RV review: 2027 Rockwood Mini Lite 2525RB and Flagstaff Micro Lite 25SRB—big changes for 2027

Today’s RV review is of the 2027 Rockwood Mini Lite 2525RB. This is the sister to the Flagstaff Micro Lite 25SRB. Both of these are trailers with a front bedroom and rear bath, with the middle of the trailer being your main living space. There have also been a surprising number of changes to this popular line of trailers for 2027, and that’s what this article is mostly about. 

Know that the changes to this model are common to almost all the Rockwood Mini Lite line and the Flagstaff Micro Lite line, but they are pretty significant. So, clearly, this is a different sort of RV review this week. 

Changes are significant

I actually thought this was relevant because of how significant the changes are, as well as where these sit in the Forest River family. Rockwood and Flagstaff are essentially at the top of the food chain when it comes to travel trailers at Forest River. 

I read a lot of comments on social media about companies like Thor and Forest River putting out sub-par RVs. But know that the various brands under the corporate umbrella at both of these companies are empowered to make their own decisions in terms of content, build methodology, features, components, and just about everything else. 

This is why I try to share as much as I can on an ongoing basis about the various things I see when I walk through an RV to share with you all. 

For example, many RVs have that lousy 17” (vertical) oven that I keep harping on, but that’s not a Forest River decision; it’s a decision by the individual brands. So you’ll find the 21” oven here. Why do I care? I have made prime rib, roasted chickens, and cooked a lot of other things that just wouldn’t fit well in a 17” oven with its hot spots. A friend of mine even made pulled pork in her 21” oven! 

So, let’s look over the changes to the 2027 Rockwood Mini Lite and Flagstaff Micro Lite line because a lot of these are really worth noting. 

Starlink

It seems that the RV industry has taken notice of Starlink and is embracing it on various levels. I’ve seen some 2027 models, like last week’s Cherokee Alpha Wolf 25FK X-L, for example, that simply have a hole in the pass-through compartment where you can run the cable for your Starlink system. I think that’s just fine and, quite honestly, it’s future-proof in that any system can run with that. 

What Rockwood/Flagstaff have done is provide an Ethernet connector inside the RV and then another outside. There’s also a power connection on the outside, such that you can connect the Ethernet connector to the outside and connect your devices inside. There’s a 12-volt power switch to turn things on and off. 

Rail lights

If you don’t follow my world with great intensity, you may not know that I was rear-ended a few years ago while motoring through Kansas with my travel trailer. The lady who missed that a giant white box was not moving on the highway in front of her claimed that she didn’t see me. 

I honestly am convinced that she was distracted, as her first order of business, even though fluids were leaking out of her vehicle, was to light up a cigarette. Perhaps that’s what she was looking for instead of paying attention to the road, but that’s just speculation on my part. 

Anyhow, I found that my friends at ABC Upfitters were testing what they call rail lights, which are lights that slot into the rails that are common on the sides of travel trailers. 

They then work with the existing taillights such that they blink when I use the turn signal, glow red when I step on the brake, and also function with the emergency flashers. And they’re bright. 

And now they’ve been adopted by Rockwood and Flagstaff for their trailers, which I think is a huge plus. But I’m a bit envious of their installation because the units they’ve secured also have backup or reverse lights built into them. 

Water filtration

Something that surprised me was the water filtration system that is going into the 2027 models. This is a whole-house filtration system, and it’s actually mounted so that you can easily change the filter from the outside of the RV. 

Behind a plastic door, you’ll see a bell-shaped housing. This is where the included water filter screws into, but there’s some neat thinking behind this. 

If you choose not to use the water filter at all, you simply unscrew it, and that completely bypasses the filtration system altogether. This is also great if you’re winterizing your rig—you don’t want to winterize a filter. 

The filtration system also filters all the water going through the system, so it filters your water if you’re hooked to a shore water connection and also filters the system if you’ve chosen to use the water in your holding tank. 

Furrion Chill Cube

Last year, I think I could count on one hand the number of RVs I saw that employed the Furrion Chill Cube RV A/C system. This year, they’re all over the place, including atop the roofs of the Rockwood Mini Lite and Flagstaff Micro Lite models. 

When I first saw this unit more than two years ago at the RV dealer open house, I was mesmerized by it and vowed to learn as much as possible. Over time, I was able to install one on my own RV, and I loved it. I write that in the past tense because I’ve since installed a new competitor to the Chill Cube, so I can test that. 

I was surprised to see the Chill Cube in this space, but there it is. 

You, too, can swear at your trailer

As some of us have a personal voice assistant in our homes and even cars, and many of us routinely swear at our smartphones’ voice assistants, now you can swear at your trailer, too. 

Standard for 2027 is a voice assistant called Power Pro^®, which uses the control panel of these trailers to incorporate a voice assistant. You can ask for things like lights on and off, dim lights, report on tank levels, and more. You can set scenes so you could ask it to get things ready to watch a movie, for example, so the lights are dimmed to where you want them to be. 

That sort of thing. 

If this voice assistant is anything like the one in my phone, I’m sure I wouldn’t be alone in reciting words back to it that my mom told me not to say, with reinforcement provided by hot sauce. 

Outside griddle

I’ve seen lots of these flat-top outside griddles, and I suspect lots of owners are just leaving them at home. We do. But this is a bit better in that it’s on a drawer glide mechanism. It has an arm system that lets you lower the griddle to a convenient height, which also moves it away from the body of the trailer. Honestly, if I had this type of system, I would use it. 

Not all Mini/Micro trailers have the griddle, but for those that do, this is pretty slick. There’s also a bar-sized fridge in the compartment with the griddle. 

Other details

A few other improvements I saw in these recently include how the skirt molding was attached. Typically, you see exposed screw heads and, if you know RVs, you know that these can be points of entry for water intrusion. So, the skirt molding on these 2027 models doesn’t have exposed screws, which is nice. 

CURT Touring Coil Suspension

I have shared a number of times my experience when Lippert took us on a test track to show just how remarkably better their Touring Coil suspension is than old-fashioned leaf springs. I have also been very pleased with the Dexter torsion axle suspension on my own Rockwood trailer. 

A better suspension does a lot to help with towing. But, even more, it helps with keeping road harshness and vibration out of the trailer itself. The smoother the trailer rides, the less stuff that’s likely to wiggle and jiggle loose. 

So, while all Mini Lites and Micro Lites still come standard with the Dexter torsion axle suspension, they are also available with the Touring Coil suspension as an option. I think if I were to buy a new Mini Lite or Micro Lite today, I would likely choose this option. Supposedly, it’s even better at absorbing road vibrations and harshness than the torsion axle system. 

Consistent Wiring

Apparently, Rockwood and Flagstaff have been using consistent wire colors from unit-to-unit, which results in easier servicing down the road. My experience managing warranty services at dealerships also was such that RVs that were intentionally wired, rather than letting line workers just pull wire as needed, tended to need less service. That’s a good thing. 

What hasn’t changed

While lots of things have changed, which I’ve detailed above, a lot is the same. 

They use the same Alpha Ply roofing system, which is common with Brinkley. They claim that you don’t need to maintain their roofs, but Rockwood/Flagstaff takes a more sensible approach by recommending quarterly inspections.

There’s also the vacuum-laminated walls with human-made substrates (think of Azdel).

I like that Rockwood/Flagstaff are using Goodyear Endurance tires with banded tire pressure monitors, nitrogen fill, and even balancing beads. 

If it sounds like these are ideal RVs, then you may not have been reading these reviews for long. There’s no perfect RV, and even an RV that I really like isn’t for everybody, of course. But I do like the direction I’m seeing and the changes I’ve seen being made, which is what made me choose to detail these here with you. 

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