I have a tree blocking my Driver Side Slide and can only extend it about 80%. I was told once at FOT never to partially extend is that fact of fiction?
True. You should always extend or retract all the way. It can get out of synchronization if it doesn't go all the way out or all the way in.
True, but once I had to break the rule and didn't see any side effects. Don't know if I was just lucky.
Trying to think of why it would be an issue, all I can come up with is that when the slide is in, the outside maintains the shape very well, for the bladder seal to seal against. There can be very little deformation in size since the side is solid.
The inside is a different story, as it has no support in the middle of the opening. There are brackets on the inside that have a wedge shape that pull the edge of the slide outwards to the wall (up at the top and down at the bottom), to make sure the slide opening is as uniform as possible, for a good slide seal.
If you don't go all the way out, there may be some bow in the slide structure, and the seal may not make contact with the slide structure. This could lead to water/bugs/rodent intrusion, as well as a spot where the bladder doesn't have something to push on within it's normal distance when inflated, which could be an issue.
Just thinking out loud.
If you ever had one get out of sync and suddenly as you are moving it one end moves and the other doesn't and the room gets jammed, then you will understand why.