Before we got our 21' we had a chance to step into a 17.5. We were really impressed with the quality of materials used and just how solidly built it was. Stepping inside it was not the length difference we noticed, it was the width coupled with the less rounded roof, that makes the whole space just feel so open and more like a large room than a hallway. While at the same time they managed to pack a ton of storage into such a small space. The 21' has the same open space feeling, it is great to be able to move around each other and two dogs with out getting into each others way nearly as much. We thought about getting a 17.5' but the small beds (even smaller than our Scamp's) changed our minds.
It ended up coming down to deciding between the 21'
Escape or the 21'
Bigfoot, as they are basically the same layout just mirrored.
Length wise permanent bed, gives my wife some room to crawl over me to get out, and I can stick my feet off the end. Edge to
Bigfoot as it has two large
windows, giving us the ability to lean ageist the walls, and look out the back or side, while drinking coffee in the morning. Although if you care about a wider bed, then the edge goes to
Escape. When camping I was always the one up at 6am, having had ok sleep. Last two trips in the
Bigfoot and I was out like a
light till 9am, big difference in sleep quality. At 6' i was almost touching the ends of the bed in the
scamp, I could not stretch out.
Wetbath vs. dry bath. Webath gives more overall space to shower and other stuff, while the dry bath means we don't have to worry about drying the floor of the shower. We also thought the shower would give us a place to hang our wet cold cloths after skiing. I will say the shower curtain setup in the Bigfoot is horrible, it makes the space much smaller than it needs to be. Going to add some command hooks to the sides of the door in order to hang the shower curtain just across the door. Also the toilet in the Bigfoot is just so low to the floor. I never really felt comfortable in the webath in the
Scamp, and the shower did not drain very well.
Front Vs. Rear dinette. Edge goes to the
Escape. After a couple of years of camping I have found that it can be random on what view is better. Sometimes it is the front and sometimes it is the rear, but it does seem that the rear has the better view a little bit more of the time, and I preferred it in our
Scamp. But the large bed
windows on the Bigfoot kind of make up for the difference, so even if the rear view is better you can still hang on the bed to enjoy it. We need to replace the seat cushions on the dinette, I am not that heavy and I flatten them to the wood, been the case in all the Bigfoots I have been in.
Not sure about all the optional features on the Escape, so sorry if I am comparing incorrectly. We have loved the duel sinks and oven on the Bigfoot. Bigfoot has a larger
furnace and fresh water tank. But Escape has larger Grey and Blank tanks, in the case of grey much larger. Adding a 2nd
battery is going to be a pain, will end up having a new shelf welded on behind the LP tanks to hold extra batteries. Because of the more modern appliances on the Bigfoot the
battery gets drained a lot faster then it did on our scamp. Oddly the Bigfoot has a smaller grey tank than the Scamp.
Towing: Big plus to the Escape, much lower
weight (Max of 5k vs 7k on the Bigfoot). Escape is narrower, and has a more aerodynamic shape. I was getting 11mpg while pulling the Scamp, and now I only get 9mpg. So we lost about 20%.
Size: One of our real concerns about going bigger was not being able to fit into the same spots we could fit into with the Scamp. Over the last couple of years we stayed in a number of tent sites, I am not sure we could have fit a 21' trailer in the same spots. Time will tell if we find the larger size restrictive on our site selection.
Winter Package: From what I have read the Escape winter package is more of a 3 season+, while the Bigfoot is true 4 season.
Availability: Easier to find a used 21' Bigfoot and can find it cheaper.
Wife really fell for the 21' Bigfoot when she finally got to step in one, it was not even a discussion of if we would buy it but more a matter of how fast we could get the sale done so we can get home and start packing for a real trip.
A note on condensation so far. On this last trip it was raining and snowing all weekend, with outside humidity up around 80-90%. We had no condensation on the
windows during the day. At night we did not have any windows cracked, we had 2 people and two medium sized dogs, there was some fog on the windows, while the aluminum frame was dripping. This was nothing compared to what we faced in the Scamp, in much dryer conditions. Moisture still builds up in side so you have to deal with that, next time we will have the roof vent open to let some moisture out. The Airstream with us had some major problems with condensation, even during the day the windows were completely fogged over, at night the condensation was building on the walls. I would expect as we take the Bigfoot into colder temps and the outside temp overcomes the insulation we will start facing condensation on the walls as well.
We have only done a couple of trips and a bunch of driveway camping, but we love the Bigfoot. We have another trip coming up with lows down to the low 20s, will be very interesting to see how it goes.