Sean Murry
Senior Member
My wife and I are new to trailers as well, coming from many years of tenting. We are very involved in hiking and long distance cycling. We chose the 19 for the permanent queen bed and the 4 person dinette. It was between the 17B and the 19, but the bed and the dinette made our decision easy. I also liked the dual axles.My wife and I are uninitiated to towing and trailers. We are very much into outdoors and have been tent camping for a long time - and planning a move up to a trailer.
Our intended use is driving to the national parks and national forests (mostly Western US, Canadian rockies, Alaska) - not really boondocking (possibility) but heavier usage of non-commercial national park or national forest service campgrounds with limited or hookups.
Decisions:
- Started by thinking of 17 ft but now thinking of Escape 19 - with a slim possibility of considering 21. Could use ideas. Our situation: No dog, no children, coming from tent camping - so don't travel with the kitchen sink.
- Being completely uneducated in the trailers and towing, quite unclear about the decisions on the options that seem to be part of the buying process. And, we barely understand what they mean..
- Will be buying a tow vehicle. Original thought was coming Ford Bronco but that might be too light for Escape 19. So, thinking F150 but not firm on that. Could use indicators on that.
Heard that the lead times can be as long as a year, so might proceed to buying soon - provided we can make a head or tail of the options we need to decide on![]()
I find the 19 easy to tow, and the dual axles are forgiving when backing up. We tow with a GMC Canyon V-6 gas and the tow vehicle is very capable. When not towing we prefer the smaller size of the Canyon vs a full size truck. For Vancouver a smaller vehicle is just that much easier to drive around, at least for us. For me a pick up works better vs a SUV as we like to carry a small BBQ with its own propane tank. I don't like carrying propane in a closed vehicle, so the pick up bed works well for that as well as other dirty items like mats and lawn chairs. We just have a folding tonneau cover, but still have lots of room.
I also switched to Lithium batteries. I bought 4 x 100A, and I think it is now over kill. We did switch the fridge from a propane fridge to a 9 cu ft 12V compressor fridge/freezer, which is very energy efficient. But to be on the safe side I dropped in 4x100A Lithium. On a recent 9 day trip, my batteries never got below 96% (we have a battery monitor with a shunt to measure accurately) We have the solar panel and even on cloudy days it keeps the batteries powered up.