The unit at Stoltzfus that we like doesn't have the 17" Jensen LCD in it, so that factors in. 

The next closest dealer is in either Easton, PA (no inventory) or Virginia. 

Couch's sent me a quote today that is about $4k cheaper, but I'd have to sell my current unit privately. I can't imagine them coming down that much, but then delivery from Ohio is $1000, and I don't gain the slight tax savings on the trade. 

We'll see...

 

Stoltzfus may be ok in the sales dept, I had a good experience once I presented them with Couch's pricing.  But, since it has been so long things could be different.

A little dismayed to read this, but we won't have the trailer serviced there because it's easily a 3 hour round trip for us too. 

We met with Wayne in the sales department. He seemed to be a straight-up guy.  He quoted us the pricing that appears on their website, and gave us a preliminary number on our trade. I haven't negotiated anything yet as we've still got to make the decision to purchase the RPod. 

Next closest dealer is in Joppa, MD...

Last year I detailed elsewhere here how I had them add 3rd brake lights just below the light bar.  Even though I told them in an email how I wanted the wires run down the edge channel and connected to the existing left and right turn/brake lights, they wired up both lights to the brakes.  Even if I hadn't told them how I wanted it wired up, why they would even consider doing this is beyond me.  Their techs should know the brakes only get 5-6-7 volts, so just how would the lights work right when they aren't getting 12 volts?  So I left the pod in their lot and ultimately they sent someone to deliver the pod to me so I didn't waste another Saturday running up there.

 

Last summer our fridge stopped working on day 2 of a 3 1/2 week trip.  It would mostly work on AC, and only very rarely on DC or LPG.  I finally made an appointment 6 weeks ago to drop the pod off over Memorial weekend, which gave them up to a month to fix it.  After just a week they said it was ready, and said over the phone they had to replace a fuse and it cooled down just fine on LPG.  Great!

 

I arrived on Saturday, paid the bill and hooked up.  I verified on the work order that they got my instructions right - very intermittent cooling on DC and LPG - and I saw the solution was "replaced main fuse".  So I tracked down the tech to find out where this fuse was.  If it blows while I'm on our next 4 week trip I want to be able to fix it, dealing with a cooler was a big pain last year.

 

He came out and pointed to the fuse I installed as a battery disconnect.  "Yeah, had to replace that fuse, after that the fridge came on just fine."  My jaw hit the floor and I knew immediately my fridge was still broken.  Yes, that fuse was removed, by me, when I dropped off the trailer.  Everyone knows you can't leave the battery connected.  "Oh no, you should never disconnect the battery from the camper for any reason."  Really?!?  So he insisted the draw from LPG detector and fridge wasn't a problem.

 

So then he asked me how I was sure the fridge didn't work.  I told him I used a wireless thermometer, and I could watch the temperature slowly rise to ambient once I switched to LPG mode going down the road.  At one point it hit 85.  I told him I had to throw out a gallon of milk, twice, because it was warm.  "Oh no, you can't use one of those thermometers, you gotta stick a probe in your food or a glass of water to measure the fridge temp".  Really?!?  "Yeah, those camper fridges work differently than... "  I cut him off, yes I know all about ammonia absorption fridges, but that doesn't change how they get the food cold - no different than your fridge at home, it cools the AIR, which cools the food.  A wireless thermometer will tell me just fine if the fridge is cold or not.  He argued it was not.  This is their lead tech talking, and the service manager was standing next to him backing him up.

 

I gave up, I told them I would bring it home and do my own tests.  Guess what?  30 hours on LPG mode and it was nice and toasty inside, including the ice-cold beer I stuck in there just to humor the tech's horrible logic, now a very warm beer (didn't open it, just felt it).  Amazingly after an overnight on DC mode the thermometer is reading 33 degrees but I don't trust that to hold at all.  Now it is on AC mode for a test all day.

 

So now I need to fight with Stoltzfus to get my money back for what they did to "fix" my fridge.  I sure hope the grease job they did on the axle is ok...

 

Its been almost 2 years since we picked up our new 'pod.  I think this weekend it will be 2 years since we signed on the dotted line.  We've had it back twice for various things - first time the decals were peeling and they replaced them under warranty, plus replaced the dinette table under warranty since we picked it up with damage. 

 

The second time (to be picked up tomorrow) we had the front and back decals removed for good since they are peeling again.  Not sure if we'll try something else in the future, we need to see how much of a marshmellow it looks like now.  It still has the side decals so it shouldn't be too bad.  We also have been getting a clicking sound from the fridge when the cooling fans kick on and its in AC mode.  They've tried for days to reproduce it but w/o success.  They have also installed an outside shower faucet, something we used a lot on our popup and missed.  I mentioned that our black tank was clogged so we couldn't dump it after our last trip and asked if they had a dump outlet on the property that I could use before I left - they don't but he offered to take it to his father's business down the street where they do have one and dump it for us!  He also said no charge on the time they spent looking at the fridge.  Oh, and I asked them to adjust the brakes since it was pulling to one side, he said they complete disassembled both sides and lubed where appropriate to prevent it from sticking.  What could have been a quick 10 minute adjustment (then out the door), instead they took the time to make sure it worked right.

 

Very accomodating on their multiple attempts to diagnose the fridge, quick to respond with a quote and do the work for the outside shower, made sure the brakes were done right, and an offer to dump our black tank for us... somewhere else.  How many places would offer to do that?

 

 

Edit:  all of this work wasn't exactly cheap, but I wanted to emphasize the level of service.

 

And so we ended up within $50 of our target. 

 

We picked it up on August 14th, we just happened to have a camping trip scheduled in the area that weekend so we picked it up and took it right to the campground.

 

This was a post I made on August 14th:

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I'm sitting in camp under the r-dome of our newly picked-up r-pod.