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...

[Wanderlost]

We've had Steinholz long enough now to realize that we're just not trailer people. We're cleaning out all our stuff and preparing to put him up for sale, now that we've gotten all the bugs out... Gone a whole year without any further glitches.

We updated our old class A and will keep using it for a good while.

Really nice trailer, actually, but just not our style. Oh, well, there's someone out there who will love Steinholz.

[ulvik]

Wow I know three people personally who own Rockwoods including myself and none of us have had any issues what so ever. We are on our second one and travel around 8,000 miles a year and not one issue at all. Did change the tires to a better set but that was all we have ever done. But then again we ordered the one we wanted so we got just what we wanted so we would not have any dislikes. Wish you the best of luck!

[csjag1]

Funny, after considering this model Rockwood as one to upgrade to, we decided on a Grand Design Reflection 315RLTS. Our new one should be in by this time next week. We had looked at the Rockwood closely and liked the feel of the interior - it had a "comfy" feel inside the trailer. But the GD had more of everything we wanted on our new RV and especially after reading about the problems that you were having with yours, we're glad we made the choice that we did.

Good luck with whatever you and WLToo decide.

[Wanderlost]

Steinholz did a good job during a pretty cold period. We set the thermostat for 55 degrees, as we weren't sleeping in it, and it held that temp nicely.

Then our FW-fulltiming friends came to Mom's for Christmas, and they slept in Steinholz, after we suggested they leave their FW at home (they live in it on our property). Said they were very comfortable the whole time.

After Christmas, I sent everyone home and stayed with Mom (as she recovers from the car wreak and now cataract surgery). WLToo took Steinholz straight back to the dealer for more warranty work.

More trim panels were coming off (3 screws per 12 foot panel section is clearly not enough), there were holes in a slideout gasket, and holes in the roof covering.

I had hoped to take Steinholz out for our 40th wedding anniversary. Guess not. Dealer just got the shipping document from FR a couple days ago.

I'm swiftly losing any faith in FR quality. In fact, WLToo has decided a trailer is, for us, a failed experiment. He wants to go back to a Class A. Sigh.

[geneeich]

There is not pass thru because water heater, pump and filter are at that location on the other side, so no pass thru. There are a couple other draw backs like you have to open slide to access kitchen area and heavy tongue weight. I have 1500# bars for my WDH and has corrected that, but still don't put heavy items in this storage area. Access to kitchen area hasn't been a problem except in crowded parking areas and when the batteries are stored in garage for winter. I install 2 batteries to make sure I had enough power to operate all slides when not hooked up to AC power. We did a 10 week trip across country this summer and trailer was very comfortable to whole time. Can't speak to the other unit, but this one is very nice.

[csjag1]

Just an addition to all of the above.My wife and I will be upgrading our TT in about a year and this Rockwood 2906WS ( and it's Flagstaff sister model,29KSWS )is on our list for upgrading. I noticed that although the Rockwood has no passthrough in the storage bin, the Flagstaff does. Strange, considering they are built in the same factory.

Glad to see posting by both Wanderlost and geneeich,as well as others who own this unit. I know that there is no perfect trailer, but your PRO and CON list sure helps put even the small things into perspective. I enjoyed all of your posts and see what the wife and I end up with next year.

[geneeich]

I also have concerns about this Dometic refrigerator and won't know until next summer. I plan on keeping it running even at home so I can test before 2 year warranty runs out. We really like this trailer. It was very comfortable the entire 10 weeks we were away. I think Rockwood has winner floor plan, but did a lot of things borderline to keep the cost down. However, we will deal with any issues as they come up as we haven't seen a better floor plan for the 2 of us and at this point in life I don't want to deal with another new trailer.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.

[Wanderlost]

Steinholz did just fine, although following along behind, I saw the tires tilting, not staying straight, while going down a straight highway. Have to get that checked out.

Now the stabilizers are taking turns not going up or down. Electrical short, maybe?

The new fridge isn't working out so good; luckily, we're not using it. Have to experiment to see what's not happening.

Not sure if we'll get Steinholz back home for warranty work before the year runs out, so we may need to take him to the local folks. Lovely.

Oh, the joys of owning a new trailer...

[Wanderlost]

Packing Steinholz. Took a bit of maneuvering, but I found a place to secure the cast iron dutch oven. Added a couple more blankets, and now it's just clothes and cat stuff to go.

Dometic replaced the burnt out fridge with the same model, so we're watching it closely, in case the problem is with the model and not just the one we had. Kinda nervous -- having the previous one burn out at the dealer was a stroke of luck. They smelled the burning and took care of it before something worse happened.

Will be an unusual trip. We need both vehicles up there, so I'll follow WLToo in my F-150 (or I'll drive the F-350 with Steinholz). By following, one of us can keep an eye on Steinholz, in case something else decides to fall off or the fridge burn up.

We'll have one cat per pickup, so each will have room to get comfortable. Alex stays in his carrier, but Spotacus likes to move in and out. He looks out the window for a while, then sleeps in the carrier. They're both great travelers.

Time to finish packing...

[Wanderlost]

Only 57 bottles of wine? Pikers..... 😉

[geneeich]

Hope you mom recovers well. Hope your long trip is a success. We finished our 10 week trip west from NJ and back 10/1. We had a wonderful trip, 12,540 miles, 8000 towing trailer, 1118 gal of fuel, 57 bottles of wine, 2092 pics, 72 days, 71 nights, 12 national parks many other attractions, and a great trip. We had several issues with the trailer, refrigerator problem, water pump issue, and a flat tire. Thank goodness for TPMS, caught tire problem before totally flat. Up graded to load range D tire. I'll replace the rest later. The trailer is winterized and we are waiting for spring. Have great holiday season.

[Wanderlost]

Steinholz is finally going on a long trip. We'll certainly get to test out the winter package.

Mom was injured in a car wreak (totaled her car, damaged the other one), so we've been taking care of her at her place. Came home for a couple weeks, and when we go back, Steinholz goes with us. We need our own quiet retreat occasionally, and we'll need the extra sleeping space for the Christmas gathering there.

I expect more lessons learned out of this trip; hopefully no more repairs, though.

[Wanderlost]

Geneeich, how's the upgrade?

[geneeich]

Just wanted to let everyone know I'm upgrading to 15k unit when I get back from trip. Unit is suppose to arrive while I'm away and will be installed soon there after. I'll let everyone know how it works after it is installed and I get some days in the 90's here in south Jersey. Trailer wobble was solved with BAL stabilizer bars. They made it rock solid.