Podmods, Maintenance, Tips and Tricks : List Your Mods:

I'm no stranger to all the steps needed to add anti-freeze to a Pod. I previously owned a 177 and had to repeat the process several times a winter since we often camp during the winter.

When we bought the 179 this year I immediately located all the plumbing components. 

First shock, finding that none of the plywood was fastened down. Second surprise was that to reach all the valves, both pieces of plywood had to be removed.

At first, I was going to just move the valves to same side of the water heater and continue to remove the bed each time. Then I figured I may as well go all in with an access door from the outside.

I ordered the door from Amazon and while waiting for it to arrive I began with the process of moving the water lines. Removing the old PEX cinch clamps was the hardest task, but managed with a good pair of lever side cutters. I wanted to retain the factory appearance so I kept with the PEX piping. I only needed 5 feet each of the blue and red pipe. I did have to purchase the special crimping tool for the new cinch clamps, but you may be able to find it at a tool rental place. I needed about 25 new cinch clamps and a few elbows and tees.

During this time I read a post about the benefits of an accumulator tank. The tank I used is a two gallon one. An air bladder makes up half of the tank and is pressurized at about 25 lbs. psi.The claims were that one would even out the flow and cut down on how often the water pump cycles. I found that at a setting of 25 lbs, I could run the water about fifteen seconds without the pump coming on. Not really impressive, I know. But, with the pump turned off after the system is pressurized, I found I could get a full gallon of water at full pressure before running dry. 

There's plenty of room on that side of the water heater to mount the tank.

I made the tank the first thing in the line from the pump. I also added a valve on the line to the tank so that when it came to adding the pink stuff, I can shut it off so I don't fill the tank up with antifreeze.

Once I got the door, I marked off a spot that I thought would look good, and proceeded to cut the hole.

My mistake!!! My jigsaw didn't even slow down when it hit the aluminium stud! As it is the shortest stud on the wall, I wasn't too worried, but just to be safe I built a header over the opening.

To avoid the stud, I would advise relocating the clearance light slightly forward. Not much. Just enough to avoid the stud. About two inches will do.

Another option is to use a smaller hatch.