4
Outdoorsy memberHost since August 2021
43% response rateTypically responds in less than 12 hours
About Douglas's RV rentals
I am a merchant mariner who found a ship that doesn't go to sea very often now! The family consists of my wife and I, our two year old blessing, plus my niece and nephew who are both in high school next year. We are vey happy with the space it provides us and the ability to go somewhere for a weekend anytime. The RV has gone with us to Crater of Diamonds in Arkansas as well as the Hot Springs, out to Biloxi for a weekend, and to Texas for Thanksgiving.
4
Outdoorsy memberHost since August 2021
43% response rateTypically responds in less than 12 hours
No RVs available to rent
Douglas Wulff does not currently have any available vehicles.
Memories made on trips with Douglas Wulff's RVs
Cody L.
5•October 2022
Great
Ty A.
1•July 2022
Buyer Beware - Outdoorsy should prohibit this RV owner from renting out this RV!Like all experiences, there is usually a list of pros and cons. Let me begin by listing out all the pros of my experience with The Wulffpod. I have to admit that the owner was pretty good at responding to questions, the RV was mechanically sound for the most part and the Ford V10 made the more than 2,300 mile trip safely. The information provided on the website says that a recent trip he made in the vehicle "got all the kinks ironed out." Well, we found a lot more kinks!Here's a brief narrative of our journey:June 9th, 12 days before we start our trip I arrange to "test drive" the RV. Upon entry into the RV we notice there is no dinette and seats in that space as spelled out in the floorpan provided in the listing. The owner assures us that the dinette will be put back in and all will be done before our planned reservation date. The test drive goes well and we await the start of our trip.June 14th, one week before our planned reservation date, the owner writes to let me know that the seats and table are his project for "tomorrow" and he's taken the week off to work on projects.June 21, arrive to pick up the RV and find that the "seats and table" have been installed. See photo titled Wulffpod Dinette. Two plywood storage benches with no cushions and a plywood table that does not attach to the wall - unable to have in place while driving down the highway. The owner's response as to why this was all we had, "I thought the stuff I took out was worse and I didn't have time to paint or stain it and my wife ran out of time to make the cushions." It's important to note that I informed the owner that I had two passengers that suffer from motion sickness and must face forward to avoid being sick. Of course, one could ride shotgun, but not two. And the owner knew we were making a more than 2,300 mile trip. No way my wife or mother-in-law could sit on this board for a trip like that. Here it is, hours before departure, and we don't have a seat for them. All we could do was make the best of it, borrow some cushions from our patio furniture and plop them down on the boards to try and make the best of a very bad situation.June 22, everybody decides to "make the best of it" and off we go. We get about 400 miles from home and my passengers are complaining that it is getting very hot in the RV. I've noticed the front a/c (truck a/c versus roof units) is pumping out warm air. I message the owner and I'm told, "try full and recirculate", which we are already doing and another note from him, "Seems like sometimes it's cold, sometimes not". I let him know that "this time it's hot.". We stop for lunch, let the unit(s) rest and resume our trip an hour later. A/Cs seem to be working better.On another note, the sound system is so bad, you cannot listen to music while driving. We eventually bought a Bluetooth speaker and used our Apple Music on the trip because the radio sound was so bad. The issue was a combination of poor speakers and so much rattling noise in the RV. Between the stove top cover and the screen door, you could not hear yourself think in here. We had to cushion the stove top with rags and stuff our patio cushion in the stairwell against the screen door to help suppress the noise. The stove top appears to be from the unit being potentially removed and reinstalled to paint the cabinets. Perhaps it wasn’t reinstalled properly. I cannot imagine Forest River selling this many FR3s if they rattle this much and it isn’t a comment I find any reviews of the FR3.We get about four hours down the road, guests are complaining about heat again. This time, we stop and find the generator not running. Message owner and he reminds me that we found the oil a little low in the generator in the pickup checklist. We stop sometime much later at a campground, switch to shore power and cross our fingers about a cool night's sleep in the RV.Imagine our disgust when we go to make the bed and find the urine stained mattress pad on the king sized bed (see attached photo titled Wulffpod Bed Stain). Disgusting. Prayers worked and we got a good night's sleep, the A/Cs worked great.June 23, back on the road - monitoring the generator, fuel levels, error codes - anything to make sure we keep cool in the RV. On this day, we only travel about five or six hours and we reach our destination. We unload the RV, remove everything from the refrigerator and park the RV for a couple of days.June 26, we move back in to the RV for the trip home. We are on the road for about one hour and stop to top off the fuel tank. When we exit the RV we notice a service panel is missing (see photo titled Wulffpod Missing Panel). I message the owner and let him know that we have spent the vast majority of our time on interstates but the roads are really bad (more of a testament about the condition of our infrastructure that comes with a plea for everyone to encourage more resources from Washington to address). The owner discloses that the RV was recently at Camping World and they removed that panel. He assures me that Camping World owes him a panel, not me. Regardless, now we are driving down the road with a missing panel and looks and stares from other motorists.The owner encourages me to "avoid those roads on the way back". I'M ON MY WAY BACK! And, I've taken a different route (longer route) than the one up there to avoid the horrible roads I found on I-65 heading north. Now, I'm on I-57 heading south.Somehow, someway the A/C is working perfectly on the way south. Thank goodness.Later this afternoon, we stop in Cape Girardeau for the evening. This time, we do a full hookup: electricity, water, sewer - the works. When my father-in-law, who is very experienced in setting up an RV, connects the sewer hose, finds that the provided waterproof gloves are soaked on the inside. Oh oh. He maintains one on his left hand and negotiates the connection. With the gray and black tank valves complete shut, he removes the cap on the sewer connection and gets a flood of blue water all over his unprotected hand and all over the ground. As noted with the owner, the sewer line was leaking since we picked it up and he responded with "Aww, I thought I had fixed that, it must need a new seal." Wow!! What a revelation. See the attached photo titled Wulffpod Leaking Black Tank.In this exchange, I asked for the name of the product so that my f-i-l could determine how to treat it or if he needed additional attention. The name of the product was never revealed, but the owner did offer "It's not harmful..."My f-i-l ended up calling poison control and getting assistance from them about flushing the chemical, watching for reaction and what to do if anything happened. We photographed the condition of his exposed hands so we could compare later in case of a reaction.June 27, the home stretch. We wake up, clean up the inside as much as possible, rinse the tanks, flush the black tank, seal the bathroom, stow away everything and get on the road. The owner reaches out to schedule a return of the unit on June 28 and I let him know that I would like to return in June 27. We talk about the schedule and I make it home, unload the RV, make my way to a gas station nearest the owner’s home and arrange to return the unit. 20 minutes before delivery, the owner reveals that he is not home and won’t be for the check-in, but assures me his wife is home and she can handle it. After some discussion about how to get it into his driveway, he suggests I leave it at the gas station across the street. And now, his wife isn’t home and I am to leave the keys with a minor child.At this point I am expected to turnover the RV without an inspection and trust the checkin to be done later by his wife. I take photos of everything in case something changes between now and the final checkin. The owner tells me that he can “see it over there with the cameras”. This gives me some comfort and let’s me know he assumes responsibility for the RV at this point.June 28, almost 24 hours after leaving the RV as instructed, I am contacted by the owner with a message that “Everything looks great inside, gas think is full. Thank you for taking good care of my RV I will finish the return now.”June 29, fifteen hours later, I get a message that the tanks were not dumped and there is a sizable rock chip in the front windshield. I let the owner know that I personally dumped and rinsed the tanks “as instructed”. Also, I let him know that I noted three chips on the windshield. Not sure which one he thinks is new. See attached photo titled Wulffpod Windshield 3.July 1, I get a message from the owner that he is putting through the extra charges and “will let Outdoorsy handle it.” Now I am coming to believe that he is just taking advantage of the situation and finding a way to charge me more for the rental. There has been no evidence of chain of custody on this unit from the time I dropped it off until he completed his inspection. He should not be able to apply charges after such a long delay and lack of evidence from the time I dropped it off. As outlined above, we tolerated a lot of imperfections and faulty conditions in honoring our side of this agreement. Now we have to dispute the entire charge and let our credit card company and Outdoorsy “handle it”.Bottom line, buyer beware. I find it difficult to believe Outdoorsy is aware of just how bad a unit this owner is allowing out for rental. Keep looking. There are many other proud owners that take care of their equipment and realize they are in the hospitality business. This guy is more like a slumlord that is advertising with the good-guys trying to live off their reputation.
Douglas’s answer
Mr. Ty
Thank you for the thorough review, it is through this process which we can improve. I honestly had no idea you were so inflamed about your trip until I read this review so I would like to address your concerns.Please keep in mind that I have a regular 8-5 job plus a family, I am not offering my RV as a business with employees. As such I try to accommodate renters as much as possible but it is not a perfect situation. Since this renter I have replaced the blackwater valve, removed the noisy screen door, and scheduled a visit to a local A/C shop for the cab.Bench seat:
Upon your request I made a new bench seat with extra storage space. We discussed the quality of the original unit and agreed that this was much better as I used top quality plywood, not the lighter stuff found originally on this RV. Since you had plans to take the RV home to pack before leaving out on your trip I had assumed that you would be able to find something to make the bench more comfortable. I had not modified the original cushions to fit the trimmed up space. The table I made was of higher quality but the same design as the original and not meant be up or used during driving, only while the vehicle is parked.Radio and noise:
I am wondering if you had the radio playing through the correct speakers as the switch for that can put the music to the outside speakers, front cab only, or the inside passenger area. I have never had a problem hearing the radio and have never had anyone complain about it. I agree the RV is very noisy, especially on poor quality roads as I have also taken a trip on roads so bad I considered returning with a route taking hours longer. The stove top is original to the RV and cabinets were never removed.Cab A/C:
I have never experienced the cab getting super hot like you describe. There have been days where it wasn’t blowing very cold but considering the amount of glass up there, I wasn’t super alarmed by that. It has an appointment at the A/C repair shop to address the issue.Passenger space A/C:
The passenger spaces will get warm if the generator shuts off during driving. I took plenty of time to show you how it operates and speak about what-ifs. We checked the generator oil level together and I have never personally seen the generator shut off while driving unless the oil level was low (which could occur momentarily if you hit a big bump or rolled it too hard) or the gas tank fell below 25% (perhaps 400 miles after you picked it up).Mattress pad:
I agree the mattress pad looks bad and have replaced it. The origin was a renter who disregarded printed instructions and consequently had water dripping from the A/C directly above the bed. This was not urine and at no time smelled as such.Black Tank:
I regret that I could not recall the name of the product used in our black water tank at the time you asked. It is called Porta-Pak and is used to keep the smell down and help the breakdown of waste. It is not anything to be alarmed about and I had assumed your uncle was familiar with products such as this after having owned an RV for years.
I was quite unsuspecting that there could be water in the black tank after you told me it was empty. So imagine my surprise when I opened the cap and valve to work on it and emptied the contents onto my driveway where my toddler plays basketball. The nearest place for me to dump is 30 minutes away and costs me time, gas, and money to empty so I had to charge you for that, not to mention the mess I had to clean up on my driveway.
This renter also lied about the glass chip in the windshield as the insurance company later told me that he admitted it happened during his trip.Ty also complained about the return arrangement which was regretfully altered when I had to stay the night at work. He expressed some trepidation about backing the RV into my driveway so I told him that the could leave it at the gas station across from my house so I could see it on my cameras. Since my wife was not home I asked my niece to pick up the keys from him but apparently this was unsatisfactory for him…If you have read this far please understand there are two sides to every event. This renter was very unhappy and quite uncooperative after I was able to physically take a look at the RV. I asked him about the concerns I had (rock chip, black water) and he turned hostile. In the future I will not take delivery until I fully check everything but am happy to acknowledge receipt of the RV immediately.
Thank you for the thorough review, it is through this process which we can improve. I honestly had no idea you were so inflamed about your trip until I read this review so I would like to address your concerns.Please keep in mind that I have a regular 8-5 job plus a family, I am not offering my RV as a business with employees. As such I try to accommodate renters as much as possible but it is not a perfect situation. Since this renter I have replaced the blackwater valve, removed the noisy screen door, and scheduled a visit to a local A/C shop for the cab.Bench seat:
Upon your request I made a new bench seat with extra storage space. We discussed the quality of the original unit and agreed that this was much better as I used top quality plywood, not the lighter stuff found originally on this RV. Since you had plans to take the RV home to pack before leaving out on your trip I had assumed that you would be able to find something to make the bench more comfortable. I had not modified the original cushions to fit the trimmed up space. The table I made was of higher quality but the same design as the original and not meant be up or used during driving, only while the vehicle is parked.Radio and noise:
I am wondering if you had the radio playing through the correct speakers as the switch for that can put the music to the outside speakers, front cab only, or the inside passenger area. I have never had a problem hearing the radio and have never had anyone complain about it. I agree the RV is very noisy, especially on poor quality roads as I have also taken a trip on roads so bad I considered returning with a route taking hours longer. The stove top is original to the RV and cabinets were never removed.Cab A/C:
I have never experienced the cab getting super hot like you describe. There have been days where it wasn’t blowing very cold but considering the amount of glass up there, I wasn’t super alarmed by that. It has an appointment at the A/C repair shop to address the issue.Passenger space A/C:
The passenger spaces will get warm if the generator shuts off during driving. I took plenty of time to show you how it operates and speak about what-ifs. We checked the generator oil level together and I have never personally seen the generator shut off while driving unless the oil level was low (which could occur momentarily if you hit a big bump or rolled it too hard) or the gas tank fell below 25% (perhaps 400 miles after you picked it up).Mattress pad:
I agree the mattress pad looks bad and have replaced it. The origin was a renter who disregarded printed instructions and consequently had water dripping from the A/C directly above the bed. This was not urine and at no time smelled as such.Black Tank:
I regret that I could not recall the name of the product used in our black water tank at the time you asked. It is called Porta-Pak and is used to keep the smell down and help the breakdown of waste. It is not anything to be alarmed about and I had assumed your uncle was familiar with products such as this after having owned an RV for years.
I was quite unsuspecting that there could be water in the black tank after you told me it was empty. So imagine my surprise when I opened the cap and valve to work on it and emptied the contents onto my driveway where my toddler plays basketball. The nearest place for me to dump is 30 minutes away and costs me time, gas, and money to empty so I had to charge you for that, not to mention the mess I had to clean up on my driveway.
This renter also lied about the glass chip in the windshield as the insurance company later told me that he admitted it happened during his trip.Ty also complained about the return arrangement which was regretfully altered when I had to stay the night at work. He expressed some trepidation about backing the RV into my driveway so I told him that the could leave it at the gas station across from my house so I could see it on my cameras. Since my wife was not home I asked my niece to pick up the keys from him but apparently this was unsatisfactory for him…If you have read this far please understand there are two sides to every event. This renter was very unhappy and quite uncooperative after I was able to physically take a look at the RV. I asked him about the concerns I had (rock chip, black water) and he turned hostile. In the future I will not take delivery until I fully check everything but am happy to acknowledge receipt of the RV immediately.
7 Photos submitted by Ty A
Jimmy O.
5•May 2022
This was a super simple rental experience. Doug was very consistent with communicating and the flexibility he provided offered me an ease of rental return custom to my needs. Would absolutely rent again.
Brent G.
5•April 2022
Awesome communication. Great value.
Gregory D.
4•April 2022
Short trip for us, worked for two nights for two adults. Nice have the fire baby with us.
Outdoorsy
0•February 2022
The Host canceled the booking 3 days before departure. This is an automated posting.
