I am taking 8 months of parental leave starting next week and my wife and I have decided to buy a used trailer and spend about 4 months on the road - visiting family, new cities and the Cdn and US national parks.  All my research has led me to choosing an rpod as our trailer of choice.  We have about 2 months to prepare (including finding and purchasing an rpod.)

The catch is that we're going to attempt this trip with a 3 year old and a five month old.  Therefore, we're struggling with deciding on which models we should be considering.  I really do think we can adapt to any layout but any experience you folks could share would be helpful.  We have found reasonably priced models of the 176, 178, 182g and 176T variety but all are a good 10 hour or more drive away to even have a look at.  We definitely want a slide-out model.  My biggest concern is if we go with bunks (which I think would be good for the kids) my wife and I will not be comfortable on the dinette bed considering we plan to be sleeping on it for about a hundred nights in a row.

Our tow vehicle is a 2009 diesel grand Cherokee so we can pull pretty much any model (although if everything else was equal I would prefer the 176 because of how light it is) and our price range is keeping us to mostly looking at 2015 versions and older.  A 2014 178 just came up on sale near us and we're considering driving 12 hours to look at it.

Any thoughts on model selection considering the age of our children would be much appreciated.  Bunks vs queen being our biggest consideration.

Thanks everyone!  

It sounds like we could make both bunks or the queen work for us if the dinette bed is actually pretty comfortable.  I'm sure we would find some way of keeping the cushions together or topping with something.

Once you determine which model fits your needs everything else will begin to fall into place.

Bert

Sounds like great plans! My advice as a life-long camper and as someone who has taken others' children camping often enough, is to buy a trailer that has a comfortable bed for you & your wife. Adults are more particular (understandably & for a variety of reasons), and need their rest so they can do stuff like drive, cook, take care of kiddos, etc. :-) Your children won't care what they're sleeping on as long as they're camping, are near mom & dad, are warm and are getting to eat stuff like scrambled eggs, hot dogs and s'mores (ok, not the 5-month old yet but you get the point). My parents had a really comfy double bed for themselves in our canvas tent and put us kiddos variously on cots, air mattresses and when I was really little, a comfy bed of army blankets underneath me (the "two uses and a backup" mentality, in case we needed extra blankets with our sleeping bags). I don't remember any bad nights. I only remember how much fun we had; so much so that camping is still my #1 choice of traveling, vacationing, weekending, etc. Another sibling, equally influenced by "creative bedding" carried her infant in a fruit crate wedged into the front passenger area of her MG, as child seats didn't exist then and she came up with a system to keep him from flying out of the car as she went flying around the curves. That crate made a great portable bed for awhile too; the way parents now use car seats away from their cars. Good for you getting all of you started while they're young! You'll never regret it :-) Hope you let us know what you decide, and that of course it's an RPod :-) 

Really excited to be joining the club!