Stickie horror story

[SageRpod]

This weekend I had the pleasure to share a campfire with Derek and Karen from Toronto at Franklin Mountain Texas State Park. They were on a three month trip around the US. Their first ever RV trip ever. They started out in a used Terry that they setup with solar and did some light customization for their trip.

About a week or so into their journey, while pushing through some high winds and thunderstorms in Texas, the driver side wall of the Terry peeled completely off and their belongings sucked out of the trailer. Fortunately no one was hurt and they were able to recover all of their items. Unfortunately the Terry was beyond repair.

Wanting to push on, they purchased a brand new Forest River Puma and after a day of moving their belongings into the new trailer, they hit the road to continue their adventure. The next day was a longer day to make up time and when they arrived at their stop, they found the bathroom door and a cabinet door had completely come off and wreaked havoc in the trailer.

When I meet Derek and Karen, they were on day 4 with the Puma. They saw the maple leaf on the 5.0 and came over to inquire about it. Strangely they had never heard of Escape, but planned on looking then up when they got back to Toronto.

So raise a beer/wine/bourbon to these two intrepid newbies and wish them well. I admire their perseverance.

[claude6543]

And I admire their courage for buying a Forest River…

[sofmerc]

Originally Posted by SageRpod

This weekend I had the pleasure to share a campfire with Derek and Karen from Toronto at Franklin Mountain Texas State Park. They were on a three month trip around the US. Their first ever RV trip ever. They started out in a used Terry that they setup with solar and did some light customization for their trip.

About a week or so into their journey, while pushing through some high winds and thunderstorms in Texas, the driver side wall of the Terry peeled completely off and their belongings sucked out of the trailer. Fortunately no one was hurt and they were able to recover all of their items. Unfortunately the Terry was beyond repair.

Wanting to push on, they purchased a brand new Forest River Puma and after a day of moving their belongings into the new trailer, they hit the road to continue their adventure. The next day was a longer day to make up time and when they arrived at their stop, they found the bathroom door and a cabinet door had completely come off and wreaked havoc in the trailer.

When I meet Derek and Karen, they were on day 4 with the Puma. They saw the maple leaf on the 5.0 and came over to inquire about it. Strangely they had never heard of Escape, but planned on looking then up when they got back to Toronto.

So raise a beer/wine/bourbon to these two intrepid newbies and wish them well. I admire their perseverance.

They are resilient! I hope they get into a suitable camper and resume their fun.

[MrLynn]

Originally Posted by SageRpod

. . . Strangely they had never heard of Escape, but planned on looking then up when they got back to Toronto.

Not so strange. With factory-direct sales and annual production of a few hundred units, Escapes are practically invisible amongst the RV flood of several hundred thousand annually.

[Mike G]

I am enjoying my 19, for sure. It is a real pleasure to have a trailer whose window valances don't keep falling off, like the KZ trailer I owned a decade ago. And no cupboard doors falling off or drawers coming out onto the floor, like the Rockwood I owned before that. The only thing that has fallen in the Escape so far, in about 2000 miles of towing, was something I left on the rear bed. That one is on me.

[salmo7000]

Hopefully they can sell their Forest River and find a used Escape in their area!! This story reminds me of some folks I camped next to at a developed campground outside of Yellowstone NP last summer. They had a 25-foot stickie and were unable to get the slide to come out. No matter what they did, it was stuck, and with the floor plan of that particular trailer, having the slide in made it so the trailer was not really workable. This situation is far less serious than the one with the side of the trailer blowing off, but still... what a pain to drive all day, get to your campsite, and have to deal with that.

The man was most interested in my 19. He said it's exactly what he wanted, even though there's obviously much less space, and it has the crawl-over bed. He was undeterred. Never again would he purchase a trailer with a slide, he said, they are nothing but trouble. And as far as he was concerned, a small trailer has numerous advantages, not the least of which are towability and better gas mileage. He reported getting no better than 8 mpg towing his stickie with a Dodge Ram 1500.

Well, as I often say, deciding on a trailer, motorhome, van, truck camper, etc... is always about tradeoffs. Every time I think to myself, gosh my 19 is pretty small for 2 people and 2 dogs, especially when it's raining outside and we're stuck inside, I remind myself of that.

[SageRpod]

Originally Posted by salmo7000

...They had a 25-foot stickie and were unable to get the slide to come out. No matter what they did, it was stuck, and with the floor plan of that particular trailer, having the slide in made it so the trailer was not really workable.

This happened to us with our brand new Rpod on one of our earlier long distance trips. Day 1 of a 2 week trip the slide motor quit and our slide was stuck in. All of our food, water and dog necessities were blocked by the stuck slide. We pushed on with the trip and had a good time. It then took Forest River most of the summer to make the repair under warranty. Ever since that trip, we would thank the Slide Gods whenever it worked. So glad to be done with that.

[rubicon327]

When describing to my buddy the difference between molded fiberglass and normal RV construction he said “why do you have so much disdain for these companies?” I said because they pump out crap and are not held accountable. The time, energy and money spent by all these unsuspecting customers is criminal. The RV junkyards reflect that many brands are almost disposable. Then we reward them during the pandemic with record purchases which gives them even less incentive to improve. Dealers are backed up for months with warranty service work. If you aren’t handy getting something simple fixed can mean missing an entire camping season. Some dealers might not even service it if you didn’t buy it there. My neighbor pulled his Class A motor home out of Camping World on my advice after it sat for weeks and they couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I downloaded the schematics and we fixed his 25’ slide ourselves. Sad. Why do we not hold the RV industry to the same standards as say the automotive or marine sectors?

For anyone with a little bit of time on their hands this is a good read...it will make you appreciate your Escape even more than you already do
https://fifthwheelst.com/documents/R...ompilation.pdf

[SageRpod]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

For anyone with a little bit of time on their hands this is a good read...it will make you appreciate your Escape even more than you already do
https://fifthwheelst.com/documents/R...ompilation.pdf

Thank you for sharing that article. I've made it through half the article and all I can say is WOW! I can honestly say I have experienced a number of the scenarios described. You are right, we love our Escape even more.

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

When describing to my buddy the difference between molded fiberglass and normal RV construction he said “why do you have so much disdain for these companies?” I said because they pump out crap and are not held accountable. The time, energy and money spent by all these unsuspecting customers is criminal. The RV junkyards reflect that many brands are almost disposable. Then we reward them during the pandemic with record purchases which gives them even less incentive to improve. Dealers are backed up for months with warranty service work. If you aren’t handy getting something simple fixed can mean missing an entire camping season. Some dealers might not even service it if you didn’t buy it there. My neighbor pulled his Class A motor home out of Camping World on my advice after it sat for weeks and they couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I downloaded the schematics and we fixed his 25’ slide ourselves. Sad. Why do we not hold the RV industry to the same standards as say the automotive or marine sectors?

For anyone with a little bit of time on their hands this is a good read...it will make you appreciate your Escape even more than you already do
https://fifthwheelst.com/documents/R...ompilation.pdf

I read 35 pages out of 63. The author has some valid points, either can’t or Doesn’t want to fix
or maintain his RV and has a completely different view of quality camping than we do so I didn’t waste any more time.

I thank my lucky stars every day for the training and experiences I had as a youth, a young man with mechanically inclined stock car building friends with a can do attitude and my great wife who has patience, vision, ability and great memories of camping crossways in a tent with her family , side of the wall tent rolled up and their feet sticking out. Now that’s camping.

We didn’t have a tent, slept on the ground near the fire wearing a Jean jacket and rolled up in war surplus wool army blankets. 50 billion stars, wood smoke, whippoorwills, aftertaste of dinner in our mouths and an angry mosquito on an exposed ankle completed the sensory quintathalon. That was camping.

And with the clicker on my $5 Shakespeare 1905 Deuce reel screaming from a fleeing catfish I became “River Certified”.
Have a great week, I’m going sacalait fishing.
Iowa Dave

[SageRpod]

Iowa_Dave, I get what you are saying and respect that. My wife and I were avid back packers, bicycle campers, car campers and now RVers. My parents flipped houses before flipping houses was cool, so all members of the family learned many trades. Adding to that I am a formally trained motorcycle mechanic. In sum, I am the perfect match for the current RV market.

The point is that people should not have to have all of that experience to enjoy RVs just as you do not have to be a GC to own a house or an auto engineer to own a car. This is where the RV industry falls flat. With some exceptions such as Escape, the RV industry churns out an inferior product that they do not have the resources to support the customer. That is a really poor business model and the customer is the one that pays the ultimate price.

[Selkirk]

As a first-time RV owner, I tried to perform as much research into the industry as possible prior to making a final decision to purchase an E19. I'm glad I did.

It would have been easy to walk into one of the local dealers and drive away with something indifferently manufactured by one of the big three conglomerates.

All new RVs are expensive relative to selling prices a few years ago. Escapes (and really all the molded fiberglass manufacturers) are certainly more costly than almost anything else in their size/weight class on the market. However, I couldn't justify spending perhaps 2/3 of an Escape's price on an alternative RV with the structural integrity of a garden shed, and designed with a near-endless number of potential weather seal failure points.

[oldwave]

Unfortunately marketing junk is American businesses genius

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by SageRpod

The point is that people should not have to have all of that experience to enjoy RVs just as you do not have to be a GC to own a house or an auto engineer to own a car. This is where the RV industry falls flat. With some exceptions such as Escape, the RV industry churns out an inferior product that they do not have the resources to support the customer. That is a really poor business model and the customer is the one that pays the ultimate price.

Thank you for reinforcing my point. Just because some of us can (and even enjoy) working on our trailers buyers shouldn't have to worry about that as a barrier to entry if they can't or don't want to. There should be a minimum quality level expectation and that would lead to safer RV's, a more enjoyable ownership experience and less backlog in the dealers/shops.

[MrLynn]

Sometimes there are no alternatives to stickies. My son needed a camper that would sleep 9, yet was towable by a Ford Transit 350 (maximum c. 5,000). He finally found a KV hybrid with three pop-out beds. He's now on his second season, and so far it's holding up. Fingers crossed!