RV review of the 2024 Rockwood Mini Lite 2515s travel trailer
Today’s RV review is another sneak preview of a forthcoming 2024 RV - the Rockwood Mini Lite 2515s. Some brands of RVs just have these very passionate followers and for very good reason. I’ve seen gatherings of Tiffin brand RVs, there are rallies for Alliance and I accidentally started a huge group on Facebook for Rockwood and Flagstaff RVs.
More on that in a minute.
Rockwood (and Flagstaff)
Perhaps the reason that Rockwood, and its identical twin sister Flagstaff, have such a passionate following are some of the things the company regularly does. Despite the popularity of the brand they continue to only build RVs in their plants in Millersburg, Indiana.
The significance of this is the number of Amish members of the work force. In fact there’s even a buggy barn on the property so team members who do drive buggies or ride horses have a place to park them.
Rockwood and Flagstaff have their own cabinet shop where hardwood cabinet faces are built along with drawers and such.
They use a man-made wall board (often Azdel) for both inner and outer substrate in the wall lamination and the company laminates all its own walls and roofs. Oh, right, the roofs are laminated walkable structures with aluminum framing.
You’ll also find welded aluminum build under anything that is structural even inside like the dinette, bed and that sort of thing.
Windows in Rockwood and Flagstaff products are frameless windows which require less maintenance but some campers say they don’t provide as much air flow. So they put in a high-performance fan to counter that. In fact you can get a second high-performance fan which we did in our own Rockwood Mini Lite.
Torsion axle suspensions are also a signature item in these trailers with the advantage being that they just ride smoother and tow better and the smoother the ride in the trailer the less jiggling and banging it experiences which means it’s not beating itself to death.
I also criticize RVs with tiny ovens because, again, all Rockwood and Flagstaff products that have ovens have the larger ones.
In other words, when there’s a choice Rockwood and Flagstaff tend to choose the better components or features or build methodology.
New for 2024
As with all companies Rockwood and Flagstaff continue to make changes for 2024 and there are a few things that have our little group of 10,000+ aficionados drooling. One of those is the upgrade to slam latches for the baggage doors.
Rockwood is a good brand but the tumbler latches on the baggage doors didn’t reflect the brand’s more up-level status. The slam latches are better. And now they’re there.
There is also an upgrade to the antenna system from previous years. The new antenna is Winegard product which is intended to improve both performance and also eliminate some of the structural issues with the previous antenna.
Another big change is pretty cool - a new refrigerator. This is an updated Magic Chef unit that was specifically designed to be an RV 12 volt product so is built for the road. But it also has a feature that is kind of magic, the door opens from either the left or the right. Nice! I also like the mechanical latches which are far better than its predecessor and closer to what we have in the refrigerator that we upgraded to in our own trailer.
Something all RVers will appreciate, and be jealous of, is the lifetime warranty on the roofing material. Now do know that all RV companies require routine inspections of the seals but the roof material itself carries an enviable warranty.
Rockwood Mini Lite 2515s
We got to tour the Rockwood facilities again and saw a couple of new floor plans for the company. One of those is the 2515s we see in this review. Rockwood has had the 2516s which had the kitchen at the front and the bedroom in the back. Think of this as the flipped version of that with the bedroom at the front and the kitchen at the back.
Like that model, this one has two entry doors as well and the bathroom bisects the trailer.
For Peggy and I, this is great! We have very different morning schedules and the bathroom bisecting the rig means greater sound isolation as I grind coffee and then make it with the ol’ Aeropress. I get up early so I can find and write RV reviews for you all.
This is the first time I’ve seen the new Magic Chef 12 volt fridge in person which opens at either side. I really like this unit, especially here. You can get to it from outside the camper and also inside. Plus it seems that this fridge is better thought-through than the previous generation from this company although I just can not find any information on it.
Another thing I noticed is that there is a small Lagun table on either side of the couch on the road side of this camper.
These Lagun tables can be set to whatever height you like and swivel around to accommodate various sizes of individuals. This could be a desk or even be used as additional counter space for one of the tables.
Heck, you could even set it right at mouth level and never have to get a fork! Though Peggy frowned at that idea. She must be fancy.
Across from the couch is a dinette with a “Dream Dinette” table. These are mounted to the wall and can easily be pushed down to make the dinette into a bed.
As usual Rockwood uses high-performance vent fans and real ovens in their rigs.
Boondocking and travel access
Rockwood trailers include a single 200 watt solar panel and, for 2024, an 1800 watt inverter. This means that you could run things like a CPAP overnight given that you have sufficient battery reserves. You can also get a second 200 watt panel as a factory-installed option.
These trailers are lithium-ready so you can install lithium batteries instead of the old-fashioned flooded battery and, frankly, with a 12 volt fridge you’d almost be crazy not to.
Rockwood trailers also have a device called the Shower Miser that redirects water back into your fresh water tank while you’re waiting for it to get hot at the shower. A sheath over the pipe changes colors once the water’s hot so you know to proceed.
The advantage of this is not wasting water waiting for it to get hot in the shower and is another feature we really like.
Also included are holding tank heaters for all holding tanks so you can extend your camping season.
My thoughts
If I sound like an enthusiast of what Rockwood (and Flagstaff) are doing it’s because I am. After a lot of research I bought my first Rockwood trailer in 2016 and towed that thing for half a decade with great success and a lot of adventures.
Our present Rockwood has been terrific and I’ve already clocked over 8,000 miles on it with nary an issue. I’m very pleased with how these are built and the features that are built in that actually do make a difference in the user experience.
I could see this being a potential upgrade for us down the road. Those Lagun tables on the theater seats could be where I write these RV reviews from and you can simply reach in and grab a beer without going all the way in the camper with that nifty fridge.
That’s the bad thing about writing these reviews. Temptations, temptations.
Peggy and Tony Barthel are veterans of the RV industry and use that experience to create StressLess Camping, a podcast, website and resource for new and experienced RVers and campers alike to learn more, spend less and turn every adventure into a StressLess Camping experience.
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