Our 21' Escape Trailer purchase issues

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

Jim, I respect your opinion and believe you are not cheerleading but only expressing your honest opinion based on your experiences with Escape
What i have a problem with is when Escape owners have problems / issues with Escape or their trailer and express their frustration /concerns / disappointments a select group of individuals automatically start an attack on the person expressing their honest views.
Stating that since you’ve had no problem with your Escape ,then no problem exists doesn’t solve a thing
When members PM you expressing their fear of posting about their experiences ( Good or Bad) with their Escape then there is something seriously wrong .

Thanks, your observation is true.

I do not thing anyone attacked anyone with problems. In fact I often see more people attacking those that have had next to no problems saying reporting this is of no help. And most with this stance also added their condolences to the OP. I believe it most definitely is helpful to those looking to buy to hear the majority of owners are very pleased.

I have tried to get these members who PM'd me that they did not fell comfortable with the repercussions of posting to do so anyway. They of course will correctly decide themselves what is best for them. I have also heard similar feelings from dozens others at rallies. Some may see this as a fault with them, but I don't.

Originally Posted by CADreamin

Well, if we want to talk about dumb mistakes, how about:
1) Forgetting to put up the struts when raising the jack (lucked out on that one) and then driving off, leaving your jack support behind
2) Weed whacking close to the trailer so that you end up with a shattered window AND a 'ding' in the fiberglass
3) Forgetting to close the external hatch on your 19' and awaking in the middle of the night to find that the raccoons are having a party under your bed!

In our case, the majority (and severity) of issues with our two trailers have been caused by the owners. ;-)

(Oh, forgot to mention #4 ... merging and assuming that big rig driver is going to see you and give way. Nice swipe of blue paint on the side of the rig for that mistake.)

Wow, you guys are sure good at messing up. I must admit to knowing someone very well of not doing those items, but ones of similar oops-ness. Me! It's life, I made boo boos, and will still carry one.

[CADreamin]

but I'm handy with tools and electrics

Hmmmm, maybe I know who to call about electric issues from now on .....

[CADreamin]

Wow, you guys are sure good at messing up

We try, Jim, we try ....

[gbaglo]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

What i have a problem with is when Escape owners have problems / issues with Escape or their trailer and express their frustration /concerns / disappointments a select group of individuals automatically start an attack on the person expressing their honest views.

Having an opposing view is not an attack.

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by CADreamin

Wow, you guys are sure good at messing up

We try, Jim, we try ....

I seem to having gotten it down without effort. LOL

[Rossue]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

Having an opposing view is not an attack.

It is when it is either snarky, sarcastic or he he lets all have some poutine, which to me is a form of ridicule.

[cpaharley2008]

Canadian poutine is ridicule? How so....inquiring minds would like to learn....

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

Canadian poutine is ridicule? How so....inquiring minds would like to learn....

Only if ridicule can be described as good taste!

[Iowa Dave]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Oh it’s morning already, time for Scrapple, SPAM, Jaternice and Poutine for dessert. I got tired of running out of propane all the time frying breakfast so I put a heavy duty hitch hauler on the back of the 21 to haul my new tank. Now it seems like my tongue weight got lighter?
Iowa Dave

[cpaharley2008]

Now I'm hungry and it is almost time for bed.....this heat makes one to sleep....

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by Jim Bennett

I believe it most definitely is helpful to those looking to buy to hear the majority of owners are very pleased.

Yah, maybe the silent majority. Guys like this who really put their trailer through its' paces but to my knowledge have never posted a negative comment about it.

I was thinking about all the negativism expressed in this thread and I realize how unrepresentative it is of Escape ownership. Go to Q'site with over 100 Escape owners chatting with each other. If Escapes were as bad as the comments in this thread make them out to be the happy group of Escape owners would be whipped up into a frenzy calling for Reases' head.

Ron

[Rossue]

I sometimes think some of you live in an alternate universe. To me it is the same old thing: someone posts their issues and then many start to get defensive and the ball starts rolling. To infer this thread is somehow dominantly negative is false.

[Iowa Dave]

I’ve lived off the grid but never out of this universe. However I do confess to being loopy at times and under the influence at others.
Iowa Dave

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Dee08802

First post by us.

We have been reading the forum since first thinking about the move up from a Scamp. The Scamp was our indoctrination to RV life. Like your first house a real learning experience. If we knew then what we know now we would have made different choices. After returning from our cross country Escape pick up trip I realized this is the first time we got home without a list of things that needed fixing. With the Scamp we were always resecuring things that shook loose.

Another Escape in NJ! Best of luck with it.

[gbaglo]

Originally Posted by Rossue

I sometimes think some of you live in an alternate universe.

Has it ever occurred to you that you are the odd man out?

[Donna D.]

I'm one of those people who doesn't post negatives on the forum. Mainly because some of the negatives are of my own doing. Ten Forward isn't perfect and neither am I, we're a matched pair. As a friend on Facebook posted... If you think my posts are ridiculous you should see some of my life choices. Or in my case, some of the stupid stuff I've done.

I'm NOW on my THIRD electric element for the water heater. You'd think I'd would have learned the first time. But noooo, took a second time and now this third one. Time will tell. Two water pumps, three propane regulators and two sets of pig tails. Duct tape over the long LED tail lights on the top rear (in the rain)... This is a small sample...

I'm on the second furnace. Reace couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, neither could Dometic. Said it was faster to replace it then spend time bench testing and hoping the repair(s) would work.

I bought Ten Forward with expectations. Not that it would be the best of anything, but where it takes me. As long as it's safe to go down the road (I'm sharing the road with others), everything else will be gravy. Nothing wrong with a hard-sided tent.

While buying Ten Forward and the tug 90 days before, wasn't cheap, I have zero regrets. I've already had tons of fun and expect a whole lot more in the future. Even if I do camp with no electricity because one of the 15 amp circuit breakers goes bust. Who carries a spare 15 amp brick?! I'm going to always choose joy...

[Rossue]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

Has it ever occurred to you that you are the odd man out?

In your clique definitely.

[CADreamin]

I'm going to always choose joy

And that's why we love your attitude!!! Keep on truckin' .... er, camping.

[LeonW]

We are on our second Escape. The first one was a 2012 17b ("The Lark"), sold to Fox Hunt), and we currently own a 2014 21. In that time we have managed to sleep at least one night in the trailer in all of the lower 48 states and all the provinces west of Quebec that border the US.

When we got our first trailer, we had very limited experience with RVs and almost no towing experience. As a result, I spent many nights watching the old orientation video (I think it was shot by Baglo) and combing the forum (which had many fewer members and posts) for information. Someone posted a link to the "12-volt side of life", so I spent hours reading that. The folks on the forum answered a lot of "newbie questions", both about the trailer, possible options, whether or not I could pull it with our Toyota Sienna, etc. Even so, the orientation was an overwhelming blur. We spent the first couple of nights at the campground in Chilliwack just so we could check out all the systems and be close to the factory in case something didn't work. The trip home had a few more practical lessons and I learned that it really is better to raise the tongue jack before leaving the campsite. I also provided 20 minutes of entertainment to my neighbors at John Day State Park the first time I had to back into a campsite.

In 2014 we spent a wet spring camping trip mostly inside The Lark, decided to skip "2footitis" and go directly to a 21 ("The Skylark"). We were so confused going home that we had to cross the continental divide 5 times to get to Minnesota. But it sure was fun! And let me tell ya, Glacier Park is beautiful in late September, early October.

We have had a few issues. One of the thermal pane windows developed some fog/dirt on the inside. Escape arranged to ship a new window to us and we had a local RV repair place install it. I had an LED light that wouldn't shut off. I posted about it on the forum and got an email from Reace that evening saying he would ship me a new one. I managed to burn out the electric hot water heater element when I plugged in before I had filled the hot water heater up with water. Now I have an internal switch for the electric element and some painters tape gets put over it when I drain the water system. And then there was the time I tried to get the trailer into a self car wash that was a couple of inches lower than the top of the air conditioner (cost me a new shroud, even though the duct tape worked pretty well). And, when we put the washer on the wrong side of the Anderson hitch elastomer, Bill (of Bill & Earline) got the nut out that had become embedded 1" into the elastomer. Seems like I have an issue with the long tail lights on the top of the trailer every couple of years. I wish I could figure out a better fix for those.

I can't complain too much. My parents bought a $10,000 19' class b motor home when Dad retired. He was always complaining about the refrigerator and always working on some part or another that needed fixing. As he told me when we bought our first home, "you will never be without a job now". So I expected to spend time maintaining my trailer. As Donna says, it is an earthquake going down the road.

This whole discussion reminds me of a story that "Abe Martin", the philosopher of Brown County Indiana told once.

There was a storekeeper back in those hills who had a small store beside a back road near a town called "Gnaw Bone" One day a stranger stopped in and said he was thinking of moving to the area, and wanted to know what sort of people inhabited the area. The storekeeper asked him what sort of people lived in the area where the man currently lived. The man said that folks were friendly, honest, and kind, willing to help out if you needed help. Good neighbors and he would hate to leave them. The storekeeper replied that people around Gnaw Bone were just the same way and he would probably have good neighbors if he moved there.

A few weeks later, another man stopped at the store and asked the same question. And the storekeeper asked the same question -- what kind of neighbors do you have now? The man replied that his neighbors were mean folks who lied and gossiped, looked out only for their own interests etc. The storekeeper replied that he expected the people in this area were just the same and the man would have the same sort of neighbors if he moved to Gnaw Bone.

I don't know why, but I have been thinking of that story a lot lately.

Thanks to everyone who explained to me things like why you want to empty the black tank before you empty the grey tank, and why it is a bad idea to have your griddle too hot when frying bacon under the smoke detector.

[gbaglo]

Originally Posted by LeonW

This whole discussion reminds me of a story that "Abe Martin", the philosopher of Brown County Indiana told once.

There was a storekeeper back in those hills who had a small store beside a back road near a town called "Gnaw Bone" One day a stranger stopped in and said he was thinking of moving to the area, and wanted to know what sort of people inhabited the area. The storekeeper asked him what sort of people lived in the area where the man currently lived. The man said that folks were friendly, honest, and kind, willing to help out if you needed help. Good neighbors and he would hate to leave them. The storekeeper replied that people around Gnaw Bone were just the same way and he would probably have good neighbors if he moved there.

A few weeks later, another man stopped at the store and asked the same question. And the storekeeper asked the same question -- what kind of neighbors do you have now? The man replied that his neighbors were mean folks who lied and gossiped, looked out only for their own interests etc. The storekeeper replied that he expected the people in this area were just the same and the man would have the same sort of neighbors if he moved to Gnaw Bone.

I don't know why, but I have been thinking of that story a lot lately.

Thanks to everyone who explained to me things like why you want to empty the black tank before you empty the grey tank, and why it is a bad idea to have your griddle too hot when frying bacon under the smoke detector.

Thank you Leon. Thank you.