Hot water heater on the R178, 2016 model

That is unfortunate. It is sad that you now know more than the dealer's service department.

Your dealer did not help in that he did not show you these things. Forest River is trying to squeeze a lot into these R-Pods. They did provide access, even if it is inconvenient. Your dealer should have shown you how to access things like the hot water heater valves and the winterization connections for the water pump. More detailed documentation from Forest River wouldn't have hurt either.

The valves on the 178 can be reached in two ways.  Inside the outside storage at the back on the road side there is an access panel that can be unscrewed.  If you are small you can crawl up in there enough to see the valves or you can reach in there and by feel set them correctly.  The other method is to lift the bed and unscrew the plywood and lift that at the back.  That is hard work but you can see what you are doing.  Many people either create an access panel under the bed or just leave the plywood unscrewed for future access such as while winterizing.  I have long arms so I reach in through the storage area. Neither way is great.

I'm still looks  for the valves for the he HW heater.  I looked under the bed on my r178, there is a single sheet of 4 x 8 plywood, I did not remove it.  I looked outside in the heater compartant, no luck.  I did crawl under the frig with the slide in and found the piping for the heater but no valves.  This is getting me plenty upset.  Once I get the slide out again, I will go under the slide and look for the valves. Btw, can you move the slide without power?  Somebody out there must know where they are located on a R178.

Thanks for the help on my HW heater problem.  I went to locate the valves today, I looked under the entire length.  I went inside and liked under the sink and the area behind a false wall under the sink .