I'll be spending much of my rv time in the California desert with blowing winds, sand and dust. Are the inflatable slide seals of the Foretravel superior to the seals used on other coaches? (I'm interested in the early years of the slides, 2000-2005).
As I have read, I see two main types of slide seals. There are many that reported this last winter how much cold air was coming thru the fixed wiper style of seals. When the owners of the SOB looked more carefully they discovered gaps and light under and around the wiper style on their coaches. The air bladder type seal systems on the Foretravel, Prevost, Newell and a few others seems to be used by the high dollar coach builders. Would seem the air bladder systems should work better while the coach is in motion. The very small gap between the slide and the bodywork sure look better to my eye than the outside slide flanges I see being so common as well.
Works well in bad weather. Rode out huge winds with the bladder but the slide awning was popping too much so brought them in. No leaks when in at all. Rode out driving thru a hurricane too. There was no leaks. I would say they work fine. Never owned the other style so can not say how they work.
Interesting John about the slide awning making too much noise, hadn't thought about that issue. I could see that keeping me awake all night. What is the purpose of the awning? What if it was removed?
The purpose is to prevent water, snow, and debris such as leaves from landing on top of the slide. I can see with a non_foretravel flange seal slide, this would be a problem as the flange would trap any water/debris that happens to be there. With our flush slides, there is no trapping, and a well-functioning rubber squeegee on top would probably shove all that stuff right over the slide when the slide is retracted.
Only in winds over 25 mph does it even flap a bit but we were in the 60s so I took them in