Hello r-pod owners!

Hello Brian and welcome!

Welcome Brian.

One key piece of advice if you want to keep your rpod for years. Be extremely vigilant about water leaks of any kind. Everything else is quite reasonably fixable but not significant water damage, that can send your new to you trailer to the junkyard. This isn't unique to rpods of course.

Your new to you trailer has a few years on it so if it hasn't been resealed yet it probably needs to be. Key areas to look out for include the window seals, the spoiler, and the top and bottom wall seals. It's a good idea to proactively reseal the spoiler as a minimum. Also inspect for any plumbing leaks in either the feed or drain water systems.

If you keep water out of the trailer it can last a long time. Most of the rest of the systems are pretty inexpensive to repair or replace, other than the absorption fridges, which have become very spendy. Expect to get roughly 10 years out of one if you're lucky.

When you get around to the solar feel free to post your questions here, I and others will be happy to answer them.

As for weight limits you should be fine with that tow vehicle, even boondocking. Just keep your heavy gear in the truck bed, leaving the 178 to carry water, batteries, and supplies.

You can load up for a long trip and take the rig to a scale so you know for sure. I have several posts here you can search for on how to get all the required weights and run them through a towing calculator.

Yoy might want to proactively consider an axle reinforcement if you are near the axle weight limit. Several of us have posted on this topic.

Also there are outriggers you can add to help the outer floor edges carry the wall loads. That is recommended in the 178/179 series especially if you plan to travel on rougher roads.

Enjoy your new trailer. You might find as many of us have that it is the right compromise between size and comfort and that the wet bath and crosswize bed are not really an issue for you. They weren't for my wife and I.