RV Slide Out – Inside View

The RV slide out makes the RV’s really special. The convert the RV from a constricting 8 foot wide (sorry Airstream) to around 14 feet wide give or take. If you walk into an RV blindfolded and then take off your blindfold, you really think you are in a cozy little apartment with decent sized – albeit still small – rooms.

RV Slide outs can take an RV which has around a maximum of 320 square feet and get it up to 400 square feet. That 80 square feet is quite a bit as a percentage increase and RV owners notice it. I’ve wrote about the slide basics here and also collected how to videos here.

When you are looking for an RV, you might wonder what the inside of the RV looks like around the slide. Check out the pictures below. You’ll see a ridge or lip of wood which goes up against the sides of the walls and makes a flush air-tight (usually not as good as you want it to be) seal.

On the floor you’ll usually see a carpet which is attached to the slide. This carpet slides with the slide and covers up the seam between the slide and the fixed floor of the RV.

The slides are controlled by switches in the interior command center.

I’ll give a word to the wise when putting the slide out. Have a second person on the outside guiding the slide out and making sure there are no obstructions. Even when you KNOW there aren’t – just do it anyway.

When bringing the slide in, double, triple, and quadruple check that there are no obstructions. Because if you think there are not, there are. On our single slide travel trailer (Puma) we made sure to tear up a kitchen cabinet door – more than once. You think we would have known better. But the door wouldn’t latch either and it would inconspicuously flip open. Then when we extended the slide the slide would simply tear off the door. I might add, it did it with little effort. The slides are stronger than you think.

One thing. You’d think bringing the slides in our out is super cool – and it is. But also, in a strange way, it is super anti-climactic. You are almost let down when you do it. Maybe that is just me.

But we love having the extra space. Now you know something about how the slides look on the inside before you go shopping.