I’m finally doing what I wish I had done before I bought my Tacoma, or my motorcycle, which is to become a member of the forum BEFORE my purchase.  Been doing reading on this forum for a bit as well as the other r-pod forum. 

As mentioned above, I have a Tacoma and the weight and size of the rpods seem perfect for me, my wife and Aussie.  Although the Tacoma is rated for 7500lbs, I feel it’s a a little high to be truly happy and make my truck happy.  I want to be around 4000 lbs loaded.  Like many, we are gravitating towards a 179 for the storage.  We are also pondering the 180 for the dry bath, but people’s mods of the 179, like removing the sink, make it more palatable.  

Looking forward to reading up!

Hey Epod, welcome.

I tow our Rpod 180 with a 2014 Tacoma 4x4.  V6, towing package, 6 speed manual transmission.  It pulls like a freight train.  If I keep it under 60 get 14 mpg, over 60 get 12 mpg.  Travel in 5th gear mostly, 4th on steep hills.

The young guy at the Rpod dealer went to hook it up for us, he couldn't drive a clutch, ha ha.

and tcj,  I WISH that we could still buy a new, full size gas engine pickup with a V-8 and a manual transmission these days. 

In my opinion, towing a trailer is one good reason to have a manual, and the newer 7-10 speed autos are the work around for that when pulling a trailer. With normal V-8 engines in a pickup truck, NO ONE NEEDS a 7-10 speed automatic if they are not pulling a trailer...and if they ARE, that many gears helps the automatic do the job...more or less.

But...I love rowing up and down thru the gears when pulling a trailer up a grade and then descending the other side....something about being in 100% control, and not just 'hoping' the vehicle computer figures it out.

For us, the 179 was the best choice, you have to compromise somewhere to stay in the size and weight range you want and much better a small bath (which we're in only for a few minutes a day) than a small kitchen and living space. There is a lot of storage space in the kitchen cabinets in a 179 but be careful not to place too much heavy stuff there, the rear is not a great place to add load in any trailer. 

I wish I had the manual in the Tacoma, I have the Auto and it’s a 2015.  Perusing the Tacoma forums I expected to get around 12 mpg so that’s good to hear some real world numbers.  I love my Tacoma, so I don’t expect to upgrade to a full size, but you never know. I do have the ability to keep an eye on trans temps with my gauge.

I do plan on dual batteries, and getting a wd hitch.  Those weights add up fast

If not, hopefully you can manually select gears with the shift selector...its helpful to 'pre-select' a lower gear when climbing or descending a grade.

There is no question that a larger refrigerator, walk around bed and dry shower would be nicer, but there are disadvantages to that model that makes it a negative for us.

Ah, another engineer. Whoo hoo!

Trailer weight is axle weight + tongue weight.  The DOT requires trailer manufacturers to state gross trailer weight as axle rating plus the lowest listed tongue weight. Since FR only lists one tongue weight the max gross trailer weight is always the tongue weight plus the axle weight, which for the sub 190 series trailers is 3500. The "big/wide" rpods have 4400 lb axles I think. 

FR's tongue weight is very optimistic, especially when loaded for boondocking. I'm right at 500 lbs with dual GC2 golf cart batteries, a full fresh water tank, and a single propane tank. (around 3700 lbs total to within a couple hundred lbs of max axle weight.  Many boondockers want dual propane tanks in which case you are likely to be more like 550 on the tongue. The wdh is taken as part of the TV not the trailer because it is rigidly connected to the TV. You want your tongue weight to be at least 10% of total trailer weight to reduce sway risk. 

As an ME, you might like this calculator which will check all your load numbers against specs and also tell you where you want your wdh set. You will need to weigh your rig fully loaded, people, cargo, fuel. You can do that at a public scale (sometimes your local waste transfer station will let you do it for free). Go through the scales with the trailer connected but he wdh untensioned, and get the load on each of the 3 axles (via subtraction). Then disconnect the trailer and get the weight of each TV axle. TV combined axle weight with the trailer less total TV weight without the trailer is your tongue weight.

https://www.ajdesigner.com/apptrailertow/weightdistributionhitch.php - https://www.ajdesigner.com/apptrailertow/weightdistributionhitch.php

My personal experience involves 2 pods as I mentioned earlier. We have traveled over 15000miles with them. Our biggest issue has been a burnt wheel bearing . We did use a mobile repair service for that.We also had  to replace a  refrigerator due to a bad circuit board. That was not a pleasant experience. Otherwise,all of the small issues have been minor and self repaired.

I would say that the pods are overall better than most any other trailer of the same weight/size and price point.

If my 179 was totalled , I would definitely buy another one.

Vann

As for how to buy, also consider buying used. Many folks buy travel trailers and use them very little, decide its not for them. and then sell them at a substantial loss. within a year or two. They are definitely not an investment after all. Besides the obvious cosmetics when looking at a used RV, be careful to look for water damage, and check to be sure all the systems work as they should. Otherwise you should be fine. 

If you are a hands on person wanting to do most of the maintenance work on the trailer yourself, you'll be OK and as SH puts it "you'll enjoying the memories that you are making" (the quote might be a little off).  So go for it and enjoy it.

Here's a used 2016 179 on the NW Oregon coast.  http://portland.craigslist.org/nco/rvs/d/tolovana-park-rpod-2016-forest/7178529945.html - portland.craigslist.org/nco/rvs/d/tolovana-park-rpod-2016-forest/7178529945.html

R*POD 2016 Forest - $17,000 (ARCH CAPE) 

R*POD 179 2016

Barely used and like new. Best photos and specs are online. Just Google the Year and model. Dome tent attachment never used.

And one in NW Washington http://seattle.craigslist.org/search/rva?query=rpod - https://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/rvs/d/port-orchard-2016-forest-river-rpod-179/7184332452.html

That 3 mph difference is right about what should be expected. 3 mph speed reduction reduces drag by about 10% at freeway speeds because drag goes with the square of the speed. The frontal area of the wide rpods is about 10% more than the narrow ones so by reducing speed by 3 mph you're roughly equalizing the drag. 

We have an Equalizer 4 point wdh with built in sway control. We tow our 179 with a Ford Expedition EL and it handles very well. 

Vann

Its usually easier to visualize physical phenomena if we look at the extreme aka the "limiting" case. So, consider the extreme case of a completely rigid sway control system, and imagine the rig going around a right hand curve. In that case the sway control will not allow the rig to articulate and there will be lateral force trying to push the TV rear axle to the left relative to the front and trailer axles.

Completely removing the sway control friction allows the rig to rotate so each axle can follow a curved path, and there isn't an additional lateral force on the TV rear axle keeping it straight as it goes around the curve. So, clearly, friction based sway control puts lateral forces on the TV rear tire contact patches that wouldn't otherwise be there. This is going to happen even if there is no weight distribution system or an excessively tensioned wdh on the rig. Its not a problem on dry pavement but could contribute to breaking the wheels loose on a slippery surface. 

Now, on to weight distribution. When you hang a trailer on the hitch it rotates the TV up in front reducing load on the front axle. That load has to go somewhere so you end up putting more than the trailer hitch load to the TV rear axle. The purpose of the wdh is to increase load on the TV front axle, getting it back to where it was with no trailer. That load on the front axle is what the TV is designed to have so that there is proper steering control and so that the front wheels (which have the biggest brakes) do most of the braking. 

In the process of making the front axle load correct the wdh also increases the load on the trailer axle. This isn't necessarily desirable, especially on trailers with fairly marginal axles like rPods, but it can't be avoided. Just the way wdh's work. 

The TV rear axle load goes down when you tension the wdh, which is a good thing. It still ends up higher than it was without the trailer, but it should be closer to what you would have when not towing, which should improve handling.  

If you are getting side slip on the rear axle on low friction surfaces then reducing the friction in the antisway system ought to help. If you are losing traction in a RWD TV then reducing wdh tension should help but at the expense of poorer handling and braking. 

I don't understand what you mean by "the hitch sends the weight between the two focus points ahead and behind that axle"  

Not sure we actually disagree much. 

Definitely when going through a swale when the TV rear axle is in the dip it has lower load on it then it does on a flat surface. There is a classic photo floating around the internet where a front wheel drive Olds Toronado is towing a trailer with its rear wheels removed, hanging on n overtensioned wdh. Similarly if the TV rear axle is on a berm the wdh will lose tension and act like its not there. If I had a lot of that kind of roadway I would reduce tension on the wdh too, just to have consistent load on all 3 axles if nothing else. 

It sounds like we also agree that sway control is a different function from weight distribution, and it looks like we both have wdh's and sway control systems that can be adjusted separately, which was the point of my original post. 

I reduce or eliminate sway control on low friction surfaces.  Sounds like you don't.  I'm going slow then anyway, and I think it reduces the likelhood of breaking an axle loose. Many foiks on the forum have integrated sway and wdh systems so they don't have the option. Not a big deal.