Introduction - Christine

handmade trailer with army tent shelter

Class B hightop MH

Winnebago

1993 Chalet Alpine Lite

Current:  1989 Class B Dodge Xplorer which looks not great on the outside, just starting the inside, and just finished getting it to sing and purr as it drives (started this in 2006).

We recently purchased a 2015 Nissan Xterra.  Spent several weeks looking at trailers and visiting forums etc., etc. and thought we could not tow above 300 tongue weight.  Am now confident that because we have the factory installed hitch we can tow max tongue weight of 500 using a weight distribution hitch added to the factory hitch so we are once again considering the Rpod.

I've also read the iffy opinions here and there about the Xterra being not  able to tow it but I think those problems belong to the older "Generation I" models.  Because our (his primary) Xterra is parked in our driveway behind our Class B (my primary everyday car) I thought the Xterra was a really small car height.  Yesterday I was parked around a lot of cars and noticed that except for the full size truck my car was higher or equal to anything else parked around it.  I realize it has the short wheelbase which is another advantage to the weight distribution hitch with sway control.

Are there any Xterra/179 pod owners currently on this forum who would mind telling me their experience beyond the "I brought it home and it drove fine" or "first trip out" - some real meat and potatoes review about pulling it behind the Xterra.  

Also looking at the Rockwood hard side, high wall Aframes because we have owned an Aframe before and love them.  We also know the history of them re problems (Chalet and Aliner) and Rockwood is the only one offering a decent warranty to offset the fear of purchasing another Aframe.

We plan to travel for a year around the country.  Anything after that depends on how the first year went.  We decided for that much travel we wanted a new car, extended warranty, etc. as some insurance.  If we could tow "4-down" like a Jeep we probably would have kept the Class B but that doesn't work with the Xterra and I don't think the Class B should be towing the heavy Xterra.

Have looked at the B.C. Escape, that's one fine trailer but 19' runs $26k and we don't yet know that we want to do this more than a year.  We are still not sure if we want to hope a side out won't cause us a problem we can't handle.  For as much as we want to run out and buy today we are trying to answer all of our questions and concerns BEFORE we buy, unlike our recent car purchase LOL.  (That said, I LOVE this car).

Answers about side out frequency problems also appreciated as we know nothing about them.

Christine