Let the fun begin!

[Sandra L]

Thanks Karen and Seef! What an interesting site. Bon Voyage.

[Seef]

Just a quick update:

The Escape is at Manzanilla Mexico.

[Donna D.]

I hope it's having a great time!

[Seef]

And moving closer to its final home.

The Escape 5.0 on it's way to The Netherlands is in the Panama Canal.

Have Fun!

Severinus and Yvonne

[captmath]

Cartagena today. I have always wanted to go to Cartagena.

[hotfishtacos]

It is really great watching your trailer travel around the world. You must be very excited! I was a little worried when the freighter was near the hurricane in the Pacific near Baja...worried it would bang around in the container. Hopefully it will be perfect when the container is eventually opened. We're watching!

[Tonny LR]

Hi Seef,
Does ETI has to make any electrical alterations to meet European standard? I know most of the European countries run on 110V except England uses 240V. Thanks
Tonny LR

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Tonny LR

I know most of the European countries run on 110V except England uses 240V.

I believe that essentially all of Europe uses 240 (or 230) volt household power... at 50 hertz (compared to our 60 Hz).

An Escape headed almost anywhere outside of North America (and maybe South America - I don't know) needs some sort of conversion of the AC power system. I'm interested in hearing how Severinus and Yvonne handle this.

[Sandra L]

This has been most enjoyable. I can only imagine how much Severinus and Yvonne are enjoying this as well.

[Seef]

Originally Posted by Tonny LR

Hi Seef,
Does ETI has to make any electrical alterations to meet European standard? I know most of the European countries run on 110V except England uses 240V. Thanks
Tonny LR

Hi Tonny,

I have to say no ETI does not do that. Understandable though, ETI has to comply to Canadian and USA standards since that is their targeted market.

I think you mixed up the voltages. Most of the European Countries use 220-240V 50 Hz, i'm not sure what England uses.

So we have to make the changes ourself. As things look right now, we need to change the axle and brakes, do some fiddling on the rear lights, get a transformator for the fridge, replace the main circuit breakers, replace the battery charger, that's it more or less. Oh yeah, we do need to change the kingpin coupling too. Since Canadian stuff has no European compliance. So we have to replace a perfectly fine kingpin with a new one which is exactly the same but wit a EU sticker on it....

Ah well, as long as you are having fun eh?

Have fun!

Severinus and Yvonne

[gbaglo]

What's the issue with the axle?
Hope what you have to do goes smoothly.

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by Seef

Hi Tonny,

I have to say no ETI does not do that. Understandable though, ETI has to comply to Canadian and USA standards since that is their targeted market.

I think you mixed up the voltages. Most of the European Countries use 220-240V 50 Hz, i'm not sure what England uses.

So we have to make the changes ourself. As things look right now, we need to change the axle and brakes, do some fiddling on the rear lights, get a transformator for the fridge, replace the main circuit breakers, replace the battery charger, that's it more or less. Oh yeah, we do need to change the kingpin coupling too. Since Canadian stuff has no European compliance. So we have to replace a perfectly fine kingpin with a new one which is exactly the same but wit a EU sticker on it....

Ah well, as long as you are having fun eh?

Have fun!

Severinus and Yvonne

HI; Seef... Thanks for the update. Was wondering how the voyage was going.
Seems like a lot of work to go to for a EU sticker. Is there no way to inspect the Canadian work to prove it's up to the EU standard? Then apply the sticker!!!
How is the search for a pickup truck and hitch going?
Sure hope you can get all the changes made and still have some time for travel too.
Here's a pic of our latest rig!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[Tonny LR]

Hi Seef,
Thanks for the feedback.
My son lives in France and my wife is from England. One day we may consider shipping our trailer to Europe. You never know. There are lots of electrical alterations that you have to do, but I am confident that you can find the right people to make the changes. Please continue to have fun.
Tonny LR

[J Mac]

Apart from the electrical issues are all these changes needed only if the trailer is going to stay in the European countries. I wonder, what if the trailer and passengers were on a 6 month visitors visa?

[cpaharley2008]

Regardless of the length of stay, these changes will still have to be made in order to "hook up" in a campsite or use the electricity at any locale.

[J Mac]

axel and king pin as well?

[cpaharley2008]

That I do not know anything about, I'm merely referring to the electrical. Also wondering about the door issue, remember most European models have the door on the opposite side.

[J Mac]

I understand the electrical being updated to EU's standard I was wondering about the axel and king pin as well.

[Seef]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

What's the issue with the axle?
Hope what you have to do goes smoothly.

The "problem" with the axle is that the brakes are not EU certified, we will be changing the axle for the same type/brand with EU certified brakes.

The axle swap itself should be fairly easy i guess.

Have fun!

Severinus and Yvonne

[Seef]

Originally Posted by escape artist

HI; Seef... Thanks for the update. Was wondering how the voyage was going.
Seems like a lot of work to go to for a EU sticker. Is there no way to inspect the Canadian work to prove it's up to the EU standard? Then apply the sticker!!!
How is the search for a pickup truck and hitch going?
Sure hope you can get all the changes made and still have some time for travel too.
Here's a pic of our latest rig!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

Hi Alf,

The voyage itself (the Escape in a container) is going smooth so far (touch wood).

It is a bit of work, it's not the work that scares me, it was the costs that scared me, but we calculated everything upfront and though it isd expensive, that is the price we have to pay for having the one and only 5.0 on mainland Europe.

Unfortunally there is no way in getting the 5.0 up to EU standards with the parts ETI uses. The simply do not have the required EU/EC certifications. No way around that without having the risk you will be pulled over by the law for a inspection which then reveals not everything is up to spec. And the law will be pulling me over since there are virtually no 5th wheel caravans on the road in the Netherlands. Whitch ofcourse adds very much to the cool factor.

The search for the truck and hitch:

It looks like we finally found a affordable truck. We are seriously looking at the ISUZU D-Max with double cab. This time the search is extra difficult because of the tax laws overhere in the Netherlands. It depends if you are a business owner or not and having said that, it then depends on the type of truck you will buy. We have 2 sets of road tax, for private porsons and for business. It depends on the truck model if you can apply for the business road tax or not. The same goes for VAT. On the D-max getting the truck for business will save you about 10-15K or more. Fortunally i do own a business.

The hitch is a different story by itself. Although we can get conventional Kingpin hitches we are leaning towards a different option, there's a company overhere that makes 5th wheel hitches the dutch way. The hitch is EU certified but is way different than the kingpin hitch. It's more like a goosneck coupler (Fifth Wheel Europe - Welkom)
Advantage: It uses a bowl in the truck bed. that means when you're not using the hitch you will have a completely flat truck bed.
Downside: The kingpin coupler on the Escape needs to be converted to this type of coupler.

As the kingpin needs to be replaced anyhow (EU certifications again). This is a option worth to explore. It will be more expensive then just replace the kingpin but the flat truckbed is appealing to us since we're not retired yet and will be using the trailer just 4-6 weeks a year for the next 10 years.

All in all, we are spending a fair amoount of money but we figured we will be using this trailer for at least 10-15 (mabe longer) years it's money well spend.

Long story, i hope it makes a bit sense to you guys.

Have fun!


Severinus and Yvonne