Rockwood Impressions - Hershey RV Show

[Sbadocko]

Just got back from the Hershey show. DW and I did our due diligence and visited the makes that interested us and spent time in their representative lines in order to form an opinion on which RV manufacturer we would concentrate on in the next year or two.

Our list:

Rockwood
Airstream
Lance
Grand Design
Jayco

The Jayco units we looked at (Jay Feather line) were just garbage in our opinion. Cheap feeling, insubstantial. Laminated floor, and our preferred floorpan had cable slides. Cables are the worst; so Jayco overall was a hard pass for us.

Grand Design felt like a step up from the Jayco units. The Imagine XLS was put together nicer and presented nicer. The 22MLE was our preferred floorpan, but that huge slide is on a Schwintek and the floors are also laminated. We passed.

We were overall underwhelmed by Lance. They seemed put together better than the Grand Design and Jayco units, but we just didn't 'get' why they were that much more. We also didn't like the star gazer window over the bed (I've been leaked on by my campers over the years way too often), and overall we just didn't come out of any of those units feeling like 'Yah, lets do this.' They have a following for being a quality camper, but we just didn't see it.

Airstream is Airstream. Inside fit and finish was the best out of all of them, the Ultra Leather on the cushions was appreciably nicer, the foams were appreciably more supportive. I'm not a tall man and my wife is short, so the shower and radius ceiling were non-issues for us. Plus you can outfit the Airstream in twin bed configuration, which at this point in our marriage is a plus not a detriment. We understand things will break in all RVs, but knowing the unit overall will still be functional decades down the road gives a warm and fuzzy feeling. Also, we're okay w/ no slides. Less things to break, less smoke intrusion, leaks, etc. We're not sure we want to spend Airstream money though.

Which brings us to Rockwood. Overall heads and shoulders above the competition in its segment (aka things not Airstream). In pretty much every aspect. I appreciate the tongue/groove flooring, rack & pinion slide out, floorpan variety, etc. The new 2515s is a winner for us; we'll take the dinette and theater seats over the better kitchen and 'dinofa' (thanks Josh) of the 2516s.

If we decide we're not buying an Airstream in 1 or 2 years, it'll be a Rockwood. No need to look at any other makes as we've crossed everything we care about off our list.

Next up - upgrade the F150 to a F250.

[JoeCO]

Nice review, thanks for sending. I like the look of that 2515S, at least on paper, and can't wait to see one in person. A little concerned about counter space but i think we can work around that since we also like having both a dinette for the occasional guests and theater seating.

[Reverse_snowbird]

That is a nice looking rig.
You can even get to the bathroom through the front door if the slide is in.
The lack of counterspace is a problem in lots of rigs. I can't tell if the stove has a cover or not, but a cover over the stove or sink should help solve that problem.

Thanks for sharing.

[JDR76]

I kind of just lucked out when I bought my first trailer, the GeoPro. None of what I had read online about poor quality with RVs, especially COVID era RVs, seemed to apply. I didn't have a single issue with that trailer.

When we decided we needed something a little bigger, I did look at some other brands but kept coming back to Forest River products. We looked at some others, but they just didn't seem to be built that well. We decided to stay with FR, buying a Flagstaff MicroLite, which felt like a larger GeoPro/E-Pro to us. And just as before, I am very happy with the quality of our unit.

[Rhumblefish]

Pretty good comments. Likewise, it'd be wise to recognize that some of the manufacturers are bringing better game and construction techniques to their different subbrands/lines. Jayco isn't all bad, and Grand Design has three levels of construction. Likewise, Rockwood isn't monolithic.

Having put in the same work you did, we agree, though Lance really does shine for assembly, and Airstream has you paying big bucks for aluminum shell, but the subsystems all fall into similar territory. Some of Rockwood approaches better quality with Adzell walls and aluminum framing, but there's still a lot of handwork being completed by eye of teenagers being paid by the piece. By the time you work up to something with yacht-like quality, you're paying Bowlus Road Chief prices, but getting something put together with less eye cast towards a low price.

The Rockwood 2515s is indeed a nice little unit, but it's still a commodity product, a shell screwed together and finished out with industry level "stuff." I think the one thing that might keep the Airstream in the conversation is value over time, how long you will hold the unit, desired resale value when it's time to change at that point.

You can see how we voted with our dollars, and am happy to have done so.

Clearly this isn't your first rodeo. So - such as it is, good luck, amigo. I hope you get the trailer of your dreams. You're well on the way!

[Sbadocko]

Originally Posted by Reverse_snowbird

That is a nice looking rig.
You can even get to the bathroom through the front door if the slide is in.
The lack of counterspace is a problem in lots of rigs. I can't tell if the stove has a cover or not, but a cover over the stove or sink should help solve that problem.

Thanks for sharing.

The stove had a glass cover and the sink had a metal slat roll top cover. In case others are interested.

[Sbadocko]

I agree w/ the feedback I’m seeing here. At the end of the day, most of what we walked and evaluated is all coming out of Elkhart. So there might be better among sub-par, and perhaps Rockwood might come out to what most would consider ‘average’ in any other product line (cars, appliances, etc.), but none of it is high quality.

Heck, the F250 I’m about to upgrade into had an issue at my walk-through; the gauge cluster was crooked so they had to fix it.

Airstream out of Jackson Center has its own issues, and their forums are littered w/ like problems from other brands. However, objectively sitting in the unit and feeling what they put together, it IS better. But for a heckuva lot more money.

And yes, this is far from my first rodeo; my experience is in motorized Class C units over the past decade and change. My post count doesn’t reflect that, but I’m new to the forum !

We decided motorized was too expensive, complicated (all the systems in a motorized unit), and difficult to find service for. So now we’re going to pull it instead of drive it. Limits my exposure to the hobby as the cost is spread between a comparatively cheaper ‘toy’ part of the hobby, and the truck that I can at least use every day and thus justify much easier.

I can swallow a problem on a 40k trailer much easier then a 140k motorhome.