Dometic Slide Topper Deluxe 120" Slide-Out Awning, Polar White

If you've got a slide-out room on your RV, you already know what collects up top. Pine needles, leaves, road grit, and a good puddle after every storm. Every time that slide pulls in, all of it comes along for the ride, right into the living space. The Dometic Slide Topper Deluxe is the fix. It's a vinyl awning that mounts above the slide-out and covers the roof of the room whenever it's extended.

Here's the part that makes a slide topper worth it. It works off the slide's own movement. Push the slide out and the fabric unrolls to cover it. Bring the slide back in and a spring-loaded roller takes up the slack and rolls the fabric back onto the tube. There's no motor to wire, no switch to flip, and nothing extra to remember before you break camp. Set it up once and it just does its job every time the room moves.

What are you actually protecting? Two things. First, the top of the slide-out itself, so debris and sun don't beat up the roof of the room over the years. Second, the seals. When water and leaves sit on a bare slide and then get dragged inside as the room retracts, that grit chews on the wiper seals and you end up with leaks. A topper keeps the whole surface clear so the slide comes in clean and dry. It also cuts down on the drips you get on your head when you pull the slide in during a rain.

This is the Deluxe version, so you get a few upgrades over a basic topper. The fabric is a Polar White vinyl weathershield, which sheds water and stands up to sun better than a lighter cloth. The end caps are Polar White too, with the tall hardware, which gives you a little more clearance and a cleaner look against a white RV cap. Everything is color-matched, so it blends in instead of standing out.

Sizing is straightforward, but measure before you buy. This one is the 120-inch length, which refers to the awning assembly, not the slide box. As a rule, a slide topper runs a few inches wider than the opening of the slide-out so the fabric fully clears the sides. Measure the width of your slide-out room, then match it to the closest Dometic length. If you're between sizes, go up, not down. A topper that's too short leaves the corners exposed.

It ships complete. You get the awning with the roller and fabric, the mounting rail, and the hardware to fasten it to the wall above the slide and to the slide-out itself. That's the w/rail and hardware you'll see in the part description. Install is a two-person job on a ladder. You're mounting the rail level above the slide, setting the roller, and tensioning the spring, then attaching the leading edge to the top of the slide-out room. If you've done awning work before, it's a familiar routine. If you haven't, it's worth having a hand and reading Dometic's instructions through once first.

Who's this for? Any RV, fifth wheel, or travel trailer with a slide-out that's either bare up top or running a tired, cracked topper that needs replacing. Vinyl toppers like this one age out eventually from sun and weather, so swapping a brittle old one before it tears in the wind is money well spent. Polar White is the most common coach color, so this one fits the look of most rigs without a second thought.

One habit worth keeping. In really heavy wind a topper can billow, so if you're parked in a storm for a while, some folks retract the slide to take the load off the fabric. And give the vinyl a rinse now and then to keep grime from setting in. That's about all the maintenance a topper asks for. Rig it up right and you'll forget it's there, which is exactly what you want from a slide topper.