Rockwood 2016 2906WS

[Wanderlost]

Seems we're one of the first folks to buy the new model Rockwood Ultra Lite 2906WS. Thought we'd share what we're finding so far, just in case someone else is thinking of buying one.

The one we bought was loaded with most of the options Rockwood offered, in the Biltmore color scheme.

PRO: Power tongue jack, with light.

PRO: This one came with a pair of 30 lb tanks.

PRO: Street side compartment holds water pump and in-line filter in an easy to reach location.
PRO: Outside shower is directly beside water pump.
PRO: Water heater is directly beside water pump.
PRO: Water intakes are right beside water heater, water pump, outdoor shower.
PRO: Pex tubing.
CON: The water pump/filter compartment had wires routed haphazardly, giving a very untidy appearance and preventing use of that space for additional storage. We re-routed all wires up and out of the way, giving us space to store the water hoses and ensuring no wires get snagged or damaged. Why didn't they clean it up at the factory?

PRO: The underside long storage compartment is pretty spacious for a trailer.
CON: It has only one door, requiring a boat hook to retrieve things from the far end -- or a very small but strong child -- we're going with a boat hook.

PRO: Solar prepped.
CON: Can only use a particular brand.

PRO: Roof ladder.

PRO: Rear bumper can store sewer hose.
CON: Not the attachments. We like to have them permanently attached, so the hose won't be stored in the bumper.
PRO: Room in the bumper for fishing poles, as long as the reel isn't too big.

PRO: Each corner has its own up/down switch for the jacks.
CON: On each corner.
PRO: One gets some exercise running from corner to corner.

PRO: Two power awnings that cover the curb side completely.
CON: No wind sensor to take them in automatically.
PRO: The class A awning was manual. This is definitely an improvement.
PRO: LED rope lights along the curb side.
CON: No door light. It's either light up the whole curbside or use a flashlight to find the door.

PRO: Grill setup is under the awning.
CON: Directions say to retract the awning when grilling. May as well have put the grill on the back where so many others are.
CON: It's close to the bedroom window. If you open the window when grilling, you'll have food odor in the bedroom.
Whatever: TV mount in same general area as grill mount. I'm not likely to use it, but it may be important to someone else.
CON: Too close to grill mount. Might splatter grease on TV.

PRO: Protective cover over bedroom window.
CON: Totally manual. Have to stand on the hitch to unscrew, then raise the cover. Haven't tried it yet, but I think I may be too short to reach the top screws.

PRO: Open the door and you have immediate access to the bathroom and bedroom.
CON: No access to main living area when slides are in.

PRO: Two A/Cs.
CON: Not putting out much air through the ceiling vents. We'll be taking it back to fix that.

PRO: Good heat the first night we spent in it.
CON: Only propane heat through this furnace.
CON: Next morning, the ignition starting firing over and over, and more heat was going out the exhaust than was going inside. Back to the dealer to fix that.
PRO: Good thing we got the electric fireplace. We didn't get cold.

PRO: Nice size TV and excellent Radio/DVD player/Bluetooth setup, all just above the electric fireplace.
CON: Not sure what the open shelf under the TV is supposed to be for. If it was meant for any electronics, it failed, because there is no hole drilled for pulling electrical cords or cables up to the outlet or TV. Maybe we can make it into a drawer.
PRO: Lots of good quality speakers, indoor and outdoor.

PRO: The tri-fold fake leather sofa is perfect for short people. We can sit there with our feet on the ground, instead of sticking straight out. Comfy to sit on, comfy as a bed (full queen).
PRO: Narrow tables on each side of the sofa, for drinks, glasses, books, etc.
PRO: Theater seats are comfy recliners (they do require us shorties to raise the foot rest).
CON: They're almost black in this color palette. Not my favorite color.
PRO: Electrical outlets on both sides of the sofa.
CON: None near the theater seats or dining table/chairs (none in that entire slide). We'll use a long extension behind the seats.
PRO: Dining table with extension and four chairs with storage inside the seats.
CON: Table is screwed to the floor, and so close to one wall that whoever sits in those two chairs will have to really suck in the torso to fit. No idea what we'll do about that.

PRO: Day/night shades on all windows.

PRO: Pretty luxurious fabrics on the windows and throw pillows.
CON: The entire color scheme makes for a dark, boring interior. We only went with the Biltmore color palette because that model was literally the only one on the lot. We’ll be covering as much of the fabric as possible with some actual color. With the window placement where it is, the trailer is too dark for my tastes. Lighter shades on the walls and furniture would help it feel less like a cave. I spent too many years working inside windowless buildings and a couple of mountains to want to do it some more.
CON: A dry clean only bedspread and matching pillows so soft they’re nothing but decoration? No. Just no. The fact that they are also beige to the point of nausea means they left the trailer immediately, never to be seen again (I put them in the class A - its old bed coverings wore out long ago, and it looks very nice there).
CON: The Rockwood color people need to be fired. Beige on gray on black on brown on beige is bloody awful. Making the beige walls white would have gone a long way to improving things. When it's out of warranty, I'll probably paint them.

PRO: Full-size queen bed.
CON: No bedroom mirror. We'll install a full-length mirror on the bedroom/hall door.

PRO: Three drawers at bottom of bed.
CON: A huge handle sticks out of the bed platform. That's about 3" of thigh bruising that does not need to be there.

Kinda PRO: Hookups for a bedroom TV. Not my thing, but some folks like one.
CON: If you actually install one, you'll bang into it every time you walk around the foot of the bed.
CON: Between a TV and that handle, you'll be bruised from shoulder to thigh.

PRO: Charging station on street side of bed.

PRO: Spacious bathroom, especially inside the shower.
Sort of CON: Plastic toilet. Sorry, but I just prefer porcelain. Your tushy may feel differently.
PRO: A circular hand towel hanger was installed right by the sink, nice and handy.
CON: They provided one cheap, crappy towel bar for the bathroom, just tossed into a drawer, with two sets of thingies to hang it up (only needed one set). That towel bar won’t even have the strength to hold one bath towel, much less the four we’ll need, so it went out in today's donations (as did the crappy plastic paper towel holder that broke the moment we folded out the two pieces). Our old class A had the ideal bath towel setup, which we will now build onto the sliding door between bath and bedroom: wooden slats into which are inserted four moveable steel bars. They’ll be out of the way and easily reachable from the shower. Why didn’t their designers think of this?
CON: They provided the plastic toilet paper roll insert, nothing else. We're looking for a j-hook style, like we have in the class A, instead.
CON: No place to actually put the TP holder without it being in the way of something. We'll have to find the least bad place to put it.
PRO: Shower has several shelves and an attached bag in which to store shower things, bottles, etc., plus there's a sky light above. Nicely done.
CON: Really cheap looking plastic shower head and hose. We immediately replaced with an Oxygenics.
sorta CON: Not much storage in the bathroom, so they put shelves in the slideout wardrobe, which cuts the wardrobe down considerably, but it's still a bigger wardrobe than most trailers of this size.

PRO: Suburban cook stove with a 22" oven. Loving that size. Typical 3-burner cook top, with the electric ignition.
CON: Like every RV oven, you have to kneel on the floor, stick your arm (maybe your head) into the oven, then hold your BBQ lighter all the way in the back until the stove finally lights. For someone with a bum knee, this is really difficult - not that it will stop me from baking biscuits.
CON: They put a knife rack at the back of the stove, and then installed a stove model with a bi-fold cover that sits directly on the knife rack when lifted, thereby making said knife rack completely useless. They could have put the knife rack on the right side of the stove (as one faces the stove), where the knives could be reached safely (and the rack itself can be used). I was quite happy to have a knife rack, until I realized it’s a waste of sheet metal.
PRO: At least the stove cover is over the knife rack holes, so food won't drop down the slots.

PRO: Microwave is not directly above the stove.
CON: I need a stool to reach it, and it's really, really tiny - been a long time since I've seen a 1cf microwave.

PRO: Excellent kitchen sink and counter area. Room for our portable ice maker, out of the way, and still space to work.
CON: Sink cover is warped and cheap, as in seriously tacky.
PRO: Nice sky light right above the stove, with a shade for really hot sunny days.
CON: There is no place to put a kitchen trash can. The tall, narrow under cabinet door to the right of the sink would have been the ideal place, but instead they slapped a shelf the entire length of that under cabinet. We’ll have to rebuild the inside of that under cabinet to make room for a trash can.

PRO: Big pantry.
CON: Shelves are so thin that we'll have to reinforce to keep them from collapsing under the weight of whatever we put in it.

CON: All living/kitchen area cabinets and drawers are narrow and thin. Will be difficult to find safe places for cookware, especially my cast iron skillet, the coffeemaker, and similar items. The drawer bottoms are as thin as the pantry shelves. I expect a whole lot of organizing and reorganizing (and probably some DIY work) before we get things safely stowed.

PRO: 8cf fridge. That's bigger than we had in the class A.

PRO: Most of the trailer has a cushioned wood-look flooring that feels just wonderful to tired legs.
CON: Carpet in the living/kitchen area slide outs. Our preference would have been zero carpet – too hard to keep clean in a trailer. I particularly do not like the lump that carpet over carpet forms directly in front of the stove. Frankly, that’s a tripping hazard, one especially dangerous when maneuvering around hot foods and cookware. I've already tripped twice at the stove, and my balance is normally excellent. I think the Rockwood lawyers might have something to say about that design and its unintended consequences…

That's all I've documented so far. If you have any questions, please let us know. We really don't mind being the guinea pigs - we've years of practice...

[geneeich]

PS, My wife and I love all the details you presented and are looking at all of them.

Thank you for all your hard work.

[geneeich]

Hi, picked up our 2906 last Friday. We love the layout and have not found many issues so far. Haven't had any heavy rain to test for leaks. Our unit only has 1 13,500 AC unit which seem to be standard for southern NJ, not sure how well it will cool this unit on 90 degree days. We will find out soon enough.

One issue I'm having difficulty with is loading the trailer with 10 Gal. fresh water for traveling along with everything else and it appears I may not be able to keep the tongue weight below 15% of the GVWR. I have a 2000# scale and it is already at 1235# and everything is not in the trailer. I will move things around, but if I put much in the front storage compartment it will be difficult. I have a Reese straight line dual cam hitch with 1200# bars and don't want to go to 1700# bars and be over 15% of the GVWR. Suggest you check you tongue weight when loaded. Any suggestions or feed back will be appreciated.

[Wanderlost]

Rockwood authorized all the fixes. Dealer update:

Small gas leak in furnace fixed.
Kitchen slide was out of adjustment, readjusted.
Re-taping all the furnace and a/c ducts.
Adjusted fridge. Now freezes ice on medium setting.
Ordered new V-light strips, new trim molding, and a couple of other small things they need. Should have them this week.

Meanwhile, chatted with Augustpilot as he camped near the dealer where he picked up his 2906. Happy so far.

It's a pretty comfortable RV for two people. We're just working out the first models quirks.

[geneeich]

Just bought this unit, picking up on Friday. Thanks for all the details, looking forward to more up dates. I'll add mine after our first rip in May.

[Wanderlost]

On the way home, a side panel fell off. Heard a scraping noise just as WLToo yelled to pull over. Luckily, it was a smooth, level road with a very wide shoulder. He had to get out the tools to finish removing the panel, which was still attached with only one screw. The other two had stripped out of the panel screw holes. Placed it inside and came on home with no further damages.

Steinholz is now back at the dealer for all that warranty work. We're supposed to have him back by 9 May.

I do hope augustpilot doesn't suffer the same issues when he picks up his 2906 this month.

[Wanderlost]

So I got a nice chrome floor TP holder. Bottom holds two rolls, and the J-hook keeps the "in use" one just fine. We can shift it to wherever the person using the toilet needs it to be, and it will fit behind the toilet when we're on the road.

WLToo solved the table issue. He unscrewed it from the floor, moved it a couple inches, and screwed it back down. Problem solved. The factory centers the table on the window for aesthetic reasons, rather than looking at the space adults actually need. I don't think one can do feng shui in a travel trailer...

Opened a couple of windows, set the bathroom vent fan on setting 2 (of 4), and was gone for a couple of hours. The cats were just fine. Haven't had to turn on the air conditioner at all.

Because the cats like to sit on the table, where they prefer the outside view, I bought some non-skid that's smooth on top. It's on the table for them to sit on, and we take it off when the humans need the table. Somewhat lessens the "ewww" factor, since there's no way to absolutely keep them off of it.

Still moving stuff around, looking for the best storage. This will be a long term project...

Bought two oven temperature gauges. Between them, we should come reasonably close to the actual temps, and adjust our settings accordingly.

I'm really loving the plank floor, and truly hating the carpet. Honestly believe this rig would work best without a single dollop of carpet.

The toilet squeaks when one sits, and if one moves, it squeaks some more. It's a plastic thing, but it's really noisy at o dark thirty, when I'm trying not to wake up WLToo. Definitely do not like plastic toilets - but if we do change it out, it won't be until after Alaska.

The hanging wardrobe isn't deep enough, so that limits the amount of clothing one can hang. The clothes will have to hang at an angle to ensure the doors close. The hanging wardrobes on either side of the bed are deep enough, but unless you're a five-year-old, the bottoms pool up and wrinkle. I'm using my side as shoe storage.

Supper time. Later, y'all.

[Rumtan]

Very descriptive and very informative, I hope people read your review and take your advice.

[Wanderlost]

Jack L, we paid about $36k for the Rockwood, and about $40k for the F-350. That's considerably less than we paid for the Itasca Sunrise in 2004 and Jeep Liberty in 2006.

We're on the inaugural trip right now. Have found more things to be fixed.

Furnace seems to be putting more heat out the exhaust than through the floor vents.

Street side slide (TV, pantry, fridge, stove) leaks. It was closed up, we were ready to roll the next morning, and a very heavy thunderstorm rolled through. We got about an inch within a very short time. When we got to the RV park, we realized the lower of the two carpet levels was very wet. Then we saw a bit of daylight along one slide edge. If it rains on this trip while the slide is out, the upper level carpet (along with who knows what else) will be wet.

Had to turn the fridge to max cool to keep the ice cream in the freezer from being soft serve. Wonder what that bodes for summer trips? The Itasca fridge is a Norcold 1200 series and has never given us a second of problems; in fact, it can occasionally be too cold. This Dometic doesn't seem cold enough. We'll have it checked out, just in case.

The stove and oven work just fine. Last night, it did take two hours to cook 4 baked potatoes at what was supposed to be 350 degrees, so an oven thermometer is critical. I was very right about the carpet over carpet in the slides. Both of us have tripped and just barely caught ourselves. Why on earth would they think carpet below a cook stove is even remotely a good idea?

One panel of the nose lights was out. Fuses were fine on trailer and in F-350. Will have that checked.

When WLToo's Parkinsons sets his leg to really shaking, the whole trailer shivers. We'll keep working on how we fine tune the stabilizers -- or maybe just learn to enjoy the vibrations...

The opening above the fireplace is turning into a lovely cave for our largest cat, so we'll leave it alone for now.

Changed our minds about the TP holder. We're looking for a floor model, so we can move it to wherever the user wants it at the time. Then we won't be banging into a holder hanging off the totally-in-the-way places we thought might work.

Bathroom vent is a Maxx Aire. It's super quiet and very, very efficient. The vent above the sofa is just a vent and has no rain cover. We'll install a rain cover shortly. Down side to both vents is I need a step stool to reach them.

Not having a place for a trash can is a serious issue. Rockwood needs to fix this toot sweet. Unfortunately for consumers, their web site "Contact Us" doesn't work. It's like they don't really want to hear from us.

Life is finally stirring in the bedroom, so we're off to see what's here.

[NanciL]

So what did you pay for all of this.
Just started shopping

Jack L

[Wanderlost]

Spousal Unit just brought home a used F-350 to make the Canada/Alaska trip, since it's so much easier to pull through a diesel pump with the semis than to maneuver around the gas pumps. The trim color actually matches the Rockwood main exterior color.

More importantly, he won't be borrowing my F-150 to haul his DIY projects around...

[augustpilot]

Thanks for taking the time to list pros and cons of your new trailer. We ordered same model last Friday. Will try to make some changes you suggested.

[Anmacc2]

Wow! tremendous effort to help others! Thank you. Good luck and enjoy!!! Many years of good use!