23IKSS Maiden Voyage

[Archicamper]

My wife and I just got back from a 2600 mile shakedown cruise to Florida with my new Roo 23IKSS and GMC 1500. It was great and truck and camper were super. I got the camper last fall and intended on getting out one time before Thanksgiving but an early winter snow storm forced us to put the camper into storage. Having come from a Roo 19 and checking out most of the systems I was not worried about starting with such a long journey and the truck and Roo did not disappoint!


The23IKSS was really great. Not that the Roo 19 was a bad camper but all of the additional space and storage were greatly appreciated. It was so much easier to move around even when the brother and sister-in-law stayed with us for a night. The couch and island sink were very nice to have.


The trip down was uneventful except for a latch breaking on one of the windows which was quickly repaired with a little duct tape! I could not believe all of the traffic on I75 and we saw a lot of snow birds in their RVs heading back north while we were on the way south. We also had are first Walmart camping experience on the way down. We stopped near Chattanooga for the night at a Walmart near there. We were not sure what to expect but when we pulled into the Walmart all the good RV spots we taken be 5 or six other rigs and we ended up parking with a few other RVs and a lot of trucks. All in all, there were about 7 or 8 RVs and about 10 trucks so we were not lonely!


We turtled at the Walmart using the fold out sofa with a foam topper. The combination was comfortable enough and I now know that we can easily sleep the way anywhere that we cannot extend the beds. I am curious what other 23IKSS owners do with their slides when they turtle and use rest stops while traveling.


We camped at Oscar Scherer State Park in Osprey Florida. It was a nice park with a lot of vegetation between the campsites. We were there for 6 days with water and electricity. I used the blue boy to dump the gray water once and was surprised that the tank was full again by the time we left.


I installed a tire pressure monitor prior to the trip and it was a good thing I did because we had a flat on one of the trailer tires. I was alerted by the alarm and was able to stop before there was any damage. We were able to get the tire repaired and were on our way back home. The tire monitor a TST 507 provided a lot of peace of mind.


I was a little disappointed with my gas mileage. I have the 5.3 V8 with a 3.42 rear end and I averaged between 9 and 10 mpg. The truck pulled the camper great but I was hoping for a little better mileage. All in all, it was a great trip and I can't wait to get out again.

[jking46]

Sounds like a great first trip! We have an early 2015 ikss and really like it. Envious though because we haven't been able to take a long trip like that yet. Indiana state parks are our normal destinations.
Don't be disappointed with the mileage. I think you will find you are right where everybody else is. I get 9 to 10 with a Ram 1500 5.7 hemi.

[TT233S]

Originally Posted by Archicamper

The trip down was uneventful except for a latch breaking on one of the windows which was quickly repaired with a little duct tape!

Please tell me more?


We've had nothing but problems with our window (233S) above our sofa on the door side!!!!!

Window just comes open on it's own, had to duct tape the window shut on the outside to keep it closed, latch has broken twice, still looking to get this fix once and for all!!!!!

Thanks,
TT

[Feasba]

Hello Archie and TT,

We have an IKSS scheduled for delivery later this month. I see you both had issues with windows staying shut. I am wondering if you have the frameless windows from the Sapphire package or the standard framed windows. When we looked at these trailers at the camp show, my husband was surprised that some of the windows do not have a mechanical latch to hold or lock them shut, you just had to tighten the knob as much as possible for the window to stay closed. Seemed like with this style of closure they could loosen during normal highway driving and possibly pop open.

[TT233S]

Mine is the frameless.......My dealer said this is common......I started a thread http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...w-86417-2.htmllast year and I seem to be the only one on here with this problem until I noticed this post!!!!! Mine has been fixed three times and it broke again each time while bringing in home from the dealer, and it's a short 20 mile trip on the freeway. My dealer said it's a fine line when closing this window, you don't want to crank it to tight or to loose, on a side not so far this is our only problem!!!!!


I read my thread again and one person also had the problem, the rest didn't but seem to have older models which would have a frame!!!!!


My dealers going to fix it next time at my house, they will be bringing a whole new window!!!!!

[RACarvalho]

Originally Posted by TT233S

Mine is the frameless.......My dealer said this is common......I started a thread http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...w-86417-2.htmllast year and I seem to be the only one on here with this problem until I noticed this post!!!!! Mine has been fixed three times and it broke again each time while bringing in home from the dealer, and it's a short 20 mile trip on the freeway. My dealer said it's a fine line when closing this window, you don't want to crank it to tight or to loose, on a side not so far this is our only problem!!!!!


I read my thread again and one person also had the problem, the rest didn't but seem to have older models which would have a frame!!!!!


My dealers going to fix it next time at my house, they will be bringing a whole new window!!!!!

Can you load a picture of the failed component?

Tks!

[cheeseheadjim]

Wow !

A 2600 mile shakedown cruise - that is quite the trip ! It sounds like you had a great trip in a great trailer.

We are anxiously awaiting delivery of our new 23IKSS, but I don't plan on going more than 200 miles on our maiden voyage. After 30 years of a popup, I want to ease into the good life :-)

Jim S.

[Shamrockthecasbah]

We just picked up our 2017 Shamrock 23IKSS from Keystone RV Center in Greencastle PA last Saturday. What a terrific RV!! We got 9.5 MPG on our way back to Delaware with our Suburban 1500 5.3/4sp/3.73.


I experimented with the hide-a-bed and a 2" topper. I had to elevate the fold-down metal legs with a couple of lynx leveling blocks on order for the bed to be reasonable level.


We camped Sat night at Greenbrier State Park near Hagerstown were It got down to 20 degrees that night. We slept in the back bunk behind the bath and stayed warm with the heated mattress, 1500 watt ceramic heater running on the rear TV shelf in the "room" with us, and the Furnace set to 60 degrees.

[Archicamper]

Originally Posted by jking46

Sounds like a great first trip! We have an early 2015 ikss and really like it. Envious though because we haven't been able to take a long trip like that yet. Indiana state parks are our normal destinations.
Don't be disappointed with the mileage. I think you will find you are right where everybody else is. I get 9 to 10 with a Ram 1500 5.7 hemi.

We do most of our camping in Indiana as well!

[Archicamper]

Originally Posted by TT233S

Please tell me more?


We've had nothing but problems with our window (233S) above our sofa on the door side!!!!!

Window just comes open on it's own, had to duct tape the window shut on the outside to keep it closed, latch has broken twice, still looking to get this fix once and for all!!!!!

Thanks,
TT

That sounds like the exact same problem that we had. I have requested new hardware from our dealer. Maybe this is more than an isolated incident.

Mine are the frameless windows.

[Archicamper]

The other thing that was a surprise to me was how loud the refrigerator fan is. Adding a quieter fan is on my list of future mods!

[wicked1]

Originally Posted by Archicamper

My wife and I just got back from a 2600 mile shakedown cruise to Florida with my new Roo 23IKSS and GMC 1500. It was great and truck and camper were super. I got the camper last fall and intended on getting out one time before Thanksgiving but an early winter snow storm forced us to put the camper into storage. Having come from a Roo 19 and checking out most of the systems I was not worried about starting with such a long journey and the truck and Roo did not disappoint!


The23IKSS was really great. Not that the Roo 19 was a bad camper but all of the additional space and storage were greatly appreciated. It was so much easier to move around even when the brother and sister-in-law stayed with us for a night. The couch and island sink were very nice to have.


The trip down was uneventful except for a latch breaking on one of the windows which was quickly repaired with a little duct tape! I could not believe all of the traffic on I75 and we saw a lot of snow birds in their RVs heading back north while we were on the way south. We also had are first Walmart camping experience on the way down. We stopped near Chattanooga for the night at a Walmart near there. We were not sure what to expect but when we pulled into the Walmart all the good RV spots we taken be 5 or six other rigs and we ended up parking with a few other RVs and a lot of trucks. All in all, there were about 7 or 8 RVs and about 10 trucks so we were not lonely!


We turtled at the Walmart using the fold out sofa with a foam topper. The combination was comfortable enough and I now know that we can easily sleep the way anywhere that we cannot extend the beds. I am curious what other 23IKSS owners do with their slides when they turtle and use rest stops while traveling.


We camped at Oscar Scherer State Park in Osprey Florida. It was a nice park with a lot of vegetation between the campsites. We were there for 6 days with water and electricity. I used the blue boy to dump the gray water once and was surprised that the tank was full again by the time we left.


I installed a tire pressure monitor prior to the trip and it was a good thing I did because we had a flat on one of the trailer tires. I was alerted by the alarm and was able to stop before there was any damage. We were able to get the tire repaired and were on our way back home. The tire monitor a TST 507 provided a lot of peace of mind.


I was a little disappointed with my gas mileage. I have the 5.3 V8 with a 3.42 rear end and I averaged between 9 and 10 mpg. The truck pulled the camper great but I was hoping for a little better mileage. All in all, it was a great trip and I can't wait to get out again.

Nice story and glad it was a fun but safe trip, I can't wait to get mine de-winterized for our first trip in Mid May.

I have the 2015 Roo 23ikss with older layout and Willow interior with Cherry cabinets, love the couch also.

I have a 2014 F150 with EcoBoost and avg anywhere from 9.5 hills of PA to flat roads in Cape May NJ 14.5 mpg. It all depends on how you drive I stay under 65 and I am always loaded lightly never heavy, but seriously considering a tire monitoring system so good to know it worked.

[TT233S]

I didn't not take any pictures.............

[Archicamper]

Here are pictures of the latch that is broken. Not much to see from the photo. Also are photos of the shower curtain mod that I did using snaps. This works pretty well.


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[RACarvalho]

Thank you Archicamper,
I wanted to see the failure so I could understand how it fails and keep an eye on mine....

[Archicamper]

Here is a better picture. I you look closely you can see that the casting is cracked.


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