Ice on slideout toppers

[Ronnelly]

We came south for the winter, but not south enough. We have snow here and cold. Waiting for the ice to melt off the slideout toppers, so we can pull the slides in, so we can travel. Don't want to break anything, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

[SlickWillie]

We've had ice on ours a time or two when back at the stick house. It just rolled off as the slide came in.

[bncinwv]

If you do have the awning type toppers in place, retracting the slides should not be a problem, the ice will just drop off of the end of the roller assembly. We have had ice and snow on ours and never had a problem in the past. If you are overly concerned, you can retract a little at a time and physically break the ice with a broom handle or something similar. If you do not have the awning toppers, I would think you would have to break the ice and manually take if off of the slides with a ladder to prevent damage to the slide seals.
Bingo

[H. John Kohl]

edit: I am guessing your slide toppers look like this with lots of ice bowing them down. Not thin ice that would roll off.

Therefor I suggest using water on the toppers to brake the ice lose from the material then use a broom to push it off the ends. I suggest cold water because HOT water freezes faster unless the flow is long enough to warm up the material.
Good luck. Let us know how it comes out.

[camper4]

We have just run the slides in and the ice rolled off in a chunk. I watched to make sure small chunks didn't stick and roll under. That would not be good.

[c214dick]

We were in Georgia and did not realize that after a heavy rain an freeze that we would have a sheet of ice come off the bedroom slide topper. Make sure to stand clear of all slides if your DW is doing the retraction. It was like a large piece of glass falling. Scary Good.

[kdeiss]

Just bring the slides in slow have someone watch snow and Ice will just roll off

[stiles watson]

I agree, slow as you go, but it should just slide off harmlessly.

[capn chris]

I agree, mostly, that retraction will cause it to slide off. HOWEVER, once the ice froze TO the topper and jammed against the side of the rig, causing the bottom of the slide to continue, but the top stopped! Floor started to go up inside as it moved. Bottom line was I had to break up and remove the ice before we could pull slides in. Good luck.

[timandsusan]

Last year in Tulsa, we got about 2-4 inches of ice on the top of the slides. I don't have toppers. From a step ladder, I used a broom to break up the ice and push it off the slide outs before retracting. This worked because the outside air was about 40 and the heat was ON inside the Monty. There was a thin layer of water under the heavy ice. The slide would not have moved IN if I had not removed the ice. Next time??? I will probably bring in the slide outs--we were not in the rig when the ice hit. Also lost my sewer hose because the little bit of water in the hose froze and broke the hose. Next time--take that in along with the water hose! Lessons learned as usual!

[CamillaMichael]

quote:Originally posted by timandsusan

Last year in Tulsa, we got about 2-4 inches of ice on the top of the slides. I don't have toppers. From a step ladder, I used a broom to break up the ice and push it off the slide outs before retracting. This worked because the outside air was about 40 and the heat was ON inside the Monty. There was a thin layer of water under the heavy ice. The slide would not have moved IN if I had not removed the ice. Next time??? I will probably bring in the slide outs--we were not in the rig when the ice hit. Also lost my sewer hose because the little bit of water in the hose froze and broke the hose. Next time--take that in along with the water hose! Lessons learned as usual!

One of the nice things about this forum is that we get an opportunity to learn from other's experiences...the bad thing is that there is so much to learn and remembering it all is a real challenge!

[Ronnelly]

We were able to bring the slides in with all that ice just breaking away. It was so cold that it stopped a number of times. We even had to bring them out partially and then in again, but finally all the ice came off in pieces and we are now in warmer weather. Thanks for all your suggestions. We do have the awning type toppers. I am glad we do, otherwise we might have had more problems.

quote:Originally posted by bncinwv

If you do have the awning type toppers in place, retracting the slides should not be a problem, the ice will just drop off of the end of the roller assembly. We have had ice and snow on ours and never had a problem in the past. If you are overly concerned, you can retract a little at a time and physically break the ice with a broom handle or something similar. If you do not have the awning toppers, I would think you would have to break the ice and manually take if off of the slides with a ladder to prevent damage to the slide seals.
Bingo

[sreigle]

We just bring the slides in and the ice slides right off the toppers and crashes to the ground. I just have to be careful to not be too close when it does. We've had as much as 4 inches of ice up there. That's one reason I like the toppers. Without them there's no way the slides are retracting with a layer of ice on the slide roofs.