Rookie nerves

burge...I like mine a lot.  I am a weekend warrior and love the convenience of the small truck bed.  It is rare I ever need a full size bed so it has been perfect for my needs and use. I have the hard tonneau cover and bed extender, makes more useful when needed and the cover keeps gear dry.   It drives and handles nice, just like an Explorer.  It has plenty of tow power for my Pod and I also move around my 22 ft. Pontoon boat with ease.  I have the class IV tow package and think it rates for 6800# towing.

 

Originally posted by burge16 ... I haven't checked the tire pressure on the trailer ever, I'll have to see if the recommended pressure is written down somewhere. My SUV is rated for 3500 lbs, and the dry weight of the pod was 2410, so I thought I would be ok. I know a full water tank would add 250lbs, and that's why I try and not add a lot of weight, cause I don't have much wiggle room. Puts getting a generator out of the question I think.

Tire pressure on both vehicles is critical - sidewall flex in any of the tires will cause sway.  Look on the sidewall of your TV tires and the pod's tires for the maximum pressure rating.  I think the tires that came with my pod allow 50 psi, and my current TV is 44 psi.  I fill the pod tires to 50 and my TV to 40-41, even though the sticker on the door says to fill the TV tires to 30.  That makes them mushy - great for ride comfort but horrible for towing.

Your total weight and the total weight of your cargo isn't important for the sway issue.  What is important is the tongue weight.  For campers you want this to be 10% of the weight of the camper (boats go about half that).  Too light on the tongue will contribute to sway, and sometimes too heavy, too.  That is why I was asking about water load and other load in the front or back.  Depending on where the load is it can either make you "tongue heavy" or "tongue light".  With my suicidal popup I played with this all the time, moving my spare tire from the back of the camper into my TV, moving my microwave and firewood to the front of the camper.  

Well, here's an update...after having my ball and equalizer bars adjusted and one sway bar installed I took my pod out for the long weekend. I drove about an hour and a half on the highway in pretty windy conditions to my campsite. The difference was like night and day. I still felt the wind, but no longer feel like the steering wheel is going to be pulled out of my hands. I was able to comfortably drive 90 km/h when it was the posted speed and safe to do so. All and all, a much better towing experience than before. And like most other trips, I had about 10 people tour my pod, and all were very impressed with it!

Glad to hear things have improved for both of you.