Replacement axle?

Sounds like you have your brake issues under control. I'm still working on mine, I have about 800 (mountainous) miles on my new brakes and drums and am still learning and sorting things. There's more on my other thread for the that. 

  

The Baja roads are way better than in the good old days I gather ... but the portions of Highway 1 near the State border and Guerrero Negro were nerve-wracking and awfully narrow, crumbled and potholed.  Then we tried to cut up to the new road being built South from San Filipe on our way back North, which ended up being a 30 mile or so adventure over rubble and some really crazy rough patches more suited to rock-crawling 4x4s.  That road will be fantastic when completed in another year or so - they had a ton of crews and equipment working on it.

The trip was exceptionally interesting and exotic, there was beautiful solitude and camping right on the beach both on the Pacific side and Gulf of California.  We had only two slight negative experiences - out of the dozen or so military checkpoints one slow, surly search fingering stuff in our cupboards and drawers which was annoying, obviously intended for us to give some items away, but it ended with no problem.  Then a bad experience with town dogs in Santa Rosalia while we were walking.  Ended without any bites but I was definitely into fight or flight mode and do not like the way they let their very territorial dogs roam in some of the towns.

Sorry for any thread hijack ... our trip was actually an illustration of the “fake” marketing aspect of the HRE models made to appear as if they can be backcountry vehicles.  Not really.  The construction is too conventional and the bouncing, flexing aspects are not addressed by the engineering.  Even with the axle risers I have bent both rear stabilizers, bent the axle, broken some interior trim pieces, had drawers and cupboards fly open with ensuing mayhem and mess.  We have pushed the limits, true, but really the proper limits are well-graded gravel, and maybe very low speed last few miles to destination over less maintained roads.  

Will consider a 15 inch wheel - I gather it is far more common and there are a lot more tire choices, when I got caught with my tires wearing I found out there isn’t a lot of 14 inch choice readily available in the load ratings we require.  But maybe adding in new wheels and tires is too much expense.  I have to also figure I’m putting money into a 6 year old trailer that already has a list of to-do items as the components start to fail from age or use - broken electric switch on the water heater, broken support strap on the grey water outlet pipe, seals requiring their second major overhaul, new propane regulator, new TV/DVD player.  Last year we upgraded the mattress (great), replaced the rear curtain with a de-browned new curtain complete with black-out liner, new shower head, upgraded the dinette cushions ... repainted and de scaled all the exterior black steel ... I do catch myself looking at new Lances and, (lottery win required) Airstreams.  But I gather they all have their maintenance problems.  The Airstreams in particular leave a fair gap between the marketing position of being premium and the best, and a host of regularly occurring defects and failures, especially water infiltration, that’s disappointing to new owners.

Could be worse - I used to own a sailboat, and marine quality maintenance and repair was incredibly expensive compared to RV’s.  Love my Pod and the places it has taken us.