2024 Safari Condo Alto F1743
2024 Travel trailer18 ftDurango, CO
4.9(13)Sleeps 3
4.9
Outdoorsy memberDealer since November 2016
Communication
582% response rateTypically responds in less than 12 hours
About Durango RV Rental
We Love the outdoors!! We have been long time hikers and backpackers and now appreciate a warm spot and comfy bed to sleep on during our adventures! We specialize in Alto RVs by Safari Condo all 3,000 lbs and less, most SUVs and trucks can pull these beautiful units. All of our RVs have full kitchens, bathrooms, queen beds, dinettes that turn into beds. Since not all renters want a pull-behind travel trailer, we do offer Class B Motorhomes as well. We offer Free airport pick up for those wishing to fly into Durango and are located only minutes to the town of Durango, Colorado. If you have never rented an RV, no worries! We will provide personal instruction to get you on your way. RV Rentals Made EZ here in the Four Corner Region of the United States!
4.9
Outdoorsy memberDealer since November 2016
Communication
582% response rateTypically responds in less than 12 hours
13 RVs available to rent
Memories made on trips with Durango RV Rental's RVs
Tracy V.
0August 2023
Christopher F.
5August 2023
I can't say enough good things about Durango RV rental. Taylor was great setting up the reservation and making sure all the bases were covered. He answered our questions we had while on the road. Jason personally helped us figure out the issue when we blew a trailer fuse in the car. (Totally a bone headed move on my part) He is truly a vacation saver. Above and beyond the call. Thanks Jason!!!!
The only recommendations I have is bring spatula, tongs and an extra pot and bowls. Cooking set up is minimal. Nothing that Walmart and a few bucks couldn't solve.
I would rent again from them in a minute.
The only recommendations I have is bring spatula, tongs and an extra pot and bowls. Cooking set up is minimal. Nothing that Walmart and a few bucks couldn't solve.
I would rent again from them in a minute.
Kris O.
5July 2023
Taylor was great about showing us everying about the Alto trailer. He was repsonsive when we were have issues with the solar panels - too much shade in our campground and moving the trailer a bit solved the issue. Drop off was a breeze. We would certainly rent from Durango RV again.
Thomas S.
5July 2023
Taylor made sure we were fully aware of the features of our rv and prepared for our adventure. And the Alto was pretty amazing too. Thanks Durango RV Rental for your role in a great trip.
William W.
5July 2023
Fantastic experience beginning to end! Taylor made sure to keep in touch with us before, during and after the rental and ensured we had everything we needed for an incredible camping experience. Equipment was in great shape and service was second to none. Highly recommend using these guys for any RV rentals you may need.
1 Photo submitted by William W.
Kurt Z.
5June 2023
Taylor did a great job getting us oriented to the trailer and on our way. Loved the Alto.
Jamie B.
5April 2023
Communication from Luke and Taylor was great. The pre-rental walk through was very well done and everything worked well with the camper. Excellent job!
Jeff R.
5October 2022
Luke, the Rental Manager was extremely helpful and professional. This young man is an asset to the company.
Ken S.
5October 2022
We had a great time, this is the 2nd time we have rented the Alto 1723 it's a great little camper and easy to tow. Luke was great to work with and answered all our questions.
Patrick H.
5September 2022
This is the third time we have rented from Durango RV. The rental was excellent, trailer was very clean, staff was very helpful in going over everything, and responsive to questions. Highly recommend!
Barbara G.
5August 2022
Stephanie S.
5April 2022
Everyone was friendly and helpful getting us oriented and ready to rent the Euro Safari trailer. Carson was especially helpful! He took time to make sure we understood all of the systems and that the trailer was ready for the road. He was so kind and encouraging to newbies like us.
John O.
5October 2021
always a pleasure working with Elle, Mike & Christo.
we had an issue with the hot water not working in the trailer, Mike and i were able to do a 'facetime' call to show him the unit and were able to quickly resolve the matter.
thanks guys
John & Almudena
Santa Fe, NM
we had an issue with the hot water not working in the trailer, Mike and i were able to do a 'facetime' call to show him the unit and were able to quickly resolve the matter.
thanks guys
John & Almudena
Santa Fe, NM
Fred S.
5October 2021
Jim M.
0September 2021
Unit was like sleeping in a tent. Truma heater and hot water was pain-barely worked. Made roaring sound after on for 10 minutes. Had to turn off to sleep. Froze our asses off. Had propane leak and had to remove fuse for propane sensor. Had to refill propane due to leak. Handle fell off of kitchen sink. Handle fell off shower spray. You guys need to do a better job in servicing your units. Will never rent a unit from you guys again. Way too expensive with the hassles that I had in using this unit. Also, need to put a full set of instruction guide in trailer. You a have a very condensed instruction manual that is far from complete. I am not new to Rving so luckily I was able to get us thru the rental period.
Patrick H.
5September 2021
Excellent experience. We’ve rented the Alto F1743 from Durango RV on two occasions – the first was a one-week trip to Grand Canyon, the second was a two-week trip to Santa Fe and Red River, NM. Mike and Ele and the staff were extremely helpful, all the charges, terms and conditions were spelled out clearly. All equipment was in excellent condition and in our opinion, operated as intended.
For those who might be interested, a few more details follow…
The Alto is probably the “lightest” of the lightweight trailers on the market with an empty weight of about 1750 pounds (+/-), but that is empty water tank, and not including accessories such as microwave, AC and the like. As supplied by Durango, you are towing about 2000 lbs. On both trips, we provisioned the trailer with our own bedding, cookware, etc. Including clothing, miscellaneous camping gear, food and the like, you add 400 to 500 lbs (we weighed the tow vehicle with and without the added gear). So, plan on towing a 2500 lb (or more) F1743.
Our tow vehicle is a 2019 Jeep Sahara provisioned with the 2L Turbo eTorque engine, which has a towing capacity of 3500 lbs and a max 30 sf frontal area criterion (strictly speaking the F1743 violates the frontal area criterion, but the F1743 front is curved, so I suspect if the criterion was expressed as a maximum drag coefficient, we’d be ok). We used the Fastway weight distribution hitch and WD/anti
sway bars (we brought our own, but Durango can supply). When properly hooked up the WD / anti sway bars, and the alignment of the vehicle and trailer looked pretty good (ie no rear end sag). Note however, I had the Jeep provisioned with airbags in the coil springs for the first rental, and for the second rental, the Jeep had undergone a 2.5” suspension lift with heavier duty TeraFlex springs and shocks installed. This tow vehicle had no issues towing the Alto (carefully monitoring oil, trans and coolant temps, as well as other engine functions while towing).
Durango supplied a wireless remote brake controller (I think it was a Tekonsha brand) and it worked great.
Some will say with a lightweight trailer that electric brakes, WD and sway control are not necessary, but in our opinion, to not provision this rig as described above would be imprudent. Durango RV worked well to advise us as to how to set up the rig to be towed safely.
We would advise acquiring left and right external extended towing mirrors. We brought our own.
The trailer….
The Alto F1743 is a perfect size for a single or a couple (we are a couple). For three, it might be tight, but it will work. The trailer being very lightweight, the components are not robust, so one needs to exercise care in operating certain components such as window locks, the windows themselves, shades and screens. The Alto designers made every effort to minimize weight. People who buy this trailer know that you either have robust stout components which results in a very heavy trailer, or you treat the equipment carefully, it
works, and you have the advantage of a lightweight trailer.
Storage: a rear exterior door locker on each side of the trailer, I think each locker has a 75 lb limit. One front exterior door locker, but the hoses and such as supplied by Durango go in there. Inside the trailer – under sink storage, two pull out drawers under the stove + one locker with a drop down door, there is storage space under the bed and a cabinet above the bed convenient for linens and bedding, a small cabinet in the toilet, and a half closet convenient for clothing. There is a cabinet above the stove and sink suitable for lightweight items. There are a few other nooks and spaces for storage. We found the storage space to be more than sufficient.
Bed: queen size, comfortable for two people, but only one side is open, so for a couple, if the inside sleeper has to use the toilet in the middle of the night, they have to climb over the other to get out of bed.
Kitchen: storage is as noted above. Two burner gas stove and sink side by side. Tight working space but remember it’s only a 17 ft trailer. Dual power (12v and 120v shore power) fridge. Microwave, but only runs if connected to 120v shore power. All worked great.
Toilet: it’s kind of small but it works (again – this is a 17 ft trailer). To take a shower, you have to pull out a curtain and wrap it around the interior of the toilet space. There is a faucet for showring outside the trailer, but the rental doesn’t come with a privacy screen for disrobing completely when showering outside.
12v system: 12v system is charged by either connection to your vehicle, shore power, or solar panels installed on the trailer roof.
There is one battery (not sure of its capacity). The 12v system powers the roof vent fan, water pump, fridge (with freezer), interior and exterior LED lights, USB (there are 4) and 12v sockets (car lighter style, I found at least three of these). I think the 12v system also runs the electrical components of the gas furnace/water heater. The system has a battery voltage indicator so you can monitor voltage.
The critical thing when not connected to shore power is to manage your energy use to provide sufficient power to keep the fridge going all night and in the early part of the day whilst the solar panels are charging the battery. If you are parked in a shady area, the system probably isn’t going to fully recharge the battery during the day. A suitcase panel (not supplied) which can be positioned in the sun (assuming it’s not cloudy) would solve that problem. We managed to run the fridge for several days using only solar power for charging during part of one of our two trips. Much of the time we were on shore power.
The 12v system will not run the microwave or the heat pump/AC - 120 v shore power is required.
Heat pump / AC: This system is kind of noisy. We tried the heat pump on a cooler night but opted to use the gas furnace because of the noise. We tested out the AC, and as others have reported, and we think Alto owners will also tell you this, that when the trailer is parked in the sun and it is hot outside, the AC can make it comfortable inside the trailer, but it isn’t going to drop the inside temp to 73 degrees F. If you are looking for ice cold air conditioned space, camping may not be for you.
The gas furnace worked flawlessly, but I think it’s a good idea to keep a couple of windows cracked open and the roof exhaust fan set to 10% speed in the exhaust mode. We read about others complaining the CO alarm sounding when running the furnace, but we never had a problem. I think the hot water supply and gas furnace use the same heating plant; water heater worked great.
We hope this is helpful and we apologize for any technical inaccuracies resulting from memory lapses. We really like this trailer and in fact have one on order scheduled for delivery in May 2022.
For those who might be interested, a few more details follow…
The Alto is probably the “lightest” of the lightweight trailers on the market with an empty weight of about 1750 pounds (+/-), but that is empty water tank, and not including accessories such as microwave, AC and the like. As supplied by Durango, you are towing about 2000 lbs. On both trips, we provisioned the trailer with our own bedding, cookware, etc. Including clothing, miscellaneous camping gear, food and the like, you add 400 to 500 lbs (we weighed the tow vehicle with and without the added gear). So, plan on towing a 2500 lb (or more) F1743.
Our tow vehicle is a 2019 Jeep Sahara provisioned with the 2L Turbo eTorque engine, which has a towing capacity of 3500 lbs and a max 30 sf frontal area criterion (strictly speaking the F1743 violates the frontal area criterion, but the F1743 front is curved, so I suspect if the criterion was expressed as a maximum drag coefficient, we’d be ok). We used the Fastway weight distribution hitch and WD/anti
sway bars (we brought our own, but Durango can supply). When properly hooked up the WD / anti sway bars, and the alignment of the vehicle and trailer looked pretty good (ie no rear end sag). Note however, I had the Jeep provisioned with airbags in the coil springs for the first rental, and for the second rental, the Jeep had undergone a 2.5” suspension lift with heavier duty TeraFlex springs and shocks installed. This tow vehicle had no issues towing the Alto (carefully monitoring oil, trans and coolant temps, as well as other engine functions while towing).
Durango supplied a wireless remote brake controller (I think it was a Tekonsha brand) and it worked great.
Some will say with a lightweight trailer that electric brakes, WD and sway control are not necessary, but in our opinion, to not provision this rig as described above would be imprudent. Durango RV worked well to advise us as to how to set up the rig to be towed safely.
We would advise acquiring left and right external extended towing mirrors. We brought our own.
The trailer….
The Alto F1743 is a perfect size for a single or a couple (we are a couple). For three, it might be tight, but it will work. The trailer being very lightweight, the components are not robust, so one needs to exercise care in operating certain components such as window locks, the windows themselves, shades and screens. The Alto designers made every effort to minimize weight. People who buy this trailer know that you either have robust stout components which results in a very heavy trailer, or you treat the equipment carefully, it
works, and you have the advantage of a lightweight trailer.
Storage: a rear exterior door locker on each side of the trailer, I think each locker has a 75 lb limit. One front exterior door locker, but the hoses and such as supplied by Durango go in there. Inside the trailer – under sink storage, two pull out drawers under the stove + one locker with a drop down door, there is storage space under the bed and a cabinet above the bed convenient for linens and bedding, a small cabinet in the toilet, and a half closet convenient for clothing. There is a cabinet above the stove and sink suitable for lightweight items. There are a few other nooks and spaces for storage. We found the storage space to be more than sufficient.
Bed: queen size, comfortable for two people, but only one side is open, so for a couple, if the inside sleeper has to use the toilet in the middle of the night, they have to climb over the other to get out of bed.
Kitchen: storage is as noted above. Two burner gas stove and sink side by side. Tight working space but remember it’s only a 17 ft trailer. Dual power (12v and 120v shore power) fridge. Microwave, but only runs if connected to 120v shore power. All worked great.
Toilet: it’s kind of small but it works (again – this is a 17 ft trailer). To take a shower, you have to pull out a curtain and wrap it around the interior of the toilet space. There is a faucet for showring outside the trailer, but the rental doesn’t come with a privacy screen for disrobing completely when showering outside.
12v system: 12v system is charged by either connection to your vehicle, shore power, or solar panels installed on the trailer roof.
There is one battery (not sure of its capacity). The 12v system powers the roof vent fan, water pump, fridge (with freezer), interior and exterior LED lights, USB (there are 4) and 12v sockets (car lighter style, I found at least three of these). I think the 12v system also runs the electrical components of the gas furnace/water heater. The system has a battery voltage indicator so you can monitor voltage.
The critical thing when not connected to shore power is to manage your energy use to provide sufficient power to keep the fridge going all night and in the early part of the day whilst the solar panels are charging the battery. If you are parked in a shady area, the system probably isn’t going to fully recharge the battery during the day. A suitcase panel (not supplied) which can be positioned in the sun (assuming it’s not cloudy) would solve that problem. We managed to run the fridge for several days using only solar power for charging during part of one of our two trips. Much of the time we were on shore power.
The 12v system will not run the microwave or the heat pump/AC - 120 v shore power is required.
Heat pump / AC: This system is kind of noisy. We tried the heat pump on a cooler night but opted to use the gas furnace because of the noise. We tested out the AC, and as others have reported, and we think Alto owners will also tell you this, that when the trailer is parked in the sun and it is hot outside, the AC can make it comfortable inside the trailer, but it isn’t going to drop the inside temp to 73 degrees F. If you are looking for ice cold air conditioned space, camping may not be for you.
The gas furnace worked flawlessly, but I think it’s a good idea to keep a couple of windows cracked open and the roof exhaust fan set to 10% speed in the exhaust mode. We read about others complaining the CO alarm sounding when running the furnace, but we never had a problem. I think the hot water supply and gas furnace use the same heating plant; water heater worked great.
We hope this is helpful and we apologize for any technical inaccuracies resulting from memory lapses. We really like this trailer and in fact have one on order scheduled for delivery in May 2022.