I'm new and looking for a 5.0. I have a 2013 F-150 4X4 5.0L and wonder if anyone else is using an F-150.
That may be the most popular choice of tug for the 5.0TA in the last couple of years... although the current fashion in engines seems to be the EcoBoost series. I'm sure the
5.0 Coyote V8 will be fine - it puts out piles of power, about the same as the 6.8 L V10 in my motorhome. The key specification for fifth-wheel Escape towing is generally payload (or GVWR minus curb weight), because the trailer's pin weight is significant; the engine doesn't determine that.
... a Jayco dealer told me that most 5th wheels won't fit my truck because of the depth of the bed. (Of course, he did tell me that Jayco had solved this)
Wow, sales people can be remarkably annoying.
The depth of the bed is not an issue, because most (perhaps all) fifth-wheel hitches can be adjusted to sit at the height you need, and all pin boxes can be adjusted to change the amount of reach down into the box. The real issue is the height of the box sides above the ground, and the solution for any brand of trailer is to adjust the trailer suspension to set the trailer at a suitable height. If most fifth-wheel trailers didn't fit an F-150 there would almost no fifth-wheels sold, because most tugs for fifth-wheel trailers are larger than an F-150 (e.g. F-350), with even taller box sides. Nothing specific to Jayco there, and Escape has accounted for both truck dimensions, with an adjustable pin box and a suspension chosen to be readily changed in height by a few inches.
It is true that over a decade ago the new-at-the-time 2004 F-150 had an unusually high (and deep) box, but that's now ancient history - everyone else's trucks are tall now, too.
