Expedition worthy R-Pod?
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Forum Name: Podmods, Maintenance, Tips and Tricks
Forum Discription: Ask maintenance questions, share your podmods (modifications) and helpful tips
URL: http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4384
Printed Date: 08 Jun 2025 at 5:28am
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Topic: Expedition worthy R-Pod?
Posted By: Thinkcooper
Subject: Expedition worthy R-Pod?
Date Posted: 03 Feb 2014 at 3:18pm
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Now that we have a new-to-us 2012 177 HRE in the driveway, my mind starts to thinking about mods. I love the idea of putting in stuff like new stainless drawer pulls, or a tough marine grade http://www.kisaetechnology.com/products_swic_ic122055.phpsfer%20switch - sine wave inverter/charger/transfer switch , or a custom fabbed tongue rack for our two all mountain bicycles. But.... I want to able to tow to hard scrabble places like http://casitaadventures.smugmug.com/Casita-Adventures/130918-Grand-Canyon-Tuweep/i-nFmXZKh - Toroweap . I'm curious if anyone here has gone about toughening up their R-Pod? Some things that come to mind would be leaf springs and shocks, bigger tires, maybe an upgraded hub to match the tow vehicle wheels, bolts/lock nuts to replace places where wood screws were used to fasten the slide, screwing and gluing the cabinet joinery, bracing heavy items like rooftop AC, fridge, etc. My "expedition" vehicle background pre-R-Pod was about Burning man. I still own a 1973 International Kurbmaster that has been converted to a livable adventure vehicle. It's too rough and tumble for comfortable day to day use. Too tight space wise as well. And too prone to 41 year old hard-to-find part failures to rely on these days for a multi-week long camping trip into the desert on washboard and rocky roads. Our sweet little 177  How we'll be towing it around. 2000 Toyota 4Runner SR5, 5 speed manual tranny. 100K miles. Owned since new. Still in need of airlift in rear springs and E2 weight distribution hitch.  I want to make the R-Pod as tough as this bad boy below. By the beach in Santa Cruz. Early on. 1973 Kurbmaster. Formerly a bread truck for a school district in the LA desert. Aluminum body by Olson/Grumman. Steel 1.5 ton truck chassis by International. Custom paint.  Time to start welding.  Sierra gas stop en route to Burning Man.  About to set-up camp - a 6 hour ordeal, but when complete, we had a 30x30 bar space, with curtains and carpeting, hammocks and a dance-worthy floor space. The quadracycle was perfect for the flat playa surface, but not much else.  The finished camp, prior to the actual event opening up to the general public (one of the benefits of being mayor of a large village at Burningman) next step, insert friends for breakfast dancing and bloody marys  Detail of the shade space... If you can't bring along neon, well, you aren't doing it right. :)  Comfortable interior space that was dust free, well insulated, and hip to boot.  |
Replies:
Posted By: Thinkcooper
Date Posted: 03 Feb 2014 at 3:24pm
| I'll keep this thread updated with/if progress. |
Posted By: techntrek
Date Posted: 03 Feb 2014 at 4:21pm
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Tank pod. Looks good!
------------- Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1723 - Pod instruction manual 
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Posted By: Thinkcooper
Date Posted: 04 Feb 2014 at 3:09am
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Been digging in to researching the Lippert torsion axle on our 177. Interesting design. I need to crawl under tomorrow to see if there's any slotted brackets for adjusting preload height. It looks like a pretty simple rubber compression spring, but hard to tell if adding a leaf spring would help or hinder. I imagine adding more steel to HRE spacer could lift the chassis, as would bigger tires. The mind reels. :) My wife is telling me to focus on the basics first. She's right. So I converted all the 5w5 bulbs to warm LEDs. Installed the new CW mattress with a memory foam topper as well. |
Posted By: Thinkcooper
Date Posted: 10 Feb 2014 at 7:16pm
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This is gonna be a long term project indeed. Especially since we're new to trailering, and have some basics to get right first. Thanks to techntrek for moving this thread to an area that makes more sense! As for basics, I got the airbags installed and took these shots of the 4runner with the 177 in tow. We also towed the rig up to http://www.dansupholstery.com/ - a local upholstery shop to get custom cushions made. We're using a charcoal gray Sunbrella fabric that will work with lots of color options. My wife is going to make some custom curtains for the pod as well. She's going to use http://www.curtain-tracks.com/hardware/wall/recmar-3108-plastic-curtain-track-8-feet.html - curtain tracks top and bottom , with snaps for the curtains. The upper track will hide behind the valances (which will be recovered along with all other trim to match the cushions) and the lower track will be hidden by the curtains' length. So far we've changed out all the inner filament bulbs to LED, we've hung a bunch of IKEA stainless kitchen rods with hooks. We don't have a microwave/convection oven so we've put some stainless sliding drawers in the open hole. We've also replaced all draw pulls and the shower door with stainless too. Next up will be finding a new kitchen faucet is stainless. Not critical but desired would be the http://www.amazon.com/Suburban-2937AST-2-Burner-Stainless-Cooktop/dp/B003CVRNFO - stainless version of the cooktop and a stainless sink as well. Sunbrella fabric swatches  The truck is looking way better with the airbags. E2 hitch is supped to arrive today.   |
Posted By: techntrek
Date Posted: 11 Feb 2014 at 8:07am
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Definitely need pics once the interior mods are done, sounds like it will look really nice. ------------- Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1723 - Pod instruction manual
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Posted By: Thinkcooper
Date Posted: 11 Feb 2014 at 10:44am
The cushions are about two weeks out. We've ordered stiffer foam than the stock cushions, an inch thicker too. We'll have the upholstery for recovering the valences and trim next week. I'll throw a wide angle on the camera to grab some in-process interior shots. A couple of other changes as well - we pulled the DVD/CD/screen. It's a head banger over the bed. I want to pull that whole media box. Later I guess. We also received the short Queen mattress from Camping World. It's much better than the stock mattress. |
Posted By: bodie55
Date Posted: 13 Feb 2014 at 1:06am
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Love to know your source when you find a stainless sink/countertop. We would really like to upgrade - guessing a bar sink would work for now. Like your desert set up! So what was behind the cardboard wall? My guess was some type of WC/bathing area... ------------- Bay Area Crew 2013 178 Beach Pod F-150 SuperCrew ...sempre in viaggio sul mare... |
Posted By: Thinkcooper
Date Posted: 13 Feb 2014 at 2:04am
Will do. As we find replacements in stainless, I'll post links. Sharp eyes on the cardboard under our shade structure. I designed a disposable/burn able temporary house structure for Burningman. It was based on 4x8 sheets of cardboard, glued to 1x1 wood frames (not unlike our R-Pods). The panels could be built off site, trucked to the event, then screwed together to make an 8'x8'x8' living space that was dust resistant, reasonably insulated, and then burned at the conclusion of the event. The village I camped with (illumination village) had whole rows of these, and they were awesome art walls as well. The slightly scaled down one under our shade was where my daughter stayed for the week. She had privacy but was under our wings, kinda. At the time I was mayor of our village, one of the oldest at BM, so we were quasi-VIPs in the BM caste. The box truck and our shade were the village HQ for the week.
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Posted By: furpod
Date Posted: 13 Feb 2014 at 10:09am
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If you are a memebr of the FB group, a member over there just had her complete kitchen counter redone, all stainless, different flush mount burners, the works..
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Posted By: Thinkcooper
Date Posted: 13 Feb 2014 at 10:53am
Tried finding the post about a stainless R-Pod kitchen on the Facebook group... Came up empty handed. The group seems to limit posts from before when I was added. IPad issue perhaps? I'll have to try via my laptop
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Posted By: kymooses
Date Posted: 13 Feb 2014 at 11:07am
https://www.facebook.com/groups/56931970807/permalink/10151994752600808/?stream_ref=2 that's the link ------------- https://calendar.google.com/calendar?cid=cnBvZC5zcG90dGVyQGdtYWlsLmNvbQ - RPod Rallies https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1W1foQXGtrjf8aYly1uh0b-bHPfI&hl=en_US - RPod Owner Map |
Posted By: Thinkcooper
Date Posted: 13 Feb 2014 at 2:57pm
That worked - and it looks great. |
Posted By: kymooses
Date Posted: 13 Feb 2014 at 8:09pm
Luckily like you said, it's not too hard to pick you out on Facebook! ------------- https://calendar.google.com/calendar?cid=cnBvZC5zcG90dGVyQGdtYWlsLmNvbQ - RPod Rallies https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1W1foQXGtrjf8aYly1uh0b-bHPfI&hl=en_US - RPod Owner Map |
Posted By: Thinkcooper
Date Posted: 13 Feb 2014 at 9:36pm
Meek as a mouse they say. 
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Posted By: bodie55
Date Posted: 14 Feb 2014 at 8:06pm
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So, will the pod be BM worthy? You can test the off grid possibilities! ------------- Bay Area Crew 2013 178 Beach Pod F-150 SuperCrew ...sempre in viaggio sul mare... |
Posted By: Thinkcooper
Date Posted: 15 Feb 2014 at 2:41am
That would be pretty easy to hit. Dust is the biggest issue. In the big old box truck at the start of this thread, we've got a big active hepa filter and practice clean entry and exits to minimize dust. The pod would be perfect for that. We're done with BM though, my wife manages trade shows for a large Santa Cruz company, and they just started doing the PAX gaming show in Seattle, same weekend as the burn. It's okay, we're burned out on it. We might start doing a clandestine alternative at black rock in July. Plus, I host a fire festival here in Santa Cruz that helps fill the void too. What's the Bay Area crew in your signature?
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Posted By: furpod
Date Posted: 04 Mar 2014 at 1:27pm
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Will your wife be sent to GENCON or Dragon Con? If she goes, and you can swing it, tag along.. I suspect you would enjoy it, especially Dcon.. ------------- |
Posted By: Thinkcooper
Date Posted: 05 Mar 2014 at 5:04pm
Typically I attend Comic-con. We exhibit there in the past. That's enough 'con for me.  The software product I manage is big in comics and sci-fi animation and illustration. The folks that create Red vs. Blue and RWBY use it all the time. |
Posted By: codycountry
Date Posted: 05 Mar 2014 at 8:18pm
| Gonna be kinda difficult to turn a torsion axle into a leaf spring outfit, but good luck. Cool post and photos btw. |
Posted By: Thinkcooper
Date Posted: 06 Mar 2014 at 7:03pm
The more I dig, the more that seems to be the case.
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Posted By: codycountry
Date Posted: 07 Mar 2014 at 5:54pm
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Greetings pard, Having given your topic more thought, I think you ought to just do like I do and have more options. Of course that will mean you will have to purchase a sturdy pickup, and a pop up camper, like a used Hallmark or one of the others if common ilk. Then you can drive anywhere you can drive a pickup and not tear up your rpod on a rock just because you don't have the pickup and pop up camper. I have many tents, a gooseneck horse trailer with sleeper in the front, a popup pickup camper, and now my wonderful new Rpod. That ought to about cover most outdoor endeavors with appropriate shelter, maybe even inappropriate shelter. Probably I will combine a tent of some sort with all the above campers to have interesting camps once in a while or for overflow sleeping. Nothing beats sleeping directly on mother earth on a good sleeping pad. Grizzly bears not included in that comment. Hard sides are a good thing these days in certain parts of the Rocky mountains. I never knew that region of the canyon existed that you linked. I will be going there with my gal once I retire. With the Hallmark on the pickup. Happy trails. |