We are interested in purchasing a large popup but are not sure about the difficulty in opening the slide for the dinette. Are manual ones extremely difficult. Should we always choose an electric one? Thank you in advance for your responses. I would be traveling with 2 young children and myself usually; my husband would be along at times when he is not deployed, but I would need to be able to open up by myself.
I've tried the slide outs on the Fleetwoods at shows, and my buddy has a Utah with a slide out....they all seemed easy to operate. The only problem I have with the Highlander Series is the way I close up my Pop Up, I stop dropping the roof down every 2 feet or so and push the Canvas in so it doesn't bunch up....the Highlander Series sits pretty high making this a little bit of a challenge.
I can do the slide out on our Niagara by myself. Ours is loaded down with stuff in the dinette seats, and I can still do it. It takes a second or two to get started then it just glides out. In my opinion it is eaiser then cranking up.
I hope that helps.
Sherry
As far as I know as long as your talking PU's your talking manual slides. Best advice; stop over to a dealer and ask them to let you try one.
I have an 06 Fleetwood Niagara, with glide-out dinette, and I can open and close it with ease - except when I've left something too fat in the aisle for it to close!
The slide on the Highlander is a manual unit, but is easy enough to operate. Like Mike said, your best bet is to have a dealer let you try one.
They are tall, and if you are vertically challenged, tucking the canvas may be a problem--I am 6' and have to climb onto the rear bumper and the tongue to do the bunkends on my Niagara.
Hope that helps.
I was able to pull out the slide on our 05 Niagara and I'm only 5' 3".