The Search Began Two Years Ago

So our first camping trip as a family in July of 2012 was not a spectacular success but neither was it a spectacular failure.  My boys had a great time and as an added benefit we picked a camp site next to a pond that had a family of beavers living in it.  What a surprise to find beavers in their natural habitat. It really was cool to see.  So in the end I accomplished what I set out to do and that was to spend time with my family and not be parked in front of the television watching Sponge Bob Square Pants.

Over the last couple of years I had broached the subject of perhaps purchasing an RV travel trailer to my wife on several occasions and each time she would tell me if I sold the Mustang she might be open to it.  That always ended any further conversation on the topic and I resolved myself to harmless research.  Note I said harmless.  I did not say generic.

I had some very specific ideas and some general wishes as to what I might want in a travel trailer so I outlined them and they went something like this:

• It had to be no larger than 20' in length.  My reason here was not based on me being nervous to tow anything larger or the limitation of my tow vehicle (TV).  Experience towing is not an issue for me.  The tractor/ trailer combo I own and drive is 72' in length and at times it has weighed in at over 90,000 lbs and my TV is a Ford F-150 so no problem there. Given my experience, it is precisely why I did not want a large RV travel trailer.  Size limits where you are going to go and how much it is going to cost to get you there.
• It needed to comfortably sleep four people with the ability to sleep up to six.  Most importantly, while sleeping four people I did not want a travel trailer that had to have the dinette dropped every night to make a bed.  The option to sleep more than four was because I knew eventually the boys would want to bring a friend or two along.
• It needed to be light and have a descent load capacity.  That is to say I was looking for a travel trailer with a dry weight of no more than 3000 lbs and a load capacity of around 1500 pounds.  This essentially meant I was looking for a trailer with a GVWR of around 4,500 pounds.  Water weighs 8.34 pounds per gallon so with a 36 gallon fresh water holding tank and a 30 gallon grey water holding; 550 pounds could potentially be used and no consideration was even given to the weight of the LP tank(s).  It would not leave a lot of weight available for food, clothing and sundries.
• I preferred to find a tandem axle trailer as the ride and stability is considerably better and it ties directly back to load capacity.  If you looked at two identical 20' travel trailers with one being a tandem axle travel trailer and one being a single axle travel trailer you would find the single axle has a considerably lower load capacity.  Makes sense right?  Two tires and brakes carrying and stopping the load verses four tires and brakes.
• It had to have the amenities of a larger travel trailer yet still have a small footprint.  A/C, AC/LP Appliances, Microwave, Shower, Television, A Slide Out and of course a private bathroom.
• It  had to be hard sided and fiberglass.  Hard sided for two reasons.  One natuarally being security and two because tent style campers are not allowed in many of the National Parks here in America.  The fiberglass requirement, however, was more about aesthetics than anything.  That said,  I have since learned a few things about the manufacturing methods of some fiberglass travel trailers that is far superior to aluminum travel trailers.
• It needed to be manufactured by a reputable company, using sustainable/green manufactoring methods, with a track record of success and durability as well as a strong consumer following.   And if all that was not enough, it needed to retain some sort of resale value (if there is such a thing with an RV). 
• Lastly it had to look great.

With all of the above in mind have you ever seen the ad for this auto search engine on television?  The one that shows a person searching for a "car" on their computer.  Up pops a digital image of thousands of cars on the screen.  Then the person types in "two door car" and half of the cars go away.  Then the person narrows the search to a "two door car, hybrid" and another half disappear.  They continue narrowing their search with more options and pretty soon they are down to one car.  Well, that is about how fast I came upon the RPod manufactured by Forest River.

That was back in late 2010 and since that very first introduction to to the RPod I have spent countless hours comparing it, and the differnt floor models, to many other travel trailers. What I found is nary a one meet the bill on all fronts.  They all had their limitations in one way, shape or another and even fewer came close to matching my search criteria.  So one by one they were knocked off the list with the RPod always remaining my top choice.

The model that suited me the most was the RPT 176-T.  Forest River says it can sleep up to five persons but you could pack six in if you really tried.  It is a hybrid model.  That is to say it does have a pop out style tent portion but you do not have to use it to still sleep four people.  If the tent portion is not used then the dinette table would have to be broken down to make a bed for two persons while the other two sleep in bunk beds in the nose of the trailer.  When the tent portion is not used it is a totally secure camper as the cover for the tent is basically a clam shell shaped door that folds up when open.  It has a slide out that serves as the galley as well as a private toilet and it has all the other goodies I was looking for.  It is compact but it is incrediably effeciant with the use of available space.

Given my specific wants and desires there were very few travel trailers that even came close to footing the bill.  Of all that I wished for, the RPod was a compromise on three things.  The tandem axle, GVWR and pop out tent.  There is always a compromise somewhere but my motto is, "Let's strive for perfection but accept nothing short of excellence".  So I let the tandem axle and GVWR go, accepting it as the RPod's Achilles heel.  The tent was an acceptable alternative when security would not be an issue or we were not camping in National Parks.

That was it!  The RPod 176-T was the one.  Next step was to start searching for new and used 176-T's and what I found really shocked me.