First RV - needing some sound advice please

A pop up limits you to fair weather camping. There are some light weight small hard side options (GVWR 3500lb for a small Casita or Scamp for example) as some have mentioned if you are careful about loading you could stay within your limits. Fiberglass rV's for sale link

OR You might also think about waiting to get into towing an RV and look at some of the nicer base camp tents w/a small utility trailer to pull the extra gear. Base Camp family tent note the floor and frame are sold separately so it is a $800 tent.

Lots of very happy campers towing Casita/Burro/Scamp trailers with small SUV's. The drawback to the hard side trailer is the much greater air drag when pulling them down the highway and the drag increases with the square of your speed.

At 65 MPH with a 15 MPH headwind the air drag and load on the car is going to be double that of towing at 55 MPH and no headwind. If the trailer load is already at 75% of the vehicle's towing capacity this can be a problem.

The popups cost more but can provide a lot more storage space for gear with the designs that have a platform behind the tongue. The downside is that they are not as good for cold weather use and you have to be sure to let them air out completely before collapsing and storing or mildew can grow and the cost to fix this is very very high.

Having towed both popups and "lite" TTs with marginal (but larger than yours) tow vehicles, I think that for anything but the tiniest popup you should have a higher-capacity tow vehicle, at least the next larger size vehicle with a 5000-lb or higher capacity.

alangolding25 wrote:
based on the above first and foremost I need to possibly change my hitch to make sure the rating is more that the hitch rating is more than what I plan to tow, or have it equal to what the max towing rate is.

The hitch rating is the amount of weight the receiver is rated to carry, not pull. Yours is 500 lbs.

A 3500 lb trailer (your max tow capacity) would have less than 500 lbs tongue weight. That fits within your existing hitch rating. A higher rated hitch, would only make the hitch (just the hitch) capable of carrying more weight, which would speed up excceding payload and GVWR. It woud not improve on pulling anything.

You only have 3500 lb max tow capacity, "when" you are alone in the vehicle, you have no cargo, and if you only weigh 150 lbs. Any other weight in, or on the vehicle, you no longer have 3500 lb tow capacity.
We already know, you have occupant / cargo weight that does that.

The interaction your hitch has with other ratings are, when you hitch up the trailer, the tongue weight is pushing down on the receiver, this is where the 500 lb hitch rating is invoved. That tongue weight is also taking up payload capacity, and pushing you closer to going over on GVWR, GCVWR, and axle ratings.

Your owners manual will tell you "Your max tow capacity, is limited to the weakest link in the vehicle's ratings". Your weakest link is payload. There are no upgrades or changes you can make, to change that.

If you decide to tow with the Escape you probably want a Prodigy P-3 controller. That unit lets you set a bias as the trailer brakes come on so the trailer is neither "pushing" nor "dragging" the tow vehicle as you apply brakes. You may not understand exactly what this means until after you start towing, but it is important; particularly with a TV as light as an Escape.

All that said, I cant see anything as light and short wheelbase as the Escape as a really satisfactory tow vehicle. But then, the truck in my signature is a one ton diesel long bed.

Wiring a brake controller takes about the electrical skill level of installing a bedroom ceiling fan so that the fan is chain controlled, but the light is operated from the wall switch. If you can handle that, you can wire a brake controller. If not, have an RV dealer do it for you (or better yet, a rural trailer shop).

I bought mine a number of years ago, but back then the Tekonsha Prodigy was the cat's meow of brake controllers. Was around $100 if you bought online. Not sure what current prices or model names are.

The Escape will tow fine if you comprehend and respect its limits. We have 210,000 miles on our 03 Honda Odyssey that towed probably 15% of those miles near GCVWR. And it is still 100% original powertrain. You can handle a 10 foot popup, maybe a 12 foot low wall, no slide. More than that will be no fun to tow. It's vacation, don't make it an ordeal!

Hi,

I had a friend who tried to tow with a Ford Escape. One trip was all it took to destroy the transmission. She was towing at 50 mph on level ground.

I'd suggest a light weight pop up.

based on the above first and foremost I need to possibly change my hitch to make sure the rating is more that the hitch rating is more than what I plan to tow, or have it equal to what the max towing rate is.

thanks handye9 that is very helpful and easy to understand
couple of things there to take into consideration for sure

alangolding25 wrote:
So I did know that the max towing capacity is 3500pounds. However to me that means what ever I am towing cannot exceed 3500 (excluding the weight of the car)
Is that right?
Or is the 3500 max towing capacity including the car weight itself.

What ever you are towing (trailer weight only) should not exceed 3500 lbs, minus the weight of people, pets, tongue weight, and cargo in the Escape. Maybe, that's 2500, maybe that's 3000, only you can calculate that.

Your Escape has multiple ratings that are all interralated:

Hitch rating -- Max weight the hitch is rated to carry. Your is probably 500 lbs. If you hang 500 lbs here, it takes 500 lbs away from max tow capacity, and also takes 500 lbs away from availabe payload.

Max tow rating --- Max weight the vehicle is rated to tow (what it can pull). It can't pull this and carry more than 150 lbs of people and cargo at the same time.

Payload --- Max weight capacity for people, pets, cargo, and trailer tongue weight (what it can carry). It's the difference between actual weight and GVWR. It can't carry more than 150 lbs of this and pull it's max tow weight, at the same time. Adding pounds here, takes pounds away from max tow capacity.

GVWR -- Max weight rating for the Escape. (includes everything and everybody in, or on the Escape)

GCVWR -- Max combined weight of Escape and trailer (includes everything and everybody inside both). This should be in your owners manual.


Look at the door post (inside drivers door). Should be a sticker that shows your GVWR, tire loading, and payload.