Escape 17- with or without Bath...

[Robert and Laura]

Escape 17' with or without bathroom? Can we get anyone's opinion on this? At first, we looked at Casita's on and off for a year. Went to see a few different layouts. Thourght we wanted A Casita 17 until we recently looked at an Escape 17. Fell in love with it (large window on both ends of the trailer) except the model we looked at had no bathroom. Because of the layout, lots of room because there's no bathroom, we really thought we could live with a porta potty. The more we think about it, the more we think there is definitely an advantage to having a small private area to wash up and have a toilet! We haven't yet seen an Escape with a bathroom. Not sure how much space we would lose. Is it a big difference in the size of the bed and the size of the dinnette? Looked at photos and measurements and the bed only seems to be 3" less. Any thoughts re: porta toilet vs. bathroom?

[cpaharley2008]

I think the front becomes a single bed/guacho option dinette with the bathroom. Would not have a camper without a bathroom, a lot of cg's leave a lot to be desired in that area. Plus there is a little sink so you do not need to shave/brush teeth in kitchen.

[honda03842]

I would agree the front window makes a big difference in the preceived size of the trailer, providing a real openness. As well I think it's nice to have a bathroom, principally for the toilet function. I personally have no problem with brushing my teeth and shaving in the kitchen, actually think Ginny likes to see me shave.

[floyd]

Originally Posted by honda03842

I would agree the front window makes a big difference in the preceived size of the trailer, providing a real openness. As well I think it's nice to have a bathroom, principally for the toilet function. I personally have no problem with brushing my teeth and shaving in the kitchen, actually think Ginny likes to see me shave.

Looking at your picture,it looks like you don't really shave that often!
(at least not your face)

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Robert and Laura

Escape 17' with or without bathroom? Can we get anyone's opinion on this?

Bathroom for me is a must. Having the bathroom/shower feature is a must if you want to have lots of flexibility in regards to where you camp. Some of the most wonderful campsites I have stayed at have no bathroom or shower facilities.

I suspect as far as resell value goes you will also find more people looking for a trailer bigger than 13' are doing so as they want a bathroom/shower than not.

[cpaharley2008]

thread moved

[Jon Vermilye]

One of the main reasons for moving from tent camping to a trailer is for the bathroom. While I do often stay in parks that have bathrooms, it is wonderful to avoid a walk in the dark in the middle of the night! As others have said, it also gives you more options in site choices.

[steve dunham]

The first time you have to get up in the middle of the night ,get dressed and walk to the restroom in the dark and it's pouring rain you'll have your answer

[GPJ]

Agree fully with Jon, Steve and others - bathroom is a must. Additionally, even if you never have to use it as a bathroom proper, it is a great place to store wet rain coats, muddy boots, wet mops and other items till they dry out. Sort of a mud room if you will.

[Cam A]

Having the bathroom in the Escape 17 definitely cuts down on the openess of the trailer. A portipotti solves 85% of bathroom issues. Whether or not having a dedicated bathroom for the portipotti/privacy is worth the reduction in openess will depend on how you personally use the trailer. If in doubt, the bathroom plan likely has a quicker resale value.

[Raz]

We have a 13' trailer. No bath. We have a porta potti which works fine. I'd rather have a permanent bed, dinette, and lots of windows. The more that open, the better. I like the convenience of not having tanks that require a dump station. In addition the weight of the bathroom and tanks increases the gas costs as well as tow vehicle costs. Gas prices are not going down and we are just starting to explore. Raz

p.s. I occurs to me if you choose the no bath option and there are just two of you, the Escape 15' has a bigger bed than the 17'.

[Anne H]

I love having the bathroom option in my Escape. I considered a porto-potty - but having the privacy of a bathroom is great.

Also, as mentioned, it's a great place to store wet jackets and, in my case, long kite bags.

I think the biggest difference in space is that the front dinette turns into a single bed instead of a double. You still have windows on both ends and side windows all around - one of my favorite things about the Escape is all the windows.

[Donna D.]

There's an old adage "you can't miss what you've never had." Let me tell you... now that I've owned an all molded towable with a "flushy" AND a shower... I'd NEVER own a towable without both. If you would have asked me before I had both... I KNOW my answer would be different. SO, what do YOU need/want?

[GPJ]

If you are interested in looking at 15 footers too (as per Raz's suggestion), you might also want to look at a Trillium 4500 which is now made in California (trilliumrv.com). The Escape 15 is based on the Trillium 4500. The major difference is that the Escape uses more wood in the interior, while the Trillium uses more fiberglass in the interior. Depends on the "look" you desire. Both are great trailers and very similar as their origins would suggest.

[HappyFamily]

When we were considering the Escape 17 (before having the 19 practically fall into our laps) we were definitely looking at Plan B with the bathroom. We've trailer camped for a decade now and have had porta-potties and bathrooms and like someone else posted, there's (almost) no going back. Our first little pop-up did have a privacy curtain for one bed that included a small dressing area, so there was some privacy, but our next pop-up didn't have that kind of set-up. We had a port-potti out in a Paha Que outhouse tent but even then I didn't like going out at night. When we finally got a pop-up with a hardside bathroom we realized how nice it is to have full privacy and also how nice it is to shower in our own rig. Shopping for our egg we tried to imagine just having a port-potti but we knew long term that we wanted the bathroom.

[DannyH]

In our 13 foot scamp we had to decide between a permanent bed and dining room table, or having a bathroom and a bed we take up and down everyday. We went with a port-a potti. Our main issue with the tent was late night runs, with the p-a-p we set it up in front of the door at night and it's very convenient. We also found that the dim green light from our Propane detector acts as a night light to hit your mark, so no bright light is needed. Now, if I had restored a 16 footer, I think we would have a small bathroom.

[Noreen Bradshaw]

I recently bought one of those 'outhouse' tents......takes about 5 min. to put up. I set it up just outside the awning at the back of the camper. My first trip with it, I had invited a friend to go with me. We both thought the convenience was great. We are both seniors and value the luxury of privacy. I also used it to sponge bath and dress, allowing my friend to wash and dress in the camper. Worked out great for us.

I prefer this arrangements to having to deal with grey and black water tanks.

[Carol H]

I have noticed that anytime a used 17' Escape without a bathroom is put up for sale - which is not often as I suspect there are not a lot out there without a bathroom, one of the first questions that potential purchasers ask is "can a toilet & shower be added?" Have also noted that without the bathroom they seem to sit on the market longer. As such I suspect that a lack of bathroom is a *big* factor in resale value if that is of concern to the OP.

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by Noreen Bradshaw

I prefer this arrangements to having to deal with grey and black water tanks.

This is very much "different strokes for different folks." One of my favorite adages is "you can never miss, what you've never had." This definitely applies to me. I've been a car camper, backpacker and tenter. What I've never had is a porta-potty. But I don't find hooking up a hose from a valve to a sewer system... to be smelly or problematic. I don't "see" anything or smell anything foul.. I use chemicals. I also don't put solids down in the black water tank and the gray water just contains dish water and toothpaste spit. However, the idea of hauling a porta-potty to the John and dumping it.... makes me quesy.

YMMV

[kootenaigirl]

We had a Scamp 16 with flush toilet, no shower. We were previously tent campers so the toilet just seemed strange! Everywhere we camp has some kind of toilet and even the pit ones are usually clean so for us it seemed an unnecessary weight to carry around. Also we mainly camp on weekends so for the odd middle of the night use it just seemed a pain to have to add more water, dump, add chemicals etc for a one time use.
As people say certainly for resale a bathroom is good and also maybe if we were camping for longer periods we may have used it, who knows as we down sized to a 13 foot with no toilet!