My wife and I are close to purchasing our second trailer we've owned after a gap of 15+ years.
I'm selecting an Escape, it's highly likely I'll purchase new from ETI directly, and I'm leaning hard towards the 21NE for the layout. (TV - 2018 Highlander XLE V6)
Our trips will be State and National Park based campgrounds with some commercial campgrounds bridging the travel gaps giving a mix of full hook-up and no hook-up. We'll bring bikes (I've seen swagman bike rack posts), but that's likely to be the only thing we'd be attaching to the back of the trailer for the trips.
We seek convenience and comfort, ease, and flexibility for the use of the trailer and adding the options to best assist with that. But I'm already seeing where I'd pass on discretionary options like the Stereo/DVD player / 4 speakers. I'd opt to pick-up some bluetooth / wireless speakers that would provide greater flexibility and likely better quality of sound.
I'd appreciate any perspectives on:
1. Top "must get" options
2. Top "must avoid" options
Any other major lessons learned that you wish you learned ahead of your order would be helpful as well.
Thanks much...Chris.
We have the 21NE. We're on our 2nd trip with it, both short, break-in trips.
Front toolbox - must have.
Extra access doors - should have had more.
Microwave - meh. Takes up a lot of space and I have to uninstall it in order to use it with the inverter. I love the idea of using an Instapot instead - going to investigate that further.
Power awning - still up in the air on that one.
21NE has 2 full-size queen beds; that's hard to beat in a small trailer.
LOVE the dining space in the NE. We thought we'd prefer the extra inches (over the 19) in the kitchen area but got the tilt-up counter space and love the large dining area.
Get the solar system - comes with an excellent control panel that you can control with your phone.
We got ours with then lift kit; not sure if we need that yet but we like to boondock.
Got 2 captain's lights. Meh.
Glad we got then Boss radio system. We hook our phones and Chromebook up to it (with Bluetooth) to listen to tunes and Prime video. Don't have a television yet.
We have the manual hitch jack. Sloooow. We had an electric jack on our Rpod. I don't think the electric jack option is worth the money but it should be considered (we're 66).
The frameless, insulated windows work very well with the Maxxfan. I think we'd get those again.
Good luck on your decision.
BTW, our Escape was an inventory Escape so we didn't go through the agony of options. But we did end up with most exactly what we want!