Recommended Weight Distribution/Sway Control for Forest River R-Pod 179 Hood River Edition

Question:

Living in Western Colorado at 6200 ft elev we will be doing most of our camping in the West. My wife was comfortable driving our VW Eurovan camper, but now we have a TT and shes anxious. Im used to driving a variety of large vehicles with/without trailers retired firefighter, but I dont want to be the sole driver on our camping trips!! We dont want overkill on a WD anti-sway setup, but optimum performance and maximum clearance are important. What do you recommend for WD and anti-sway for our setup please? ***2017 Forest River R-Pod 179 HREdition specs are: 2934 lbs GVWR/GAWR 2649 lbs UVW 1136 lbs CCC dimensions 200L x 96W x 97H and high off-road clearance ***2009 4X4 Tacoma Access cab with 6 ft bed has a factory towing package and Tekonsha P3 Prodigy brake controller installed. Also installed a Roadmaster MK II-XF Active Suspension load absorber truck dimensions are 174L x 127wheelbase. The C/L of the receiver hitch is 18 1/2H. Thank you.

asked by: Hank V

Expert Reply:

The key to choosing the right weight distribution/sway control (WD/SC) system is knowing your trailer's actual fully-loaded road-ready tongue weight (TW). We offer a simple-to-use scale # e99044 but other methods for measuring TW are noted in the linked article. To your measured trailer TW you will add the weight of anything in the back of the Tacoma that sits behind the rear axle, say a loaded cooler or generator. With this total effective TW known you can choose the right system.

Ideally your total TW figure will fall right near the middle of the system's operating range. This will ensure good performance without any side-effects. Since the dry hitch weight of your 179 is 285-lbs, we'll estimate a fully-loaded TW of 475-500-lbs.

You can click on the link provided to see all WD/SC systems. Click on your TW figure (we're using 500-lbs for this example) to see systems suited to that TW.

For best ground clearance you'll want a trunnion bar system like the Reese Strait-Line # RP66083 which works for TW ranging from 400- to 800-lbs. All you need to complete the system is a hitch ball like 2-inch size # A-90. This system is compatible with your R-Pod's electric brakes and allows backing up the trailer without having to disconnect anything.

expert reply by: Adam R