Tropicool on slide roofs

[Hoffman]

Has anyone explored using Tropicool on the roof of your slides? My motivation is heat reduction. However I'm concerned about causing a slight dam that prevents water from running off the slide tops. I find the slide seals don't work exactly perfect, a slight tilt of the coach solves it, but adding a layer of Tropicool seems like it might contribute to the drainage challenges.

Thoughts?

[Coloradobus]

Joe,
one thought i had would be the extra “drag” caused by the added depth of the coating on slide air seals. Ifvyour air bladder seals are functioning, you shouldnt need to tilt coach for slide room roof drainage. Marathon had the habit of painting slide room roofs black so understand your thinking

[Hoffman]

Jim,
Yes I thought about the drag issue when the slide is being moved. But if you look at the seal (at least on my front slide), there is an air gap when the seal is deflated. I assume this gap would be more than sufficient to accomodate for the thickness of the tropicool.
I decided I should not paint the area of the slide where the seal actually performs it's sealing, namely next to the inside and outside edges of the slide. This would eliminate the risk of the seal not properly sealing against the TropiCool material.

Does your seal drag across the roof surface when moving the slide?

[Gil_J]

A properly working seal is pulled away from the slide, not just deflated. You won't have Prevost slides. Black tops were on Prevost's first generation slides. They had a couple of potential problems. The slide tilt is adjustable. If there's no tilt, water intrusion when retracting a slide is possible. Slide toppers are another water problem. Marathon put drain holes in their over slide awnings...smart.

[Coloradobus]

Joe
We specifically searched out a coach that didnt have air seals. Our first bus (Featherlite Vogue)wss same era as one we now have, a 1999 shell called 2001 by Country Coach. It had HWH slides with air seal, but the entire room needed to be removed to replace air seal. Featherlite for a time built their own slides and used “rubber “d” seals to seal rooms. Only draw back, is if we choose to runnthe rooms out a few inches as opposed to full extention, sluderoom arent sesled like your air bladder system