Pod People's 179 Mod's

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Last year (September, October, November), Laura and I went
on a 3 month cross country round trip from North Carolina to the west coast.  We were towing our 2011 R Pod 173 with our
2012 Ford Expedition.  We went through
the northern part of the country and stopped in Salmon Idaho for a week
visiting friends.  Then it was off to Glacier,
Yellowstone and ultimately Vancouver,
 BC.  We had planned on traveling on to Alaska, but the
multitude of fires in BC turned us back-the smoke was horrible and many roads
were actually closed.  So, we headed
south and spent a month traveling and exploring the coasts of Washington
and Oregon.  While there, we boondocked for as long as 2
weeks at a time.  Then, we traveled south
through the redwoods to the bay area. We stayed in the bay area for a week
visiting our sister. Then we headed back east through Yosemite , more national
parks, state parks and on to Texas where we stopped at Padre Island National
seashore for more boondocking at the gulf coast.  Then it was off  through  Louisiana, Alabama and finally back
to NC.

I tell you all of this to let you know that we spent a LOT
of time in our 173, which we loved.  We
had done several similar, cross country trips in the 173, so were well
acquainted with it’s operation, the positives and the negatives. We had talked
several times (many times actually!!) about getting a larger trailer.  We thought we wanted a 179.  We had enviously looked at several in
campgrounds and dealers.  On the way
home, we decided that we needed a change.  
We have traveled a LOT in our 173 and had done a ton of mods to make it
comfortable and more usable for our style of traveling.  So, it was a big decision to let go of our
beloved 173.  Buying another trailer meant
that we would have to do a lot of mods and additional work, but we decided it
was worth the effort and expense.

So, on the way home, we started looking for another trailer.
.  We looked at all of the  R Pod 179 knock off copycats, looked at other
small trailers, looked at other R Pod models  and still wanted a 179.  We decided that there really is no suitable
substitute in our minds for the R Pod 179 for our purposes.

So, we found a very lightly used 2015 179 and bought it in
November, 2017.  We easily sold our
beloved 173 to some local friends who will become traveling buddies. 

Hello 179, goodbye 173. 

So, we started modifying our “new to us” 179.  We knew a lot of what we wanted because we
were copying some of the mods we did on the 173. Obviously, there is a lot of
difference between a 173 and a 179, so there was also a lot of new work to be
done as well. 

It is now about 8 months since we bought our 179. Most of
our mods have been completed.  We have
been on an extended  2 week trip and
tested them, added a few and changed some. 
We have used the trailer and all of it’s systems, have used our mods and
can truly say that we love the 179.  It
is a great trailer and we hope to travel in it for years to come. 

We have done a lot to make the 179 better suited for our
needs, but there is more to come.  We use
our pod primarily for long distance, multi-week travel.  We try to boondock as much as possible.  So, our mods are directed at comfort,
efficiency and practicality.

So, I wanted to write up what we have done and hope to help
other owners with some new ideas or things to do.  It can be hard to get started, but doing mods
is so worthwhile.  The R Pod is a great
platform to start making your personal camper. 

So I will be writing a series of posts about our mods.  I took the hint from Stephen H and will be
putting these posts under one heading called ”Pod People’s 179 Mods”.  Stay tuned.

Safe travels

Vann