I recently purchased a new to us 2008
Escape 17B in Seattle and drove it home into Canada - Surrey. The drive was uneventful and the trailer towed without any issue but I had to wonder after going over many posts whether or not I needed a WDH. I performed a simple test. I measured the distance from the ground to the bottom of my front
license plate holder with the trailer unhitched. I then hitched the trailer up and measured again and found that my front end had risen by 1". That means I was losing front wheel traction. I purchased a trunion bar WDH made by Curt over the web. I installed the hitch and then redid my tests. My front measurement stayed the same unhitched and hitched. Such a simple test to decide whether or not a WDH is warranted or not.
Before assembling the hitch, I went through the parts list and found a couple of mistakes. Instead of 5 clips (the type to secure the hitch pin, there were only 2. There were 2 U bolt which meant there should have been 4 nuts with them, but there were only 3 - and those were not the right thread. I checked the box and found the hitch was made in India. Not in love with their quality control over there.