First Week owners thoughts and impression.

[Rolling Chaos]

OK this is our first Forest River product. A Rookwood 5th wheel signature. We just picked it up last week. Going home is a whole other story I will tell at a later date as all is not settled on that yet.

The fit and trim inside and out look great and well executed except for the cheap out side stickers they put on. The Rookwood name and signature are cheaply done and one is already coming off. I'll be taking them off. They just made it easy for me with the shoddy way they put them on. Everything seems to work just fine. Heater will run you out quickly. Fridge works just fine. No water leaks can be found and that's a first compared to any of our previous units who all had leaks somewhere. All components work just fine except for the Sky Ranger Teton Wi-Fi. If I can't say something good I won't say anything. The TV antenna part seems to work OK it's picking up channels out of Roanoke VA that are 70 miles away. The Rockwood seems to be a very well built unit. It actually seems better built on trim work than our Grand Design Imagine was. The only thing I can not test is the AC. It seems to cold out for that right now. There is a slight hum sound on the thermostat I hear, after using it to start or stop the heater. Just have to listen very carefully and you can hear a hum. I have no idea what that is yet. Over all first impressions after having it home the first week is GOOD TO VERY GOOD. Maybe a Christmas/ New Years time frame build is not so bad after all, and perhaps a good time for a unit to be built. Things are slowed down some at that time of year.

My one question is the roof. We're on our 5th camper over all this being number 5 . Not once have I seen caulking put down on a roof so little. All the other units from our past had a lot more used around items to seal them up on the roof. In all the others you could see heavy use of the caulking on the roof. The caulking has always laid flat until now. This time it has ribbed bumps all along where they caulked it. Looks like someone's hand was going up and down or the caulking gun trigger was on and off as they ran it. It is very strange looking from what I have known in the past. Our last unit a Grand Design had a ton of caulking on the roof , but it all laid flat. Is this normal for Forest River / Rockwood to do? Running caulking like this? I have posted a video and at the start it shows this ribbed up down caulking. It has rained a few times good and hard and even rained on the trip home and I can find no signs of any leaks. Am I way off and wrong to worry on this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOEr4HWXlT8

As I said this just seems to be a very well built unit and easily the best of the all we have owned so far. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

[Apsaunders]

We have the 2020 Rockwood 2608BS Travel Trailer. I am assuming that a lot of the components are the same. Our thermostat hums every time we make changes or adjust settings. Once the setting takes place (there is a little delay), it stops humming.

We have been through hours of downpours and all without leaks. I think the same nervous guy that caulked yours, also caulked ours. But, no one goes up there but me and it doesn't leak so I'm happy.

One of the main reasons I purchased a Rockwood TT was the torsion axles. Leaf springs beats a trailer to pieces. I was wondering if they install the torsion axles on their 5th wheels too?
Happy Trails
Alan

[Rolling Chaos]

Originally Posted by Apsaunders

We have the 2020 Rockwood 2608BS Travel Trailer. I am assuming that a lot of the components are the same. Our thermostat hums every time we make changes or adjust settings. Once the setting takes place (there is a little delay), it stops humming.

We have been through hours of downpours and all without leaks. I think the same nervous guy that caulked yours, also caulked ours. But, no one goes up there but me and it doesn't leak so I'm happy.

One of the main reasons I purchased a Rockwood TT was the torsion axles. Leaf springs beats a trailer to pieces. I was wondering if they install the torsion axles on their 5th wheels too?
Happy Trails
Alan

Thanks for telling me about yours. Good to know it doesn't leak when caulked like that. Yes the 5th wheels do come with Dexter Torflex suspension axels. Friend of mine was a RV sales person and he bought a Rockwood and one of his main reasons was the Dexter axels. He swears by them being a better ride.

[Rolling Chaos]

update to my posting with some rant involved: After having the unit for a little less than a month here is what I have found wrong so far. None of it worth a worry except for one major item.

There are pendent lights above the dinette area. They have 12 volt led bulbs and you'd think if for some reason one stopped working you could easily replace it right? Wrong answer. One of mine did stop working although the outlet has power. Rockwood told me I'd have to replace the entire light as they don't have replacement bulbs. Yep that's right they don't have and you can't find these bulbs on line anywhere. I was on an email chain of ( no we can't) until I spoke to one person who agreed with me that it was crazy I could not get a replacement bulb. He went up the chain a little and low and behold. I can now get a replacement bulb. Seems his higher up agreed with me. Sadly they wanted to charge me freight to ship it out to me and the bulb was almost $7 . Freight shipping cost is just another stupid thing. Waiting on my dealer to reply now. I asked them to get it. Almost all the decals are coming off already too. I have asked about that , but everyone was worried about the bulb replacement and did not answer that part about the decals. What is really funny about the decals is they show in one of their videos the great care given to make sure decals and such were so well put on and inspected.

Now in the past units I have had, I installed dimmer switches . They work great and we like them. In this case I can't make an easy job of things. I can't find the negative side wire run to the lights ,so I can't even touch the switches until I do find it. Behind the panel when I looked it had several UN-terminated wires just hanging in the air. It was a total mess of wires like I have never seen before in any of the other units we've owned. I was given a contact link to get help with that. The response was sad. Told me they couldn't help me find the negative wire because I was doing a modification. HOW LAM IS THAT ? I could have left out the part about the dimmer switch and would have been given some other lam excuse , because they have no idea what they dd. I asked a friend of mine stop by and take a look and help me tone out the wires I need. He works for NFPA and they over see the National Electrical codes.He is going to get an eye full on this one. LOL

This is my update and sadly I haven't even gone camping with it yet. I still think it is a well built unit for the most part. They did skimp on the cheap decals they used for sure. Not sure what else they did , but some company buyer at Rockwood / Flagstaff got one hell of a free trip to the Bahamas for buying those lights with with no replacement bulbs. Must have been one hell of a deal on the decals too cause they won't stay on and will be gone inside of the next 6 months and will look like crap as they peal from the unit. The Rockwood name will look like crap going down the road as they peal off. That's going to advertise well for sales in RV parks when I show up ? LOL


For they money I still find this to be a good unit. The lam support answers for help is sure generic and unhelpful so far. This is where they fall short to companies such as Grand Design. They can and do build just as good a unit it seems. Skimping on little items and poor support is what kills them. IMHO and experience so far.