Crashed on the interstate while towing the R-Pod

All said and done, the repairs look fantastic. Where the trim was damaged, you can't tell anything was ever wrong; it looks straight from the factory. I also had them put the axle risers on when they replaced the axle so that the pod rides level with my Yukon and it made a huge difference. No more scraping the leveling jacks on every driveway !

The R-Pod is safely tucked away back in the storage unit. With about 6 more inches in height since we rented the place (risers plus replacing the drooping, damaged axle) we were a little worried that it wouldn't make it through the door, but we had a whole two inches to spare. 

We're now looking forward to our first R-Podding vacation this spring!

It's quite hearsay at this point but it makes sense.  This is why I didn't add WDH to my rig.  I have all I can do to put enough weight on the rear of my pathfinder.  I usually fill the fresh water tank and throw everything I can on the front bed.  I'm 200lbs, and the one time I plopped down on the rear bed with no stabilizers down and the tongue of the R-pod lifted up.  So my thoughts are, could you crank up a WDH hitch enough that you actually remove weight from the rear tires (compared to empty)?  This would be a really bad thing, as once you are going downhill, and turn one way or another, that tongue of the R-pod would be pushing the rear end of the TV around like its on a swivel.  This kind of thing is a big worry with car carriers - place the car to far back and you're in big trouble - Jack knife city.  My understanding is that you are suppose to always have at least 13% of the travel trailers weight on the tongue of the TV.  For my 171 that should be something like 350 lbs.  Well I don't weight that much, so I know it doesn't have enough weight on the front, which is dangerous by itself.  Hence the adding water.  Now if that 350lbs is actually on the tongue, and that number is over what your vehicle can handle, then it's time to use a WDH.  In my case neither of which is true.  

Now none of this has anything to do with sway control.  I do use sway control.  What I'm afraid of is that dealers sell you WDH because they either also act as sway control or they have the nice spot for sway control.  It's also a nice extra $350, and every other trailer they sell needs it - so why not.  When you buy the sway control it actually comes with a bracket that you can weld onto your regular draw bar to mount the sway ball.  That's what I did.