# Boy Do I Feel Stupid...



## Reverie (Aug 9, 2004)

I was breaking down our 28BHS yesterday afternoon after a pleasent weekend of camping in North Georgia. The leaves are really starting to fall and at times they sounded like rain falling on our roof. It was beautiful. After I had scrubbed the interior I was bringing in the slide. As the slide slid the last inch or so in a leaf fell down and landed at my feet. I stood up on the couch and peeked on top of the slide and what do you think I found? How about enough mulch to plant a flower garden!

My wife has complained about a musty smell for a while and now I know where it is coming from. I couldn't believe it. I'll bet lots of people have encountered this and I was just oblivious. Any advice on how to prevent this other than the obvious, sweep the roof before I close the slide? What is the best way to clean this and get rid of the smell?

On top of this, my awning got away from me as I was closing it and I nicked the side of the trailer (just a scratch, really) but may have damaged the sliding rod. I'm just glad nobody was around to record this foolishness with a camera. As far as the awning is concerned I doubly glad my hand wasn't anywhere near the awning braces or it might have turned out a lot worse.

shy Reverie shy


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## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

Yeah, I know what ya mean about the top of that slide. I recently looked at mine while it was slid in, and Yuck! A bunch of dirt. This seems to get stuck there because I always have the slide IN when I wash the trailer, so it never really gets cleaned. I just took a damp towel and wiped it off from the inside. No biggie.

They do make a slide topper you can use when camping though. It's as easy as tossing a canvas/vinyl runner over the top of your slide when you extend it. Then when you're finished camping you simply pull it off along with all the debris. Easy. You can also take the more costly approach and install an awning type topper that bolts to the side of your rig and slide. When you put the slide out - it comes out with it. Very nice, but several hundred $ installed.


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## BigBadBrain (Aug 26, 2004)

Reverie,
I wouldn't feel bad. Now if it happened a second time...

We park under a birch tree when the camper is parked in front of the house. When it started to shed, I knew we'd get a lot of debri from the tree and didn't want to have the slide get covered with leaves and other nasty birch tree offal and then have a nice rain.







So I went to the local hardware store and picked up a plastic tarp that was 60x84 (or close - might have been 86) and laid that on top of the slider and used a couple of black bungees (not the rubber ones but the ones with cloth cover to protect the camper) under light tension (don't need much) to hold it in place. Worked pretty well too. When I got ready to push in the slide I just pulled the tarp off and swept what little debri stayed on top of the slide and it was ready to push in. Cleaned the tarp off pretty well and then let it dry. Won't prevent wet slides but it handled the lousy birch tree droppings pretty well.

It isn't an elegant solution but it will work until one of us solves the rear slide awning question. (Everyone is still working on that right?)

Hope that helps.








Brian

PS - I did have some moderate winds and it was OK. I'm not sure it would be real good to have it on with wind when you were trying to sleep - it does move around some.


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## hurricaneplumber (Apr 12, 2004)

been there before..

If I have water service, I unhook from the camper and hose the top off. If no water, then I stand on a chair and towel off as much as possible, then go inside and do more. If it is raining outside, you can bring in a few good puddles that will run all over the place.

I like the self-extend-retract topper but like Jim says, $$$. A cheap towel works for now.

For the awning, you can install a keyring type hoop in the black webbing, then bend your awning hook in more so it will really grab the ring, that way it can't slip off the awning hook.

Kevin


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## z-family (Oct 2, 2004)




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## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

Z....
Great idea!


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