Fiberglass travel trailer experiences? (Casita, Scamp, Escape, and others)

[zuren]

I would be interested in hearing anyone's experiences with the molded, fiberglass, lightweight travel trailers. Name brands include:

- Casita
- Scamp/Boler
- Escape
- ParkLiner
- Trillium
- Egg Camper
- Oliver
- misc. others

I'm mostly interested in the 15-17' sizes that can sleep 4. I want to keep the size and weight down. A vehicle like a Sportsmobile 4x4 van with a penthouse would be the ultimate but it is going to be a LONG time before that is in the budget. So I'm just interested to receive thoughts about the small/mid size travel trailers.

Our adventures are never solely camping. We are usually fishing, hunting, hiking, canoeing, mtn. biking, etc. so we always have extra gear that quickly fills the vehicle. My van (with double bed) works well for 2 adults, albeit being tight. Now that we have a young son, I will have to reconfigure a few things for it to work for 3. The past 2 years I've taken my van to a friend's place to hunt where I sleep in the van; temps. vary between the teens to 40 at night. They have a bedroom that is a "bunk house" but one guy has a CPAP machine, the other guy snores, the snoring guy's boys giggle and poke each other all night, and there are two dogs that are nice but always in my business; I choose the quieter option. The van is tight with me and all of my gear and is difficult to heat. I keep thinking how nice it would be to have a little camper that would be snug to sleep 4, would be very spacious for 1-2 with gear, is always ready to go, can be dropped at a location, and requires no setup. It would additionally serve as a guest bedroom if we needed it. My parents have started taking trips to some remote Canadian lakes to fish and I would like to take the family along. Fire roads and gravel roads are about as extreme as it would ever see. On these fishing trips, temps. can swing into the 30s at night so while my 6-man dome tent might work with a Buddy Heater, a heated, quiet, hard sided structure would be nice.

So please let me know if you have anything good or bad to say about the brands or fiberglass designs in general. I'm hoping to have a plan for the summer of 2017.

Thanks!

 

[skersfan]

I would message Ace Brown, he had a Cassita he lived out of basically for a few years. Not the greatest off road trailer, but he drug it into some tough places.

 

[armymgdude]

We are going to fulltime in this next year. It is very well built compared to stick built trailers. I have the factory hilift axle with 3 inch blocks for a lift. 235 75 15 tires fit easily, and I have shocks too. It happily travels dirt roads, and is the same width as the truck so it has been in some tight spots. Ground clearance is as good as my 2012 ram 1500 with 2 in lift, but not as good as my power wagon. The only low spot is the dump valves for the black and gray tanks. Not an offroad trailer for sure, but it works great.

 

[nmatcek]

Very interested to see these replies as well.

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk

 

[wvtradbow]

I have an old Scamp I redid an its great for a small molded camper but I had a UHaul that I sold a couple years ago (one of my biggest regrets).The Scamp is 13' light weight easy to tow and comfortable for 1 or 2 people,the UHaul was 13' also but heavier and well built same set up inside but I had to have light weight at the time..This form is great for those type of trailers..http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/ I'm don't think they're great off road trailers because (I think) they can be a little top heavy

 

[56farmerjohn]

Fiberglass travel trailer experiences?

I have 17' Escape (17A) I t would be plenty big for Two adults and a small child... Escapes are made in Canada and might be a little more weatherly than the USA counterparts.... Escape will customize your trailer in numerous ways , while the others will not.. I paid 22,500 (Cad) or 25,500 (USA$$)... I believe Escape is the best of the lower priced trailers.. Ace Brown had a 17A Escape , that I almost bought, when it was for sale. His was heavily modified with a lift , larger tires etc.. Escape trailer industries is located in Chilliwak,B.C., it is a family run operation . The trailers have a one year waiting list,so if you put in your order today, you would be looking at a 2017 delivery date....

 

[outback97]

I'm also interested in learning more about ownership experiences with this style of trailer. At 6'4" I would love to hear about any that are taller than average. It seems like the published interior heights are sometimes optimistic and aren't always real world numbers.

 

[Accrete]

I'm also interested in learning more about ownership experiences with this style of trailer. At 6'4" I would love to hear...

~summer of 2014~ Accrete's Chevy AWD pulling Parkliner #35:

Greetings,
I'm sharing this bit as it makes sense in context. I have chatted a few times with zuren on the experiences my wife and I had with our little fiberglass trailer. . .
There is a company by the name of Parkliner that zuren mentioned in his OP. They had suspended operations for about a year but are now back in biz, better than before from what I hear.
My wife and I had hull #35 delivered in April of 2013 and we sold it fall of 2015. During our time with PL35 the rig out-performed all our hopes. It is a great build. The real world numbers are this one does have 6'4" of true interior headroom, one of the best on the market for a 15' fiberglass trailer. I do have a full build thread at this link for any who wish to dig. I will share a few images with captions below. Feel free to ask any questions here, there (at my build) or in PM. Always happy to help a fellow traveler.

OK, so first, and I get this a lot; "Why did you sell it?"

Well... when you want get as far up a forestry trail as possible in your tow vehicle:

Sometimes you just got to leave something back in a camp. And after ~2 seasons of leaving the PL down in a forestry camp while we headed up into the hills to find yet another camp with van-alone... we decided the trailer was cramping our style. It was basically used as an entertainment/lounge area. Oh, and the occasional shower, though we can do that with the van too.

Now if you happen upon a fiberglass trailer event (check out Fiberglassrv.com forums for events in your area), you will have many owners happy to show you their rigs from nearly all the brands listed in the OP. What I can tell you from personal experience from participating in several gatherings is that even though each of the listed brands are loved by their owners, the Parkliner gets consistent Oh My Gosh! kind of responses from owners of all brands. The PL is a wonderful fourth-dimensional kind of thingy inside. Without exception, when owners of other rigs stepped inside they were dumbfounded as to how in the design-world PL pulled off such an expansive feel to the interior. It's that nice. Here are a few teasers from the build thread (remember I've got nothing to gain by any of this as we are no longer PL owners.)

Interior looking toward rear. Set in "U-conversational lounge".

It can be set into a table for two or four full size adults. OR a nice queen size bed.

Interior looking forward on street side. Set in table for two.

This area can be made into a single bed or an optional bunk bed.

Interior looking at Galley area on curb side forward of rear seating.

Interior looking forward to shower/head area with closet toward door on curb side:

So would I do it all again with a Parkliner? Absolutely if we were going to go camping in developed areas and not have the wanderlust lust in us! Oh, one last tid bit I hear rumors of out of the PL plant, the new ownership is open to doing factory mods/lifts on the axle for those desiring a more capable easy-off-road trailer. Something we could not really do with our pavement luving PL35.

: ) Thom

 

[Silverhorse]

I like these options as well. how about offroad durability?

 

[jacobconroy]

Just for reference, we have a 13 foot Scamp. It is a pretty little thing, but for the most part, it will only go where a Subaru Outback will go. I usually find that the last 100 feet into popular camping sites results in a very real fear of gutting the camper on bumps in the road. We previously had a 16 foot Scamp....and it had much more clearance than the 13. Larger brakes too.

I think the brother-in-law is going to help me create a 3 inch block lift for the Scamp 13 this winter. Won't win any under the axle, but the goal is to get the plumbing up out of the mud. Increasing the "ditch angle" clearance will be a big help too. I also have an AT Chaser on the Jeep. It will go pretty much anywhere the Jeep will go, but it has a Canvas tent on it. I'm not crazy about sleeping in a tent.

Ultimately, (maybe next year), I think that an off-road hard-shall like Moby or AT is what I will end up with. No cushy bathroom though. A nice 4WD Van would be the bees-knees. But they are big $.

 

[yfarm]

I have a Casita 17, switched axle to leaf spring 5k added shocks and gained about 6 inches of lift with 225 15 tires, have room to go to 32 inch tire. Tows straight and smooth with no WDH. Perfect dirt or gravel road trailer for 2-3 people. Air conditioner furnace and shower. What more do you need?