New Mission

In its 3rd full season, we found a new mission for our rPod. It has become increasingly difficult to reserve campsites in our favorite parks; so, I jumped on an opportunity to buy a 2-acre lake lot in Northern Wisconsin last Fall, and that’s where our camper spent most of its time this year. We have the RP-173 model, which was discontinued after 2012, the year we bought ours new at about the end of the season. It has a nice U-shaped dinette at one end, and a sofa at the other, with no actual permanent bed. To remedy that, we semi-permanently opened the sofa into its lumpy bed state, put a thick and long foam piece in the space between the back of the sofa and the wall, and then placed a 2”-thick full-size memory foam mattress over the whole thing. That makes a reasonably comfortable bed, but things are a bit snug.

This Spring, I had a 10’x16’ barn-style lofted shed built and placed on the lot, then partitioned off a porta-potti room to make it into a bunkhouse. So, we use the bunkhouse for sleeping, and the rPod for storing refrigerated and frozen food, cooking, cleaning dishes, showering, and indoor eating. That allows us to leave the sofa back in its upright position, which makes the whole camper feel a little more spacious.

The lot has no electricity, drinking water, or septic; and that’s where the easy towing and large tanks of the rPod come in handy. When the tanks need re-filling and dumping, I simply tow it to a nearby campground dump station. Unfortunately, that makes the rDome impractical, due to the time it takes to take down and setup. So, I bought a large EZ (for you to say) canopy with two fold-up side panels. That allows me to raise one panel to its highest position over the door side of the rPod. Then, I can just pull the rPod out from under, and pull it back under again after dumping and re-filling the tanks.

Of course, now the rPod is winterized, and we have that long, sad wait until we can team it up with our bunkhouse again next year.

Wisconsin, and I assume the rest of the upper mid-west, had a record year for camping this year.  I heard the numbers yesterday and I can't recall what they were but it was above 300,000 nights in the state campgrounds.

That is great, but it makes it hard to find a campsite.  I like your idea of having your own. 

What a great idea. We are actually looking to do the same thing but in the utah high country.

looks great you guys!!

Originally posted by SNO4ME It's been a good year for camping but I have to contest that "Northern Wisconsin" description a little. It would take me at least 2 1/2 hours on my snowmobile to get that far south via a rail trail.  We are about 80 north of your campsite by Pod Road.

Winterizing our camper is about the saddest annual task that I undertake. This year, it's even worse than usual. I missed my chances to store our rPod inside. So, I towed it out to our campsite, wrapped it in it's brand new jacket, and snugged it down as tight as I could to spend the whole Winter outdoors. Poor thing.