r-pod for Northern Alaska and Canada

Hello, I'm new to the forum and, to date, have camped in tents and the back of my pickup.  At age 56, I've decided that when the mosquitoes are bad or the weather cold and rainy, I want to cook/eat/sleep/poop indoors.  I live in Fairbanks and have driven quite a few of the roads around, including several trips up and down the Haul Road (Dalton Highway).  In my view, these roads are typically quite passable (but not always), and frequently the gravel roads are easier on the vehicles than the frost-heaved pavement.

Hello Alaskan,
We have a 2009 R Pod 173 that we have used extensively for boondocking.  We have made a lot of modifications to make it easier and more efficient.  the Rpod is a great little travel trailer for us-a couple of active retired mid 60's people who love to travel.  We usually take our bikes and a canoe.  We use it mostly for longer travel and camping-not usually weekends or campsites.  We have been on road trips as long as 11 weeks in our pod.We have made round trips  from NC to California, NC to Florida several times, NC to New York.  We have towed it about 18,000 miles so far.

I'm not familiar with your other choices, so I can't compare them.  I like the RPod because it is self contained for boondocking.  We use 2 6 volt , deep cell golf cart batteries, have installed all LED lights, the propane will last for several weeks worth of cooking and heating. The fresh water tank is plenty large enough and so are the black and gray tanks.  It's not too small to use for a week without having to refuel, dump or refill the water if we are careful.  I should note that we don't use the water heater or shower when boondocking-we use a sun shower and heat water on the stove.  the 3 way refrigerator(AC/DC/propane ) works well and is large enough for our food.  We use a Engel cooler for part of the foods and drinks  that don't need to be ultra-cold.  The RPod is big enough(barely) for the 2 of us to be comfortable and cozy. We have modified our pod so that we have a permanent dinette area with a solid, stable table.  Our double bed is easy to set up in the rear.We added some removable counter top space(over the bed) and fold down shelves so the kitchen area is totally adequate for cooking.  We always take a small propane grill with us and cook meats on it almost every night. We use the R Dome if we will be in one place more than 2 days.

I don't know about the roads in Alaska(it's on our bucket list to find out!!) but I understand they can be rough.  We have towed our pod along many miles of dirt roads without incident.  It will take some minor modifications to keep the cabinet doors and drawers closed.  We drove it on the road to Chaco Canyon which is the worst road I've ever towed on-continuous rutted, washed out and bumpy for 25 miles-at 15 mph with no issues.  The pod is light enough to be towed easily if you are properly equipped.  The running gear(wheels, brakes, lights, etc) seem to be adequate for the unit.

I think the R Pod is a good choice -particularly if you are handy and like to tinker and modify it.  Read through the past pages of this forum and you will get some great ideas about the mods as well as good info about R Pods in general.

If for some reason I had to replace ours, I would definitely buy another R Pod and would look very carefully at a slide unit.

Hope this helps some-be glad to answer any specific questions.

Vann