New Escape 19

[sclifrickson]

Wow, just checked some homes there, historic victorian homes here in York are about 1/3 of those in Port Townsend....

When you can even find them for sale. The market is super tight in Port Townsend. Thus the elevated pricing. The underlying reason though is that PT is a rare jewel of a town. We drove around exploring the US for a year before deciding that this was the nicest place we had seen. And here we are.

 

[ROWDY II]

Wow...another 19 in Port Townsend! Where might you be in town? We are on Morgan Hill.

 

[Rutterslo]

There’s an RV park within 5 minutes or less of the Escape factory. It’s called Cottonwood Meadows. It’s more than adequate. We stayed there this summer while having some work done on our 19.

 

[Red-ESC]

We love our 19 and have stayed at the Fidalgo Bay camp near Anacortes Washington which is a short drive south of Bellingham and on the ocean. Many of the sites are directly on the water. This is a great location to explore many of the small towns in this lovely area. There is a great ferry system that will take you to most locations and return in a day. Port Townsend and Anacortes offer great retirement opportunities.

 

[jmarshallescape]

We camped at Birch Bay State Park, not far from Bellingham, the day we picked up our 19. It was a perfect spot to try out our new trailer. We live in Eugene, Oregon and love it, but will be moving to Bellingham, Washington in 2019 to be nearer to our kids and grandkids. It is a great place too.

 

[penelope66]

You made the same choices we did for our 2017 Escape 19' -- larger fridge, solar panel, storage box, all of which we think quite worth the extra expense. We too, wanted a shakedown campout, and chose Cultus Lake, which is only about a half hour from Chilliwack and very scenic. We inherited our hitch system from the people we bought our original Casita 17' from. We use Eaz-Lift weight distribution bars, which provide a really solid 3-point connection and lots of stability. We transferred that to the Escape and have had no problems.

 

[penelope66]

I should probably have noted that we do most of our trailering in late summer and early fall, in California and the Pacific Northwest. We also have trailered in the SW in that same time frame, so I would have to admit that we have not really experienced any severe weather, only moderate winds and rain. If we were to travel to Minnesota at this time of year we might have a different story to relate!

 

[JeffO4297]

For my $.02 worth, I love the load levelers. I have towed trailers and boats and the difference, for me, is the smoother ride. My truck would take the weight, but I do love the smoother ride.
The load levelers put more weight on the front wheels and I don't get the slight hing effect that sometimes happens when you go over a bump.
I've towed for a little while now and do not regret NOT getting anti-sway but do LOVE load levelers
JeffO

 

[Jean-ESC]

I've lived in Olympia for 40 years, state capital, southern tip of Puget Sound. Small town feel with some urban opportunities..2 universities, live theater, active music and film scene. Little over an hour to the ocean, Olympic mountains; 1.5 to Seattle (or more with nasty traffic on I-5 north), 2 horse south to Portland.
I do love Pt Townsend, but never resided there.
Welcome to the Pacific Northwest!

 

[rbryan4]

For my $.02 worth, I love the load levelers. I have towed trailers and boats and the difference, for me, is the smoother ride. My truck would take the weight, but I do love the smoother ride.
The load levelers put more weight on the front wheels and I don't get the slight hing effect that sometimes happens when you go over a bump.
I've towed for a little while now and do not regret NOT getting anti-sway but do LOVE load levelers
JeffO

Jeff, can you tell us what you mean by "load levelers"? Are we talking air bags/supplemental springs/similar or a weight distribution hitch? To clarify, the air bags or springs do NOT put any more weight on the front wheels. Only a weight distribution hitch does that, using leverage.

 

[arniesea]

Where to live in WA

Yes, Port Townsend is in the rain shadow of the Olympic mountains and our rainfall averages about 19"/year. We are not as windy as Sequim as that town is right off the Juan de Fuca Strait and we are around the corner off Admiralty Inlet. Sequim is a town that houses many box stores whereas Port Townsend is an old historical seaport village that houses no box stores.

PT Townsend is a special place that we visit several time a year. We just celebrated my Sister’s birthday there Dec 29th. She lives on Orcas Island, we live in Bremerton & my brother lives in Seattle. We all meet up in PT to shop and close down “Sirens”. We were also there in September for the film festival.

I love living in Bremerton. Housing is still affordable, it is an hour ferry ride to Seattle, and hour drive to Pt. Townsend, has good restaurants, medical access, theater, arts and easy access to all the nature the NW is famous for. One thing it doesn’t have if you avoid shift changes at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, is traffic.

 

[Patch]

Washington Campgrounds

Hi,
We are the Thomas family and our Escape 19 was just completed, and we will be picking it up around May after we retire in March. We went with several options including the solar package, larger fridge, outdoor shower, A/C, backup cam, and storage box. We also have a fairly new F150 with a 3.5L V6. Kind of overkill on the tow vehicle, but from what we hear that makes it all that much easier. We used to own a Coleman pop-up trailer, so we are looking forward to the big step-up with our Escape!

Since this is our first major towing experience (aside from U-Haul trailer rentals), I was hoping for some advice:
1. Recommendations on a good campground to stay the first night or two that is close to the trailer pick-up site in Washington. We are thinking it will be smart to spend a few days/nights to get used to the camper and get it setup before hitting the road.
2. We did not purchase any hitch/sway-bar options yet. The folks at Escape said we could wait and get that when we arrive or purchase one in advance and bring it with. Any recommendations? Anderson, EAZ Lift, Huskey, others?
3. Any other first-few-days gotta have recommendations?

Also, the following is a kind of off-trailer topic, but since we don't know many folks in the northwest, we thought we would ask. We are looking to move from our current east-coast digs to either Washington or Oregon. Preferably more toward the western half of both states (want to keep the beach within a 2 to 3 hour drive, although the beach itself would be fine too). Are there any Escape owners who reside in either state that can offer recommendations on towns to check out for a new home purchase? (kind of off-trailer topic here, but thought we would ask).

Birch Bay State Park is about 40 miles west of Sumas, WA where you will be picking up your trailer. It has some electrical/water sites but most are primitive. There are also a couple of RV Parks in the same area. (I personally HATE RV Parks so I recommend the State Park.)

 

[cpaharley2008]

Why not attend the rally in Osoyoos, BC after pick up. Reace and Co. will be around to fix anything, but doubtful there will be. See here for info.... http://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f17/2019-escape-trailer-rally-14174.html
Also you mention east coast, but your avatar says you have moved already?

 

[FishBioGirl]

HI Thomas Family!
Our trailers are similar, mine is an older version 19". We are on the east coast now, Maryland, but I moved here from Vancouver Washington. I highly recommend you check out Vancouver, WA. It is less expensive than Portland, access to beaches, mountains, etc. Another great town in Washington is Wenatchee. I lived there for 10 years. It is eastern WA so has the winters, but great outdoor options and less expensive than other areas. It is growing in popularity and is a great place to live.
Best of luck to you!
Kris

 

[calvinc]

Escape 19

Hi,
We are the Thomas family and our Escape 19 was just completed, and we will be picking it up around May after we retire in March. We went with several options including the solar package, larger fridge, outdoor shower, A/C, backup cam, and storage box. We also have a fairly new F150 with a 3.5L V6. Kind of overkill on the tow vehicle, but from what we hear that makes it all that much easier. We used to own a Coleman pop-up trailer, so we are looking forward to the big step-up with our Escape!

Since this is our first major towing experience (aside from U-Haul trailer rentals), I was hoping for some advice:
1. Recommendations on a good campground to stay the first night or two that is close to the trailer pick-up site in Washington. We are thinking it will be smart to spend a few days/nights to get used to the camper and get it setup before hitting the road.
2. We did not purchase any hitch/sway-bar options yet. The folks at Escape said we could wait and get that when we arrive or purchase one in advance and bring it with. Any recommendations? Anderson, EAZ Lift, Huskey, others?
3. Any other first-few-days gotta have recommendations?

Also, the following is a kind of off-trailer topic, but since we don't know many folks in the northwest, we thought we would ask. We are looking to move from our current east-coast digs to either Washington or Oregon. Preferably more toward the western half of both states (want to keep the beach within a 2 to 3 hour drive, although the beach itself would be fine too). Are there any Escape owners who reside in either state that can offer recommendations on towns to check out for a new home purchase? (kind of off-trailer topic here, but thought we would ask).

Congrats on your new Escape 19. We just picked-up ours a week ago. We flew to Spokane WA to pickup our tow truck then drove to Chilliwack. Before the orientation, we stayed at Surestay by Best Western a few buildings away from Escape Industries. It's got nice huge rooms with ample parking spaces. Their breakfast is really good, almost too good for the price we've paid. First night with our trailer we stayed at Lynden KOA and had dinner at a nearby Bob's - great burger place. I got the E2 Weight Distribution with anti-sway and it works really well. I was going through some high winds (close to 50mph) driving around 40mph and we didn't have much sway. At higher speeds we were very steady also. You can get their starter pack which has a lot of supplies you'll need to begin with. I opted for the nicer sewer hose and it's worth it. I suggest you get a sewer hose support holder from Walmart that guides the hose at a steady angle. A spray hose to help clean up the mess and so that you don't touch the clean part of the hose. Maybe even a second collapseable hose just for clean-up. We are very happy with our 19. It's worth all the trouble to get it from Canada.

 

[h2owmn]

Seconding the linden Koa.

Also the escape rally in osoyoos is in late May and is a fantastic opportunity to tour other escapes and get all kinds of good ideas, as well as meeting a whole lot of really nice folks.