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New Pod owners |
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gpokluda 
Senior Member 
Joined: 11 Nov 2018 Location: East Idaho Online Status: Offline Posts: 504 |
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 Topic: New Pod ownersPosted: 28 Jun 2026 at 7:33am |
I know Stephen H still frequents the forum, but we have't seen offgrid in years. Glad you are enjoying your Pod!
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Gpokluda
2017 Rpod 179(sold 2023) 2022 Escape 5.0TA 2022 Ford F150 4X4 3.5EB Honda SCL500 |
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texastreehugger
Newbie 
Joined: 09 Oct 2021 Online Status: Offline Posts: 20 |
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Posted: 27 Jun 2026 at 9:54pm |
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Not really a new pod owner anymore, but thought I'd share a few updates. We retired in 2024 and have been making longer trips. Last year to Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Palisade, Rifle Falls, Glenwood Springs, Matagorda, Fort Davis, Guadalupe Mountains, Balmorhea.
I replaced the wheel bearings, installed a new battery and repainted the front of the trailer to get the pod ready, but of course we had some issues. Broken toilet valve, electric brake line severed on I-25.(Way go Lever nut repair is holding up pretty good). Ac housing shook itself loose, but all in all the rpod has been a great camper and this forum has been incredibly helpful in finding parts and how-to tips. This spring I decided to put on a bal hide a spare. I got the recessed mount, but I didn't see how I could make it fit. I read that others said it barely fit, not sure if they had the hood river 9.5 inch tires. I thought about getting the flush mount plate and cutting it down, but I got a machine shop to extend the hinge plate and made it work. I had to cut and redrill.the tubes. Thanks Stephen H for that heads up! Thanks also to offgrid for the suggestions on how to connect our jackery panels to recharge my battery when boondocking. |
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2016 Rpod 182g
2022 Chevrolet Colorado 4x4 |
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texastreehugger
Newbie
Joined: 09 Oct 2021 Online Status: Offline Posts: 20 |
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Posted: 27 Jun 2026 at 9:38pm |
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Edited by texastreehugger - 27 Jun 2026 at 10:35pm |
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2016 Rpod 182g
2022 Chevrolet Colorado 4x4 |
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jato
Senior Member
Joined: 23 Feb 2012 Location: Kewadin, MI Online Status: Offline Posts: 3439 |
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Posted: 18 Jan 2022 at 4:16am |
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On reducing the potential of trailer sway: There have been some excellent articles written in the past about the importance of having 11% or of the total weight of the trailer on the hitch. In our case a fully loaded 177 with full FW tank (located behind axle) came in at 2940 lbs. Multiply that weight by .11 and our magic number came to 323 lbs. Even though we carry two 12v deep cycle batteries and a pair of 20# propane tanks on the a-frame it was still necessary to add 3 used truck rotors to the front storage area to get the tongue weight up; it this case it came to 325 lbs. Last fall it became necessary to replace the oldest battery, it was 3 months shy of 11 years old. Replaced it with a Trojan T-1275 12v golf cart battery. It gives 150 Ah of power and weighs in at 85 lbs. Because of the added weight I could remove the three truck rotors, freeing up valuable storage space and making my wife quite happy, a win, win.
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God's pod
'11 model 177 '17 Ford F-150 4WD 3.5 Ecoboost Jim and Diane by beautiful Torch Lake "...and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free." |
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texastreehugger
Newbie
Joined: 09 Oct 2021 Online Status: Offline Posts: 20 |
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Posted: 17 Jan 2022 at 7:27pm |
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PS, great idea to canoe up Santa Elena. Will have to try it next time!
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2016 Rpod 182g
2022 Chevrolet Colorado 4x4 |
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texastreehugger
Newbie
Joined: 09 Oct 2021 Online Status: Offline Posts: 20 |
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Posted: 17 Jan 2022 at 7:25pm |
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Thanks for the pump suggestions! I winterered our unit today since we are looking at a couple nights in the 20's. Found some good directions on this forum. I'll see what I can work out with the pump noise damping next time I have some time.
Regarding the spare, I'm just wary of getting too much weight aft. Probably all those videos of Australian campers wiping out that i came across when researching wdh/anti-sway systems! I also like the idea of having it under the trailer out of the way. |
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2016 Rpod 182g
2022 Chevrolet Colorado 4x4 |
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Pod People
Senior Member
Joined: 22 Sep 2011 Location: Chapel Hill,NC Online Status: Offline Posts: 1097 |
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Posted: 11 Jan 2022 at 2:22pm |
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We did a couple of improvements that greatly reduced the noise from the water pump. first, we mounted the pump on a 1 1/2" firm piece of foam that isolated any vibrations from the pod floor. We also added foam pipe insulation to all of the piping under the bed. both of these changes made a great reduction in the pump noise. we also moved our spare tire to the a frame. In order to do this, our welder had to move the gas tank mount forward. we used the original rear mount and simply cut off the part that inserted into the 1 1/4" receiver. we had to be careful to make sure that the swing up tailgate of our Expediton would clear the tire.   Safe travels Vann ps-- we also spent some time at Big Bend(Big Cottonwood campground). It is close to the river and we took our canoe and paddled upstream as far as possible in the Saint Elena Canyon on the river-it was great.
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Vann & Laura 2015 RPod 179 
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offgrid
Senior Member
Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290 |
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Posted: 11 Jan 2022 at 3:21am |
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Glad your trip went well.
Yes the water pump makes some noise. but only inside the trailer. Won't bother the neighbors. Turn it off when not using water so it doesn't cycle on and bother you. You can also try remounting it on rubber bushings so it's vibration doesn't carry to the rpod structure. Why don't you want to mount the spare on the rear of the trailer? You should be fine on your weight distribution especially if you have two propane cylinders and/or two batteries on the tongue. If you have already weighed you can calculate the tongue weight change from the spare as follows: new tongue weight = old tongue weight - weight of spare x distance from spare to axle / distance from ball to axle. BTW, this calc applies to any load change, subtract if the new load is behind the axle, add if forward of the axle. |
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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
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texastreehugger
Newbie
Joined: 09 Oct 2021 Online Status: Offline Posts: 20 |
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Posted: 10 Jan 2022 at 8:40pm |
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Hi all, we just completed our first longer trip! 5 nights at Big Bend Natl Park with our two daughters at a no electric, no connection site. I've got to say things went really well, with lots of credit to the great people on this forum which helped me prepare. We upgraded our Tow vehicle from our Pilot to a Chevy Colorado (I wanted to rent a truck for the trip, but couldn't find one). Lots of wind on the way out so I kept it to 50-55 until we got past it. We didn't have any sway issues,but could definitely feel the wind. Our pod didnt have a spare so I bought one and also got an extra 20lb propane tank for the trip. We didn't need either, but good to have insurance! Our pod has a 30 lb tank so I may switch to double 20s at some point. I had purchased a solar controller to direct charge the battery, but did not have time to assemble all the connections, so we used a Jackery powerstation and trickle charger to keep the battery charged. The first few nights I disconnected the Jackery overnight, but that seemed to deplete the battery so I started leaving it connected and that kept the charge up (recharged the jackery with solar). We did use a coleman stove for some of the cooking, but i am amazed we didn't need the 2nd propane tank since we ran the fridge,furnace,grill and water heater quite a bit. We refilled water 2x and dumped 1x.
Looking forward to our next adventure, I am once again seeking advice on a couple things. 1) is the water pump normally so loud? I found myself asking our neighbors if it bothered them. 2) looking for tips on a spare tire holder. I had it in the truck bed, but we were taking some rough roads exploring and woukd rather not have to deal with having to secure it and the space it takes up. I don't really have room on the tongue, and would rather not have it on the rear or even behind the axle. It looks like it might fit hanging from the frame forward of the water tank (bal hide a spare?). Anyone have a setup that works well? We do have 30x9.5" tires on 15" rims. (I kind of wish we had 14s as the garage is a bit high for the gals.) |
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2016 Rpod 182g
2022 Chevrolet Colorado 4x4 |
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texastreehugger
Newbie
Joined: 09 Oct 2021 Online Status: Offline Posts: 20 |
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Posted: 15 Nov 2021 at 8:38pm |
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We did our first off grid excursion last weekend. We went with the Andersen hitch and it seems to really lock things down. Most of the drive was 45-50 mph on winding hilly roads and had no issues, even with our canoe on the roof rack.
Pondering our upcoming trip to Big Bend (without canoe, but more passengers and cargo)...we put some camping pads under the dinette cushions and found that imoroves the comfort quite a bit! Furnace stopped heating on the 2nd night so I need to figure that out. |
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2016 Rpod 182g
2022 Chevrolet Colorado 4x4 |
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