Rockwood 8329SS

7.3Excursion4x4 · 10-04-2015, 07:17 PM

My wife and I have finally decided to buy a new RV and are looking at the 8329SS. Any pros or cons?
We are looking at either a slightly used 2015 or new, old stock 2015. Probably going to get the Diamond package with the painted exterior.
Any advise greatly appreciated
Thanks in advance..

lakejumper · 10-06-2015, 12:18 AM

We love our 8329SS...bought it in April and it has a floor plan that we like. We have had some minor issues that are all covered under warranty. We like having two awnings, one on the dining slide and the other standard one, large bedroom, opposing slides in the living room. Love the position of the TV so it can be viewed from anywhere in the dining/living area, self closing drawers...lots of nice features.

7.3Excursion4x4 · 10-08-2015, 06:33 PM

Thanks for the info. Did you buy it from a national dealer or a small local shop?

Airborne · 10-08-2015, 06:52 PM

We too just purchased ours. The floor plan works well for us as we work from out TT for a few months a year and having a large bedroom that can work like an office and my wife on her own end of the trailer working works great for us. I do wish that it had more external storage but with the large closet and getting rid of things that I never used for several years in our old TT and moving to more compact tools things have worked well. My wife loves all of the cabinet and counter space. We have had several TT's over the years and always had issues with kitchen storage and cooking areas. You definitely will want to get two batteries installed right away. I do with the bedroom TV came with a DVD player it didn't so I mounted a small stand alone DVD player in the inside of the closet and run a cable to the TV. I am going to consider mounting on the outside of the closet for next season as I did not consider the Remote for it not working while in the closet with the doors closed or the clothes getting in the way.

7.3Excursion4x4 · 10-08-2015, 07:59 PM

Thanks Airborne and Lakejumper. I will be using this as a mobile office as well to manage my companies as well. I'm gonna spend a couple months a year in it for the next 3 years and then my wife and I'll probably live in it for a couple years at a time after my last kid graduates HS. We thought about buying a 5th wheel but decided to start off a little smaller to see if its doable and we still enjoy it. Just wanting to simplify our lives and get rid of all the excess. This will force us to get rid of the excess and live more simply.

bob caldwell · 10-08-2015, 09:38 PM

Only negative would be......seems like the darker painted ones are a little hotter inside in summer

Airborne · 10-08-2015, 10:56 PM

We do a lot of boondocking so I have come up with a great system that allows us to stay out for a couple of weeks and do what we call workcations. Our last camper was set up similar with a front bed room not as big and the main cabin did not have two slides so everything is bigger for us now but the office/work set up is the same. Upon arriving at our site which we try to do in the mornings I set up a foldable 100 watt renology solar panel up on the main batteries. I carry two extra deep cycles inside the coach. One in the bed room with an inverter attached. The other is in the main cabin with another inverter attached. We then can plug our computers and printer into it the inverters. I get about 6 hours of work time off of my battery. My wife does not use as much power so her battery always has 50% charge left with the computers battery I gets an entire day. In the morning I take the inside batteries outside and hook the batteries up to the solar panel and then hook my large 2500 watt inverter which is normally in the bed room to the main batteries on the coach and work off of those two batteries for the day then switch out the next day. We do have a quite generator that we always have in case we have issues with power but I don't like to run it and ruin the peace and quite if at all possible unless its real hot out. I did have trouble with my last TT's air conditioner not being powered by my generator at altitude but hope to solve that issue soon. If you would like to know more of how I work efficiently on the road let me know. The one draw back for us on this unit over our last is the gray water and fresh water tank are smaller so we have to handle this differently but a little creativeness has allowed us to go for two weeks even with showers. We don't run into black water issues with just the two of us for a pretty long period of time.

lakejumper · 10-08-2015, 11:43 PM

I purchased the RV from a local dealer. I added outside storage by moving the spare tire to under the frame, adding an aluminum lightweight rack on the bumper with two light weight Rubbermaid Action Packer storage bins. I only keep light items like hoses, sewer items, etc in them to keep the weight down but it keeps bulky items out of the regular storage. I added three of the Vinyl fence post holders (do a search and you can find lots of info) and attached them to the under belly. I use one for the water hose, one for extra sewer and the other for the power cord.

Airborne - thanks for sharing your suggestions for boondocking. I've been considering getting the Renogy 100W suitcase and am happy to know that it works for you.

53flattie · 10-09-2015, 06:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lakejumper

I purchased the RV from a local dealer. I added outside storage by moving the spare tire to under the frame, adding an aluminum lightweight rack on the bumper with two light weight Rubbermaid Action Packer storage bins. I only keep light items like hoses, sewer items, etc in them to keep the weight down but it keeps bulky items out of the regular storage. I added three of the Vinyl fence post holders (do a search and you can find lots of info) and attached them to the under belly. I use one for the water hose, one for extra sewer and the other for the power cord.

Sorry to hijack, but do you have a picture of the aluminum rack you added to your bumper? And I searched for "fence post" and "vinyl fence post" but couldn't find a description of what you are referring to above?

2015 Rockwood 2306
2015 Tundra CrewMax

Airborne · 10-09-2015, 08:35 AM

I too was wondering if you have a picture of your undermount tire and rack?

Quote:

Originally Posted by 53flattie

Sorry to hijack, but do you have a picture of the aluminum rack you added to your bumper? And I searched for "fence post" and "vinyl fence post" but couldn't find a description of what you are referring to above?

2015 Rockwood 2306
2015 Tundra CrewMax

bob caldwell · 10-09-2015, 09:51 AM

Try sewer hose mods

Airborne · 10-09-2015, 09:57 AM

Thanks, some cool ideas at RV Mods: Sewer Hose Storage - Ideas and Examples

bamawig · 10-09-2015, 11:00 AM

We purchased our 8328ss in January of 2013. We love it. To date we have towed it over 3,000 miles with no problems. I'm amazed how tough the think is especially after traveling over 500 miles on Louisiana roads. Enjoy you new rig. I believe you will fall in love with it.

Randy
Sent from my iPhone using Forest River Forums

bob caldwell · 10-09-2015, 11:11 AM

Another place to be able to check out the screws, nuts and bolts, would be entering Kansas City on I-29 and leav'n on I-70 East!

Airborne · 10-09-2015, 02:22 PM

One last think I wished the unit had was a 12v dc cigarette lighter adapter hookup or as Rockwood calls them in other units Charging stations. My rig did not come with one and I never thought to ask to order it. I am going to install one myself but I would have liked it to be finished and done professionally. See if you can have this installed or ordered.

lakejumper · 10-09-2015, 08:14 PM

The 8329SS has a 12 volt plug and USB charging station on the left side shelf by the wardrobe in the bedroom.

53flattie: I bought the aluminum cargo rack from etrailer.com at
19x60 Curt Cargo Carrier for 2" Hitches - Aluminum - Folding - 500 lbs Curt Hitch Cargo Carrier C18100

The model is Curt C18100 for $124.95

Airborne · 10-09-2015, 08:44 PM

I have been told that but my unit did not come with it. I have looked in the exact spot, had the dealer look at it too. They are going to install one this winter I just hope its done correctly. Every thing else checks out I just don't know how they missed this.

lakejumper · 10-09-2015, 11:43 PM

The spare tire holder is the same type that they use on pickup trucks. I had it mounted right behind the front stabilizers. It's the type that has the tire hanging by a chain and it cranks up under the trailer and is up against the underbelly. I got the idea from this forum. It can be accessed by using a crank handle inserted from the passenger side of the RV. Unfortunately, the RV is in storage so I don't have pictures.

lakejumper · 10-09-2015, 11:46 PM

Airborne- The 12 volt plug and USB plugs were difficult to see in the bedroom, even with the light on. They are on the wall above the shelf on the left side of the wardrobe. They are set far back and I almost need a flashlight to see them and use them.

Airborne · 10-10-2015, 09:11 AM

Thanks, I will look again much closer before I take it in. I am baffled that the sales guy, a service guy and me missed it but I will look again. The units at my storage lot so some time this week I will go by and have a look. We did not look into he wardrobe, just around the little night stands and the bed area. My wife packed the closet with clothes as soon as we got the unit home so if she did not see it then it could go for an awful long time without us knowing about it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lakejumper

Airborne- The 12 volt plug and USB plugs were difficult to see in the bedroom, even with the light on. They are on the wall above the shelf on the left side of the wardrobe. They are set far back and I almost need a flashlight to see them and use them.

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