Slide-out goes out while driving, YIKES!!!

While we are still a bit behind in our blogging I thought I should share a recent incident while driving north from the Rio Grand Valley. We left Casa de Valle RV park in Alamo Texas arriving at Choke Canyon State Park near Three Rivers Texas.

Upon leaving our site at Choke Canyon SP our bedroom slide-out failed to come in. I manually pushed it in and secured it from the inside so it would stay in. Or so I thought…

We intentionally took some back roads on our way to Canyon Lake to ensure my temporary “fix” of our slide-out would hold. When I said I manually pushed the slide-out back in I mean this literally. You could simply push the slide in or out with no resistance whatsoever. My solution was to brace the inside of the slide-out with 2x4’s to secure it in place.

As we ambled along the back roads the slide-out remained in place and all was good, that is, until one of our bay doors sprung open. We pulled over and I relatched the bay door. This door has sprung open before so I guess I need to check how well the latch actually secures it.

We continued on but both of us were thinking what else can go wrong? I mean “things happen in threes” right? We finally merged onto Interstate 37 and nothing else was going wrong, that is, until we got to San Antonio Texas. Our route was taking us north on Interstate 37 through the center of San Antonio and where did the slideout decide to pop out?! Yep, right in the center of downtown San Antonio on a very busy and congested highway. The power of threes continued…

Fortunately we were in the right lane and I immediately pulled off on the bit of road between an exit ramp and the highway with cars buzzing past us us. I checked my “fix” which had shifted allowing the slideout to go out. I went back outside trying to avoid being hit by a car on the highway or exit ramp and pushed the slide back in.

Inside I discovered the slideout trim which was securing the previous fix had detached so I had to come up with another plan. I used those adjustable spring rods we purchased for our shelves to keep things from falling out while traveling to secure the slide from the top. I adjusted four of them to hold the slide inside its frame and hoped for the best.

Merging back on the highway was a major feat in itself. With cars zooming by at 65 mph, maneuvering the RV back on the highway wasn’t easy but after a sizable wait I saw a large enough gap  where I was able to ease us back on the interstate and  back up to speed. Hoping the worst was behind us and feeling confident the rule of threes had been completed we continued northward.

About then the GPS warned us of a wreck on US 281 which is under heavy construction. GPS suggested an alternate route but not knowing if those small roads were suitable for a large RV we resigned ourselves to suffering through the traffic jam. After more than an hour of inching we finally made it to Canyon Lake. Fortunately our second”fix” held up until we arrived. I hope to be able to really fix the slide before moving from here but that will be blogged about at a later date…

Boy we really needed our happy hour after this ordeal!! But such is life driving an RV On the Road of Retirement…

NOTE: We are currently at Canyon Lake in Central Texas…