The Escape 19

[Grassland]

The fresh is a translucent tank and I can see clearly it's 2/3 full with liquid
The black tank, when smacked with my palm, sounds like it's full of fluid too
I doubt the truck driver could fill the entire black tank on a drive from BC to MB lol.
Been at it since 10am just taking a break. Still more to go. Wife is off buying some organization type things so we can continue when she gets back.
In the meantime I'll email Escape about the tanks being full.
Am also on the Escape forum. Try to not spend much time on there as it's mostly a bunch of wealthy retirees. One guy is on his fifth Escape or something lol.
As far as the GVWR increase I bet money they would have to upgrade the frame.
I didn't look but they have a 21NE and a 23 trailer now, not sure what GVWR is on those. The 21NE is same layout as the 19 but more cupboards and a bigger dinette. Might have a higher rating.

**Edit** They indeed left all the tanks full of water, presumably after a leak test.

 

[Mekcanix]

Thats a nice looking camper and everything I have read say it will last way longer then mine will. Very cool

 

[Grassland]

I've been absolutely massacred at work. You'd swear Homo sapiens had central air the entire 200,000 years they have existed the way people lose their minds.
This weekend will try to take some underneath pictures. Lots of dangle stuff even with axle lift.

 

[Alloy]

The KV Group that own Escape also own Northern Lite

This will be over $100k

Boreal 27FB Travel Trailer | Northern Lite 4-Season Truck Campers

Boreal 27 FB 4-Season Fiberglass Travel Trailer Your home on the road, wherever adventure may take you. Built For 4-Season Family Adventure Adventure no longer means roughing it. The Boreal is a 4-season travel trailer designed to keep your family dry in a torrential downpour on the Oregon...

northern-lite.com

 

[TGK]

The KV Group that own Escape also own Northern Lite

This will be over $100k

Boreal 27FB Travel Trailer | Northern Lite 4-Season Truck Campers

Boreal 27 FB 4-Season Fiberglass Travel Trailer Your home on the road, wherever adventure may take you. Built For 4-Season Family Adventure Adventure no longer means roughing it. The Boreal is a 4-season travel trailer designed to keep your family dry in a torrential downpour on the Oregon...

northern-lite.com

Interesting. Now, if they'd only make something smaller, say 23 fr total with tongue, or less.

 

[calicamper]

Interesting. Now, if they'd only make something smaller, say 23 fr total with tongue, or less.

I bet its $130,000?

 

[Grassland]

Interesting. Now, if they'd only make something smaller, say 23 fr total with tongue, or less.

That's pretty big, and way more than my truck could handle.
Bigfoot units I think we're all 8' wide as well and they had higher curb weights.
Now if I was running a 17+ super duty...



I need to find a way to compress images as my camera on my phone takes images far too large to upload here.

The shakedown trip was good. 35° C daytime highs. We even had some heavy rain and thunderstorms. The fridge works well on propane with DC for the fan when it got hot enough. Running the max fan on low for six hours and batteries were topped up early in the morning with the flat mounted roof panel. Will want a portable for longer trips.
The unit tows nicely, quite stable. I noticed the 30-40km headwind on the way home, had to rev the truck to 3k in many places to keep 100kph.
Would really like to have select shift so I could lock out OD, will look into adding that.
Computer said 20 liters per 100 but I haven't filled up and hand calculated yet.

 

[TGK]

That's pretty big, and way more than my truck could handle.
Bigfoot units I think we're all 8' wide as well and they had higher curb weights.
Now if I was running a 17+ super duty...



I need to find a way to compress images as my camera on my phone takes images far too large to upload here.

The shakedown trip was good. 35° C daytime highs. We even had some heavy rain and thunderstorms. The fridge works well on propane with DC for the fan when it got hot enough. Running the max fan on low for six hours and batteries were topped up early in the morning with the flat mounted roof panel. Will want a portable for longer trips.
The unit tows nicely, quite stable. I noticed the 30-40km headwind on the way home, had to rev the truck to 3k in many places to keep 100kph.
Would really like to have select shift so I could lock out OD, will look into adding that.
Computer said 20 liters per 100 but I haven't filled up and hand calculated yet.

Good point regarding weight. Fiberglass trailers always weigh more per foot of length. My current trailer is 23ft, a 50 year old Airstream. Dry/Gross weight is 3,800/5,200, which my F150 with 3.5L Ecoboost handles without any problem. No interest in going longer or heavier though. I could live with something smaller if laid out correctly from my perspective.

 

[calicamper]

I race sail boats and have been around the design and building of modern competitive composite boats.

All the Fiber glass RV stuff is chopper gun spray in stuff. Which is basically not a engineered composite structure. From a generic comparison aspect a “engineered” composite structure shares a very similar rudimentary weight comparison as the same structure engineered in Aluminum. So that sort of gives you a frame of reference in material weights in engineered materials. For instance the trend in using the composite panels to build some cool stuff, truck campers and trailers etc. Those panels are “engineered” composite structures given they have a core material and a layup combination to create a light strong panel etc.?

The typical Fiberglass RV is just a fiberglass chopper gun sprayed into a mold occasionally they have wood stringers or they might run a foam board with another layer of glass tossed over it to create a very rudimentary engineered structure to add strength in a spot etc. But most of those are pretty much just chopper gun material sprayed into a mold. So full circle YES!! Weight can be interesting when you compare say a similar sized Airstream which is more or less a engineered metal skinned vs the Chopper gun non engineered glass trailer?

 

[Grassland]

A full engineered composite structure also comes at a cost beyond what most RVrs are willing to pay.
Look at how substandard the average camper is built. They aren't worth what they are going for, but it's the top of the price point palatable for most.
I'd have liked a sandwich panel like what Total Composite sells in a 7x14 sized trailer, especially due to the insulation value it offers, but there was no options available and ballpark costs to have one built were far higher than I could pay.

 

[20DYNAMITE07]

All of the Escape trailers are awesome, I'm sure you'll love yours and it will last for decades.

 

[Grassland]

So you can see the tank sensor leads and hose/drain spigot are quite exposed here. As well the tank drains

 

[Todd780]

So you can see the tank sensor leads and hose/drain spigot are quite exposed here. As well the tank drains

Yeah, our tank drains hang down low too. I think it's pretty typical of RV's.

 

[Alloy]

The dump valve is typical but not the FW tank. Our valves were similar so pulled the tanks and re-plumbed everything. We have 18" of ground clearance and I added a valve at the end as a saftey and so grey water can be gravity fed into the black tank. Like one of these.

https://www.etrailer.com/RV-Plumbing/Valterra/T58.html

What I see with the FW tank.
-The wire and connector are not tinned and no corrosion protection on the terminals.
- Off road the valve will be hit or knocked off then you show up at the capsite site with no water.
- A tank/hose exposed to daylight will start growing stuff much faster when untreated water is left in it.
- I hate that cheap PVC hose but those plastic fittings are really tough so it should be OK if hit.... it needs two hose clamps with the screws rotate to the top

 

[Grassland]

I'll re route the wiring and the hose clamp(s) at end of season.
So far after several dozen kms of washboard gravel road with ruts and potholes we arrived at our campsite with only some items on the floor. One upper cupboard door opened and then closed itself, it was shut tight but some of the items were on the floor.
So some better method of securing the doors is in order. Fridge stayed shut but things really moved around in there. So far stock solar keeping up but we don't use tons of power.