We picked up our new 2021 179 yesterday. We ordered it 4 months ago. The dealer predicted November delivery so we've been on edge for a month. Rumors of the 179 being discontinued with all other wet bath models were most discouraging. We sold our 2012 Aliner expedition in August so we've been without a camper.

We were pleasantly surprised that a 6 cubic foot fridge was included. My wife loves to cook so the larger fridge in a small footprint is welcome despite the loss of storage. We are struggling with finding places for all the stuff we carried in the Aliner. I heavily modified/replaced  the Aliner cabinetry to meet our needs. The 179 cabinetry comes closer to meeting our needs as well as better fit and finish.  A number of drawers will get new boxes to make use of wasted space. The tall cupboards will get shelves. The awful mattress will be replaced.

Now to learn how to manage gray & black water tanks and E2 wds/sway   :)

Fred

Welcome!!

We also have a 179 and love it.  there are many great mods that can be done to personalize and customize the 179.  search back through this forum  and there is a lot of info. There are also a lot of nice people with 100's of cumulative years of rv'ing experience.  there are no stu[id questions-however sometimes the answers can get pretty....

anyway, welcome, have fun and safe travels.

Vann

Thanks for the link to your mods. Very creative.

Some of the problems your mods resolved are not issues in the 2021 model. It has a shelf above the bed. Some of the wiring and plumbing has been better routed so mods are not needed. For example the front hassock had only one thick rubber covered cable.through the floor inside it. Still lots of useful space.

I cut the plywood under the bed on the slide-out side. Easier to get to some storage and the water heater for winterization.

Our door has a window and a screen door but no shade. There is a shade from Lippert that gets mixed reviews

I was already planning to do the mod at the of the storage compartment for your ladder. I was planning to store a Clam screen room in its bag there. I wondered why you needed a ladder until I read the slide out cover post.. Does the ladder help with deploying the slide out cover? 

This is my first camper with a slide-out. It had not occurred to me that the slide-out roof might need cleaned and covered.

Is there a brand name on the folding ladder?

Thanks for sharing!

Okay, if you read through from the beginning, you will encounter a number of mods that later were re-done. For example, the ladder got moved from the compartment to underneath and the compartment was modified by moving the water pump to make room to have full-width storage. I can now fit a Clam style screen room in. Mine is not Clam brand, but it is the same size.

The ladder was originally purchased to help both with my home-built awning and the home-built slide-out cover. Both have now been replaced. The awning is now a manual crank-out awning. The trip to the factory for repair made that possible. Before I made the first cover, I used the ladder also to climb up and use a Swiffer to push the accumulated leaves and branches off the top of the slide-out. The cover removes the need for that. The slide-out cover was replaced recently by a Lippert cover so I no longer need the ladder for the original purposes, but I still have it in the carrier until I decide I would rather carry something else there.

The ladder is one of these:

https://smile.amazon.com/GP-Logistics-SLDS6-Ladder/dp/B002PNMMOC/ - https://smile.amazon.com/GP-Logistics-SLDS6-Ladder/dp/B002PNMMOC/

For only a few dollars more, a double-sided ladder is available. I would recommend the double-sided one if you are going to purchase one. It will weigh a little more, but having the steps on the other side would have been handy more than once.

Thanks for the update and the link to the step ladder. The double sided looks more useful.

Is there a manufactured slide out cover? My wife sews but grudgingly on heavy duty fabrics.

On my previous camper(Aliner) I moved the spare tire under the floor on a tire winch to free up the rear bumper. The Clam could ride there on a PVC cradle. Worked great, three straps secured the Clam with no worries. Since the 179 has no rear bumper,  I'm wondering if I could make two support posts for the Clam cradle from the frame by the battery. There have been Aliner folks who have created bicycle carriers over the front triangle. I'm a bit more picky about my bikes. My folder rides in the TV :)

Pahaque makes one that is manually installed, similar to the one I made. If you read all the way through, you will see the automatic one I installed recently. Now if I can only get out there and test it in real life.

As for the Clam, I like the inside storage better. However, if you can figure out how to make it work on the frame, I would look forward to seeing how you did so.

I'm apprehensive about storing the Clam inside. About half of our trips we take the Clam down when its wet, sometimes soaking wet.

Have you made any mods to the cabinets? My wife wants more shelves in the pantry and drawers in the wardrobe. Fitting shelves and drawers to existing cabinets is a challenge. So much so that I ripped out the cabinets on the curb side of our old camper and made a 7 drawer unit. Three deep drawers for personal stuff and 4 various depth drawers for kitchen stuff. I modified the cabinets on the street side into 3 more drawers. My wife likes to cook so we travel with more kitchen stuff than most rv campers.

In our 179 I added shelves in the wardrobe

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I also made the kitchen drawers longer and subdivided them for better storage

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I also added a flip up shelf at the end of the existing cabinet/countertop by the door

https://postimg.cc/s1jrbxhF">

for the pantry, we added wire shelves and spice racks on the doors

https://postimg.cc/m1PRqp6X">

The largest spaces that we gained were in 2 lower kitchen cabinets.

Under the stove, there is a partition that is a false wall on the left side. It is there to protect the gas and electric wires. You can move this partition over by about 3-4" and gain space.  the same applie to the far right cabinet.  the partition protects the incoming main power cor. That can also be moved to gain space.

there are lots of greta mod opportunities in the 179.  check out the search for several other of my mods.

good luck

Vann

Thanks so much for your ideas! The 2021 179, due the larger fridge(5.?)  has the microwave convection oven under the range top.  I like how you meshed the white spice rack shelf on the door with the shelf in the cabinet. We don't have that space to use.  I've been planning a funky drawer like yours under the sink. In my last camper I was able to redo the sink drain plumbing for a low sided drawer under it. Lots of space on either side. I think a lop sided drawer like yours is the only choice for this camper.  On the wardrobe we are planning drawers like we had in the last camper. We really like the convenience of drawers for our personal stuff.