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Old 10-20-2014, 06:19 PM   #1
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Talking Trip to pick up our 21'

We drove from central Ohio to pickup our 21' on September 29th. We took 5-1/2 days to get to Chilliwack. We took our dog, so we had to get pet friendly motels along the way which was a bit of a PITA. We stayed in Osoyoos on the fifth night and shelled out $200 bucks at the Holiday Inn because they were the only ones that were pet friendly with an open room. Stayed at the Best Western next door to ETI the final night and that worked out well.

We arrived at ETI bright and early Monday morning. The trailer was in great shape and Tammy got us set up with paperwork very quickly. We had not made prior arrangements to install our Reese SC hitch, but ETI got someone lined up and it went very quickly. We also added stabilizer feet and a Sherline scale to the bill as ETI's price was the best I have seen. Reace noticed that my tires were a little low and after a quick fill, we were on the way to Sumas, Wa to take possession of our trailer. Unfortunately it started to rain, so my plan to hit the front of the trailer with some BTS protectant was foiled - oh well.

We got hooked up and headed for Deception Pass. We found a site, set up, and then headed back to Walmart and Camping World to buy the stuff that we needed to populate the trailer. Bought a Travasak since they were on sale in tan that matched the trailer better than our old purple/pink one from our old trailer. Got everything loaded and the packed truck cleared out and prepared for the trip home.

We journeyed from there to Mt. Ranier, Olympic, Redwoods National Park (awesome), Crater Lake, Tetons, Yellowstone, Blackhills (Crazyhorse is not to be missed), and on to Ohio. Altogether we traveled a shade under 8000 miles (too far). If I had it to do over I would have tried to cut down on miles.

Our 2014 Chevy Silverado Crew Cab with hard tonneau cover (5.3 liter, 3:42 rear end) performed like a champ. Going out we got 20-21 mpg at 65. At 70 plus in South Dakota and Montana it dropped back to 19 something. With the trailer in the mountains we would get 11. Running at 60 we could get 14 in rolling hills. We drove most of the return trip at 65 and got 12 mpg or a little more. Running in tow mode did not seem to hurt or help the mileage.

Tow mode with the hill descent is awesome in the mountains. Someone called it reverse cruise control. In the mountain it made it so much easier to control downhill speed. Most of the time I did very little braking on some pretty harry downhills. A few times I shifted into manual mode, but that was very rare. The trailer pulled great, between the very capable truck and Reese hitch with built in sway control.

We also had ETI install the Wilson Truck/RV antenna in the trailer. We had the Wilson Sleek 4G Booster which we ran in the truck during the day and moved to the trailer at night. We used my Motorola Droid cell phone as a hot spot and almost always had good fast internet available. We have unlimited data and were able to watch HBO Go using the cell hot spot. I believe we used 9GB of data during the trip. Although most campgrounds have internet, this way we did not have to worry about security using our own service.

We were gone almost a month and are back home recuperating from the many miles.

Best of all we have a brand new Escape 21' sitting in our driveway. A great upgrade from our old Casita and we are looking forward to many a enjoyable trip in the future!

(There is an Ohio flag at ETI now.)
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Old 10-20-2014, 07:35 PM   #2
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Neato for you and THANKS for sharing your story!
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Old 10-20-2014, 07:45 PM   #3
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What a great trip! I hope we get to see some pictures now that you're all settled in...
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Old 10-20-2014, 07:53 PM   #4
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Nicely written. You touched on all the high spots, mileage, (towing and...) motels, (with pets) downhill control, hitch usage, etc. Boy, 8,000 miles for the first outing, that's a lot!

We also went from a Casita to a 21. Boy, what a difference. We no longer have to use hand signals to move about the cabin. And the bed in the 21 is so comfortable (not to mention easy to make) compared to the Casita.

Thanks for the report.
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Old 10-21-2014, 01:31 AM   #5
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Would you care to give a report on your fridge in the new 21' , both while camping and towing. We are due to pick ours up this month, and that has been a nagging concern--some people report theirs are fine, and some not so good. I assume you had mostly cool weather on the return trip so that may not have stressed the fridge.
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Old 10-21-2014, 08:01 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill and Earline View Post
Would you care to give a report on your fridge in the new 21' , both while camping and towing. We are due to pick ours up this month, and that has been a nagging concern--some people report theirs are fine, and some not so good. I assume you had mostly cool weather on the return trip so that may not have stressed the fridge.
Thanks, Bill
It was cool pretty much the whole trip so its hard to say. Yellowstone was below freezing at night. We were running one of the battery powered fans. At one point my wife had plastic envelopes of cheese and meat blocking the top shelf and temp got a little high in the door. I was running Accurites in freezer and door. We had frig on coldest setting the whole time. I never observed too cold or too hot other than the one time mentioned above.
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Old 10-21-2014, 10:35 AM   #7
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Congrats on your new 21. What a very fine trip you had! I agree, the tow mode's great for them steep grades but doesn't seem to otherwise effect gas mileage.

Your Wilson Truck/RV antenna and Booster interests me much. Wondering about applying your internet solutions for myself. Just looked over their website. See several variations, the Magnet Mount, the Mini Magnet mount, the Glass Mount, the Marine, the Trucker Mirror mount, etc., pricing from $32 to $106. Which do you have? Where is yours installed, could you show us a picture? Much appreciated. Wow I see their voice and data boosters run from $99 to a few hundred bucks. At $298.99 the Wilson Mobile Wireless 3G Kit also looks good to me but I know nothing about these things. Nothing. Could you give us (me) a heads up on your choices?
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Old 10-21-2014, 12:00 PM   #8
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Carl:

I would state this differently. I'd suggest the trip was too short time wise rather than having too many miles. 8000 miles is about right for a 4 to 6 month adventure.

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Originally Posted by skiman View Post
Altogether we traveled a shade under 8000 miles (too far). If I had it to do over I would have tried to cut down on miles.
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Old 10-21-2014, 07:19 PM   #9
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Thank you Sir Ski for the excellent report and congrats on your 21 upgrade. Have the same drivetrain on our Yukon and ditto on the engine braking!

Am curious about your data plan and coverage. Who is your carrier?
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Old 10-21-2014, 07:21 PM   #10
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Carl:

I would state this differently. I'd suggest the trip was too short time wise rather than having too many miles. 8000 miles is about right for a 4 to 6 month adventure.
Yes, I agree!
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Old 10-21-2014, 07:23 PM   #11
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Thank you Sir Ski for the excellent report and congrats on your 21 upgrade. Have the same drivetrain on our Yukon and ditto on the engine braking!

Am curious about your data plan and coverage. Who is your carrier?
Our plan is Verizon. But they no longer offer unlimited data. We plan to keep it as long as possible!
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Old 10-21-2014, 07:35 PM   #12
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Here they are!

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What a great trip! I hope we get to see some pictures now that you're all settled in...
Setup, flags, Crater Lake.
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Old 10-21-2014, 07:35 PM   #13
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Originally Posted by MyronL View Post

Your Wilson Truck/RV antenna and Booster interests me much.
I use this antenna based of opinions at roadtrucker.com - those guys live in their cabs for days: http://www.amazon.co...e?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It has a built-in ground plane and works absolutely great with my Wilson sleek cradle. My signal increases 20-22 db (or from 1 to 5 bars) in some areas with the combination; not only does it increase internet speed significantly, but without having to re-query the cell tower frequently the battery in the phone itself lasts much longer.

To connect the two requires an adapter : http://www.amazon.co...SXY22C9QHGBXHZK

I leave the "stubby" antenna that comes with the cradle on the truck roof to use the cradle while driving. I mounted the trucker antenna above a storage cabinet so I can access the bottom should I need to replace it in the future.

Handy to use a cigarette lighter that incorporates a USB port to power the wilson cradle, so you can also be charging the cell phone while it's in the cradle.
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Old 10-21-2014, 07:53 PM   #14
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same set up exactly

Quote:
Originally Posted by tractors1 View Post
I use this antenna based of opinions at roadtrucker.com - those guys live in their cabs for days: http://www.amazon.co...e?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It has a built-in ground plane and works absolutely great with my Wilson sleek cradle. My signal increases 20-22 db (or from 1 to 5 bars) in some areas with the combination; not only does it increase internet speed significantly, but without having to re-query the cell tower frequently the battery in the phone itself lasts much longer.

To connect the two requires an adapter : http://www.amazon.co...SXY22C9QHGBXHZK

I leave the "stubby" antenna that comes with the cradle on the truck roof to use the cradle while driving.

Handy to use a cigarette lighter that incorporates a USB port to power the wilson cradle, so you can also be charging the cell phone while it's in the cradle.
This is exactly our setup as well. I forgot to specify on build sheet to pull antenna cable to front cabinet. With my booster below the antenna in the overhead cabinet i had no problems with feedback.
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Old 10-21-2014, 07:58 PM   #15
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This is exactly our setup as well. I forgot to specify on build sheet to pull antenna cable to front cabinet. With my booster below the antenna in the overhead cabinet i had no problems with feedback.
Yup, we have our antenna in exactly the same place and I didn't want the cable pulled to the front as it's part of the antenna - so if I have to replace it I don't need to screw with re-routing a new cable. No feedback here, either.

I mounted the cig lighter socket just under the antenna, cradle works fine inside the cabinet so I didn't put any hangers on the outside of the cabinet. Coiled all the excess wiring into a loop and secured it in the forward end by the antenna entry behind the cabinet face in an otherwise unused dead end next to the fridge.
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Old 10-21-2014, 08:01 PM   #16
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The fourth pic is stunning...what a great color!
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Old 10-21-2014, 10:09 PM   #17
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This is exactly our setup as well. I forgot to specify on build sheet to pull antenna cable to front cabinet. With my booster below the antenna in the overhead cabinet i had no problems with feedback.
Where is the 12v outlet mounted exactly? Inside the cabinet?
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Old 10-21-2014, 10:42 PM   #18
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Where is the 12v outlet mounted exactly? Inside the cabinet?
Mine is on front of cabinet aft of frig for future TV. Snaked cable out the edge of cabinet door. Left sleek inside. I may tap in and add socket on inside. I think Charlie already did this.
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Old 10-21-2014, 11:07 PM   #19
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Mine is on front of cabinet aft of frig for future TV. Snaked cable out the edge of cabinet door. Left sleek inside. I may tap in and add socket on inside. I think Charlie already did this.
Ah. Thanks.
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Old 10-21-2014, 11:12 PM   #20
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Mine is on front of cabinet aft of frig for future TV. Snaked cable out the edge of cabinet door. Left sleek inside. I may tap in and add socket on inside. I think Charlie already did this.
I'll put a pic up tomorrow - I placed the socket sideways in the cabinet using the face framing so when the plug isn't inserted nothing blocks the cabinet opening.
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