This thread is going to be a slow burn. I am going to try to document everything I do to and related to the R॰pod over the coming years.

I am going to start with the tow vehicle and list a couple of relevant upgrades.

This is a 1998 Toyota 4runner limited with about 211k on the clock. Power is provided by the slightly tired 3.4l V6. From the factory this was rated at 183hp and 217lb.ft. of torque. She still runs like a champ. In the last decade and 100k miles we have been left stranded 1 time do to a worn ignition switch.

I replaced the old worn rear suspension on the 4runner with some OME 906 heavy duty springs and bilstien shocks about a year ago in anticipation of a travel trailer. It handles heavy loads much nicer now. Around the same time the radiator and timing belt were replaced. Hopefully we can get another 100k miles or so on the clock. This is basically just a tow/weekend/adventure vehicle at this point. I work from home so the miles aren't going up much anymore.

When we first got this truck I can remember finding some large diameter wire in the frame with nothing hooked up to either end. At the time I had no idea what it was and pulled it all out... turns out it was some old trailer wiring. Now that I have self educated on the 7 pin and brake controller setups I now recognize what the purpose was. I spent the holiday weekend getting a P3 brake controller and 7 pin socket installed.

Future plans

Next up will probably be sway and most likely weight distribution. Right now I have my eyeball on the Equal-i-zer Weight Distribution - EQ37060ET. This looks like one of the easier hitches to hook up. Feel free to chime in with other options that I should look at. I probably will not do this until next spring or summer before we head to CO.

Also, next spring will see the addition of a tranny cooler. I have not started doing any research on this one.

My next post I will try to focus on the the trailer.

With snow forecast in 3 days, winterizing was first on the list. I decided to live life dangerously and just blow the lines out with air and dump some antifreeze in the traps. The water heater was drained and all the low point drains were opened up for a bit. I also turned the pump on for a few seconds. I did this with air pressure on the system and without. After the first hard freeze I stepped in and the faucets were not moving. I couple days later I went back out after things warmed back up. The faucet came on on and felt smooth. A little air pressure came out too. I think we are good to go.

Next up I will be addressing the sewer connection situation. We found an unused 6ft sewer hose in a cabinet. I hope to never use that. I ordered a 20ft rhinoflex kit for $26 along with a stand kit and a super slider for D & W. On a side note these people have great customer service and prices are better than amazon as of this writting. I think I will install this carrier just past the front jacks.

While I was crawling around under the trailer today I took a couple of pictures of the tank support pars. Mine do not appear to be suffering the terrible QA issues that some of the earlier 179s were.

They have also used a lock nut on the sewer exit pipe. I don't see this coming loose but I will be keeping an eye on it. What other common issues should I be on look out for?

We are trying to tackle as many of the logistical issues as we can while winter keeps us home. One of those is trash and the other is recyclables. I am a firm believer that MAN MADE global warming is way over blown, trash and environment destruction is something that can be fixed right now by all of us. I believe we were put here to be stewards.

With that said I did some measuring and browsing on amazon and I came up with http://https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H45N6VE/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 - this. The screws and instructions that come with this are trash in my opinion. Other than that I am pretty happy with the system. As you 179ers know, this is not a real cabinet here. That complicated this project a lot. So this is what I have come up with.

+1 on Nice work!

I also don't think I would like to take that much space for trash and recycling. However, I would like to do some sort of slide-out for access to the back end of the cabinet. I use wooden crates and wire mesh bins now, but the slide-out would make things much easier for access.

This is the type of thing that makes this forum such a useful place. Thank you for sharing your modifications.