Today’s RV review is of the Forest River Vibe 19RB. In many ways this reminds me of my first new travel trailer in that it’s a smaller trailer with a Murphy bed and the bathroom across the back. The kitchen’s over on the road side, the dining is on the camp side.
But that first trailer was nowhere near as innovative as this one in terms of how things were put together. So, when I saw this Vibe, I had to look deeper.
What is the Forest River Vibe 19RB?
What we have here is a smaller couple’s camper that is relatively simple yet certainly decently equipped. But what I really like about this is that it does not have a slide—at all.
I know some of you are like me—the simpler something is, the better. So having no slide has a number of advantages. For example, the RV is always fully accessible. No slide to block access to features you want for a travel stop.
Let’s party!
Something that Forest River Vibe has done here is put a breakfast bar on the camp side of this rather than a traditional dinette. Above the breakfast bar is a 12-volt TV, so you could also use this to get some work done and use that TV as a second monitor. This is how I used our own 12-volt TV… until it fell off the wall and broke.
That breakfast bar faces a large dual-pane window that has become commonly referred to as a European-style window. These are nifty in that the build of the window incorporates both a privacy shade and a screen. You can vary the degree of shade or screen employed at any given time, or simply retract them into their channel and make ‘em disappear.
Further, these windows can be opened up to 90°. So you could almost make this food truck-like and pass food or drinks through them. I’ve seen this in some other RVs, most notably the Lance 2075. But here it is, and it would make a fun thing to do.
Full outside kitchen on the Forest River Vibe 19RB
There’s also a full outside kitchen in this trailer—but not done typically. There’s a slide-out drawer-style mechanism that has what is referred to as a dog bowl sink. These are nothing more than a plastic bowl, but it serves a purpose.
There’s also a sub-drawer, sort of, on which Vibe has put an induction cooktop. I like this idea because the induction cooktop isn’t going to be affected by wind and all of that.
Lastly, there’s a bar-sized mini fridge.
So you really could have one heck of a party or gathering with this little trailer—someone could be working on food on the inside of the trailer and another camper could be doing outside prep. Bring a blender. Now you’re cooking with gas!
Oh, speaking of which. The inside stovetop is a two-burner in-line affair. For oven duty, your choice is a convection microwave. There is no propane oven, so I guess you’re not cooking with as much gas as you may have assumed.
Sit and sleep
The front of the Forest River Vibe has a Murphy bed. I know some of you really dislike these and, if you’re going to cast shade on a Murphy bed, this is the kind you might be casting shade on.
This is one of those where the mattress has to bend to accommodate the bed. To me, this is the least-desirable Murphy bed system. Further, the mattress supplied with this is a short queen, so it gets extra negative points.
However, since there’s no slide in this rig, you could simply leave the bed down all the time. There’s actually space here to use a proper queen-sized mattress, so you could do that and never worry about the Murphy bed again.
If you do that, though, know that you’ll be covering up the couch in this rig and you may not want to do that. The couch in here has flip-up footrests, so it’s not uncomfortable. The only other place to sit here would be bar-height chairs, which aren’t very loungey. Wait, is loungey a word? I guess it is now!
More to like
The trailer I had with a similar floor plan, albeit without the bar and quick-serve window, was extremely limited on counter, cabinet and drawer space. Not this one.
That linear cooktop takes very little horizontal space, so there’s a surprising amount of counter space.
Further, there are a ton of overhead cabinets on the road side along with a lot of drawers below the counter. Further, there’s even a walk-in pantry in a rig this small. There is also space in the bathroom, which spans the width of the rear of this camper, for storage. Interior storage is a real highlight of this camper.
Outside, some of the build features that I like include the fact that the underbelly is segmented. That means you need only remove one panel to make a repair, if one is needed, rather than removing the entire underbelly.
This also has axles spaced farther apart—which transport drivers told me really helps with towing stability.
Some people will also appreciate that this has power stabilizer jacks although, quite frankly, I prefer the manual ones. I can replace a drill at any time.
Things to consider
As much as I think this is a nifty little trailer, there are some things I would change.
One of those is that the gray water for the kitchen sink is a separate attachment from the one for the bathroom. Yeah, yeah. There are “Y” adaptors for the stinky slinky, but this seems annoying in a small camper.
Also, there are some things about how these are built you should know. Not that they’re bad, but just worth being aware of.
First of all, with all the hype around Azdel wall substrates, this one doesn’t employ Azdel and, instead, uses luan. Luan can be damaged by water intrusion, so owners will want to make extra sure that they’re staying on top of seal maintenance.
This also uses a laminated floor of quarter-inch thick plywood and insulating foam along with aluminum ribs. In some campers, where the ribs were spaced pretty far apart, there were situations where the floors got soft. In some campers where this type of flooring was better designed, all was just fine. My first camper had this type of flooring where it wasn’t well-designed, and the floor did get spongy.
Not a fan of imported trailer tires
Lastly, long-time readers will know that I’m a big fan of the Goodyear Endurance trailer tires and not a fan of imported trailer tires. Here you see those imported tires.
What you might not know is that a company that imports tires took me on a tour of their distribution plant after I wrote unkind things here. They wanted to show me how great their tires were, but really had no answer for the tires that simply exploded on the spare tire carrier. So, if this were my trailer, the first trip I’d make would be to the local Goodyear tire dealer.
Lastly, the bedroom in this is right by the door, but there is no shade over the door window. It’s frosted, but that doesn’t block out light. This was true in my first camper, and I simply stuck Reflectix in the window with Velcro.
So, all of these kinds of things are stuff you should know. There are plenty of people who have trailers from the 1960s made of aluminum and wood that are still doing fine, riding on cheap tires. But the more knowledge you have about what you’re spending your hard-earned money on—that’s the point of these reviews.
Conclusions about the Forest River Vibe 19RB
Overall, I like this trailer a lot. This is a usable floor plan that has some well-thought-through aspects of the design. For how usable the floor plan is and how spacious it feels plus all that storage inside and a suspension that can handle it, this is definitely one for the books.
My thanks to Josh the RV Nerd from Bish’s RV for the photos and video.
More about these RV reviews
These RV reviews are written based on information provided by the manufacturers along with our writer’s own research. They are based on information from a single unit and may not reflect your actual experience. Shop your RV and dealership carefully before making a buying decision. We receive no money or other financial benefits from these reviews. They are intended only as a brief overview of the vehicle, not a comprehensive critique, which would require a thorough inspection and/or test drive.
Tony comes to RVtravel.com having worked at an RV dealership and been a life long RV enthusiast. He also has written the syndicated Curbside column about cars. He also works closely with a number of RV manufacturers to get an inside look at how things are done and is a brand ambassador for Rockwood Mini Lite with his wife, Peggy.
You can also check out his RV podcast with his wife, Peggy.
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Almost 50g for this is ridiculous.
Absolutely right, Craig.
Probably middle-upper $20k discounted.
Thank you, Tony! 🙂 Great review of an interesting RV; thank you! I passed it along to my buddy who is highly budget-constrained and looking for a fishing/hunting base of operations. Seems as though this has several desirable features if he can get the price into a comfortable area. Safe travels! 🙂
With all the Forest River recalls lately, I think I would avoid all of their products for a while….
I was going to say….but, the Forest River recalls have been off the charts!?