Model Year Changeovers

Originally posted by GlueGuy Originally posted by kymooses R-Pod model years begin each Spring.  The 2018s are on lots now.  Big changes and updates occur in just before 4th quarter before the Forest River open house event and the following RVIA premier shows. Revision changes of small things do in fact happen somewhat randomly as we just saw with the change to 15" tires from Goshen produced Pods during a December production run. The 8th letter from the right of your Vin number designates your model year. So on our R-pod, that letter is "H". Starting from the beginning of the alphabet, that is the 8th letter. Does that make it an 8? It's listed on our pink slip as a 2017, but we purchased it in July of 2016, and it's green, which is not the so-called 2017 color. I need a decoder ring or something.

Originally posted by kymooses R-Pod model years begin each Spring.  The 2018s are on lots now.  Big changes and updates occur in just before 4th quarter before the Forest River open house event and the following RVIA premier shows. Revision changes of small things do in fact happen somewhat randomly as we just saw with the change to 15" tires from Goshen produced Pods during a December production run. The 8th letter from the right of your Vin number designates your model year.

So on our R-pod, that letter is "H". Starting from the beginning of the alphabet, that is the 8th letter. Does that make it an 8? It's listed on our pink slip as a 2017, but we purchased it in July of 2016, and it's green, which is not the so-called 2017 color.

Be very careful.  This is what threw us.  Forest River lists their manuals by years.  Not model year.  There is a difference.  The manuals are very generic and FR even says changes are made at any time.  Titles do not help since they are filled out by the dealers.  One dealer may title a Oct 2016 manufactured RPOD as a 2016 and another as a 2017.  I have not seen a Forest River document that specifically states a model year. It should be on the invoice but it is not. What model year is a Green RPOD 180 that has a round shower as opposed to the three sided shower?  What model year is the blue RPOD with the blue roof compared to the blue RPOD with the grey roof?  Bottom line.  Unlike cars you are not buying a 2017 RPOD,  because your 2017 can be different from mine.  You are buying an RPOD manufactured on xxx date.  Hopefully knowing this and seeing what people post about their newly purchased RPODS we can see what the changes are with each manufacturing run.  It can be as subtle as adding a dual USB port.

The midwest RPODS are manufactured Jan/Feb, May/June and Sep/Oct.  Changes can occur during any of these production runs.  Only the changes requiring orders are announced in advance (i.e., electric tongue jack, awning, etc.  Other changes just happen (ie., color changes, putting window in door, etc).  Do not know about the Hood River Editions produced out west except the color change to blue occurred there first.  If you search my posts you can read about how FR does not officially recognize model years, but the dealers do.

2018s are already on the lots, and there are no changes to them.  "IF" any changes occur they'll be seen later this year.