Intro - Potential R-Pod 190?

Hi R-Pod Owners,

My name is Mark - I recently sold our 2010 Open Range 399BHS and our 2005 Chevy Duramax.  When I purchased the Open Range in 2009, I started the Open Range Owners forum (www.openrangeowners.com) after seeing there was very little information about the company or their campers at the time.  My wife and our 2 daughters (now teenagers) took many cross-country trips in that 5th wheel.

My wife and I felt that given the increased activities of our daughters and the inability to get time for the whole family to take long trips (3-4 weeks at a time) - it was time to sell the Open Range and truck.  Ended up selling them both to a family that wants to full-time in the camper, so it worked out well for all of us.

Since my wife and I love camping and want to bridge the gap between now and retirement (another 6-10 years away) we thought we would look for a camper that we could tow with our 2015 Toyota Highlander Hybrid.  The R-Pod 190 seems to fill our needs well and would allow us to bring our daughters along if they were available.  We would mostly do local trips, maybe long weekends, state parks, etc.  Our previous camper was 40' long to we were limited on where we could camp.

We want to learn as much as possible about R-Pods and look forward to getting to know the R-Pod community here. 

A couple of questions (I will be searching the forum for these as well ):

Towing Vehicle - if anyone has information related to towing with a Highlander Hybrid we would be interested in learning more - the brakes, suspension, body are the same as the gas version that can tow 5,000 lbs.  I believe the 3500 lbs tow limit is based on the Hybrid system - specifically the electric motors that act as the transmission.  I realize that there is much more to towing besides tongue weight and camper weight, so whatever we get we will tow with a WDH with sway control.  I will be adding a Redarc brake controller with a 7 pin harness/plug (car came with factory tow package and 4 pin plug).

Thule awning versus R-Pod R-Dome?

Adding Jack-It or another bike rack to the camper jack for 2 bikes?

Why separate sewer outlets for grey and black (our Open Range had 4 sewer tanks and 2 outlets - pain to dump)?

Battery (group 24 AGM versus Lithium Ion) weight/capacity?

Solar on roof or carry 200 watts of flexible panels to plug into Zamp plug (maybe add a controller if I get serious)?

Mounting a Surge/voltage protector in the R-Pod 190 (hardwire)?

Looking forward to reading all about the DIY/Mods - I did tons of these with our Open Range.  My favorite was creating my own Auto Level system with a Raspberry PI (it worked well) ....

Interested in Rallys that would be near-by.

Does Forest River have plant/factory tours where the R-Pods are produced (in Indiana)?

Glad to be a member!  I am in Cooksville, MD.