R-Pod 153

Sounds like you don't need a wdh but you might want one, it's a personal choice.

As for sway, that is a function of how you load the trailer. You want at least 10-11% of total trailer weight to be on the tongue. Best way is to weigh the trailer and tongue fully loaded and see where you are in reality. don't count on the numbers FR publishes.

If you are 11% of better on the tongue you probably don't need sway control, but as with weight distribution, you might feel things are more comfortable with it.

And yes, you can get either one without the other, or you can get a hitch that does both.

Hi, You would want 10 - 15 % on the tongue weight.  If the tongue is lighter you will experience sway at some point. Having a WDH is never a bad idea. You may not NEED it, but it will always improve your towing experience. Many WDH have built in sway control. Me personally, I would say get a WDH with sway control. It's one of those better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it scenarios. I use a Fastway E2 600/6000 WDH w/ square spring bars. It works really good on my set up. Nissan Frontier pulling 3700 pounds dry weight.

To clarify, you want at least 10% and preferably 11% or more of the total trailer weight to be on the tongue. There have been reports of sway on rpods at or around 10% tongue weight, so 11% will give you some margin. Also, be aware that the weight on the tongue can change significantly with how you load the trailer. For example, my 179 tongue weight went down about 3% as we boondocked and the 30 gallons in our forward mounted fresh tank moved to our aft mounted gray tank. Other rpod floorplans could go the other direction.

I worked out my loading so that my trailer was around 14% when carrying 30 gal of fresh water and 11% when carrying 30 gal of gray water.

Check out this video to see how excess aft loading causes low tongue weight and sway.



sway video


If you do get sway control just consider it adding a belt to your suspenders, get your tongue weight where it needs to be to avoid getting sway in the first place.

An easy way to get your actual trailer and tongue weight is to go through a scale twice. Load the trailer just as you will actually do while using it.

First with the trailer, get the weight of the 2 tow vehicle axles and also the total rig weight. Then drop the trailer and weigh the TV. Total rig - TV from second weighing = trailer weight. Tongue weight = combined weight of the 2 TV axles with the trailer - TV without the trailer.

You can do this at a public truck scale but you also might be able to do it for free at your county waste transfer station.