New Owner.... my observations so far

[EdCaffreyMS]

Not long ago, my Mrs and I purchased a used 2022 Rockwood A213HW. The seller agreed to meet us half way (distance wise), and after meeting them at a Flying J truck stop....where the owner showed us how to set it up, gave use the nickel tour, and we haggled a bit on the price. Everything about it appeared in new condition, and the owners told us they had used it 6 times until health issues arose and forced them out of camping. We purchased it, and drove the 6 1/2 hours back to our place.


Now, this is the first RV anything we've ever owned, so realize that I have not been indoctrinated into RVs in any way shape nor form.



The next day we set it up, opened every door and compartment, and set out to learn our new RV. First thing we noticed was loose screws rolling around in nearly every compartment, and even a few in the open floor area. It took some time to find where the screws had fallen out, and put them back in place with a dab of RTV to keep them where they belong. Some were stripped so badly that I had to replace with larger screws. I can only surmise the situation was due to a lot of rough/construction roads coming home.... but it also revealed to me the less then stellar craftsmanship they put into these campers.



Again...I'm not a indoctrinated RV owner.... so I gotta say that I was kinda taken back at just how cheap and chinsey most everything inside was. Doors and drawers don't fit up well, and the pull handles on the drawers are not even centered on the drawers. Raw plywood to cover the storage areas.... and many other "small" things that I simply don't like.


My next step was to crawl around under it, where I met another surprise....the entire underside is BARE OSB! No paint or coating of any kind! I still can't wrap my head around that one...had I looked under there before buying... I likely wouldn't have. So on the "to do" list is to coat the underside with truck bed liner.



Next thing I noticed is how "low slung" the entire trailer is... VERY low to the ground, with wires and plumbing exposed everywhere. We're not KOA camping folks. If we can see a road or another camper/tent, then it's too crowded So first order of business was to LIFT the entire thing. Since the camper has a #10 Dexter axle, fabricating and installing a 3 1/2" lift kit was fairly simply, and took about 1/2 a day.


My Mrs took a couple of days off work, we loaded it up, hooked it up to my F150, and off to the mountains. The new lift kit leveled the trailer out well, and it tracked super driving down the road. After and hours drive from out home, and about 19 miles on a mountain "2 track" road, we found a nice little spot at about 7200Ft, beside a stream that I knew to host a good population of Brook trout.
Setup was quick and easy. Even leveling wasn't too bad.


We had already purchased a pair of Honda 2200I generators with the tandem wiring kit, so I got those out, setup and ready for the night. The water tank on this trailer is 26gal, so there's plenty of water for a few days worth of dishes and washing. Probably the most important thing in this camper for us (well for my Wife) is the toilet. It's a pretty neat little setup, with a "cartridge" holding tank. It did it's job during our stay, is certainly the Wife's favorite part of the camper.



Overall it wasn't too bad. Once I got past the initial shock of how cheaply it was made, it does the job it should. There's a number of other things that I consider sub-par.... namely how loud the heater/furnace is... we both literally jumped out of our beds the first time it kicked on. And the fridge....it is an absolute necessity to "pre-cool" it with ice at least overnight before a trip...but once cooled down, it does it's job well, and the auto switching between power sources is nice. In the end, it's not all bad, there are just a lot of things that surprised me, and that need "fixing" to suit me.


I'll fix those things one at a time, and hopefully by next season, it'll all be up to snuff. More to come!

 

[aceinspp]

See this is your first post. Welcome to the forum. I might suggest you introduce your self on the welcome mat sub forum and tell us a little bit about you. Later RJD

 

[Reverse_snowbird]

Loose screws unfortunately are normal. A bottle of glue and a screwdriver live in our kitchen drawer. Low slung is also normal.
Precooling refrigerators, especially if it's a propane/electric fridge is normal. Most people plug in and cool the refrigerators overnight or longer before a trip. They also get warm pretty quickly so we carry a cooler for cold drinks to minimize opening and closing the refrigerator.

Now bare OSB board doesn't seem normal. Usually there is some type of 'plastic type' protection underneath to protect the underside from water intrusion. Since you're the second owner, there's no telling what happened before you bought it. If there had been a water leak, people will remove the plastic and insulation to find the leak and dry out the bottom of the rig. You'll need another Rockwood owner to tell you what's normal.

Glad you got to enjoy the rig.
Welcome to the forum!

 

[NJKris]

Ed, welcome to the world of never ending screws falling out, you just reminded me to fix dinette table, 3 screws fell out of the support post crown last trip. I almost got the HW214, salesman at Hershey RV show didn't have any A-frames to show and talked me into getting GeoPRO, kind of glad he did.



What is bare OSB? I'm pretty good with auto abbreviations but never heard of this.

 

[kenandterry]

Ed, welcome to the world of never ending screws falling out, you just reminded me to fix dinette table, 3 screws fell out of the support post crown last trip. I almost got the HW214, salesman at Hershey RV show didn't have any A-frames to show and talked me into getting GeoPRO, kind of glad he did.



What is bare OSB? I'm pretty good with auto abbreviations but never heard of this.

OSB stands for Oriented Strand Board…..as Home Depot defines it.
Up here in Canada, I’d call it particle board. Bits and pieces of wood, pressed and glued together in a sheet. Poor man’s plywood.

 

[Retired Dave]

It's my understanding that the omni strand board used on the floor is sealed against water. I used to buy the marine grade OSB for boat projects and it looked identical to the OSB on our camper's floor. It sure isn't going to hurt to seal it with truck bed coating though.
By the way, welcome to the forum!
A quick fix for loose screws is to use toothpicks to "shim" the holes when the screw is put back in. We did this when we picked up our brand new 2205S, which had a bunch of stripped cabinet screws.
Not to make light of your issue, my wife and I boated all over Lake Michigan for 30 years. It was common to need to tighten our boats' rub rail screws after a long run in tall water. And then do the same thing on the inside with cabinet door hinges, seats, side panels, pretty much everything with screws.
Congratulations on your first camping trip!
Edit; someone posted that the OSB is not coated, so I was wrong in thinking that it was. Sorry.

 

[NJKris]

Oh, ok. Never hear that term, must be builder's vocabulary. I noted looking inside my fold open sofa the boards it is constructed out of is not quite particle board, it looks like scraps of lumber all pressed and glued together. Maybe a lighter version of very heavy particle board? Strange they have that under OP's trailer with no covering!

 

[Big Vic]

OSB stands for Oriented Strand Board…..as Home Depot defines it.

Up here in Canada, I’d call it particle board. Bits and pieces of wood, pressed and glued together in a sheet. Poor man’s plywood.

They all come with bare OSB.
“Quote:

"Weyerhaeuser agrees with Fleetwood's practice of not coating the exposed bottom surface of the Structurwood panels used in their trailers. In our opinion, moisture from occupancy load, or from other internal or external sources may become trapped in the Structurwood substrate if it is coated on the underside with a system that impairs the ability of the substrate to dry thoroughly. Trapped moisture, over time, may cause premature decay or rot." Weyerhaeuser

 

[Larry-NC]

That's OSB, alright

Oh, ok. Never hear that term, must be builder's vocabulary. I noted looking inside my fold open sofa the boards it is constructed out of is not quite particle board, it looks like scraps of lumber all pressed and glued together. Maybe a lighter version of very heavy particle board? Strange they have that under OP's trailer with no covering!

Kris, you've answered your own question. That's OSB alright. Particle board is much finer grained, like large sawdust particles pressed together. OSB is big wood chips, sometimes a couple of inches long.

Good to see you back. Where've you been?

 

[KB1]

I've replaced every wood screw I could find, and get to with firing strips behind the pasteboard panels, stainless T nuts and stainless machine screws. The crappy sheetrock type screws they use go in easy at the builder but will eventually strip the shallow holes and be useless.

 

[Larry-NC]

Plastic anchors

I've replaced every wood screw I could find, and get to with firing strips behind the pasteboard panels, stainless T nuts and stainless machine screws. The crappy sheetrock type screws they use go in easy at the builder but will eventually strip the shallow holes and be useless.

Inexpensive plastic anchors--the kind with the two legs that spread when the screw is driven--are adequate for almost all RV uses. I usually use the size that fits a 3/16" hole and accepts a #6 screw.

They come in two flavors: with or without a flange that sits above the surface. The ones with the flange are easiest to use--you can push hard while driving the screw without pushing the anchor through the panel. But if you have a fixture that you want to fit flush to the wall, the one without the flange are better but take a little more mounting care. Sometimes it helps to run the screw in and out without the fixture to be mounted before attempting to mount the fixture.

 

[Bob K4TAX]

I would agree the construction quality is likely NOT as one would expect. They have to meet a parallelogram of choices, quality, price, features, and weight. In doing so, some sides get stretched more than others. Thus the shape of things gets pulled and stretched while others get less and less.

Engineering says it will take longer and cost more. Accounting is saying too much time and money is being spent. Production says we can't build it that way. Marketing will say we need it now and for less price. Sales say we can't meet the competition in that configuration and at that price. Glitz and glamor sells. Seems that is the way the world works these days.

I do all of my own maintenance, put back loose screws, straighten drawers and doors, and correct electrical and plumbing issues. In doing so, I learn a lot of things about our RV. I could complain but I figure, after owning many boats and travel trailers, trucks, and cars, it is a way of life. It is just that some ways of life are more expensive than others.

Bob

 

[Larry-NC]

Expensive?

I do all of my own maintenance, put back loose screws, straighten drawers and doors, and correct electrical and plumbing issues. In doing so, I learn a lot of things about our RV. I could complain but I figure, after owning many boats and travel trailers, trucks, and cars, it is a way of life. It is just that some ways of life are more expensive than others.

Bob

Expensive in money sometimes; expensive in time at others.

 

[Bob K4TAX]

Expensive in money sometimes; expensive in time at others.

Being retired, my wife claims I'm worth about $0.25/Hr on a good day. So I can spend the entire day doing maintenance. In doing so, it saves a LOT of money that we can spend on other things.

I encourage others to do their own maintenance. Or at least learn how to do so.

Bob

 

[bikendan]

A-frame trailers and popups are the cheapest cost RVs for the consumer and have been for decades.
So it's not surprising that they're cheaply made. I've owned two popups so I have some insight.
They aren't very profitable for manufacturers. Jayco, who made great folding trailers for decades, stopped making them a number of years ago. That says volumes.

 

[NJKris]

Amen, Bob.

 

[EdCaffreyMS]

Strange.... I did create a post on "The Welcome Matt"... what's odd is both it, and this show as my first post. Hmmm.

Anyway... My Name is Ed Caffrey, from Great Falls, Montana. I'm a 23+ year USAF veteran, and am a full time Bladesmith. I'm one of 117 ABS rated Mastersmiths in the world. What that means is I was a Bladesmith/Knifemaker before it was cool (before the Forged in Fire nonsense). I have a complete Blacksmith/Fabrication shop, and am blessed to be able to walk out my back door, and to my office (shop) each day.
Most of my camping has been with a backpack and a sleeping bag, or at most a tent, when chasing Elk and/or other big game during the Montana hunting seasons.
As my Mrs and I have gotten older, and due to me having some health issues, the comforts have become more and more important. We gravitated to the A-Frame popups because our "kids" purchased a used A-Liner toy hauler, and love it.... calling it their "Hobbit House". After seeing how quickly and easily theirs was to setup/take down, it peeked our interests..... which lead us to buy what we did.
Sorry for the confusion with the term "OSB".... I guess is should have said "scraps and glue board" I would have to say that's the one that I was the most disappointed with in this camper. At the very least I expected marine grade plywood. My plan is to coat the entire underside, as well as some of the lower exposed portions of the camper with Truck Bed Liner... otherwise I can see falling through the floor in a few years, and/or the lower portions of the camper being beat to death from all the gravel roads we travel.

After talking/visiting with the previous owners, I don't think they did anything to the camper themselves, they said it was taken to the dealership for anything it needed.

We did notice that the "A frame" type of campers are somewhat difficult to find...so I tend to believe the statement made about their profitability, and companies ceasing to offer them.

Aside from the lift kit and the truck bed liner on the outside, and new/better mattress on the inside, I also plan to relocate either the propane tanks and/or the battery box on the tongue...so I can move the electric jack rearward, to allow the truck tailgate to be opened with the trailer hooked up.

Thanks for the warm welcome! I look forward to reading and learning from what appears to be a great community! Many Thanks!

 

[Nick Danger]

Welcome to the site. It appears we were both stationed at Malmstrom AFB. I was in RED Horse and loved it there. One of the best assignments ever!

 

[RangeMaggotBob]

I'm just curious as to why you have 2 Honda 2200i generators?
And NJKris- you don't know what OSB is? There was something the other day I posted that you didn't know about, too. Come on man! I depend on you for good straight answers!

 

[Larry-NC]

An easier way?

Aside from the lift kit and the truck bed liner on the outside, and new/better mattress on the inside, I also plan to relocate either the propane tanks and/or the battery box on the tongue...so I can move the electric jack rearward, to allow the truck tailgate to be opened with the trailer hooked up.

Many folks have found that they can get sufficient clearance by simply rotating the jack on its mount so the motor is off to the side or back instead of facing forward.

Others have found that they can leave the jack assembly in place but remove the three screws holding the motor in place at the top and rotating the motor assembly on the column to achieve the same effect.

Some have reported that the holes are not exactly at 120° spacing. I can't remember if the is the jack-to-frame area or the motor-to-column area. I am sure that an individual with your skills can drill or drill/tap holes if necessary.