The benefits of camping without a Slide-Room

As the owner of an RV Dealership, I am definitely seeing a trend towards "BIGGER" and "MORE SLIDES". It is, I suppose, natural to want to have more room in your camper.  And often times, people equate bigger with nicer, but that is not always the case.  Take Airstream for example...this iconic brand is one of the most exclusive, most expensive and best built units on the market.  And with the exception of 1 or 2 years where they released a slide room model (which did not sell well, by the way), Airstreams are all non-slide units.

There are definite advantages to going without a slide.

Most of our customers are not using their campers full-time, they are not living in them.  The majority are doing weekend camping trips.  And while I get the idea that the more slide rooms you have, the more it feels like home...the fact is, most people spend the majority of their time outside while camping.  So, why spend the extra money, have the added headache (more maintenance, one more thing to break) if you don't have to?

I have personally owned 6 campers.  Not a single one of them had a slide room.  My husband and I both agree on this point.  I believe in keeping our camper maintenance to a minimum and the fact is, any where that the factory cuts a hole in the camper (vents, windows, skylights, sliderooms) is a place for a potential water leak.  And, although sliderooms are made much better now then in the past, there is still always the chance of water leakage.  If your camper is not perfectly level and it starts to rain, you will probably get some water coming into your camper.  If your salesman tells you that your slide room will never leak, walk away, because he is lying to you.  Granted, most leaks are minor and are usually caused by something as simple as a slide room seal coming off or the camper being un-level, but, if you keep your camper for long enough and use it in enough rain storms, you will end up with a leak or two.

Another advantage to having no slide rooms is that you have full-access to your camper at all times.  If you stop at a Walmart on your camping trip and want to hop back into your camper to grab something or to use the restroom, it's no problem.  If you have 1,2, 3 or more slide rooms however, you will either have to open the slide rooms to get to what you need or, if you're lucky, be able to suck your gut in enough to squeeze between the slide room and the kitchen cabinets to reach what you need.

This is our camper time-line.....

Our first camper was a 2005 Scamp.  A cute, adorable little thing.





But, once we had our first child, we decided to move up to something a little bigger.  So, we sold that little Scamp and moved up to a 2012 RPOD 171.

One of the main appeals of both the RPOD and the SCAMP, were that they could both be towed by our Jeep Liberty with a 3500 tow capacity.  No need to take the big truck out for our camping trips!

Both the Scamp and the RPOD were small on space but we had a blast in both.  It is, after all, camping!  We spent our days hanging out at the beach or playing at the campground playground or out sightseeing.  Our evenings were spent around the campfire.  When it was time for bed, we were more than comfortable in our "little campers".

Then, along came baby #2.  And, we decided it was once again, time to move up to a larger camper.  So, we bought a Star Stream 24QB.  Queen bed for us and a sofa and dinette for each of the kids, though truth be told, they usually slept in our room anyways!  Our oldest loved using a sleeping bag and lying on the floor next to our bed, and our baby slept in her co-sleeper right next to me.  But, again, even though we went bigger, we wanted no slide rooms.  The simpler the better for us.

We enjoyed that camper.  And would have hung on to it forever most likely if we hadn't had a chance to purchase our dream camper....an Airstream 25SS.  Again, no slide rooms, but it's an Airstream and we had always wanted one.  So, we headed up to St. Louis, MO to purchase our first ever Airstream, it was a 1999 model in near perfect condition.  We were in LOVE!  We kept the Airstream for a few months before upgrading to a 2005 Airstream 25SS...same model, just newer.

These days, we have THREE children and my husband decided he wanted to get a Polaris Razr.  So, we (sadly) sold the Airstream and purchased a new Toy Hauler.  We are currently the proud owners of a 2014 Work and Play 28FBS.  And you guessed it, it doesn't have any slide rooms.  But it is roomy, spacious, has a master bedroom for us, and 2 sofas that make into a king sized bed for the girls.

And, while we love our Work and Play...I must confess that we are slightly lusting after the Evergreen RV Amped 28...and yep...no slides ;)