SLIDES - Montana Owners Club

pdferg · 04-20-2005, 08:06 AM

We are in the process of selecting a new Montana. I'm alittle confused from what I have heard about opposite slides take up to much room in a large number of parks, especially on the East Coast. I would appreciate getting your input on this possible problem. Thanks! Patrick Ferguson

CRUZIN 2 · 04-20-2005, 11:58 AM

pdferg

Good question I would like to hear the pros & cons also.

Larry & LaVonne

Montana Sky · 04-20-2005, 12:20 PM

I have noticed this in some parks as my 3400RL has 4 slides, (3 on one side, 1 on the other). Most of the parks out there were built years ago, and are not wide enough to allow of rv's that have slides on both sides. Having opposing slides only adds to the total width of the coach when fully opened. I have found if I notify the campground that I have four slides on my coach and need an extra long and wide spot, they will tell you right on the phone if they can hold your coach or if you need to look else where. I sure would not let this influence my buying decision as the parks that can not hold my coach are few and far between.

harleyrider · 04-20-2005, 12:53 PM

Yes it can be a problem as far as space is concerned.I stayed at a KOA in West Chester,PA that was a pull thru site.My living room slide was all but maybe 2 feet away from the guy in the next site.But I sure wouldn`t let that effect my buying a unit with slides.The more room they give you sure out weights the tight spots some times.

sreigle · 04-20-2005, 03:21 PM

Welcome aboard, pdferg!

We have never had a park tell us they cannot accommodate our 3 slides and our length. We have slides on both sides. We tell them this up front so they give us a site that will work. I have found a very, very few in the campground directories that say they cannot accommodate slides but that is very few. Most of the places where this will be a problem are public parks, like county, state, and some Corps of Engineers parks. Mostly these are the old ones that have not been updated. California state parks along the Pacific beaches sometimes cannot accommodate you. We've had fifthwheels since 1996, slides since January, 2001. And fulltiming since March, 2003. We really find this to be a very minor problem, nearly a non-issue for us. Of course, if your favorite park cannot handle the width, then it's not a non-issue to you. Many state and Corps parks can handle us just fine. We've even used several county parks with no problem.

jrgwdenner · 04-20-2005, 10:58 PM

We have three slides and have never been turned away because of our size. We may have to pull up or move back to miss a tree.....

Bill and Ann · 04-21-2005, 02:00 AM

We have the 3670RL which has the most open area of all the Montanas with two slides opposite each other and a bedroom slide. We have never had any problem with any campgrounds. I think it is going to be the responsibility of them to change the size of their sites as more and more units are getting bigger and more slides.

ken · 04-21-2005, 03:32 AM

I agree on everything everybody has said. Opposing slides are not a problem. In fact, in todays market, slides are a must or there is no resale value to the coach. As far as slides go, we found that the larger slides accomodating both the couch and table and chairs is much better than the individual slides, as we had in our older Montana. There is more room to move the chairs. The 2005 Montanas in the 3475 model has an opposing slide to accomodate the desk and entertainment center. It also has a larger bedroom slide. That all said, We do have to watch where the electric and water hookups are so they do not hit the slides when they are moved out. The bottom line is you become aware of these little items when your backing into, or pulling into a spot. By allowing the extra room for the slides becomes second nature. The only advise on slides is to watch out for any models that has a slide under the awning. That cuts down the outside sitting area. So far, we have had no problems with parking our coach with three large slides.

Ken and Velda Taylor
Dahlgren VA
2005 3475 Montana
2000 Ford f350 Diesel

vickir · 04-21-2005, 08:28 AM

Steve carries a little bitty tapemeasure in his pocket so we're able to measure if there's ever a question.

CountryGuy · 04-21-2005, 09:40 AM

Vicki

Al does much the same thing, we also wrote down the inches each slide comes out, cause our ole brains leak and we cannot remember. I posted those measurements in a place that we can get to easily enough. We have measured a couple of times, rechecked those numbers I wrote down and ended up moving Montana over a wee bit!

Carol

sreigle · 04-21-2005, 01:41 PM

Ours is 39 inches on the living room/dining room slide, 24 inches on the kitchen/entertainment slide (which is opposite side from the lr/dr slide) and 24 inches for the bedroom slide. As Vicki said, I carry a small tape measure that goes to 40 inches and measure before we unhitch. As others said, sometimes you have to move forward or back to clear a tree or water/elec post. Sometimes you move sideways a bit. A small price to pay for the comfort of the room the slides provide.

Searchers · 04-21-2005, 02:07 PM

Here's a tip. I've found the awning rod to be longer than the width of the slideouts. If it clears the the obstacle with the slide closed, the slide will clear the obstacle when open.

pdferg · 04-22-2005, 11:10 AM

Thanks for the advice on the slides. We have decided to order the Montana with 4 slides.

Patrick and Delona Ferguson (pdferg)
2005 Dodge diesel 610 4X4 Quad Laramie H PKG
ordering 2005 Montana 3400RL

DrivesBGM · 04-22-2005, 11:20 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Searchers

Here's a tip. I've found the awning rod to be longer than the width of the slideouts. If it clears the the obstacle with the slide closed, the slide will clear the obstacle when open.

I've fine tuned this approach just a bit. I placed separate pieces of masking tape on the awing rod to mark how far each slide comes out. (Don't forget to alllow for the slide topper (if you have one) becuse it sticks out even further than the slide.) Then I wrote on the tape to indicate which slide(s) the piece of tape is for.

Craig

Native Tex · 04-22-2005, 12:45 PM

[b] I have not any problem so far with any park, private or stated owned, with regards to the number of slides. I think that as the operators learn and stay up with trens, they will adjust. I would hate to have to adjust to less room. My wife has grown accustomed to the space. [/b}

Parrothead · 04-22-2005, 03:58 PM

I marked our awning pole with Sharpies (permanent markers). Stays on forever.

sreigle · 04-23-2005, 08:22 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by DrivesBGM
Don't forget to alllow for the slide topper (if you have one) becuse it sticks out even further than the slide.

Craig

Good point, Craig. The numbers I posted for our slides does not include the topper roller.

ols1932 · 04-23-2005, 05:23 PM

Our Montana has 3 slides and we've never had a problem. We were parked at the Imperial Expo Fairgrounds in Imperial, CA and had to park side by side because of their Midwinter Fiesta in March, and there were several 5ers with 3 slides parked close to one another. In fact the campground backed the rigs in with the slides out to make sure they cleared. I don't recommend this, but it worked.

We've been in a lot of campgrounds in our 4 years of full timing and even the oldest of campgrounds was able to get us in nicely.

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