R-pod Owners Forum : Maiden Voyage

It was almost like starting from scratch with the new pod. It towed well, but still wish I had more power for those darned Carolina hills. We will see how the truck pulls it next time vs. the Wrangler! Setting up was a piece of cake, not much different than the pop-up. We had a nice little routine with the pop-up, it's now going to just take a couple of trips to get used to where everything is packed. I LOVE the 'basement". I can get to power cable, water hose and stuff while Carol is unloading the pod. Setting up the dome was a little challenging. Not the actual installation of it, just figuring out what 'panels' we did and did not want to use. We finally settled on removing the entire front panel, leaving the sides which we absolutely loved.

We installed the lower screen thinking it would possibly help keep the pups contained, this was before we decided to remove the front panel

Not sure we will use it in the future. The only thing we had a problem with was the water heater. This is the first water heater we've had and it was 3 months ago since the dealer explained to us how to use it. Long story short - I had one of the valves turned the wrong way which was mixing the hot and cold water. A phone call to our dealer got us fixed right up. Once I turned the middle valve the right way we had HOT water. The bathroom was nice to have even though it is a bit cramped. It beats having to go outside to the 'cabana' we used to have or having to walk to the bathhouse in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning. The little sink in the bath is really a useless item, but it makes an excellent toilet paper holder. We did not use the furnace but our little electric/oscillating heater kept us plenty warm during the cool nights. We love the refrigerator. It's about twice the size of the one in the pop up and it was great being able to go ahead and put everyting in it before leaving the house. And I don't know how many times I had lowerd the pop-up just to realize I had forgot to unpack the fridge. so I had to crank it back up to get the stuff out, then into the cooler. Packing up was a breeze and it was so great not to have to push and tuck and lower the pop-up or roll up that aggravating awning we had on it. We loved our pop-up and had many wonderful trips in it. But we are totally thrilled with the pod and look forward to many, many seasons in it. Below are a few photos from this weekend: