Picked up our Escape 19 the end of August and spent over 6000 miles and 4 1/2 weeks traveling around the western US. Had a wonderful experience and LOVE our new trailer! The crew at ETI gave us a thorough orientation and hooked up our WDH so that it was ready to go on our new Tacoma, which worked flawlessly. We averaged around 15 mpg towing. Stopped in Oregon to pick up the shoe drawer under the bench seat that we had ordered from Charlie for J's shoes. (Got that idea from a picture on the forum.) It works great! Thanks, Charlie!
Except for me pulling the latch cover off of the refrigerator door, there were no mishaps with the trailer. Our only problems so far are finding a place where J can play guitar inside the trailer and deciding where to put the TV.
Has anyone tried hanging the TV from the shelf in the front of the trailer in front of the rock guard window? We can reinforce the bottom of the shelf, but aren't sure if it is strong enough where it connects to the cupboards on the sides. Also, we are thinking of using tray tables or a smaller table in the dinette so that J can sit on the bench seat and have room for the guitar in front of him. Has anyone made a mod of this kind?
The refrigerator worked better than any other RV fridges we have had, but it did start to warm up in the heat when we were running on battery while driving. We decided to try using the propane while driving, which we have never done before, to see if that made a difference, and the temp started dropping right away.
We probably didn't need four captains lights because the standard lights are plenty bright, and we read Kindles, but we are delighted that we ordered the solar panels and the inverter. We used the Kuerig and the microwave several times when we were not on shore power. The batteries stayed fully charged.
We are really happy that we saw an Escape for the first time in the spring at a Florida campground and asked the owners if we might look inside. The purchase process from beginning to end was so smooth, except for that slight concern about the border closing, but Tammy kept us updated all the time until it was resolved. Everyone at ETI was patient with our many questions and made us feel like friends. Those of you who answer all the questions on this forum and who share info and pictures are invaluable. Thank you. Even if we weren't posting, we were reading your messages every single day.
We have two short trips planned for the end of this month and look forward to many, many more. We have a Winnebago song on YouTube. Time to write one about our Escape.