Pic of our new Blue Pod!

Welcome.

Originally posted by mjlrpod I too await delivery of my pod. I purchased a 172 in late august, but they had to order it. I then found out we would be getting the new blue model. I liked the green, but with the upgrades at no additional cost, i was good. since winter is close, i'll be waiting till next spring to camp, but i wish it would finally arrive.

we just picked up our 178 (2745 dry, probably right at 3k after battery and stuff we brought) at RV nation and towed it back to Huntsville Al. using a 2009 Santa Fe Ltd.  Stopped overnight at Cave City, about halfway, to break it in.  Got a tad over 13 MPG, it was all hill country between Cincinnati and Huntsville and we fought a 20 mph headwind all the way.  The anti-sway bar did well to control sway, although it seemed to transfer all the lateral loads into the vehicle, so we we buffeted at times.  I was usually able to keep it between 55 - 75 while closely watching the MPG indicator, which is a direct indication of engine loading, and tried to balance speed with MPG..  We could have traveled faster, but I wanted to take it easy until I found how the Santa Fe would do.  I used the manual shifter and kept it in 4th (5th is overdrive) most of the way, although on some of the hills I had to drop to 3rd to keep the MPG in the 8-9 range, which I believe is pretty conservative for 3rd gear.  On rare stretches where it was flat I tried the cruse control and I think it would get 15 MPG at 65 or so without the headwind.  We towed a popup that weighed 2k for years and got 20 MPG, but it had almost no front to catch the wind.  Also, I think the AC on the pod catches a fair amount of air.  Overall, after a 400 mile tow, I think the earlier Santa Fes with the 3.3 liter engine (242 hp) are adequate, but the extra 50 hp from a 2016 would have come in handy.

As an aside, while I was researching the Santa Fe, the 3.3 liter (gasoline) 242 hp version in Europe and Australia are rated to tow 4000 lbs, and if you are towing a boat in the US it goes to 4500 lbs.  We have a 4000 lb hitch, so we were comfortable about that.  Can't use weight distribution, don't really need it as we have Firestone airbags. 

You might try getting some sunscreen fabric such as that from Easy Gardener to hang from the awning to block the afternoon sun.