173 countertop

 Here is my story of picking up my 173 at couches rv nation and the things I can reoprt on ,likes and dislikes. After the initial purchase we headed back to west virginia. It took us about 5.5 hours up to Ohio and we got about 22 mpg in our toyota 4x4 van. I was surprised that the little camper was such a burden on th V6 van and dropped the mileage down to about  9 mpg. I do admitt that I could have done better but I drove between 65 and 70 to try to get home before midnight. It was a long day, 7:30 am to about 10:00 pm!

The most stressful aspect of the trip was that the trailer's driver side brake was grabing and even though I stopped and tried to adjust It, I had no luck. It kept getting hot to the touch even tough the other brake never got even warn. To be honest I was pretty sick of the long day and the stress. I called couches and they were very nice telling me how to adjust the brakes  so I crawed under the trailer and finally got it fixed. I too called Forest River at about 4:00 pm on Fri. and got about 5 answering machines. Finally one woman agreed to check on the brake problems and call me back. She did a couple hours later and told me it was up to couches to get me a local dealer to work on my R-Pod.

A few  other things even though they were not a big problem , was small details, (who knows I may have gotten a Monday  built trailer )but one of the shades was backward with the adjustment rod behind the shade and the little hanger sacks in the bath were upside down. There was a small tear or seperation in the couch material, and several screws stripped out from the door stop to the card board cover under the couch.

I find the dome room to be great but I don't know how long it will hold up due to the grove that holds the room to the trailer eats up the plastic strip on the room due to sharp spots inside the rail about every 6 inches.

Our first trip was close to home and my water pump would not turn off so I found out the hose shut off at the water heater was not completely closed. I too wish the tv and antenna would have worked on 12 volt.  

I will admitt  that I am the type that has to have everything perfect and we are trying to get everything just right before we take a longer trip. We bought four 12"hx29"Lx15"W plastics container at wal-mart and they create lots of managable space under the couch in the 173.

This may sound crazy but I kind of like fixing things and have enjoyed the camper so far, I still think it is a good deal for what you get! Sorry I didn't mean to write a book but I hope this will help you and if I can answer any ones questions feel free to direct them to me.