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RV review: Grand Design Imagine XLS 17MKE

Tony Barthel

Today’s RV review is of the Grand Design Imagine XLS 17MKE. Whew.

Did you know the largest RV show is the Caravan Salon in Germany? Well, when they have RV shows again. And as we sat in the Grand Design Imagine 17MKE one of the people from Grand Design said that this floor plan specifically came after one of the design principals from Grand Design wandered the Caravan Salon floor. Okay, I might believe that.

As I see more and more RVs there are a lot of themes I’m seeing that come back over and over again. That wasn’t true as I sat there in the couch of the 17MKE. In a relatively small space there was seating for four people in comfort as well as an absolutely huge kitchen counter that we could genuinely use for meal prep.

I realize that RV designers have lots of compromises to make when it comes to RV design and you have a certain space to work with, but sometimes I don’t think some of the designers have ever prepped a meal before in their lives.

Clearly that wasn’t the team at Grand Design who covered almost the entire side of this coach with kitchen counter space and usable surfaces. Then that man-made countertop makes a turn and goes a bit further until it reaches the refrigerator at the back of the unit.

Up front there’s a Murphy bed which I really like the concept of and, on the side, you can get what they refer to as a theater dinette which is theater seating and a table. While you’re seated on these chairs you can watch whomever is preparing the meal as you drool in anticipation.

Grand Design has really nailed the cabinet design on this trailer with a hanging cabinet, a smaller and a larger drawer on either side of the bed. That bed is a proper residential queen. How Grand Design was able to facilitate all the storage under the Murphy bed was to have a mattress that can be folded in half so comfort isn’t the greatest.

As we sat in this trailer and looked around it was apparent that the Murphy bed couldn’t be folded down when the slide room was in but that’s pretty typical of smaller trailers and the Murphy bed allows you to have a seating area or a bed. It’s a good use of space and I could personally catch some shut eye in those theater seats.

That Murphy bed has been well integrated into the trailer and you still get pass-through storage in the front, though not as much as if the bed were fixed but, again, compromise. Grand Design has done a good design with this and they even have motion sensor lighting in that pass-through storage.

While we’re in that storage area Grand Design has pre-wired this for an inverter if you didn’t order it as an option so, down the road, if you choose to put one in the wiring is already there. There’s also a port on the roof for solar as well so you don’t have to go drilling into the roof structure. Nice.

I really like that they have a full water station inside this front pass-through storage as well with a small drip tray and hot and cold water spigots. My own water connection is constantly dripping but that little tray and the access port in the bottom would solve that even if this trailer dripped at the connection.

This whole access port is really a nice touch.

The front of the 2021 is not fiberglass but is an .040” aluminum sheet that is matt finished. I suspect this will last a good long while and not fade as some fiberglass caps might.

On the down side, while it makes sense that the spare tire is under the floor and in the middle of the floor you are going to get filthy getting to it and lifting that tire while on your back under the trailer. Great concept, bad implementation. I’ve seen racks in some RVs that allow the spare to slide to the edge of the camper at least.

And I’m not a fan of Lions Gate tires at all so my opinion is that you’re going to need that spare sooner rather than later. Also, being under there, you’re very unlikely to check the inflation pressure so it could well be flat when you need it most.

The entire underbelly of the trailer is enclosed and heated and the gate valves for the black and gray tanks are enclosed within that space so they’re less susceptible to freezing.

Grand Design has really established itself as a manufacturer of quality and one of the reasons for this is that all of their units go from final inspection to a secondary inspection station where they are put through a 250+ point further inspection. Talking to the various Grand Design owners as I’ve traveled around there is a certain bragging component to this brand and it’s impressive when you think they have only been in business since 2012.

For a lot of usable space in a relatively short body it’s going to be difficult to compete with this trailer - it’s definitely on my list of favorite floor plans.

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