To owners of Rpod size trailers. Do you wish you bought bigger?

The Forest River Rpods and Jayco Hummingbirds tow easily but do you wish you bought something a little bigger?

 

Quite interested myself, or in feedback from any RPod / Hummingbird owners.

I'm anticipating purchasing a Hummingbird 17FD this winter (basically the Rpod 178), but am a bit nervous about pulling it - aiming primarily for our mtns (> 10,000 ft elevation) and over the passes to Utah.

 

We just picked up our Hummingbird about 10 days ago. So far we have no regrets. We love the size of it, it is well put together, and it tows behind the Taco well. The big test for us will be in early June when we set out on a two month, 8,000 mile trip going west around Lake Superior, through the Canadian Prairies, the Rockies, the BC mountains, Vancouver Island, then back through the northern US states, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

 

Nice trip! Please post pics.

 

To North55. I am really interested in anything you have to say about the Hummingbird. I must have looked up specs on every trailer made that is 20 feet long. I really like the Lance 1575 but talk about sticker shock. The ones that are 2 years old are running about 23K. The other 2 trailers I have been looking at are the Hummingbird 17RK and the Flagstaff E-PRO 17RK. E-PRO 17RK is laid out like the Hummingbird but has a kitchen which is a bit nicer. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated. We have logged about 35K miles in a popup and are wanting to upgrade because a bear tore our cooler apart while camping at Yosemite NP. It was under the popup and my wife wanted a hard sided camper ever since.

 

Airsavage. We are taking the Hummingbird out for the first time Sun-Tues to a local campsite, so will have more to say about it after we camp in it. We looked at a lot of trailers over several months before deciding on the Hummingbird. We wrestled between the RK and RB model. We liked the storage space and kitchen in the RK. We liked the bigger bathroom and the dinette in the RB (where you could look out the window rather than looking at the bathroom in the RK. We really could have gone either way but we ended up with the RB. Our dealer was excellent when we picked it up (Christie's RV in Sault Ste Marie). We've been testing it out on our driveway and the quality seems good so far. Everything we've tested works as expected. We haven't tested the water systems yet because up to a few days ago it was still going below freezing at night. So I'm going to test the water systems this weekend. The big test will be when we live in it for two months this summer as we travel across the country.

 

We love our RPOD, we bought for comfort at night and during inclement weather. Size is perfect as were always outside. I look at it this way even when ya go big you always wish later it was bigger lol.

 

I can give reverse perspective. I bought bigger, a 2011 Forest River 22xl or something, it was like 26' long, had a rear corner bath, and weighed around 4500 lbs.

Towing it was very unfun in the Tacoma. Ended up buying a bigger truck.

Aerodynamics played a big part, and the rPods are pretty aerodynamic. In the end, towing a trailer that weighs more than you truck (or if you truck is about the same weight), makes you very nervous on bridges and places where the trees cannot block the wind.

And I had a WD hitch with built in swaybars on the hitch, it was around $600, so not a cheap unit. It was better, but still not great.

In the end the only reason I go camp is to spent time outdoors anyways, my TT is a bed, AC, and a potty at night.

 

I had a rpod 173t. It had a lot of character and towed very easy. Hardly any storage, but you learned to be creative with the space it had. My kids are 10 now so we bought a Cherokee Wolf Pup 16bhs last summer. Not as fun as the rpod, but has more storage and bunks for the kids. It's still small enough to be easily towed.

I would entertain the thought of getting another rpod when the kids move out, but a Casita is top on my wish list.

 

After looking at the R pod we settled on this.
17FQS Coachman Clipper. We get claustrophobic
In the R pod.
Tacoma pulls great up a six percent grade to the campground.

 

What altitudes are you towing at? I'm trying to figure out what camper to get was looking at big pop ups but they are to heavy from my calculations. Thanks

 

Campground is at 8000 feet. Planning a trip to Aspen Glade campground in Colorado in June.
Not worried about pulling it at all
Tag on tongue says 3179 lbs dry. Filled tank with 30 gallons of water. Not a problem.
This why we liked the extra room.

 

Airsavage. Our shakedown weekend with the Hummingbird went well. Everything works and we are impressed with how this trailer is put together. It's compact for sure, but manageable, there's only two of us camping in it, no kids, no pets. It was chilly the first night, just above freezing outside, but the heater worked like a champ keeping us warm. As for towing, the taco pulled it well on the flats. There is one hill we went up which pushed the taco. It's a 2-3 mile long hill, average grade is 4% with some spots at a 9% grade. At the steepest spot, the taco was struggling to hold speed, dropping 3-5 miles/hour, with the gas pedal to the floor, in third gear. But other than that one steep grade, the taco and trailer seem matched well for towing.

 

What kind of MPG did you get? Do you monitor the transmission temps? I put a scan guage 2 on my truck and it is great for trans temps, MPG, engine temps or what ever you may want to monitor.

 

I am having trouble monitoring tranny temp. I have a bluetooth adapter for the OBD Port, and the Torque Pro App for my Android phone. It monitors many things, but won't give me a tranny temp. I've been reading on the forum that I need to set it up manually to read tranny temp, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. Does anyone know how to set it up on the Torque Pro App? Or is there another app that will read it automatically without fiddling with it?

 

We have had an Rpod 177 for about 6 years - pulled with a Honda Pilot until last fall - we now have a 2017 Taco Double Cab.
Getting the Tacoma was a big improvement in the towing dept. We really like the Pod - having something bigger would be nice at times, but having a small trailer is sure nice getting in and out of remote forest campgrounds. 2 Adults and a dog - plenty of room, and unless the weather sucks we are typically out doing something anyway. They are kind of slapped together - I am sure to keep them lightweight they have to use lightweight materials.. I think for the money it is a good trailer, and has been reliable for the most part.

 

I'm impressed. Downtown here we have this tucked away campground on the creek that I routinely walk past. I saw a Pilot / RPod 178 combo from California. No matter how you slice that, they did some measure of climbing and altitude to get to Golden.

Doesn't make me less nervous about towing with the Tacoma, but it was interesting to see.

 

I have been towing a Jayco that is about the same dry as this is wet and tow to South Park and have no and I mean no problem, keeping the speed limit or more up the hills.

 

My wife and I rented an R-Pod just to check it out. It towed great weighing in at 2500lb dry and minimal other stuff. While it has great character the problem was with us not the camper. As bigger & older folks the small space was difficult to move around in. It had the toilet on the side and was barely shoulder wide. I could do OK but my wife has had both knees replaced and still has mobility issues.

I'm glad we rented first because it could have been a painful mistake to discover all this after purchase. We will look at renting a larger camper that is "Taco-able" later in the summer.

Sandy

 

Thanks for the report. We plan to rent before we buy too. I think it will work better for us, but still it is always best to trying before you buy it.