WDH and surge protection

Some subjects on this forum generate a plethora or opinions but I still want to take the chance.

Nothing will protect against a direct strike. You could install a   lightning protection system (masts, rods, and perimeter grounding grid) if you are permanently in one lightning prone place (like mountain top telcom sites have). That redirects the strikes away from your equipment.

As for nearby strikes, they cause damage two ways: by coming in through your mains supply (assuming you're on shore power) or by inducing surges in the circuits in the trailer itself. Induction is the way generators work, a changing magnetic field causes electricity to flow in nearby wires. And lightning creates huge electromagnetic fields (fir a few microseconds).

So induced surges don't require the lightning to directly strike any circuits, but they do fall off fast with distance. But if you have a stroke 5 feet away you could have induced currents in the 10000 plus amp range which could easily destroy your electronics.

A surge protector/EMS (as far as lightning protection is concerned they are the same thing) at the service entrance to the trailer will protect the trailer circuits from incoming surges but won't do much to protect devices from surges induced in the trailer circuits themselves. To protect from those it's best to unplug the electronics when a storm is coming. Second best is to add power strips with surge protectors at the outlets right next to the sensitive loads.

Surge protectors contain devices called metal oxide varistors (MOVs) which shunt the current from an induced lightning strike to ground when the voltage exceeds a threshold. MOVs are rated in joules which measure the energy they can handle during the lightning event. If you can find the joule ratings for the MOVs in the surge protectors get the highest rated ones you can.

Re WDH's since as you say you don't really need one for that truck you could get anything you like, but do be sure what you're after is actually weight distribution not sway control. Even with a heavy truck you need to be sure the trailer isnt prone to sway. It's best to accomplish that via proper fore/aft balance and then add sway control only as a backup. For rpods you need the tongue weight to be at least 10%, preferably 11% or higher of total trailer weight to minimize sway risk.

Previous advice on surge protection is good. As for WDH, you may not need it. We tow our 179 just fine with our 1/2 ton F150, but it does raise the nose enough to mess with the headlight aim. For that reason, we use the WDH. We find that the WDH tends to make the trailer and truck move together as more of a "unit" for lack of better description.