Newbie pondering purchase
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Forum Name: Introduce Yourself
Forum Discription: New Members - tell us about yourself and your r-pod
URL: http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4455
Printed Date: 17 May 2025 at 1:20am
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Topic: Newbie pondering purchase
Posted By: SOTF2958
Subject: Newbie pondering purchase
Date Posted: 07 Mar 2014 at 7:31am
I am in the process of elimination, choosing our "retirement"RV.have looked at a lot of different posts,RVS.Have narrowed it down to a used Rpod 172 at a dealer about 3 hours away or a new Retro 175 here.Hubby is a sheet metal worker,and is ??? about fiberglass.Also read a lot of very negative posts on pissedconsumer.com about Forest River (but only a couple about Rpods)Any advice?You all seem pretty happy with your pods!
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Replies:
Posted By: kymooses
Date Posted: 07 Mar 2014 at 8:14am
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The thing about RV's is you're going to encounter issues with any brand or model or anything. And they all will require maintenance and care to keep them in tip top shape. Knowing that, the Rpods have had random issues in the past, nothing that so much stood out as a glaring example or issue. You'll have the occasional poor sealer job around some windows, maybe a loose pipe fitting here or there, but that could be just as easily expected of any RV you buy. The Rpod shells are very sturdy and the gel coatings on the outside perform well if maintained. A lot of small things have been improved over the years in the general designs and features. An Rpod is also very upgradeable, changeable, and moddable, so you can choose to do just about anything to them. They are very plug and play and any of the systems should they have an issue are very easily swapped out and serviceable. Personally and you will probably have a of folks back this up but I absolutely love Forest River, I will never own a different model of RV ever. They really take care of their customers. I think a lot of the bad reviews you might read are first time owners of an RV who didn't really know what they were getting into at times, they might not have expected that an RV is going to take maintenance and work and that yes things may and will go wrong. I could be wrong there, but as it is almost always only someone wanting to complain usually fills out reviews and surveys about stuff. You'll almost always see more negative than positive online. The 175 is nice floorplan!! Good luck in your searches. ------------- 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: furpod
Date Posted: 07 Mar 2014 at 8:59am
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I will say that, on that site, they have "160" complaints about "Forest River". Many of the ones I read were not (really) about FR, but about dealing with the dealer. It's been said before, a good dealer is worth a heck of a lot more than a good trailer. A broken trailer can be fixed, a broken dealer will stay broken. Forest River sells a TON of RV's, and in my world view, once you account for people who just can't be or won't be happy, and owners with buyers remorse and other issues making noise, I think the overall owners experience is way better than what you might glean from that site alone. In my experience, we have a pretty good dealer, and what dealings we have had with FR directly, in no way shape or form reflect what many of the people on that site report. That said, anything made by man CAN have problems. I don't know if you are thinking about full timing, it kind of sounds like you may be, and I am not sure many couples could spend that much time with so little room, something to think about. And we do know couples who ARE fulltiming, or at least snow birding in small campers. It can be done, but it isn't for everybody. I think most TT's are fairly "moddable", if owners want to and have the skills, but it does seem to me that either the pod lends itself vary well to mods, or the owners of them are more willing to do stuff to them. We looked at a retro at the last show, liked it, but in our view it had a couple things about it that we didn't like, mainly, don't underestimate the value of a slide out. We have one TT with a slide and one without, I am positive, no matter what our next one is, it WILL have a slide. I like fiberglass rather than a metal exterior (unless the exterior is smooth polished aluminum), and fiberglass has been used successfully in cars and TT's and airplanes for DECADES. ------------- |
Posted By: ron_whitt
Date Posted: 07 Mar 2014 at 9:22am
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Agree 100% with Mark and Travis. The dealer you buy from makes up 99.9% of your experience in buying a trailer. After reading on the forums about bad dealers, I am so happy with our rv dealer we bought from. And after dealing directly with FR, I would have no problem with buying another FR product. I did have a major/minor (depending on your outlook) problem with my pod and between my dealer and FR, the problem was handled to my fullest satisfaction. ------------- Ron & Shirley 2020 Tacoma 2012 177 rpod |
Posted By: techntrek
Date Posted: 07 Mar 2014 at 10:21am
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Welcome.
Usually you read about the bad experiences online far more often than the good experiences - for anything. Considering that, we've had very few people post horrible experiences on this forum. I'd guess less than 5, maybe just 2-3. With over 2000 members just on this forum and what I said 2 sentences ago I think that's remarkable. I expect to see many more. ------------- 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: SOTF2958
Date Posted: 08 Mar 2014 at 4:25pm
| Thank all of you very much for your advice! I found a nice,gently used(twice) 2013 182g at a great price and am going for it!they are all so nice it was hard to pick a favorite floor plan!I going to enjoy being part of this group:) |
Posted By: kymooses
Date Posted: 08 Mar 2014 at 4:54pm
<-----big fan of the garage models here! ------------- 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: David and Danette
Date Posted: 08 Mar 2014 at 8:00pm
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The r-pod is a fun and easy camper to own and tow. It always helps to be handy in doing little repairs but most likely nothing big in repairs will be needed. With our Vibe I have spent 7 weeks rebuilding a good part of the interior and it was brand new and haven't camped in it once yet. I will admit I am not your average camper and wanted our camper for retirement and plan on getting a lot of use out of it. So I wanted better construction and more user friendly. I also am a woodworker and have enjoyed having it as a project to work on. RV's are not constructed as well as automobiles when it comes to quality but they are a lot easier to work on and to change things the way you may want them. The skill of a sheet metal worker with knowledge of general construction and working with your hands would find anything needed repaired or changed on the r-pod simple to do.You will enjoy your new camper, I was recently at a RV show and the r-pods were advertised as the number one camper in popularity. That hasn't happened with there being a lot of unhappy customers but the opposite. David
------------- 2018 Vista Cruiser 19BFD (2018- 2012 Vibe 6503 (2014-2019) 2009 r-pod 171 (2009-2014) Middle Tn 2014 Ram 1500 Quad cab |