All-New Winnebago Solis Pocket Walkthrough Review | Small & Affordable Camper Van

hello welcome to colonial rv where today we're going to take a closer look at the newest addition to winnebago's class b van and their family the winnebago solas pocket 36a [Music] this model follows the solus 59p in early 2020 as well as last year in the summer the solas 59px this 36a is built on the 1500 chassis and it comes in white cherry red as well as silver which are all available here at colony rv for purchase right now now before we meet the solas pocket up close we want to just talk about some of the quick highlights of what makes it so attractive to so many buyers the first highlight is the affordability where winnebago has priced this coach under a hundred thousand dollars where most rvs on the market are up into the high hundreds or even two hundred thousand msrp so affordability is key to reach a lot of people's budget second is the all-weather capabilities and extended season all of the tanks all of the plumbing the fittings the valves everything is all above the floor and inside the coach so you'll notice that as far as plumbing is concerned for four season that's usually something that would make any coach you have to winterize it you wouldn't be able to use the plumbing but the solas pocket it's a big advantage to have all of that in addition to the thermal insulation the automotive grade that this van has as well the solace pocket is only 17 foot 10 inches in length a normal minivan that many of us are using or an suv even something like a toyota sienna is about 17 feet in length so this is really not that much bigger and as far as the width of the rv i know sometimes people talk about what's so much bigger and wider is only three inches bigger than a toyota sienna if you just wanted to get a comparison for size and last is warranty we know that there's a big boom in the class b van market where many people it's really cool they're building their own rvs at home they purchase the chassis and they certainly have the capabilities and the time and that's great but what are you going to do when it comes to warranty down the road with your own coach not only are you getting winnebago's engineering since 1958 and all of their expertise but also for the chassis it's one important thing to note if you purchase a ram 1500 chassis like this on your own you're only gonna get a five year sixty thousand mile powertrain warranty where with winnebago they up that to a five year hundred thousand powertrain warranty so great warranty that comes with this coach as well as opposed to building your own now before we walk around the outside of the solas pocket we first want to just talk about the specs this is built on the 136 inch wheelbase it's 17 foot 10 inches in length nine foot high on the exterior which is the highest point which is the roof air conditioner because the solas pocket does not come with a pop top option as far as the exterior it's six foot nine and interior at six foot three as far as the width is concerned this is built on the ram 1500 chassis which comes with the same engine as the solus 59p as well as the px which is the 288 horsepower 6-cylinder and has 180 amp alternator and as far as the tanks it has a 24-gallon fuel tank has a 20 gallon fresh water 20 gallon gray and a 20 pound propane tank we're going to get into the toilet and the black tank as far as uh what you can use in this case it's a little bit different with a porta potty we'll show you that in a little bit but before we do one just talk about something which is important to all of us and our families which is safety the ram pro master chassis does come with abs brakes it has airbags for driver and passenger as well and they also come from winnebago with a fire extinguisher we have a smoke and fire alarm detector as well we have a propane detector which is located down to the floor but when we're talking about safety another thing that's important with rvs is the occupant cargo carrying capacity it's a yellow sticker that's right here on this door jamb and in the case of the solas pocket the way this one is equipped it's just over 2200 pounds of cargo carrying capacity that you can add to the vehicle to be safely enjoying it and driving down the road now what do you say as far as concerned of what counts as cargo carrying capacity it's always going to be the passengers that are on board it's going to be your belongings your luggage and of your uh your gear that you're bringing with you as well as the water weight that's also very important to know when you are filling it and it also tells you on the sticker what a loaded solas pocket with the 20 gallon tank would be if you're adding a full tank of water one last thing is the hitch weight as far as the tongue weight on the back of the solas pocket that would also count and deduct from your occupant cargo and car capacity if you have bikes or some other gear off of the back you're also going to have to include that because safety is number one before we can have fun and enjoy the rv now we're going to take a walk around this very small but unique coach the solas pocket 36a here on your camping side one thing you're going to notice quickly is not only does it have an led porch light which is really nice that you can control right inside here but it does not have an awning this coach is a little bit different than the other winnebagos which will offer an outside patio awning but this is a little bit more simplified the nice thing is they did carry over from the revel the popularity of the outside table which you can just adjust there's no table leg that you need but you can just table all the way up and stow it here so it's great if you're outside using the space just to camp with that before we get inside one of the great features about this as well is the refrigerator is located right here that you can come back with your groceries and just quickly you know fill up the fridge with all of your food and drinks it just makes it real convenient then going all the way inside especially if you're a little bit dirty or you just want to grab something if you've been out hiking or mountain biking so it's great that that fridge is right in here and it's positioned this way winnebago also has carried over their uh screens which you'll see the magnetic screens which will just simply zip down and unroll and then all you have to do is if you're going inside and out you would just move it and then the magnets which is very heavy duty would just come back uh so keep all of the bugs and you'll see instead of a sliding door which sometimes would have gaps and other manufacturers with this the way that it's positioned you won't get any bugs inside with that cool magnetic system right here other than that you do have the running board which has winnebago's logo embossed in it it's very wide it is stationary a lot of times buyers are asking can get will it go in or can it move it does not so it is welded to the chassis but it's very firm and as you can see uh when even if you have more than one person very very safe and they do have hooks on the end which you can tie up any of your expensive belongings or or just put a leash for the dog other than the sliding door which is manual which you can see there's not much else here on the camping side the soles pockets do come with the nexon 16 inch wheels these are steel wheels not aluminum they don't offer the aluminum in the soles pocket as we walk by again a lot of other rvs have a lot of other systems the solas pockets very simple here in the back doors when you open them up it would give you access to a great gear storage area as well as uh almost like a loft type of bed system with winnebago's slat system for the bed which is like a murphy style but just showing you inside the back door we also carry over the screening system keep bugs out and just to give you a great ventilation right here in the back doors on the back doors themselves they do have the privacy screens shades that you would just zip up and they do have tinted windows so for privacy a lot of times people want to see you can see even in broad daylight you can hardly even see inside here with the tinted windows and then this will also give you an additional thermal break just to keep the temperature inside a little bit more consistent you do have the rear annex on the back which is great not only for privacy but if you were going to just set this up real quick it does come with a curtain that you would velcro on which we have and then you can also put that curtain up front for privacy with the velcro positions up front but this is a great annex come outside you can whatever you need to do even wash off when you come back from the beach or hiking and then this would just stow on the back doors themselves inside you'll notice that all the water hookups are actually inside the van there is no external hookups for the water system but you do have a few other features there is solar which we're going to get up on the roof in a little bit but you do have another port that you can put a portable solar right here and hook that up to maximize that system you have usbs as well as 12 volt and you have your duplex 110 outlet you can turn your water pump on from the back as well this is just cold water only the solas pocket does not come with a a system to heat up the water so the whole coach is cold water only there's some valves here just to control for drainage and fulfilling the tank as well as just to hook up your fresh water uh city pressure there's also just a service area here for for the water system that you can just a service technician connect can gain access to a nice little simple protective the ram chassis just like the travatos they do not come with a spare tire that's included from the manufacturer underneath but they do have from ram a great little tool here that will give you an inflation as well as the silicone if you did get a flat tire so it's one of the alternatives but it actually works very very well we've had a lot of customers sing the praise just about this just to get them to where they needed to go if they did get a flat tire you'll notice also in this little gear area you do have the l-track system which continues throughout the coach just like other coaches that winnebago offers similar to the revel in the back of the echo so it's nice that they continue this just like in the px model the solas and they have several positions so that you can tie down bikes winnebago did raise this bed just so that especially bikes road bikes and mountain bikes would be able to fit when the bed when you are sleeping in it so you don't have to put your bikes outside in the evening but you do have a nice little area inside in addition to the mold door which is the um for the with the solar storage you can hook up a lot of equipment to that we'll show you a little bit more of that inside in addition to the other storage you'll see they have some netting to hold your belongings on both sides but one thing as far as this coach it is the stovetop is propane which we're going to show you for cooking as well as the vario heat and you're going to say well where's the propane tank most rvs there'll be an outside you know a fill station and the tank is welded underneath in this case just to make things a little bit more simplified winnebago has a standard 20-pound tank right here which you can easily exchange and you don't have to worry about going to fill stations because pretty much most utility stores as well as other maintenance stores the big the big box stores will all have propane exchange so you can just quickly exchange to get a new tank that would also be used for your cooking surface with the stovetop which we'll get into in addition to the vario heat for the heating system which is very very efficient and is very very quiet now as far as the propane you'll see that it does have a seat belt just to keep it in its position as well and it is um you'll see here not only is the the interior is insulated but it also has a great system when you lock it in so that it would seal and then you won't have to worry about that if you were using it if there was a little bit of a smell uh there if you look on the bottom it is vented in this coach uh underneath so there's vents all the way around uh so any propane uh smell if there was a little bit when you first hook it up or disconnect it that would just sink and would go outside since it is vented so right here in the rear of the driver's side you'll see they have this little door and then you'd gain access to the propane tank if you want to turn it on and off often when when you're traveling and you're going either on some bridges that they permit it but the gas has to be off or ferries you don't have to open up and maybe get some of your belongings out of the way of the door inside but you can just quickly open this little access door right up right there underneath here you'll see we have the main drain valve which would be for your grade tank again there is no black tank on the soles pocket so you would just disconnect this just by turning it and then popping it off hooking it up to a dump station and that way you can let your waste water from the the sink and anything else in the gray tank that you'd fill it up and just empty that also back here we just want to point out it does have the the hitch receiver this does have the four pin and as far as the hitch it is a 3500 pound towing with a 315 pound tongue weight so you can put any of your belongings off of the back and that what just makes it great so you can utilize not only the space inside but also outside and then just finishing up here in the rear in addition to the rear marker lights from the ram chassis you also have your backup camera which is the the first camera that's located right here and then you also have which we're going to show you inside they have the digital rear view camera display which is great because that can always be on when you're driving forward and there's a few little settings on there which we'll show you when we're up in the uh and the cabin area walking around the rest of the driver's side you'll see we have the 30 amp landline so this would give you your 110 that would help to most importantly not only power the whole coach but also which we're going to get up on the roof the roof air conditioner this coach does not come with a generator it does not come with a lithium volta package or lithionics it has the standard group 31 agm batteries but this 30 amp would at least give you complete power to all of the outlets as well as if you wanted to run the roof air conditioner so that's what this would mainly be used for here's your vent for your truma the vario heat that's a very very efficient system it's only for heat it is not going to be just a similar system in the px or travatos or other winnebagos that have the combis which would also heat your hot water because again in this case this would only be your for your your your heating system it is a very efficient it's very light it only weighs 5.5 kilograms the whole system and it's also very very quiet for an evening it does have a sleep mode so not only do you hardly hear the fan but you wouldn't when you were sleeping with the vario heat which would run off of your propane tank just have your ram promaster the six cylinder gas engine exhaust here on the driver's side and then you also have your your fuel tank where you would refill this coach right here as far as the six-cylinder promaster would just use standard gasoline unleaded and it's the 87 octane is what the chassis recommends here we are up on the roof of the solas pocket again this is only a 17 foot 10 inch length coach so there's not a lot of real estate to add extra things on the roof there is no luggage rack that comes with the pocket but right here we have the the coleman mach 10 roof air conditioner which we said would just work off of your 30 amp landline other things that you have you have the 170 watt solar panel this is just going to trickle charge your house batteries again that's all that solar is going to do and they do have three ports we're already using one even though there's two more ports there's not a lot of room up top but sometimes people want to move things around and add another solar panel which you you could do that system would take up to 450 watts as a maximum and don't forget we also had the ground level port for solar that if you did have a portable solar panel that you can take with you you'd have to just remember that would also factor into the equation here we have the port for the roof this is something that winnebago has done in the last year or so and what this will do we'll show you inside the cabinet this gives you roof access just makes it easier for customers that are doing any of their own installations at home as well as dealerships like us it's just a quicker way to gain access to add a wine guard wi-fi antenna or wii boost for your cell phone lastly we have the the max air fantastic fan which you'll see right here up in the front of the cab and that's just great for airflow it has the cover on it and then that just would be nice if you didn't need the roof air conditioner you could turn that on to exhaust any of the air inside the coach other than the radio antenna up front and the marker lights you can see there's not much else on the roof of the solas pocket now as we walk into the entrance of the solas pocket right here in the entrance as we showed you before is the novacool this is a 12-volt compressor driven fridge you also have some usb you have some 12 volt you have a duplex outlet as well as your main battery coach on off switch you have your outside light that you can control right here and then you also have the main light switch as well right here next you have your two burner suburban stove again this is going to work off of that propane tank that we showed you a little while ago it does have the glass cover just to give you some additional countertop space stainless steel sink and even though you don't have much more counter space one of the things winnebago has done is with the bed they have this cushion that you can just simply take away and you may be using it for the sofa feature which we'll show you in a little bit but what you can do in this case is you have a lot more prep space if you really like to cook and get things ready when you're not sleeping as you can see the countertop pretty much is just extended all the way through same thing with the windows inside you have the zip up this is also thermal and nice thing is again all of the windows are tinted cabinetry you'll see we have it right here with the magnets so the nice thing is if you are going to be filling your cabinets you can just pop them up they all have them as you move around the coach you can just get gain access to all of your storage space very nicely all the lighting is led lighting so there's very little draw as well this coach you know as far as battery power if you have the two group 31 agm batteries 12 volt fridge is going to use very little draw you don't have a lot of other systems very simplified no microwave as you walk through it there's not much else now right here which is great that winnebago's been doing and this has been carrying across most of their rvs like the travato as well they have all the main switches right above the entrance sliding door we have our zamp controller which we were just showing you now we are indoors right now so we're not going to be receiving much sunlight on that 170 watt panel but right next to it you have your winnebagos their little one place system you can turn the water pump on as we showed you before in the back you can also turn it here and then if you wanted to just check all of your levels for your batteries as well as your tanks which in this case would be your grade tank the fresh water we're going to show you something really cool with the sight glass in a second this is your main controller panel for the truma system again this is not going to have anything to do with hot water for the first time with the truma vario heat so you can just adjust the cabin temperature and then you can also set it for a sleep mode which is pretty cool as we walk now to the back of the coach we do have a dinette which we're going to get to in a second as far as sleeping quarters this coach has three seat belts you do have three three point seat belt in addition to the driver and passenger you have one more right here it's just forward facing for safety obviously the amount of people that would be able to travel with you is important and it's nice that it's not just two but in this case it's also three finishing up in the kitchen gallery you do have some nice storage space some little drawers in addition down below you also have the venting for the fridge in the back here one really cool feature that's also has transferred over similar to some of the storage capabilities and and folk and rvs like the echo you have this mole panel door along with the storage here from the solas you can hang any of your gear that you'd like with some hooks off of that again these are the other two l track positions uh just inside a little bit more forward facing than the ones in the back right here as we bend down underneath the bed and again this winnebago's bed is is a little bit higher we do have usb we also have 12 volt we have the sensor for your temperature control with the truma vario heat so this would read the temperature inside the coach when you're setting it you also have a gfi outlet this is really cool this little light switch when you turn it on as we mentioned the panel system will read the levels of your gray tank but this little sight glass would tell you your fresh water tank which is housed behind this cabinet so it's going to give you not only lights or value of one-third two-thirds is going to give you the true water level when you're filling your tank you can also in addition to hooking up in the back you can just fill your water tank with gravity fill right here as well so they give you all of those features which is real nice up close as far as the bed this is as you can see a murphy style bed nice thing is it's out of the way during the day and with winnebago's very comfortable slat system very easy you would just put the bed down and you would marry that up with the cushion over here [Applause] personally i'm five foot nine and you put your feet on this side with a little cutout as we mentioned the width of the coach six foot three so it's very comfortable for two people uh just to spend time here relaxing in the evening with their pillows and here again we have the coleman mock air conditioner which is right above you and then during the day you can just again just lift up the cushions [Applause] and put it right back into its little seat belt and it's out of the way other than that there's no other features in the back of the solas pocket very simplified and that's what everybody likes i only wanted to mention that you do have a breaker box as far as if there is anything that you tripped or for fuses you can gain access to it very easily right here behind the bench dinette but now we'll take you inside up front and we'll show you some of the different configurations that you can do with the little dinette area now up here in the main area of the dinette nice thing is you do have some additional very quick on and off led lighting you continue to have the tinted windows you can zip up for privacy as well as for thermal in this cabinetry right above which would be the seat belted area you'll see that we have the roof access port that we were showing you when we're up on the roof in case you want to install anything you also have another duplex outlet and you also do have 12 volts and additional usb this is not the only additional power that you get in this dinette area and it's one really cool feature that they have right inside here in the dinette when you're sitting if you are going to be working on computer laptop or charging your devices you do have additional outlet 12-volt and usb and then if you did want to have any devices you can just as you can see we swivel the table out of the way you do have some little little pop outs that you can you know hook up anything electronic and you could just run it right through just to get to the power winnebago has another little piece of that mole so you can just hook up any type of devices that you'd like and attach it to this little area now as far as this dinette as you can see we've got a nice seating area very comfortable for two people you got some cup holders and the continue of the countertops that match but what this little area does as you can see it has a dinette option it has a sofa as well as like a day bed option as well it's very easy to manipulate and to transform it this table which you can see we have a little a locking device for the swivel where you can swivel it in any direction but you can also just quickly release at the bottom and then you could take this whole bracket off if you were going to make it into the day bed again you're just using the table when you take this bracket off and then just by converting it just simply like that you can change it into a few different configurations depending on what type of mood you're in and what you're looking to do with the space which is very easy that winnebago gives you a few different options with that and lastly one of the most important questions that's often asked about the solas pocket which is very unique as far as winnebago and many manufacturers you'll notice there's no bathroom and no shower because there's no hot water it does have the cold shower and rinse in the back but up front you don't have a bathroom but what winnebago has done is they give you a little porta potty which is housed and located right underneath this forward this this dinette bench the porta potty which is still sealed from the manufacturer from thetford just very easy to use if you were using it you have a little valve that you would pull in order to release anything that has been added to the tank itself and you have a little pump that you would just pump to add water and then that would just be your flushing device in the system and then it would all be housed in a little uh container and a and the bottom which you would then just take similar to what a a rebels toilet would be a cassette toilet and you just empty it in the toilet and rinse it out and then just put it back in this can be used naturally anywhere whether it's inside or outside so whatever you choose depending on your surroundings and the weather they do give you a nice little porta potty which is very convenient quick and easy and stows right underneath the dinette and that's the rest of the galley area and the dinette area now we're just going to show you a couple of features up in the chassis area next as we move into the cabin area you'll see we do have that light switch as we were showing you that was just above the cab door it does have a bright mode as well as a middle which is off and then a lower mode for evening which is a little bit of a dim but when you when you're coming into your rv at night you want that extra privacy as you'll see here we have the shades in the cabin area for driver and passenger and the nice thing is these just easily fold in uh they're magnetic so they're going to hold its position in the front windshield i just set up one one half so they have two velcro uh positions right here that you can just put in the second one so you can see nobody can can look inside because you are going to be using often the cabin and the front seats as part of your interior living space in the evening so you got great privacy all the way around the coach and including the front windshield and the side up here this is the same most of the same features that comes in the 25 and the 3500 chassis you do have power mirrors power door locks you do not have power rear view your side mirrors though in this case those will be manual as far as the steering wheel a lot of people ask as far as the tilt and telescoping you have a little lever that you can lock underneath so you can telescope the steering wheel but it does not tilt one other important feature that's on the driver's side by your left knee it has the battery boost so that would give you access to the house batteries in case the chassis battery you drained it maybe you left your headlights on for a couple days or the radio something you left on in the cabin at a light and you drained a perfectly good chassis battery you can just do a battery boost with the house batteries on which is great you don't need the jumper cables you do have all of your controls for bluetooth for your phone as well as the menu right here as we mentioned this is a six-speed transmission six cylinder as well so very easy just to control everything into great visibility have all your basic standard ram promaster buttons here in addition to air conditioning and the furnace your hazard lights you can power lock the doors from here but in addition to other things like cup holders you do have some usb and auxiliary ports here as well for driver and passenger 12 volt so if you wanted to hook up and charge some equipment while you're driving one of the really cool features though is this new they've been using it now winnebago and the ram chassis for the last year you get this digital rear view display as we mentioned to you in the back it has a separate little camera so you can see behind you this is just in our dealership slot if you wanted to turn that off you just hit this little lever and now you just have a standard rear view mirror in case you do have family and some belongings that you want to see if you really like that standard look that's been genuine for many years but if you really like the new advanced features you can even control the little menu button you can move it up and down the the you can change the the brightness and the dit how dim it is as well as the angle so it's really you can see i'm scrolling and i'm moving it up and down depending on the angle of view that you'd like lastly one other thing that people always are asking us and they'd like to see is the swivel seating feature for the driver and passenger you just have the lever that's underneath and in this case you can just swivel both driver and passenger seat back if you wanted to use this space in the evening but that pretty much sums up the rest of the chassis and the promaster ram 1500 and the solas pocket 36a model and from all of us here at colonial rv in the jersey coast we appreciate you for watching our video please send us your comments like or share or give us a call at 1-800-265-9019 and thanks again for watching and drive carefully [Music]

Channel: Colonial RV

Views: 260,115

Keywords: Winnebago, SolisPocket, Campervan

Id: cb9xA8i6kbo

Length: 29min 0sec (1740 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 12 2021