Here's hopefully a quick 6 month review of owning a 2020 R-Pod 195 that we purchased in July of 2019. This is the 195 that does not have the front window, but has a nice outdoor table.
I would have to say it's been a love-hate relationship. We love the trailer and have camped in it several times in several state parks here in Arkansas. The floor plan is what we needed...walk around bed (my feet and head touch the walls in the side-to-side beds)...and no wet bath.
However, as typical (from what I'm reading here and elsewhere), we have had several issues and the trailer has been at the dealership for repairs for almost 3 months (3 different times) out of our 6 month of ownership.
Here are the issues we have encountered: 1. Air Conditioner didn't work correctly on our first trip. There is now a recall where they installed the wrong shroud. 2. The one bolt and nut that holds the sewer pipe broke going down the interstate so we lost the cap and shredded the end of the pipe. Fortunately, someone flagged us to stop before it got too bad and we didn't experience any problems where the pipe is attached to the black tank. 3. The two "pods" that make up the u-shaped dinette have both come up out of the floor. Only two screws hold each to the floor and are only screwed in to the floor only a short distance. One just came up as I was trying to remove the cushion that Velcros to the "pod". Instead of just lifting the cushion...up pulled the whole thing. The other one, unfortunately, came up as I was pulling in the slide. So, the slide drug the "pod" and it's pointy screws about foot over the camper flooring. This of course scratched and ripped the flooring. Now that the flooring is repaired, I have decided NOT to screw the "pods" back into the floor and we will either put some felt on the bottom of them to slide them around or just put them in the house and never use them again. Either way, I will never bring the slide in with them anywhere around. Of course, this defeats the purpose of extra dining space or to convert it to a bed. That's okay for us right now. 4. The table for the u-shaped dinette is pretty useless....or at least ours is. First of all and again, the screws that hold the foldable legs on our table had come completely out of the bottom of the table. This was a "punch list" item and was repaired, but it's just a matter of time before it happens again. So, we actually use a totally different table and store the one that came with the camper. Again, not helpful if you need to make the dinette into a bed. 5. Although we did not experience this issue, there is also a recall on the mounting of the medicine cabinet. 6. Finally, we had about 10 other different things on our initial "punch list" that have been addressed that to me just indicated that quality control could be a little better at the factory. My belief is that they want to build them and get them out the door and the cost for the dealer to do "these little things" is cheaper.
Before we bought our new 195, I had read and saw various YouTube videos indicating that when you buy a new camper to expect to have it in for repairs during that first year...and that has definitely been our case. I'm just hoping we have addressed all of those during this first 6 months. I told the service guy at our dealer yesterday that "I like you guys, but I hope I don't see you for awhile." So, at this point, all our issues have been addressed and repaired.
So, do we have any regrets...not really. There have been times that I have hated it when things didn't work right or things got tore up. But, we really love the size and floor plan options (again no wet bath, walk around bed, and kitchen/large pantry) and can't wait for it to warm up here in Arkansas to begin another year of camping here in the "Natural State".
This post was to share our experience to possibly prepare others thinking about buying a 195...and we would also like to hear others experiences as well. Thanks for your time.
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