If you’ve been following the rumors and stories on places like TikTok recently, you’ve probably heard the term “shrinkflation.” What this is is companies keeping their prices the same but actually shrinking the product to compensate for higher costs.
According to the people with this theory, the hamburger you got at the fast food joint was just slightly larger a while back than what you might find today. Add this up over millions and millions of burgers and it makes a difference. Same price. Less fast food. In fact, there was a big to-do about this regarding ice cream where one company was bragging that their half-gallon ice cream was still actually a half-gallon.
Anyhow, the point of all this blathering on is that towable RVs seem to suffer more from the same thing my waistline suffers from. “Growflation.” Towable RVs seem to be getting heavier and heavier such that a smaller towable that was easily handled by a half-ton truck a few years ago might now require more truck.
For example, I just bought a 3/4-ton truck to handle my Mini Lite. It is neither mini nor lite.
So I was surprised to see the numbers on the 2024 Forest River Surveyor Legend 202RBLE. While it’s still no featherweight and I might still advocate a 3/4-ton truck to tug this around, it does pack a lot into the weight it does carry. Even more, there is a lot of cargo carrying capacity so you don’t have to worry about packing a spare set of towels for your journey.
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Niceflation
In addition to the shrinkflation or growflation, this has definitely been hit by “niceflation.” Okay, I made that word up. Naturally. But what I’m referring to is the interior of this trailer which seems to have undergone a class upgrade. The colors and materials inside this 2024 edition, to me, just have a nice, rich feel to them. Perhaps it’s just the colors chosen for the upholstery, but somehow this feels fancy.
There are some nice touches here. For example, there are three seating choices in this model: a traditional dinette, a sleeper sofa and theater seats. Should you opt for the theater seats you’ll get seats that individually recline, but there’s also an armrest in the middle to either separate the two of you or allow you to join together. Or put the dog in the middle, whatever suits you.
Another thing I liked about the theater seats is the incorporation of something called a Lagun table. These nifty tables can be mounted at a height that suits you and moved around to accommodate various sizes and needs. It’s pretty slick and I used to only see these in fancy Class B RVs. Now I’m seeing them more and more in trailers for the rest of us.
If you do bring pets along, or even if you don’t, something I liked was the built-in vacuum where you can tap it with your toes and sweep dust and debris into it. There are also nozzles and such that attach to it.
Something I haven’t seen is the way they’ve designed the cover for the farm sink in this. What you get is a wooden cover, which is nice, so you could use it as a cutting board. But it also has a holder behind the stove so it acts as a back splash. I love it when things do multiple things.
Of course, that stove has the three burners we all know and love, and the worthless 17” oven. Oh well, can’t have it all.
Storage in the Forest River Surveyor Legend
Something I noticed was how well they’ve done storage in the Forest River Surveyor Legend.
There’s a big pantry at the back next to the 12-volt refrigerator. There are open shelves in the bathroom, although I’m not a huge fan of not having a door.
The kitchen has a good number of cabinets and drawers—but it’s the bed area that I really liked. There are the obligatory hanging cabinets on either side of the queen-sized bed. There are also two drawers under the cabinets on each side. Also, there are drawers at the foot of the bed, yet they’ve preserved a good amount of space behind those drawers for larger items. Nicely done.
But, best of all, behind the hanging storage are two shelves along with a cup holder and a port to access the outlets that are back there.
Bathroom
I had mentioned the open storage in the bathroom. It’s worth noting that the toilet is a bit tight, especially if you displace a lot of water in the pool. But while you’re seated here, take note of all the controls for the water system.
You can enable the tankless water heater, which is a new feature for 2024. You can see your tank levels and, if this is the kind of personal challenge you’re up for, maybe even see if you can raise the tank levels enough to change the reading on the sensor. There are also controls for the water system here.
Makes sense. That way, if you’re solo camping, you don’t have to scream out the door to have some random stranger turn on your water pump while you’re sitting here trying to brush your teeth and get rid of what you ate at the same time.
Boondocking and travel access
While I usually would ding a company for making the slide block a portion of the RV, it’s not so bad here, as the only thing that the slide blocks is the bed. If you’re traveling with the rest of the crew from the flying circus, perhaps you could even somersault over the breakfast bar right into the bed without opening the slide.
Other than the bed, you have full access to the kitchen with the slide closed as well as the bathroom—and those are the important things.
Another upgrade made for 2024 is to the solar. It goes from a worthless 80 watts up to a more usable 200 watts of solar. with a better controller, as well. Upgrades won’t be as big of a challenge.
Conclusions on the Forest River Surveyor Legend 202RBLE
I like this floor plan quite a bit. The improvements to the interior, to my eye, are notable and some new features are quite nice. Among those are the Goodyear Endurance tires with tire pressure monitoring standard.
A few things I thought worth noting include the curtains over the front windshield. This would give creative sewers an upgrade path if they want it. I wish RVs actually did still have curtains in them as I like seeing what my wife can do. Some changes are worthy, others are just sew sew.
Yep. I went there.
On the subject of curtains, though, there isn’t one to segregate the bed area from the rest of the trailer. So if you and your partner have different sleep schedules, which many couples do, this would be an issue.
Another thing I like is the way they’ve done the outdoor kitchen. There’s a small bar-sized fridge and a flat-top griddle, which isn’t unusual. But the griddle mounts on a tray-style arrangement that slides out from in front of the fridge, and Surveyor put a little bowl sink there. It works well, especially since it’s a relatively small space to work with.
Overall, a nice design with good features plus a rather substantial amount of cargo capacity in a trailer that might make a lot of sense for a lot of buyers.
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 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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Thank you, Tony. 🙂 Interesting review, not so so (sew sew?) at all. 😉
You have me in stitches.
I don’t like all those controls in the bathroom in full view. At least they could have made a cabinet door to hide them. Cheap looking. TT might be ok for one person. But for two people with different sleep patterns the open bedroom would be a no go. Plus having to walk across the kitchen at night to use the bathroom. I wouldn’t like.
Due to that outdoor kitchen, the only window on the camp side of the “living area” is a small kitchen window. Oh, of course, there are three large windows in the bedroom, which is not used during the daytime and where it needs to be dark at night! And a large window behind the dinette-sofa-theater seats so you can keep track of everything happening in your neighbor’s campsite, despite having no view of your own campsite. Plus, having no access to the bedroom with the slide in means no overnight stops in a Flying J RV parking space and could be iffy even in a Wal-Mart or Home Depot parking lot. Our Mini Lite, with a somewhat similar floorplan, was much better for those types of overnights.
Not too bad of a trailer. But, looks like you have to move the chairs to access the under-bed storage. Having a lock on the loo door is funny. Who’s going to bust in? Again, not liking those solid steps. They look like you have to go up at least one step (maybe two?) before you can grab the old folk’s railing. Wifey says the micro is mounted too high for her, and she’s no fan of the farm sink. What’s with the blue lights around the stove controls? I see this more and more in trailer reviews. Do all stoves come with blue lights now? I do like the compressor fridge. There is no comparison between these and the common RV fridge (though I do miss the propane option sometimes).
The “Furrion Brand” blue lights come ON when turning on the oven light. I do not care for the bright blue light from the range knobs, but they are useful as a reminder there is something in the oven when illuminated. So bright and annoying when turned ON, it is impossible to forget if/when using the oven.
Interesting. So when I see these blue lights it means they have turned on the oven light – for effect?