P-pod for dry camping?

Apologies. Just getting used to the site. I'll make sure not be disruptive next time 

If you are (by actual weighing, not estimates based on empty weight specs) within all your vehicles' limitations (all 3 axles, tow vehicle max, trailer max, combined vehicle max, tongue max), and you otherwise meet the towing requirements of your vehicle (eg
frontal area) then you are legal.

Beyond that there are cases of rpods (and many other trailer models) developing sway with tongue weight at or below 10% of trailer weight so you should stay above that under all loading conditions.

Towing safety factors beyond these are up to the operator, most here want at least 10-20% above that to improve vehicle control under extreme/emergency conditions. Some want much more than that based in their personal experience and risk tolerance.

As for the validity of using a 4000 mile trip as an assesent of safety, it is important to understand the statistics of low probability events and how safety incidents occur.

Nearly all incidents involve multiple coincident factors. Several things have to go wrong at once, otherwise such incidents would be much more common. For example, a wreck might not occurs because of a marginal tow vehicle combined with an idiot pulling out in front, but might if those two events were combined with a slick road surface or a significant crosswind, or both.

When safety experts evaluate these incidents they generally see a combination of several of these adverse factors with one or more unsafe behaviors by the operator. These unsafe behaviors are reinforced if nothing bad happens and become the operator's norm. That's just human nature and it's difficult to counteract. That's why modern safety traing focusses on identifying and enhancing the operator's awareness of his behavior, rather than just training against a list of rules.

In this case the behavior is travelling with a borderline rig, and it's reinforced by thousands of miles without incident, until ultimately a combination of adverse factors can combine to result in an accident. Remember that serious accidents are thankfully very rare events and take millions of miles of travel to obtain good statistics for.

In any case, if youre legal, additional safety factors are up to you and I have no objection, we are all free within our legal limits to operate our vehicles as we wish.   What I do object to is encouraging others, who might be new to trailer towing and may not yet have the skills needed to weigh or operate their rigs safely, to take such unnecessary risks. That in my view shows lack of regard for others' well being.

If you want to stick with your TV you may want to look at a trailer with a bit lower profile and higher ground clearance like some of the trail ready tear drops that are out there, but at the end of the day, you go with what you got.

We were within all rated limits for the tow vehicle -- just not x% below rated limits where x% is determined by no data, only by seat of the pants 'just to be safe' guessing.  We never filled water or waste tanks and did not carry anywhere nearly enough gear to put us even close to 3500#.  Tongue weight was close to, but under the rated 350#.  Total TV loading was within rated limits as well.  I know you think you need to add a 10% or 20% (or is it 30% -- how do you decide?) additional safety margin above and beyond the safety margin that the actual professional automotive engineers already designed into the vehicle.  I disagree.