly low

Here is another view.

Now that I know what to go looking for,I had some pic’s of other brand campers I was looking at before we acquired the T310SR

Here is Artic Fox. A very nice camper and well built. If Queste had not pointed me in the right direction, I probably would have had one of these. See the drip rail for the topper. It is high up from the slide.

Now look at Sunny Brook. Another high end camper. The slide gutter rail is very close to the slide top, like Sunlines.

AND look at this one on a FR Sandpiper. This actually has the Carefree Slide Kover. Just not the Summit support system. The more I look at this camper, the more I’m glad I did not get it. They do not have a separate slide gutter rail. The top one does it all. And the gap is large. I have seem some MH to do this as well with only the top rail.

Now look at end view. The fabric does not cover over the actual slide top. It is hard to see but the fabric is just inside the slide top. Wonder if that is another cutting measure.

The Carefree site is finally up and working tonight. It was not earlier, but at least is now.

http://www.carefreeofcolorado.com/rv...asp?m=01020301 They also have some technical data manuals I downloaded. Now need to read more.

Rich you talked about stuff getting under yours. Well we are tree hugger types and about 70% of our camping is under tree cover. So I need to think thru this. Thanks for the tip. Part of this depends on the time of year. During fall, well stuff from above comes down. Pending how much an issue this is or isn’t, a simple end cap might help.

More researching and thinking yet to do.

Thanks and anyone else, keep the good info coming.

John

**Sunline Fan** · 12-27-2007, 10:13 PM

John,

After seeing Carefree's pic looking down at the topper, I'd stay away from it because you will get stuff under there with picking that canvas up so high. The perfect slide topper would hug the slide for normal operation, but it would be great to then have something that you could raise it up like that just prior to pulling the slide in.

I suppose the old pool noodle trick is the best if you want to keep the water off, because the noodle does more than just keep water off. With the noodle diameter being so large, it will prevent most debris from entering anyway. And if you put a rope through the hole, you'll automatically gain a debris remover tool. You could wave it around under there to get anything out that might have been trapped in there.

Jon

**JohnB** · 12-28-2007, 10:10 PM

Jon

The jury is still out on which topper I will get.

The pool noodles….you seem to have oversize one. The ones I know of are only 3” in diameter. Where did you get your super noodles….

John

**Sunline Fan** · 12-28-2007, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnB

The pool noodles….you seem to have oversize one. The ones I know of are only 3” in diameter. Where did you get your super noodles

John,

We don't use the noodles, but I've seen many people who do. We have some of those larger noodles (we use them in the pool though), but I don't remember where we got them. Sorry. It seems like the ones we have are 5" diameter.

Jon