Is my Ford Escape worthless for fullfilling my dream? :-(

[GaiaGoddess]

I've had this dream to live in an RV (travel trailer, specifically) for about 5 or 6 years now. I was drawn to the Ford Escape and was happy to learn they can tow up to 3500 pounds. I bought one last year. Step one complete!

Now i've run into a problem...people are telling me my Escape shouldn't tow that much, it's not safe. I heard horror stories about Escapes not being able to handle it. They recommend I stick to 2000 pounds or less, but what trailers weigh that little?! I want to live in this thing which means it needs to be self sustainable, with a full kitchen, bathroom, and at least a full size bed. All the trailers I found with that stuff are at least 3000 pounds. And then you have to figure the weight of the fluids and cargo, which would be a lot since i'd be living in it. I cannot live in a pop up camper or a teardrop camper.

Are there any decent trailers I can safely tow? Is my Escape worthless for what I wanted to do with it? I bought it specifically for this reason! By the way, it's a 2008 6-cylinder automatic transmission, front wheel drive. There is no towing package on it yet but I was planning on having one put on, IF I can even find a trailer I can tow! Any advice?

[Road_Ruler]

Bumpyroad wrote:
didn't somebody post that your trailer would have to be 30 sq ft of frontal area? if so that is 5 x 6 ft. or non-existant.
bumpy

They do exist. We just need GG to start looking at the right trailers!:)

[GaiaGoddess]

wnjj wrote:

Many models in this .PDF too: http://www.apachecamping.com/images/folding-trailers/flagstaff/flagstaff.pdf

:E How in the world does that work?! So the shower collapses down with the rest of the trailer?! I can't even figure out how that would work.

Another minus to the pop ups though, you can't live in them year round, can you? I couldn't imagine it being safe and warm in there in -40 cold and blowing snow.

[Bumpyroad]

didn't somebody post that your trailer would have to be 30 sq ft of frontal area? if so that is 5 x 6 ft. or non-existant.
bumpy

[Fordlover]

GaiaGoddess wrote:

I've seen Rangers towing things, but my main concert was the stick shift, way too jerky for needing to be careful towing something.

Nothing wrong with towing with a standard transmission. If you are 'way too jerky while towing', then your doing it wrong.

The trick is to not rev the engine too high, and to get off the clutch as quickly and smoothly as you can. This will avoid wearing your clutch disk prematurely.

[wnjj]

GaiaGoddess wrote:

wnjj wrote:

GaiaGoddess wrote:
but i've never seen a pop up with a bathroom and I dont want an outside shower

The larger pop ups have bathrooms and even showers inside.

Really!? Do you know which models? I have looked into those and never saw much variation, they were all pretty much the same.

The bottom 3 here for example.

Many models in this .PDF too: http://www.apachecamping.com/images/folding-trailers/flagstaff/flagstaff.pdf

[GaiaGoddess]

Lantley wrote:

I hope those who claim you can do it are with you along the side of the road or at a far away mechanic shop in the middle of nowhere with you and your Escape.
Your dream can be achieved but there are far better options than attempting to cross country tow with an Escape.
Unfortunately you are reluctant to listen to much of the advice given and will only figure how the Escape is a poor choice the hard way.
Sometimes we learn are best lessons at the school of hard knocks.

I dont know how you can say i'm reluctant to listen to advice when I have already said I won't tow a travel trailer with my Escape, only a teardrop or Scamp, and as you probably saw one person suggested the Lance 1274, which I think would be risky but i'll continue doing more research on this.

I'm curious has anyone told you they are cross country towing with an Escape?
Sure you may tow something small locally with your Escape but to tow cross country is simply pushing your luck and your limits.

I only know one person (in real life) who tows a trailer and he said I could easily tow with my Escape, but nobody in here has said I could unless I go smaller than what I wanted. But I solved my issue, if you saw my recent post from yesterday about getting a Vibe just to have someone tow it to a permanent spot for me.

[popupcamping]

WoodGlue wrote:
G-Gal,

Why not expolore the Lance 1274. It's is large enough to tow with your current truck (this RV was made for smaller trucks)


It's got a nice dry bath and you can have your stove, TV and ducted heat w/ A/C. It weighs in between:
Overall Length 16'10

Dry Weight 2200 Lbs.

Hitch Dry Weight 205 Lbs.

CCC 1300 Lbs.

GVWR 3500 Lbs.

Floor Length 12'9"

Sleeps up to 4


WoodGlue

her Escape has a 350lb TW limit. This thing loaded up is going to be a lot more than that. It is TW heavy. Close to 500lbs I bet

[GaiaGoddess]

WoodGlue wrote:
G-Gal,

Why not expolore the Lance 1274. It's is large enough to tow with your current truck (this RV was made for smaller trucks)



It's got a nice dry bath and you can have your stove, TV and ducted heat w/ A/C. It weighs in between:
Overall Length 16'10

Dry Weight 2200 Lbs.

Hitch Dry Weight 205 Lbs.

CCC 1300 Lbs.

GVWR 3500 Lbs.

Floor Length 12'9"

Sleeps up to 4




WoodGlue

Yeah that one was nice, that's one of my options. I'm worried about the dry weight being 2200, after adding everything wouldn't it surely go past 3000? Everyone's got me paranoid now that I should only tow a teardrop! lol But yes this is a really nice one that I'll keep on the list for considering!

[Lantley]

GaiaGoddess wrote:

Lantley wrote:

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:
12 pages on " Is my Ford Escape worthless for fullfilling my dream? 😞 " OMG

We have all been too politically correct to say "Yes your escape is worthless for fulfilling your dream".:@
Instead we indulged the OP in a drawn out discussion,trying to enlighten and inform her as to how she should proceed:S

Not exactly...not everyone in here thinks it's impossible.

I hope those who claim you can do it are with you along the side of the road or at a far away mechanic shop in the middle of nowhere with you and your Escape.
Your dream can be achieved but there are far better options than attempting to cross country tow with an Escape.
Unfortunately you are reluctant to listen to much of the advice given and will only figure how the Escape is a poor choice the hard way.
Sometimes we learn are best lessons at the school of hard knocks.

I'm curious has anyone told you they are cross country towing with an Escape?
Sure you may tow something small locally with your Escape but to tow cross country is simply pushing your luck and your limits.

[WoodGlue]

G-Gal,

Why not expolore the Lance 1274. It's is large enough to tow with your current truck (this RV was made for smaller trucks)



It's got a nice dry bath and you can have your stove, TV and ducted heat w/ A/C. It weighs in between:
Overall Length 16'10

Dry Weight 2200 Lbs.

Hitch Dry Weight 205 Lbs.

CCC 1300 Lbs.

GVWR 3500 Lbs.

Floor Length 12'9"

Sleeps up to 4




WoodGlue

[GaiaGoddess]

Lantley wrote:

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:
12 pages on " Is my Ford Escape worthless for fullfilling my dream? 😞 " OMG

We have all been too politically correct to say "Yes your escape is worthless for fulfilling your dream".:@
Instead we indulged the OP in a drawn out discussion,trying to enlighten and inform her as to how she should proceed:S

Not exactly...not everyone in here thinks it's impossible.

[GaiaGoddess]

bikendan wrote:

WoodGlue wrote:
And congrats on finding the .1% of the Truck Camper without a bathroom!

Almost every Truck Camper mfg today offers at least a wet bath.

WoodGlue

x2!! if you were only looking at truck campers for a Ranger, then no wonder you only found Tc's with no bathroom!:R any TC that would work with the Ranger, would probably be less than 5% of all truck campers.
by the way, i owned a Ranger and would never put a TC in the back of it.

here's 8 different TC floorplans from Arctic Fox, all with bathrooms.
Arctic Fox truck campers

but they are made for real trucks, not grocery getters like the Ranger.

Actually I never looked for any FOR the Ranger specifically, I just looked at them for the heck of it pretty much, since I already decided I didnt want to have a manual for something like this. Besides, my Ranger was a '96 so it was almost 20 years old and I wanted something newer with less miles on it since I knew I'd be doing a lot of driving with it.

[GaiaGoddess]

Bumpyroad wrote:

WoodGlue wrote:
T@B's have models w/ wet baths, as well as R-Pods and Casita's, etc.

WoodGlue

I'll take your word for it on T@bs having a wet bath but the only "facility" I have seen in one is a port-a-pot.
bumpy

The S model has a bath, it's the only one though so that will make it harder to find one.

http://tab-rv.com/floorplans/

[GaiaGoddess]

Bumpyroad wrote:
make it a condition of the purchase of the Vibe that the dealer tows it the 2 miles to the campground. don't fool around with towing it yourself.
bumpy

No I wouldn't attempt it myself. The nearest RV dealer is 25 minutes from me though and after that some are 2 hours away, so it would be a long haul, IF any of those dealers had any there. When I looked for them on Rvtrader. com, I only found like 2 in the whole country so it's likely I'd need to have it delivered pretty far.

[GaiaGoddess]

wnjj wrote:

GaiaGoddess wrote:
but i've never seen a pop up with a bathroom and I dont want an outside shower

The larger pop ups have bathrooms and even showers inside.

Really!? Do you know which models? I have looked into those and never saw much variation, they were all pretty much the same.