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[Kingbiscuit]

Hello all,

My wife and I just sold our class A bus and are downsizing to a small towable. The Escape 19 is on our very short list.

Since I'll need to purchase a tow vehicle, I'm looking for information on what other people are using to tow their Escape 19. Any information is appreciated.

I'm thinking of a Nissan NV van. My first impulse is the 2500 with a V8 Engine. That said, I don't want to overkill this. Perhaps the V6 Engine would be fine and maybe a 1500. We live in Florida but I intend to pull all over the country, possibly to Alaska.

Thanks in advance

Dan

[cpaharley2008]

Welcome Dan,
Research the spec's on any tow vehicle you are thinking about yourself, not the one the salesman says will work. The 19 Escape needs a vehicle with a hitch capable of 500# tongue weight and 5,000# max trailer weight. Having an integrated brake controller as well as a towing package should also be on the vehicle.

[Pupfish]

We tow our 19 with a 2004 Nissan V8 Titan. We recently picked up our trailer and brought it back to Texas by way of Kansas. I could feel the weight of the trailer on hills, but could go as fast as I cared to (and I do travel fast). Truck has 190K+ miles on it. Towing reduced miles per gallon by 3-4 mpg depending on how much climbing we did.

[rjbny]

Originally Posted by Kingbiscuit

Hello all,

I'm thinking of a Nissan NV van. My first impulse is the 2500 with a V8 Engine. That said, I don't want to overkill this. Perhaps the V6 Engine would be fine and maybe a 1500. We live in Florida but I intend to pull all over the country, possibly to Alaska.

Dan

As Jim said, you need 5000# towing capacity and 500# tongue weight. Our 2012 Highlander with a V6 meets that threshold and we've managed quite well on the trips we've made. It looks like the NV with the V6 is rated at 6200#. That being said, it is really up to you how much power you want at your disposal.

[GregandTeresa]

We tow our 19 with a 2013 Pathfinder. It works fine for now, since we only tow locally, but if/when we do get to retire and start taking cross country trips over real mountains, I want to get something more substantial. I'm thinking a Tacoma eventually.

[fudge_brownie]

Did someone say you need to be familiar with the towing specs of any vehicle. Of course you do, some acronyms you should be familiar with are: Gross Vehicle Weight Rating, Curb Weight, tongue weight and others. The most important number is to calculate the GCWR, the Gross Combined Weight Rating. Once you have this number you can now apply how you will travel and with what you will travel with to determine if you are maintaining a safe combination.

There have been some excellent threads on the forum regarding this topic and there are numerous web sites to help you understand this. Some interesting items to consider are: identical vehicles can have different ratings depending on the options included or added, some vehicles will show adequate towing capability but have very little available for adding passengers or gear to the tow, just using towing capacity as a measurement is a mistake, the owner can never increase tow capacity by adding hitches, levelers, sway bars and the like but they can decrease the capability by adding roof racks, bed liners, weight distribution hitches and similar add ons. From what I have read, it appears the rating number on the door sticker of the vehicle is a definitive number.

All the above supersedes anything that a sales person will tell you.

[arniesea]

As others have stated, at least 5,000# towing capacity and 500# hitch weight are the minimums. Personally I prefer a little excess capacity as a margin of error. One thing folks forget about is that the manufactures towing capacity includes engineering vehicle rigidity to handle the loads and to stop as well as go. Not only do I want a tow that will pull my rig, but one that will handle accident avoidance too.

Personally I have a 2016 Tacoma that does everything I ask of it for towing my 2013 19" escape. (TRD Sport, DBCB with tow package, 6,400 # tow capacity.) This is the 3rd generation Tacoma and in my book the key advantage over earlier Tacoma's is the ability to select any of the 6 gears manually. This way I can maintain momentum for steep grades by dropping it into 3rd and still pull 55 - 60 MPH with no trouble. It doesn't hurt that it also gets better gas milage than my 2014 did.

But each person's needs are different. The Tacoma is not the smoothest ride for example. If that is an important consideration or enclosed space is important then a van or mid-sized SUV may be a better choice. Just do your research and pay attention to what is important to your style of camping.