slide vs non slide

Over the years we've owned a handful of small TT's. The last two (RP175 and Kodiak) have had slides. The older we get, the more time we spend inside the trailer, so we really do now appreciate the extra room, while not wanting to tow a larger rig. Many of the National Park and Forest Service sites in our area are very small--small trailer w/slide and we still fit in most of them.

In 4 years with the Pod slide, it caused us little trouble. We did keep up with the gear drive and seal maintenence. We did have two problems with the Pod slide. The outside seal, a loose fitting flap, around the gear drive was not designed well--allowing wind and maybe insects or rodents access to the interior when the slide was extended. Forest River should have checked with Marwayne, he would have taken care of it for them! Also each time you retract any slide, you better first check the slide roof area for debris. We got a short term leak because we didn't check and got a small twig lodged under the seal. I now carry a 6' step ladder in the truck bed. When I get a few more bucks, maybe a slide awning is in order.

The RP 175 slide central gear drive always worked perfectly. The Kodiak, and I think the RP 179, have a Schwintec unit. The Schwintecs have a reputation for some jamming problems. No probs yet with the Kodiak, and most of the problems that I've read about with the Schwintecs were with big units--not my Kodiak or the 179 size. Here's hopin', and I'm definitely gonna keep up with the maintenence with the new slide.

Thanks TNT and the rest of you for making this Podless person still feel comfortable here! This is a very friendly and informative board.

Budward, that is my SOP too, and the one big problem with the layout of my Salem.  What I may have to do is pull up to the gas pump leaving 1 1/2 feet of room on the left, just enough room to open it up half-way so the bathroom door can be opened.

The slide-out is actually what first drew us to the Pod.  "Look, Honey, a small trailer .. and it even has a slide out."  So the hunt began and we were drawn ultimately to the 179 and getting close to doing a deal.  By this point, we'd been following this forum pretty closely and paying attention to issues that were "serious" .. or not.  The axle weight limitation Budward found on the 179 spooked me.  While I'm pretty sure I could swap out the 3500# axle for a beefier one, the thought of doing that + adding 15" wheels & tires - to a brand-new trailer - got to be more of a mental hurdle than I wanted to fool with.

Originally posted by techntrek Originally posted by Budward That'd work...just don't forget to put it in before leaving..... As I get older CRS is becoming an issue   Definitely becoming an issue for me!

What were we talking about?

this reply may come a little late.. We had a 2010 R Pod no slide we upgraded to a 2014 with slide.. does seem less cramped but we feel our 2010 was built better if I had it to do over I would look for a used 2010 without slide and I would have kept our old one just on the basis of the quality of the R Pod