Slide toppers on new 310GK not draining/shedding water

[jcschultz01]

Not on our Solitude but I installed slide toppers on our previous 5th wheel after a disasterous night in Michigan with water running down the inside wall and eventually having to replace the slide flooring which was rotted.
The instructions for at least Solera slide toppers say 2" above the upper edge of the slide. If you ask Solera however and talk to a knowledgable person, 2" is the MINIMUM height. The MAXIMUM height is 6". AND you can turn the topper spring an extra wrap or two (at the most) to increase tension in the slide topper. This worked well for me - no pooling. Just be careful because the tighter topper may tilt your slide slightly and it can then scrape the floor on the way in/out. A couple of teflon slides on the floor fixed that problem.
BTW, On one of the slide toppers I installed (it is not hard), I simply installed another rail at 6" up, leaving the too-low topper rail at 2" above the slide top edge. Didn't have to patch all the screw holes. If the rail and adhesive is weatherproof above a topper, it should certainly be weatherproof BELOW a topper.

Waiting to see if I need toppers on the Solitude - hope not but I am keeping and eye on snow/rain.

[howson]

Not on our Solitude but I installed slide toppers on our previous 5th wheel ...

Hello and welcome to the forum. I suspect you don't realize you responded to a thread that has been idle since Sep of 2021 (since that was your first post).

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[CLARKR4]

We have a 2019 Solitude 310GK. I had slide toppers installed in 2022 and spent the winter in Mesa, AZ and of course water pooled on the two longer slide toppers. The recommendation is that you don't let the water pool as it can or will stretch the fabric over time. Dometic suggested that the solution is to retract the slides after the rain stops, which we did to ensure that water did not sit there until it evaporated. That action is possible but is a hassle, and I am not satisfied with that solution over the long term. There is no problem with water pooling on the bedroom slide because it is short enough for the tube to withstand the tension of the fabric so that it doesn't sag in the middle. The problem with the non door side and the door side slide toppers is that the tensile strength of the aluminum tube is not sufficient to withstand the tension of the fabric. This tension causes the tube to bend slightly in the middle of the length, causing the fabric to sag in the middle. I have suggested to Dometic that the solution is to increase the wall thickness of the tube on the longer slides, but they don't agree that it is the problem. So I have decided to add cradle supports in the centre of the two longer slides. Dometic has asked me which of the two cradle sizes do I want to order. The recommendation is not to attach the cradle arms to the flange as there might not be sufficient support and the cradle screws could loosen. On the Door Side Slide there is an awning, and the only space between the bottom of the slide topper tube and the top of the awning is the height of the flange, which is about 4 3/4", maybe 5" at the most. So that is where I have to install the cradle support. I asked Dometic for a measurement of the cradle either top to bottom , or just from the bottom of the roller to the end of the arm used to attach the cradle to the slide wall. They could not provide that because the supply warehouse is in Texas and the person I am talking with is in Indiana. There should not be an issue on the Non Door Side as there is no awning. So attaching the cradle to the wall of the slide shouldn't be difficult, but I still need to know the length of the cradle to ensure it reaches below the flange. The other issue of course is that on the Door Side slide the full length slide topper of 150" couldn't be installed because the front awning encroaches on the space needed. So a 144" slide topper tube had to be used and the fabric from the 150" cut down to fit, but it leaves almost no overhang of the fabric on the front end of the slide. When we retract the slide after a rain the pooled water mainly flows to the front end of the slide topper and onto the roof of the slide. So hopefully the cradle is a solution to avoid pooling water. However that remains to be seen.

My questions are:
1. Of those with the same Solitude unit, have you installed a cradle support, and if so which size did you use on the Door Side slide topper and did you attach it to the flange?
2. Did you install the cradle on the flange for the Door Side, and has it been secure for a period of time?
3. For the Non Door Side, which size of cradle did you use and did you attach it to the flange or the slide wall below the flange?

Thanks for any suggestions or experiences that might help answer these questions.

Rich

[howson]

CLARKR4 -- you may be a "trailblazer" with pursuing a fix to the slide topper issue on your 310GK, so please keep the forum informed on what you end up doing.

Howard