Considering a 23IKS - Got Questions

[RooVader]

Interesting...I like the SS layout quite a bit. When they redesigned the DK they did an amazing job. If they work similar magic on the SS that is already pretty great my head might explode.

[DK-in-SC]

Well, regardless of how this turns out, I give you two big thumbs up for doing your research. You've probably learned a lot more about this than you ever wanted to know, but in doing so you've gathered a lot of valuable information that will keep you safe and help in making the right decision.

[bikendan]

We still love our 23SS. We chose it because of the kitchen counterspace and layout. We've never had any regrets and it has been perfect for us.

It has already had a couple of revisions since it came out in the 2006 model year.
In 2008, it went from 7'6" wide, to 8' wide. The kitchen sink plumbing was changed to allow for an outside storage compartment in the slide.
The last revision was going from a booth dinette to a u-dinette.

[DK-in-SC]

That u-dinette is great in the 23SS. I wish they had figured a way to include that on the IKSS.

[rockfordroo]

Here's a hitch for a 2014 LR4 (picked 2014 as I didn't know which model year you had):

2014 Land Rover LR4 Trailer Hitch | etrailer.com

Can't keep your spare if it's full-sized, though.

[drhroo]

Originally Posted by rockfordroo

Here's a hitch for a 2014 LR4 (picked 2014 as I didn't know which model year you had):

2014 Land Rover LR4 Trailer Hitch | etrailer.com

Can't keep your spare if it's full-sized, though.

Thanks for looking this up! I pointed this out to my wife as an example of how helpful this forum is! That is the one we would use. Then add on an equalizer just to be on the safe side. The "off road" spare will need to go on my roof rack and I'll get one of the temporary spares to fit back underneath.

Long talk with the Land Rover dealer today. Pretty funny. He "couldn't" tell me, "wink, wink" something that goes against corporate policy. But he happened to mention that a local woman pulls for Clydesdales in a trailer using the OEM hitch gizmo. :roll eyes: That said, I don't really trust the OEM thing for something like this and better to be safe.

And, yes, it looks like this may all work. And even more cool is we might even get one this year - at which time we will flood this forum with newbie questions like, "So where do you hang your paper towels?" and "Does anyone have a list of what we should bring along?"

I am somewhat concerned about the issue people are having with water spray from the tires working its way up under the slides while driving. I'll need to get to the bottom of that before we commit to an IKS.

[drhroo]

Oh, and my wife has decided that it is easier to call this model the KISS rather than the IKSS.

[sewingcybermom]

I'm in IKss owner, and love it! We tow with a Ram 1500 Laramie Hemi, so no problems there. The floor plan is awesome, love the island, and we have the airbed couch. Yep, it has arms. And just so you know, the jacknife couch has a door compartment under it, and the airbed has a HUGE pull out drawer, where we keep our clothes. No need for duffels, bags and "where do we put them" conversations. We keep linens and stuff in the back wardrobe because we just don't need to get to them that often. The bathroom has a large mirrored wardrobe that we keep towels and toiletries in. We actually have NOTHING in the cabinets over the couch and dinette. There are so many cabinets in there, we won't ever fill them up. The island holds all of our pots and pans, and the floor space in the island holds a small dirt devil vacuum. There is tons of room in this camper, it is so well arranged, I can't think of anything I'd change..well...I'd like a king bed on one end, but there aren't too many hybrids, if any that have that. Probably has something to do with the length of the door that has to fold up. The awning does tilt downward the same as any other, and you can tip one side for water drainage if you need to, without worrying about the slide damaging it. The edges of the slide top are quite smooth, so there is no worries there. Put some pool noodles up there if it worries you. Another place for some noodle corners would be the bunk end corners when the bunks are in use. They are at the perfect height to poke you eye out! We haven't done this, but probably will. We are both pretty clumsy. Thoughts about things I would re-do? Well..here's my pet peeve. The outlet that serves the counter space next to the stove is just in the most bizarre place imaginable. I sometimes wonder if anyone actually tries to cook in these campers before the final design. If you plug in your coffee maker, it has to sit on the edge of the counter, right near the stove. The toaster with the coffee maker..right next to it. Making the beautiful big counter space virtually unusable because it's blocked by the appliances that will be very close to the flames of your stove. Duuuhhhh...how about you put the outlet in the wall in the BACK of the counter, or above, in the bottom of the cabinet. Having cords hanging over the counter is just asking for a "holy ****...there goes the coffee maker" moment. Just my opinion, but I'm a foodie, so this outlet really has me a bit peeved. We are working on a solution to it as I speak. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.
We've added some small things to make storing stuff easier. I hate stuff laying around the camper, on counters etc. OCD I think. So some cubbies near the door, key hooks above them near the door, toilet paper holder inside the bathroom cabinet door so it isn't sticking out in your way. The bathroom is small, but doesn't bother us too much. (if you shut the door, and turn on your roof fan, it sucks the shower curtain out into a nice pouf so it's not touching you while you shower) Oh..the shower itself sucks. Invest in a oxygenics shower head, you won't regret it. And if you want it to be even better, take out the restrictors from both the shower head and handle assembly. Better than my house now. Planning on using the oven? get a travertine 12x12 tile and place it right under the bottom rack on the metal shelf. It may crack, but still works well. Even heating and no bottom burning on your food. I've made biscuits, cookies, pizza, and a coffee cake beautifully. I hate the vinyl floor pattern. I think it's supposed to look rustic and be great for disguising dirt. Well it does that for sure..cuz it just looks like it's dirty. The grill sucks. good for burgers and dogs, but not much else. 12,000 btu's. Can't cook a great steak on it for the life of me. Looking for a replacement, not necessarily for the bumper hook up, as it is awkward and too close to the camper in my opinion.

Now, having told you what I don't like, there are very few reasons NOT to buy this model. It has lots of room, a great set up, there is plenty of space under the awning. we stumbled upon this camper from Craigslist, but had seen it at a camper show a couple of years ago and liked it then. Got an unbelievable deal. If we didn't love it, no deal would have sold me. But we LOVE it. Absolutely love it. We were 23 year pop up owners, towing is still a learning experience, but we're getting better every trip.

I'll answer any questions you may have...good luck in your decision! I'll post a few pictures of some of the things we've done to keep it organized.

Oh...the awesome shower curtain I made
last couple are to show you just how much room there is under the awning with the slide out. I can just about get my whole BMW under there if I park it a little closer. Enjoy!

[sewingcybermom]

And here is my biggest pet peeve with my IKSS.

[jking46]

Sewingcybermom, what year is your ikss? We have an early 2015 and the kitchen outlet is on the underside of the overhead cabinet. No pics, unit in storage. Your coffeemaker can sit back against the wall. I did notice on the lower cabinets you have a door and 3 drawers. Nice. We have 6 drawers hidden behind 2 doors. Pain in the rear. I guess they reserve the right to make ongoing changes and improvements? But seriously, that's really the only complaint we have. We've had it for a bit over a year ond only one problem....the water filter canister split .... I removed it and bypassed the filter....everything's good now. Big question is..would we buy it again? You betcha.

[1beachbum]

drhoo, We really love the configuration of all of the Roo/Shamrock floor plans. You tow a nice compact package that sets up quickly into a larger living space. I sometimes refer to ours as a "TARDIS" because "it is bigger on the inside".

We have never had any trouble with leaks while towing. Some things we have found:

• 
  When making reservations at a campground give the length of your trailer including the opened bunks. We ran into a campground with a hill at the back of our site that would not permit opening the back bunk.
• 
  Where to put the toilet paper? Lots of good ideas have been posted. I do not like punching holes in the walls as they are lightly built. I also do not like strong tape that can mess up the walls. We found an "over the tank" toilet paper holder at Lowes that we put over the vanity door. It is in the perfect place and can be turned to the inside of the vanity if needed. The best part is it only cost about $4.

• Lots of good advice here and you have already received some of the best: Don't wait for model year changes. Yeah, there will be some but not really enough to wait. Our neighbors bought a 2015 Roo and a few things are different. We enjoyed comparing our campers. It's all good.

Good luck with your decision and enjoy your camping adventures.

[RooVader]

Oh stop making me jealous with your fancy extra room and cool features and fun shower curtains and island living, lol.

How is that sun screen working? Which model did you get? I have considered one but wasn't sure if I should without awning poles.

Oh, and to maintain discipline and keep this thread on track...congrats on inching closer to the big kiss! Honestly I haven't heard too many reports of the underground water slides.

[drhroo]

This is awesome! Super-sewingcybermom - great insights. All of you have been most helpful. I have this thread bookmarked and I'm getting emails when someone posts. In fact I woke this morning as I often do and grabbed my iPad off the nightstand to check email. (My work.) Then I saw the post from sewingcybermom and started laughing - waking my wife of course. Worse, I started talking to my wife about some of the cool insights in the email. She does like the idea of a trailer but me turning into a chatterbox and telling her we need to get some noodles and some pugs and that turning on the fan in the head sucks the show curtain away from your body - all at 5:30 in the morning - was a bit much. ;-)

A question on your awning. In the picture it appears you have some sort of extension that hangs down towards the ground, right? Can you explain what you did there. I like the idea but here in Colorado we get lots of wind.

And, jking46, we agree with everyone who likes the spacious feel of the IKSS. I have gone from referring to this as our "camping trailer" (our wonderful daughter in law properly rolls here eyes when I mention that we may be going "camping" in a rig like this), I now refer to it as our vacation home - one that we can move to different locations.

jking46, how do you "bypass" the water filter? Is there a tutorial or youtube on this? I'm not very good at the DIY stuff. But there have been enough people raising a concern about this that I think I'll just get an external filter and put it on the city water hose and bypass the built in one. I take it that is what some others are doing.

[DK-in-SC]

This thread has been great. Lots of very good info, and its always cool to see how people with the same model set it up differently and make their own tweaks.
So on our 2015, the cabinet next to the oven has two doors which open to two wide drawers. That was one of the changes (I think) for 2015. Prior models had half-wide drawers and a pass through space on the left side that led to an outside access door on the kitchen slide. You can see this outside door in one of sewingcybermom's pictures. That is gone in 2015. As for the electrical outlet, after owning ours for a year, I just discovered the outlet under the cabinet. I'm tall and never noticed it until I was recently sitting on the floor playing with the dog and had one of those "well whaddaya know..." moments. We've been setting up the mini Keurig and toaster on the island but will now try this "new" outlet.
The RVQ grill isn't great by any means, but the more I use it the better I get. It has hot spots and I need to rotate the food for even cooking, but overall I'm glad we've got it.
Your "vacation home" description is spot-on. We now claim to have a beach house, a lake house and a mountain house. Life is good.

[sewingcybermom]

Originally Posted by jking46

Sewingcybermom, what year is your ikss? We have an early 2015 and the kitchen outlet is on the underside of the overhead cabinet. No pics, unit in storage. Your coffeemaker can sit back against the wall. I did notice on the lower cabinets you have a door and 3 drawers. Nice. We have 6 drawers hidden behind 2 doors. Pain in the rear. I guess they reserve the right to make ongoing changes and improvements? But seriously, that's really the only complaint we have. We've had it for a bit over a year ond only one problem....the water filter canister split .... I removed it and bypassed the filter....everything's good now. Big question is..would we buy it again? You betcha.

Ours is a 2014. When you open yours, can you take some pics to show us how the outlet is installed in the overhead cabinets? I am really going to do that mod. Our end of the year mod is to put a tub/shower and remove the corner shower. Always something to investigate.

[sewingcybermom]

Originally Posted by RooVader

Oh stop making me jealous with your fancy extra room and cool features and fun shower curtains and island living, lol.

How is that sun screen working? Which model did you get? I have considered one but wasn't sure if I should without awning poles.

Oh, and to maintain discipline and keep this thread on track...congrats on inching closer to the big kiss! Honestly I haven't heard too many reports of the underground water slides.

Awwww RooVader, I'm not trying to make you feel bad..I'm just lovin' our new roo!
We found the sunscreen in one of the cabinets on our first trip out. What a bonus find! It'slips in great and it really works well to create shade and keep that side of the camper cooler.

[sewingcybermom]

Originally Posted by drhroo

This is awesome! Super-sewingcybermom - great insights. All of you have been most helpful. I have this thread bookmarked and I'm getting emails when someone posts. In fact I woke this morning as I often do and grabbed my iPad off the nightstand to check email. (My work.) Then I saw the post from sewingcybermom and started laughing - waking my wife of course. Worse, I started talking to my wife about some of the cool insights in the email. She does like the idea of a trailer but me turning into a chatterbox and telling her we need to get some noodles and some pugs and that turning on the fan in the head sucks the show curtain away from your body - all at 5:30 in the morning - was a bit much. ;-)

A question on your awning. In the picture it appears you have some sort of extension that hangs down towards the ground, right? Can you explain what you did there. I like the idea but here in Colorado we get lots of wind.

And, jking46, we agree with everyone who likes the spacious feel of the IKSS. I have gone from referring to this as our "camping trailer" (our wonderful daughter in law properly rolls here eyes when I mention that we may be going "camping" in a rig like this), I now refer to it as our vacation home - one that we can move to different locations.

jking46, how do you "bypass" the water filter? Is there a tutorial or youtube on this? I'm not very good at the DIY stuff. But there have been enough people raising a concern about this that I think I'll just get an external filter and put it on the city water hose and bypass the built in one. I take it that is what some others are doing.

It's a shade screen hanging from our awning. It slips right into the channel in the awning roller. We found it inside one of the cabinets when we took it on our first trip. It was never opened. Score! We also acquired a brand new keurig and when we finally opened the back bunk, we found a nice 24" flat screen tv!

I'll post some pictures of some more simple mods we've done.

[RooVader]

So are you finding the awning holds pretty well without too much stress on the arms?

It sounds like you guys found the gift that keeps on giving! That is awesome.

[drhroo]

Originally Posted by sewingcybermom

It's a shade screen hanging from our awning. It slips right into the channel in the awning roller. We found it inside one of the cabinets when we took it on our first trip. It was never opened. Score! We also acquired a brand new keurig and when we finally opened the back bunk, we found a nice 24" flat screen tv!

I'll post some pictures of some more simple mods we've done.

That is too funny! Maybe we should be going the "used" route. No telling what buried treasure might lie waiting for a new owner to discover things. Of course my luck would be to discover things, well, things that should never be discovered.

I would be interested in the brand/name for the shade screen. That sounds cool.

[drhroo]

Originally Posted by RooVader

Oh stop making me jealous with your fancy extra room and cool features and fun shower curtains and island living, lol.

How is that sun screen working? Which model did you get? I have considered one but wasn't sure if I should without awning poles.

Oh, and to maintain discipline and keep this thread on track...congrats on inching closer to the big kiss! Honestly I haven't heard too many reports of the underground water slides.

Hey, roovader, no need to feel jealous. You have a tub!