On Friday, January 31, 2020 at 10:22:36 AM UTC-5, Piet Barber wrote:
On Thursday, January 30, 2020 at 6:33:47 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Any opinions on Ford Escape SUV 2liter as a tow vehicle? I live on the east coast but may want to tow to sailplane destinations out west. Near certain my trailer and glider is under a ton.

I had a 2002 ford Escape 3 liter v6. It had a max tow weight of 3500 pounds with a class 2 trailer hitch receptacle. It towed the Komet trailer with the LS-4 just fine, no issues. Later, I bought a Duo Discus, and trailered that a few times. I towed that 2800 or 2900 pound trailer up the mountain on the way to New Castle, VA. I'm just glad nobody was behind me that time.

On the way to Petersburg, WV, I would gather a fan club behind me. They would all be cheering me on, telling me that I'm number 1. (Well, at least that's how many fingers were extended when they were cheering me on.) (No comment about which finger).

On the highway, the trailer had the habit of making my travel exciting -- the wrong kind of excitement. I could get it up to highway speed, but anything near 75 got more exciting than I liked. So I gathered a fan club behind me, wondering why I couldn't get any higher than 67 on the highway.

I traded in the Escape for a Nissan Frontier, and have been happy with the results.

But for towing a single seat glider, the 6 cylinder version of the Escape was quite adequate. Can't comment on the 4 cylinder version.

I had a 2001 Ford Escape V6 with the towing option. I really liked that for towing single seat trailers. I towed a Cobra trailer with glider up through West Virginia to Ohio with no issues at all.

I had a friend with a similar vintage 4 cylinder Escape with manual transmission. That seemed to tow well too. The only (small) snag was using tow-out gear pulling his glider to the end of the runway. He needed to ride the clutch to go slow enough.

I have a newer Escape with the 4 cylinder Ecoboost. I haven't gotten the hitch installed yet so I can't comment on how well it tows.

I have looked at Rav4's for towing. Another friend has/had the V6 version (2006 model) which seems to have towed well. The one time he landed out he forgot to leave the keys behind so noone else got an opinion on it! The 4 cylinder and hybrid models mostly seem to be limited to 1000lb towing so I haven't looked beyond that.