Rockwood ultralight construction quality?
I am considering the purchase of a Rockwood 2604 ws. I would like to hear only from owners of Rockwood or Flagstaff ultralights, preferably from those that purchased new units. Please share any though...
Forum Discussion
2004 Rockwood 8318SS 31ft ultralight, purchased new.
Soft floor in front of entry door. No water damage, probably foam collapsing (like previous poster).
This trailer uses a frame that consists of 3 pieces of mild steel welded together to form an I beam. The beam bent down just aft of the tires. The beam web buckled. I noticed the paneling on the side of the fridge had bowed and investigated. The fix was a friend and I straightened it out and welded a reinforcement plate onto the beam.
The front window started leaking behind the queen bed. I removed the window and wasn't surprised it was leaking. The window cutout looked like it was done freehand with a jig saw, and in several places the window flange covered the hole by about 1/16". The fix was to realign the window with shims to even out the cutout gaps, and then reseal.
The slide roof leaked from the factory, but it was masked by the slide topper. One day a wind blew rain just right under the topper and the slide leaked into the cabinet below. I removed the topper and it was easily apparent that the Dicor from the factory had a large gap. I resealed with Dicor to fix the problem.
The upper bunk support almost pulled out of the wall because they shot screws into the thin paneling only instead of the reinforced areas in the wall. Fixed it by adding extra screws into the reinforced areas, where the original screws should have been.
Took the cladding off the underside to do a mod and noticed that the black tank was sagging at one end, threatening to fall out. The angled supports it rested on were cut too short, so the plate welded at the end of the angle was short 3/8" from reaching the crossmember it was bolted to. So instead of the screws being in shear, they had started pulling out at an angle, lowering that end of the angle more and more over time. I added shims and bolts with nuts to fix the problem.
Other than these, it hasn't been too bad (ha ha). I do like the floor plan.
Steve
Soft floor in front of entry door. No water damage, probably foam collapsing (like previous poster).
This trailer uses a frame that consists of 3 pieces of mild steel welded together to form an I beam. The beam bent down just aft of the tires. The beam web buckled. I noticed the paneling on the side of the fridge had bowed and investigated. The fix was a friend and I straightened it out and welded a reinforcement plate onto the beam.
The front window started leaking behind the queen bed. I removed the window and wasn't surprised it was leaking. The window cutout looked like it was done freehand with a jig saw, and in several places the window flange covered the hole by about 1/16". The fix was to realign the window with shims to even out the cutout gaps, and then reseal.
The slide roof leaked from the factory, but it was masked by the slide topper. One day a wind blew rain just right under the topper and the slide leaked into the cabinet below. I removed the topper and it was easily apparent that the Dicor from the factory had a large gap. I resealed with Dicor to fix the problem.
The upper bunk support almost pulled out of the wall because they shot screws into the thin paneling only instead of the reinforced areas in the wall. Fixed it by adding extra screws into the reinforced areas, where the original screws should have been.
Took the cladding off the underside to do a mod and noticed that the black tank was sagging at one end, threatening to fall out. The angled supports it rested on were cut too short, so the plate welded at the end of the angle was short 3/8" from reaching the crossmember it was bolted to. So instead of the screws being in shear, they had started pulling out at an angle, lowering that end of the angle more and more over time. I added shims and bolts with nuts to fix the problem.
Other than these, it hasn't been too bad (ha ha). I do like the floor plan.
Steve
