Well, we've gone and done it, after 10 happy years of camping in our beloved tent trailer, the old bones tell me it's time for a bit more comfort. We've bought a brand new 179 and will be picking it up on Tuesday! 

We looked at quite a few 'Pods and decided that this one is the one for us. So Excited!

More to come, I'm sure.

Dale

jato, we're in the east-central part of the province, where parkland becomes boreal forest and the lakes are plentiful. 

Dale

Actually we didn't order it that way, we were lucky enough to find this one on the dealer's lot. They're pretty hard to find around here this time of year, or so we've found. 

The way the dealer explained it to me is that they order their 'Pods without AC to save the weight, making it more attractive to more people with perhaps smaller tow vehicles. The HRE is an automatic item when they do their ordering. Probably because we have some pretty rugged back country roads around the province.

Regardless, we'll try it out without the AC for now. I've been told that installing AC later is pretty straight forward as the wiring is already built into the roof? If we end up travelling to hotter climes, we'll probably have it installed at some point. 

Thanks again for the warm welcomes.

Dale

The service guy that did our walk through with us was pretty good but I think after all our research on R-Pods, we knew more about the finer details about the trailer than he did. I was disappointed when he refused to show me how to winterize the water system. He said I had to make an appointment for them to do it and I could watch them and learn how. 

Since this was our first trailer with holding tanks, we really appreciated the attention and guidance of the parts manager who made sure we had what we needed to use the trailer right away. We bought a cover, surge protector, sewer hose and a few other incidentals. 

We had decided to camp overnight before driving home just to get acquainted with our new unit. We tried everything on the trailer and found a few problems. 

The first one was that the rear view camera, which is awesome, was always on. Usually these are wired into the clearance lights but ours had to be mounted lower down to avoid only seeing an expanse of roof in the monitor so it was wired into the  trailer's 12 v system. There was no way to turn it off.

Secondly, the HW heater would not light on propane. Nothing I could do would make that thing light, though thankfully it did work on electricity. 

Finally, the control panel on the fridge was loose and would come off when the buttons were pressed.

The next morning I called the dealer and they said to bring it back in. A tech was waiting for us and within 2 hours we had all our issues resolved and we were on our way. He put in our camera switch, replaced the HW heater circuit board, which had failed, and fixed the loose fridge panel.

Our 2006 Jeep Commander (low mileage, only used for towing) with the 4.7 L V8 had no problem pulling the 'Pod on a very hot day up some major climbs through our Alberta badlands and on northward. The view in the mirrors is the best I've ever had on a trailer and along with our camera (probably overkill) I would not hesitate in taking this one anywhere. 

Our first "real" trip will begin on Sunday. We can hardly wait!

The camera is a Furrion:   https://www.furrion.com/store/cameras/

It's wired into the trailer's 12 v power but the signal is wireless. The camera is paired to the monitor, presumably so you don't suddenly get the view from some other trailer nearby. I can only imagine the liability issues, there. It has something like a 300 m range which is about right because we had a good signal as we were driving to dinner on our first night before the switch was installed. I figured if it worked for monster 5 th wheelers, the R-Pod should be a piece of cake.

Probably did have some great views as we climbed out of the badlands but at those temperatures, my eyes were on the engine temp gauge! Lol!

Dale