Hi Gordon,
I've has small campers since 2008 or 10. I began with a hard side pop-up and ran with that for a few years. Unfortunately, mine was not made for long distant trips and I suffered a pear of tire blow-outs that led to thousands of dollars of damage. By the time I traded it in, the insurance and I put more money into repairs than the original price of the camper. At that point I was going to get out of the camper ownership world when I saw the R-Pod on the showroom floor. There is nothing flashy about these. The internal fit and finish does not reflect craftsmanship, but, rather, a more utilitarian approach. We've now had ours for a little more than 5 years (I think). With the tires sitting outside of the camper, I figured... "if I have another blow-out then the inside remains undamaged." Given my history with campers, this latter point was huge for me.
As for travels and use, the R-Pod has served us very well. I live in MN, where it is quite beautiful, but distant from our continent's best wildlife and landscape locations. It takes 8 - 10 hours to get to the Badlands, and that is the gateway to the West for us. I also have a dog, so my wife and I wanted a way that we could travel, camp, and live on location. Our little camper has everything we need to sleep, eat, stay warm, stay, cool, and stay dry. It has just enough room to store the cameras and space to do image edits. It is what we use as our photography base-camp. In fact, I just returned from two nights at a local state park to do some waterfall photography. Temps got into the 20's overnight, and we were snug as a bug... though the dog helps with that too
While we have had to do some minor repairs and maintenance to our camper, this seems to be the norm for anyone who buys a camper regardless of its price. Thing rattle free on the road, and long stretches of disuse (like the 6 months of MN cold) can lead to problems as well. At this point, we have taken the R-Pod to the badlands (only) twice, badlands + Tetons (this year), a "monster road trip" in 2018 that began in MN, then to Theodore Roosevelt NP to Banff to Kootenay NP to the Olympic Peninsula to Glacier, and then home. We were on the road for 16 days with one motel stay... The trip was a hoot and the camper was as utilitarian as I would hope it would be. Finally, and this is key... I do not need a pick-up truck. I pull the R-Pod with a 6-cylinder Grand Cherokee... At this point, the two seem to work very well together.
If you are not looking for premium fit and finish, the R-Pod is great.... if you are looking for craftsmanship inside the trailer, then the R-Pod is not for you.
