Hyundai Santa Fe (Tow for Escape 21) review

[matt]

We just returned home to Southern California after picking up our new Escape 21 last month from ETI. I decided to post a review of our tow vehicle because I had not seen a review of a Hyundai Santa Fe on his forum. I had seen some very positive reviews of Highlanders and other mid sized SUV's which I found encouraging knowing we also had a SUV with a 5000 lbs tow rating. The route we took home was roughly 2000 miles over both flat, and hilly roads. We did not climb any elevations over 4500 ft. and I admit to being a conservative driver. (55 mph and I don't mind pulling over to let people pass when needed). That all being said, I was very happy with how our Santa Fe did towing our 21. Our average gas mileage when towing was 17.6 mpg over the 2000 miles. If I were routinely towing through the Rocky Mountains or if I wanted to keep my speed at 65 mph even when climbing hills I might not be as satisfied. But neither of those apply to me, so my review of the Santa Fe as a tow vehicle is 100% positive. I have no doubt that full size trucks are stronger tow vehicles, but for our situation the Santa Fe and the Escape 21 are a perfect fit. We did have ETI install the Pro Series Weight Distribution Hitch, but did not have the sway bar installed. That setup was very easy to use and we didn't have a hint of sway during our 2000 mile trip. (By the way: We love our new Escape even more than we love our tow vehicle.)

[Charliej]

Matt, were you in Morro Bay yesterday? I saw a new 21 being towed by a silver Santa Fe.

CharlieJ

[cpaharley2008]

So the 17.6 was your over all avg? what was it just towing on the return trip? Pretty good for a loaded Escape 21, did you use a w/d set up?

[matt]

Originally Posted by Charliej

Matt, were you in Morro Bay yesterday? I saw a new 21 being towed by a silver Santa Fe.

CharlieJ

Hi Charlie, Yes that was us. We left Morro Bay yesterday morning and made it home to Murrieta by the afternoon.

[matt]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

So the 17.6 was your over all avg? what was it just towing on the return trip? Pretty good for a loaded Escape 21, did you use a w/d set up?

That was the return trip towing the 21. Our mpg on the way to Chilliwack was 29 mpg (even when not towing I follow the speed limit which helps). So our mpg dropped about 12 mpg (40%) when towing. A few other things beside the easy driving speed that helped with our towing mpg were: Our 21 weighed only 3295 lbs when it left ETI and we did not go crazy with what we brought with us. My guess is even after we loaded it our 21 weighed well under 4000 lbs and except for a few occasions our tanks were empty when traveling. Yes we did use a WD hitch. We had ETI install the Pro Series hitch with out the sway bar. It worked great. Another thing that I'm sure helped is we have almost nothing on our roof (No A/C, No Solar Panels, and no TV Antenna) making an already aerodynamic trailer even more so. Our previous trailer was a Lance 1575 which weighed a few hundred pounds less than our Escape. Towing the Lance I got 14 - 15 mpg.

[h2owmn]

Isn't it nice when the tow vehicle and the trailer make an auspicious match!

I'm with you--I love my tow vehicle but I love my Escape more!

[cpaharley2008]

I too had a Lance 1575, one of the first ones and the slide motor went up within 90 days. Never again. But back to my question, did you clear the mpg calculation or is the 17.9 the number showing upon return? In other words you got 29 empty and was getting ?? towing which dropped your total mpg from 29 to 17.9. I have 2 readings on mine, current mpg and total trip mpg and each one is different unless there was no change in weight or wind or some other external change.

[matt]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

I too had a Lance 1575, one of the first ones and the slide motor went up within 90 days. Never again. But back to my question, did you clear the mpg calculation or is the 17.9 the number showing upon return? In other words you got 29 empty and was getting ?? towing which dropped your total mpg from 29 to 17.9. I have 2 readings on mine, current mpg and total trip mpg and each one is different unless there was no change in weight or wind or some other external change.

Hi Jim. I did reset my trip / mpg setting after picking up the Escape. We also have another reading that we reset after every fill up. The lowest mpg we got on a tank of gas was 15.2 and the highest was 18.2. Most were in the 16.5 -17.5 range. We have a display that we can scroll to on the instrument panel that even shows your current estimated mpg (although that is not too accurate). If I changed speeds from 55 mph to 65 mph on a flat road it made a significant difference in estimated mpg.The only thing that might have slightly elevated the overall towing mpg of 17.6 is it did include a few side trips to the market, winery, etc where we were disconnected. But that was no more than 200 miles of our 2000 mile trip. My guess is the relatively low weight of our 21, nothing on the roof, good mpg vehicle, slow driving, and almost ideal road / driving conditions led to a perfect storm of 17.6 mpg. I will test the mpg again on our next shorter trips. I doubt I will do as well driving the roads in Southern California but if it is significantly worse I will update this review.

We had good luck with our Lance 1575 but there were a few things I did not like about the design. When I met a fellow camper with an Escape 21 I knew someday I would have to have one. That day is now and we could not be happier.

[Yakanaka]

Thanks for the post! We have a Santa fe and are picking up our 21 in a few weeks. I was worried we would get home and decide we needed a new tow vehicle. Your positive review makes me hopeful it might work.

[Anachr0n]

Matt, do you have a factory tow package on your Santa fe? Or any other after market work done to make it more tow-worthy?

[matt]

Originally Posted by Anachr0n

Matt, do you have a factory tow package on your Santa fe? Or any other after market work done to make it more tow-worthy?

When we bought our Santa Fe I believe all of the 6 cylinder trim levels in our area were coming with the "Tow Ready" package. I know that Hyundai sometimes equips their models differently depending on what country or even what part of the country they send them to. All the Santa Fe's here are 6 cylinder with 5000 lbs tow rating. (The Santa Fe Sport is a 4 cylinder and cannot tow more than 3500 lbs.) AWD or FWD does not change the Santa Fe's tow rating. I know some of the other mid sized SUV's like Kia Sorento and Honda Pilot the FWD have 3500 lbs tow rating but the AWD has 5000 lbs. Even with the "Tow Ready" package we still had to add the tow hitch and some wiring for the brake controller. Besides just the 5000 lbs tow rating I did check all the numbers, weights, etc for both my Santa Fe and the Escape 21 to make sure we were not exceeding any ratings/limits, and we were good. For us the Santa Fe and the 21 were a good match and I know a lot of people feel the same way about their Highlanders and other mid sized SUVs. There are a lot of people who don't feel the same way and I totally respect that. The full size trucks, large SUV's, and even some of the mid sized trucks are no doubt better tow vehicles and I would never suggest otherwise. But based on how I drive, where I tow, and the weight of our 21 and equipment, we are very very happy with the Santa Fe.

[Anachr0n]

Thanks Matt. I am of he same mind as you. We are a few years off getting a trailer, but when we do we don’t want to go too big on our TV. It will be our daily driver too. Right now our family hauler is. Rav 4. I’d rather not have to go up to an F-150. We’re considering the 19 anyway so if you’re ok towing a 21, we should be fine with a 19.

I have to say, I can’t imagine how a FWD model would have he same towing capacity as an AWD.