Slick pod camper solves micro-camping's biggest problem

Small camping trailers are great for a lot of reasons. They're easier to tow and maneuver than large trailers. They're compatible with a large variety of vehicles, likely including the everyday driver parked in your garage. Less trailer usually means less price tag, and less money spent on gas. The list goes on, but for all those advantages, small trailers usually fall short on one highly critical spec: a bathroom. The latest ROG trailer from Encore RV solves the lack of bathroom issue in a rather bold way, and it's a much better small camper for it.

Encore RV is a member of a new breed of Indiana RV builders working to forge a different path for the industry. It's located right in the Elkhart area that has long served as the RV capital of the world, the same RV capital of the world that has also gained a notorious reputation for being the world capital of cheaply built stick-and-tin RV lawn ornaments.

But some of the latest brands on the Elkhart scene have their eye on a future of better Elkhart products. They've been watching carefully the growing popularity of more ruggedly built trailers and RVs from small, independent shops around and beyond the US and have worked to incorporate some of those principles into their own larger scale operations, offering a compelling mix of tough, durable, corrosion-proof construction and mass-produced pricing.

Encore was established in 2020 as one of those companies, quickly branching out with a three-brand lineup of adventure-ready trailers built using all aluminum and composites, zero wood. ROG is currently the sub-brand among the three comprising the smallest, most rugged trailers, offering products in both a straightforward "adventure" base trim and a fully doomsday-prepped "survival" trim with multiple mounted axes, a water purification system, a first aid kit, and even a survival guide for cross-referencing your shit-hits-the-fan SOPs.

At the moment, the 12RK is the cheapest base model in the ROG family. It features the brand's completely wood-free construction with single-piece fiberglass roof, aluminum framing and composite panels. The "12" references the camper box length of just under 12 feet (3.7 m), while the entire camper with tow bar measures in at 15 feet (4.6 m) long. It's a small trailer by any measure, quite comparable in size to the Campinawe Crossover Solo we looked at a few days ago, not to mention dozens of other teardrop/squaredrop-style trailers.

Like Campinawe, Encore doesn't settle for just a bed and some cabinets, turning its small trailer into an all-day living space. The RK floor plan includes a futon-style 60 x 80-in (152 x 203-cm) queen mattress that slides back to work as a sofa for hanging out, listening to the included Bluetooth speaker and/or watching the available 32-in TV mounted to the front interior wall.

The 12RK kitchen rides just inside the dual tailgate doors. The setup includes a dual-burner slide-out stove, countertop with inbuilt sink and 93-L 12V door fridge. A fold-down shelf around the side of the trailer is designed for using the available 25-in dual-burner griddle, perfect for burgers, pancakes, bacon and other common campground fare.

The 12RK also comes standard with a large 163-L water tank, on-demand water heater and outdoor sprayer. What it doesn't come standard with: a bathroom ... or a toilet, not even a cheap portable model on the options sheet.

That's not necessarily an all-out dealbreaker because most trailers in this size class don't have a bathroom, but if you're really looking to leave organized campgrounds behind for off-grid primitive sites, the way a light, rugged off-roader like the 12RK is designed to do, you'll want some kind of toilet solution ... and not necessarily just the shovel that comes as part of the Survival package.

Encore debuted the all-new ROG 12RK-FB at Overland Expo West in Arizona a couple weeks ago for just this reason. The new ROG trailer features a very smart, simple solution to the bathroom conundrum confounding so many small trailer builders. Instead of taking up any of the ultra-limited floor space inside the cabin, or expanding that cabin into something larger and heavier that many buyers don't want to tow, Encore equips the ROG trailer with a deployable part-time bathroom inside a rugged cargo box up on the trailer tongue.

The ripstop bathroom tent is designed to pop out of the cargo box and pitch in minutes, if not seconds. The strut-assisted box lid opens sideways across the trailer's width to serve as the outer tent wall, while integrated frame members swivel around to hold the roof up in place. Each sidewall also relies on a thinner two-piece pole to push its fabric outward so as not to cling to the person showering.

Encore's design is much more than just an open tent you feed a shower hose through. The base of the cargo box is filled out with a proper tub floor complete with drain, designed to work seamlessly with the integrated hot/cold shower sprayer. There's also an integrated Thetford cassette toilet completing the rolling outhouse wet bath layout. The zip-down mesh screen windows let each user adjust ventilation and privacy to their preferred comfort level, while the decking-style EVA foam mat delivers anti-slip confidence when standing inside. A magnetic closure makes quick, intuitive work of closing off the fabric entry.

“Customers have loved the compact versatility of our ROG 12RK, and the new FB model takes that concept even further by adding a quickly deployable bath module without sacrificing the lightweight, garage-friendly design that made the trailer so popular,” said Encore RV founder Rich Schnippel in introducing the new model. “We wanted to create a true adventure trailer that gives owners the comfort and convenience of a large wet bath while still remaining rugged, simple and easy to use.”

Based on what we're seeing in photos and videos, Encore seems to have nailed the design. Not only does the tent rise much higher than the 4-foot (1.2-m) hard-walled cabin interior to open close to 7 feet (2.1 m) of standing space, it features a more stable, integrated design than the drafty roof rack-mounted privacy tents that often serve the role of bathroom on small camping trailers. In addition to its above-ground shower floor, the Encore bathroom also has ducted heat from the 18,000-BTU propane furnace, making it more an extension of the climate-controlled trailer interior than a basic tent. The only chilly part will be scurrying a few feet from the trailer door into the bathroom and back.

The all-new 2,800-lb (1,270-kg) Encore ROG 12RK-FB carries an MSRP of US$34,449 when built in Adventure trim, according to a Facebook post by Encore. That's roughly $6,550 over the $27,902 base price of the standard ROG 12RK without bathroom. At first that sounds like a steep jump for a bathroom tent, but consider the hard-built basin floor, integrated toilet and ducted-in heating, plus the fact that Encore has to extend the trailer frame and relocate the spare tire and propane tank, and the FB package is actually much more than just a tent.

But if you'd prefer to save money, it'd be easy enough to buy a drop-down tent for a few hundred bucks and secure it to the ROG 12RK's standard expedition-style roof rack. Sadly, that's the type of option existing ROG 12RK trailer owners are left with because the aforementioned frame extension and hardware shuffling means the FB bathroom cannot be retrofit.

Encore focused on the ROG 12RK in introducing the FB (Front Bathroom) option, but the bathroom box is also available on the ROG 12BH trailer, a "Bunkhouse" floor plan alternative that features two large bunk beds for sleeping up to five people inside the 12-foot ROG cabin.

The (phone-shot) video clip provides a full look at the front bathroom box and how it sets up.

Source: Encore RV