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Old 11-16-2019, 12:58 PM   #1
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RockWood Mini Lite 2504s thread

Hello,
We recently purchased a 2017 Rockwood Mini Lite 2504s. We did a lot of research for the camper that is just right for us, and this is it! Small enough to pull with a 1/2 ton Silverado, but yet big enough to live in for a few months at a time. Murphy bed, U-shape dinette table, and 2 bunk beds which we will mainly use for storage.

I am curious however regarding a few features in this unit. I very much welcome anyone else that has this model with questions, answers, comments, etc.

We bought it in July and have done some light camping in our state of Iowa so far. In January, we are taking it down south for 3 months. I have viewed countless Youtube videos and read hundreds of forum threads to prepare myself for our trip. I have even dry camped (boondocked) in our driveway a few nights in preparation. We are mostly going to be in RV parks and State Parks, but there will be a few nights here and there of boondocking.

We bought a new 12 volt battery, EMS, TPMS Tire Pressure Montoring System, 3000 watt inverter generator, an oil filled AC heater, repacked all wheel bearings, topped off our LP tanks, and I believe we are ready. I also know how to manually bring in our slide out and awning, just in case.

Please feel free to share your experiences and tips.
Thanks
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Old 11-16-2019, 06:37 PM   #2
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seems like you have all your bases covered, have a great trip!
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Old 11-17-2019, 08:58 AM   #3
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Welcome from New Jersey, You definitely have things in order, what about the TV ? Don't forget to post pics? Have a great trip!
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Old 11-17-2019, 11:48 AM   #4
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Welcome from New Jersey, You definitely have things in order, what about the TV ? Don't forget to post pics? Have a great trip!
Thanks. We are just going to use the 32" Roku TV that came with it. I did fully lubricate the TV antenna and figured out how to turn it towards the stations.

We also had one of our sons load up a USB drive with hundreds of movies. We don't really plan on watching much TV but during crappy days, ya never know.
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Old 11-17-2019, 11:51 AM   #5
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David. I meant tow vehicle, lol but the roku works [emoji2]
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Old 11-17-2019, 02:22 PM   #6
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Welcome to the forum from Co. Bluffs. Always expect the unexpected. Our first trip out, walked into our trailer at the first camp groundto find the drawers cock eyed. Turned out the bracket holding them in the cabinet were only secured in place with 1 screw. So be prepared.
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Old 11-17-2019, 02:59 PM   #7
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2017

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Welcome to the forum from Co. Bluffs. Always expect the unexpected. Our first trip out, walked into our trailer at the first camp groundto find the drawers cock eyed. Turned out the bracket holding them in the cabinet were only secured in place with 1 screw. So be prepared.
The OP's trailer is a 2017. Hopefully the previous owner worked most of the bugs out.
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Old 11-17-2019, 03:00 PM   #8
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Same model, same year. Unless it was a mid-year change, the 32” Roku TV is not original. Ours was early manufacture and came with a 24” that I replaced with a 32” Samsung.
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Old 11-17-2019, 03:03 PM   #9
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David. I meant tow vehicle, lol but the roku works [emoji2]
Haha my mistake. I don’t quite have you guys acronyms down yet. Wondered why you’d ask about our TV. Movie buff maybe? Haha.

2015 Silverado. Plenty of truck for 25 ft TT.
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Old 11-17-2019, 03:08 PM   #10
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Same model, same year. Unless it was a mid-year change, the 32” Roku TV is not original. Ours was early manufacture and came with a 24” that I replaced with a 32” Samsung.
The place where we bought it used probably switched it out and gave us the less TV. Works fine for us.
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Old 11-17-2019, 03:16 PM   #11
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Welcome to the forum from Co. Bluffs. Always expect the unexpected. Our first trip out, walked into our trailer at the first camp groundto find the drawers cock eyed. Turned out the bracket holding them in the cabinet were only secured in place with 1 screw. So be prepared.
Hello Council Bluffs. Are you an Omaha Lancer fan by chance?

For camper rookies, we have some good experience when we bought the camper. Cindy and I did a lot of research. Found the model of Rockwood that we wanted. Missed out on one close to where you live. Found one in TX, FL, KS, and then Myrtle Beach, SC. My daughter lives there, and a couple good friends. Plus, they were selling it for a few $1,000 less than anyone else. Had my good friend go to the Camper dealer and Facetime with me to show me how it looked. And smelled. Smelled New!

So that was in July. 105 degrees. We drove there from Iowa. The dude from the Camper dealer hooked it up for us and off we went, heading home. My first time pulling anything bigger than a 10 foot Uhaul. haha So I learned a lot. Camped at 2 RV parks on the way home. Learned a ton there.

Weekend camped 4 or 5 times since then in local state parks.

So, any loose screws and bolts, we've already found them!

Thanks for the heads-up.
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Old 11-17-2019, 03:29 PM   #12
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Love the 2504S. Still surprised that it lost the battle of the bunkhouse floor plans to the 2509S. If only the 2509S were available when I was shopping, I'd be towing a different brand.

I love how easy it is to access everything with the slide tucked in. In 2 years of owning/camping, here is what we have done/encountered:
  • Front window started leaking in torrential downpours. Maybe it always leaked, but we don't camp in big rain storms. Anyway, just calked that up.
  • A lot of the interior stripping has come off. The trim slats that are meant to cover the seams above the bed and the framing of the slide out. The brads they used popped through. I've repaired a couple and a couple I just removed from the trailer.
  • We added a Slim Shade, which I highly recommend. That, combined with a metal vent cover I added, makes for a completely dark interior ... even when the sun comes up.
  • I grabbed a cheap Camco water heater bypass kit to form a loop around the water filter. That way, I could leave it in place for any future owners, but I bypass it for my use. Even if I were to use the inline filter, the bypass makes it easy to winterize without filling up the entire filter cartridge.
  • We added a cheap 3" foam topper. That's a complete game-changer. Mattress is now more comfortable than our bed at home.
  • I added a Raspberry Pi running Kodi for a cheap movie server for the kids.
  • Added some cheap drawer friction liners for when we sleep on the dinette. Otherwise, the table is too slick and the cushions push off super easy during the night.
Really enjoying it so far.

Have fun.
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Old 11-17-2019, 04:24 PM   #13
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Originally Posted by 67L48 View Post
Love the 2504S. Still surprised that it lost the battle of the bunkhouse floor plans to the 2509S. If only the 2509S were available when I was shopping, I'd be towing a different brand.

I love how easy it is to access everything with the slide tucked in. In 2 years of owning/camping, here is what we have done/encountered:

** Yes it is nice to be able to access without opening the slide out. But then again, we do not know any different.
  • Front window started leaking in torrential downpours. Maybe it always leaked, but we don't camp in big rain storms. Anyway, just calked that up.

    **Hold up now. You have a front window? Is this a feature that comes with the 2018? Our 2017 does not have that. I am jealous. See my attached pic.
  • A lot of the interior stripping has come off. The trim slats that are meant to cover the seams above the bed and the framing of the slide out. The brads they used popped through. I've repaired a couple and a couple I just removed from the trailer.

    ** Yes we have seen that a few times and super glued it back on. Not a big problem. In fact, only 3 small places where this was coming off.
  • We added a Slim Shade, which I highly recommend. That, combined with a metal vent cover I added, makes for a completely dark interior ... even when the sun comes up.

    ** Interesting. I just watched a Youtube video on a Slim Shade because I did not know what it was. That is nice. I don't care so much for the frosted glass in the door.
  • I grabbed a cheap Camco water heater bypass kit to form a loop around the water filter. That way, I could leave it in place for any future owners, but I bypass it for my use. Even if I were to use the inline filter, the bypass makes it easy to winterize without filling up the entire filter cartridge.

    ** I like this idea. It is a pain filling the filter when winterizing.
  • We added a cheap 3" foam topper. That's a complete game-changer. Mattress is now more comfortable than our bed at home.

    ** Yes ours came with a foam topper. Memory foam. It is SOOO comfortable. Coincidentally, just today we checked out the heated bed. We found the controls, but never tried to plug it in. I thought we may need the heat this winter when we are in Texas. Plugged it in and it works good!
  • I added a Raspberry Pi running Kodi for a cheap movie server for the kids.
  • Added some cheap drawer friction liners for when we sleep on the dinette. Otherwise, the table is too slick and the cushions push off super easy during the night.

** Hum? That is a thought. I took the camper on a fishing weekend with the boys and used the table for a bed only once. My buddy who slept on it said it was comfy and never mentioned the cushions sliding off. I will keep an eye on that.

Really enjoying it so far.

Have fun.
** Yeah we love it too. We like the bunk beds for the occasion that someone actually sleeps in them. This happened on the fishing weekend. And we plan to use them for lots of storage of our clothes in the 3 months we are traveling down south this winter.
Love the Murphy bed. So good to have it up and out of the way when we are just hanging out in the camper, and then bring it down at night.
And I like that the camper only weighs 4,600 pound dry. My Silverado can easily pull it. Since I have never owned a TT before, and for that matter di not own a pickup, I wondered how good my Silverado pulled it. I had nothing to compare it to. One of my best friends works as a technician at an RV dealership and he checked it out for me. Along with our Stabilizer and Sway Control, it pulls like a dream!
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Old 11-17-2019, 07:44 PM   #14
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Boondocking

If you are considering boon docking, you might consider adding a small propane heater like a Big Buddy heater. The furnace will eat up your battery electricity in an day or 2. Mine pulls 7 amps an hour from checking w/ a Kill-a-Watt meter. You do not want to pull your battery down more than half way. Figuring a 105 amp battery, about 7 or 8 hours of furnace. You might consider taking a battery charger to recharge your battery quicker than the convertor in the trailer or a 100 watt solar panel to help w/ battery drain.
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Old 11-18-2019, 08:28 AM   #15
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If you are considering boon docking, you might consider adding a small propane heater like a Big Buddy heater. The furnace will eat up your battery electricity in an day or 2. Mine pulls 7 amps an hour from checking w/ a Kill-a-Watt meter. You do not want to pull your battery down more than half way. Figuring a 105 amp battery, about 7 or 8 hours of furnace. You might consider taking a battery charger to recharge your battery quicker than the convertor in the trailer or a 100 watt solar panel to help w/ battery drain.
All sounds good except I read you should trickle charge your 12 volt battery. If I am boondocking for a couple days, where do I plug the battery charger in?

In a pinch, maybe I could plug in our generator and fast charge the battery with a battery charger?
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Old 11-18-2019, 08:38 AM   #16
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No charger needed

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All sounds good except I read you should trickle charge your 12 volt battery. If I am boondocking for a couple days, where do I plug the battery charger in?

In a pinch, maybe I could plug in our generator and fast charge the battery with a battery charger?
No charger needed. Plug the trailer into the generator and the trailer's "converter" will charge the battery.
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Old 11-18-2019, 08:46 AM   #17
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No charger needed. Plug the trailer into the generator and the trailer's "converter" will charge the battery.
Thanks. And I read somewhere to always unplug the umbilical cord to the towing vehicle when boondocking. True? Will this drain the vehicle’s battery?
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Old 11-18-2019, 09:37 AM   #18
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Depends

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Thanks. And I read somewhere to always unplug the umbilical cord to the towing vehicle when boondocking. True? Will this drain the vehicle’s battery?
Some vehicles disconnect the power when the engine is off. Others don't. Unless you are certain that your tow vehicle disconnects power when the engine is off, best to unplug the umbilical.
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Old 11-18-2019, 10:26 AM   #19
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Boondocking

FYI-Generator usage time in National Parks is usually 8am-10am, noon-2pm, and 6pm-8pm. Meal time so you can run the microwave. I have a V-front TT, no space for a second battery on trailer. I carry the battery charger- 6 amp to charge a second battery that I carry. That way we can charge 1 w/ on board system and 1 w/ charger during generator time. We can camp this way for over a week at a time. The 100 watt solar panel handles the times we are gone during " gen run" time and reduces the noise.
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Old 11-18-2019, 10:38 AM   #20
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FYI-Generator usage time in National Parks is usually 8am-10am, noon-2pm, and 6pm-8pm. Meal time so you can run the microwave. I have a V-front TT, no space for a second battery on trailer. I carry the battery charger- 6 amp to charge a second battery that I carry. That way we can charge 1 w/ on board system and 1 w/ charger during generator time. We can camp this way for over a week at a time. The 100 watt solar panel handles the times we are gone during " gen run" time and reduces the noise.
Thanks for the info on generator time in national parks. Good to know. So do you simply remove the cables from one battery and then clamp them on the spare battery? How do you switch power from one battery that is depleted to the fully charged battery?
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