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Honest review of the 2025 Rockwood Ultra Lite 2618RD

Tony Barthel

Today’s RV review is of the 2025 Rockwood Ultra Lite 2618RD travel trailer. This is a twin to the 2025 Flagstaff Super Lite 26SRDD travel trailer and both are under 30 feet in length but might be a great choice if you like entertaining in your trailer, especially if you’re someone who enjoys cooking.

While more and more RVs are also losing outside kitchens something to note is that Rockwood and Flagstaff trailers almost all come with an outside propane-powered flat-top griddle which we have in our own Rockwood and really use quite a bit.

Something interesting about this is in the naming of this line. Rockwood has Mini Lite, Ultra Lite and Signature models. Ultra Lite doesn’t necessarily designate that this is the lightest by any stretch of the imagination - the Mini Lites are, in fact, lighter. Or would that be liter? So the name is more intended to indicate that this is Ultra, not necessarily small. Does that make sense?

Some of the material differences between the Mini Lite and Ultra Lite; however, is that the Ultra Lite series uses thicker (about 1 1/4”) baggage doors with upgraded slam latches so they are a bit better insulated in this sense.

How they’re built

If you follow these reviews regularly you’ll know that I recommend starting at the road and working your way up. Here you’ll find Goodyear Endurance radials with balancing beads and built-in tire pressure monitoring systems included. To me this is the best case scenario.

These also ride on Dexter torsion axles which provide a smoother ride and that just means less of the road conditions that exist getting into and rattling your trailer. It’s a good thing.

One of the options on this is a full auto level and the way this is accomplished is with a controller on the tongue jack of the trailer. I’ve had pretty good experience with this system - they use the tongue jack in concoction with four electric leveling jacks to accomplish the auto leveling function.

One of the many things I really like about how Rockwood (and Flagstaff) trailers are built is that the company does all their own lamination using man-made substrates but also premium glues. The roof is also a laminated structure which is unusual in the RV industry but results in a lighter and stronger build.

As to the roof, there is a brand out there that is making a lot of noise about the sealants they’re using on the roof which require little maintenance compared to most RVs. The thing is, Rockwood is using those same materials but they’re just not as noisy about it.

Another plus - most of the structural items in this trailer are built of welded aluminum rather than wood as most trailers use. Again, lighter and stronger.

Another interesting thing about the exterior of this is that there is a storage bay on the road side of this which actually is behind the refrigerator. This is a tall space and might be ideal for things like camp chairs. There’s also an access door in the back of this RV that is essentially under the big u-shaped dinette. This is a good use of space.

On the subject of storage bays, there is a large front pass-through storage bay due to the drop frame construction on this RV. If you’d like, there’s a full-width metal tray available that pulls out from either side. This is pretty nifty!

Bathroom in the Rockwood Ultra Lite 2618RD

One of the things that can be polarizing in an RV floor plan are layouts where the bathroom bisects the RV itself. What this accomplishes is making more interior space in a shorter RV. I also like that it separates the bedroom from the main living space, but that’s also where some buyers disagree with this layout.

That’s why there are lots of different RV floor plans - a seat for every cushion as it were.

The bathroom here does have good cabinet storage with actual doors and, oh, one of Rockwood’s cabinet shop team members has been with the company the entire 50 years they’ve been building RVs.

The shower offers good space where you can actually do what you need and the toilet has plenty of room for even we fluffier members of society.

I also like that there are no furnace vents in the floor of this RV so you don’t get that special smell when you first kick in the furnace as temps drop. Also, speaking of smells, Rockwood employs a high-performance vent fan in their trailers too.

Kitchen and main living space in the Rockwood Ultra Lite 2618RD

One of the many reasons we own a Rockwood trailer is the way the kitchens are designed. Many RV companies start with a 17” (vertical) oven which has significant hot spots and really doesn’t have much room for anything more than cookies.

Not that we dislike cookies, mind you, but we’d rather not sort out the burned ones.

Rockwood uses the larger 21” propane oven along with a three-burner propane cook top in this model. There’s an actual exhaust vent built into the trailer and then a microwave above.

There’s a good amount of counter space in this RV but, if what’s there isn’t enough, there is a flip-up counter extension. This also employs the new 12 volt fridge that can open from either side.

We got this in our own 2025 Rockwood and the preliminary experience with it is that it’s very, very energy efficient. I got to speak with a team member at Lippert (who makes these fridges) and he told me the newer models should prove to be remarkably efficient - so far that’s been the case.

Other than that there’s a shallow pantry here and decent storage.

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As much as the kitchen would be useful for someone who likes to cook, the living space would be useful for those who like to entertain. The standard layout here is theater seats in a slide room opposite the TV. Then there’s a large u-shaped dinette which is surrounded by windows.

The table on this dinette is the type that’s mounted on a single center pole which can mash down to convert this space to a 44” x 81” bed. This would not be a bad space if you had someone staying over.

But there are also choices. You can get a hide-a-bed sofa instead of the theater seats, or a combination of 60” theater seats with tables and a rear recliners.

Before you make that decision, the Rockwood folks did provide a baggage door at the back of this rig which gains access to the space under the dinette which is pretty useful, so that might affect whether you go dinette or another option.

One thing to note, I like that Rockwood is using 12 volt TVs in their RVs but this one is mounted really high up. What would make a lot of sense is a TV mount that sort of drops the TV down to a more comfortable viewing angle. Or, a televator but this just seems like a more complicated way to accomplish this.

Bedroom in the Rockwood Ultra Lite 2618RD

The bedroom in this RV has a separate entrance, although you can obviously get to it from the bathroom too. On the camp side is a wardrobe slide which has good hanging storage space plus a decent amount of cabinet space.

The bed itself is a true queen-sized bed. There’s a sort of cubby on the road side of the bed with a drop-down drawer and then a proper drawer on the camp side. I’m not sure why this is - it would be a challenge to get to the back of the cubby and I think a drawer would be better here.

There’s also the controller for the inverter up on the camp side of the nose of the bedroom which, for some, might make it a challenge to get to because you’d be kneeling on the bed to do so. I like the idea of the inverter controller in the bedroom, but this isn’t the best spot for it. Other than that, each side gets both USB and household power outlets plus there are cabinets over the bed whose doors are able to stay up.

Something that just typifies the attention to detail in these trailers is a magnetic catch for the sliding bedroom door. I don’t see things like this in many trailers, but it’s not a surprise to find it here. That’s just the kind of thinking that goes into this brand.

Boondocking and travel access

The standard solar package on this is a single 200 watt GoPower panel with a 30 amp MPPT charge controller. From the factory you can opt in a second panel if you choose. There’s also an 1800 watt inverter so if you want to power things like laptops or tablets, charge phones overnight or even run a CPAP machine this would be sufficient for that.

The inverter isn’t enough to power the microwave nor the air conditioner but that’s not what I would expect anyway.

Also, let me get a bit preachy here. Many, many RV dealers are going to default to a standard lead acid battery. It’s actually the dealership that provides the battery in your trailer, not the manufacturer. With modern 12 volt fridges and an inverter on board, your dealer is doing you a disservice with a single lead acid battery. At this point, even if this is going to be at a a seasonal site, I still think a lithium battery is the way to go. If you’re camping off the grid much, two batteries is even better.

Speaking of camping off the grid this trailer also comes with the Shower Miser which is a bit of plumbing that allows you to recirculate the water back into the fresh water system while waiting for it to get hot at the shower. This is a terrific gadget and we love having it in our own trailer.

Incidentally Rockwood is using a propane/electric water heater with a tank and I’m so happy about this. While the tankless models might offer more hot water when you’re hooked to shore services, the water heaters with the tanks offer the ability to operate on both propane or electric. Further, once the water’s hot there is no demand requirements to get that hot water to the fixture.

In other words, tankless water heaters only fire-up when they see a certain amount of water demand. If you just trickle water out, they often won’t turn on.

You may know that we love the Geyser water saving shower system. However friends who bought one and have a tankless water heater say that the Geyser is so thrifty with water that it doesn’t trigger the water heater. So that’s one of many reasons I prefer the traditional gas/electric water heater with a tank.

As for travel access, this trailer gets a pass

Conclusions about the Rockwood Ultra Lite 2618RD

I have to admit I’m pretty biased about this RV for the simple reason is that it’s pretty similar to what we just bought, except flipped with the bedroom in front and the living space in the back. Being bigger, of course, the main living space is also larger.

There is so much attention to detail in this trailer and I like the way these are built. Of course no RV is perfect, but if someone’s looking for a trailer with a good kitchen and bedroom that would be great for entertaining, I think it would be a mistake not to look at this model.

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