Quality Control

[scottarue]

Katemcginn12@gmail.com. -- Good to see someone else on the thread from Minnesota. The solar system that we are getting is what makes me the most nervous. We are getting two solar panels and four lithium batteries. If the solar is not charging the batteries, I have no idea what I will do to search out the problem. I am not mechanical or electrical Knowledgeable. There are a few RV dealers in Fargo, North Dakota which I live near, but I have no idea what their expertise is with solar. Hoping we have good weather the week. We stay around Cilliwack. My hope is to drive back to Minnesota without any problems. Wouldn't that be great! I hear there are a lot of people that have no problems so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks for all of your replies.

[Katemcginn12@gmail.com]

I assure you that it is not the switch. 😂 Many possibilities have been reviewed with escape. It's too cold here in Minnesota to continue to work on it...hence,the trip to Florida mentioned. My brother in law is an EE who has installed solar systems on a couple trailers. He'll get it figured out for us. Thanks though!

[NoSOD]

Originally Posted by scottarue

Thanks for the reassurance, Ron. We have been anticipating the trailer for 2 years (while I wait for retirement) and now that we are at the stage of having it built, I am getting cold feet, wondering if I am getting in over my head. Not sure how things have been effected at Escape since Karl Kenny left.

You have lots of time to educate yourselves about owning an RV and maintaining it. I recommend getting hold of a basic book such as "RV's for Dummies" and reading through it. Also, if you haven't hitched up, towed or set up your site before, you might want to read and/or watch youtube on that subject, as you are going to have to do that yourself every time you go out. Perhaps your local automotive club has an RV course you could take?

You are certain to have things go wrong with some components of your trailer. As pointed out by others, the components you will end up with are common to just about all trailers, and no better quality. At least you are buying new, and will have a valid warranty for all of them. We bought a used rig and found that the warranties we needed didn't transfer.

Whatever goes wrong, someone on this forum will have experienced it before and will have posted about it, or will be able to offer advice. The forum is perhaps the best part of being an Escape owner, though the downside is that you can end up feeling a bit inadequate if you are not up to eg repacking your own bearings, or rewiring something or other. Don't let that worry you, there are sure to be outfits near you that will repair anything if you give them enough money. Because Escape sells direct though, you wont have a dedicated dealer/service centre. You will need to contact a few ahead of time to ask if they would provide service for your Escape. There are mobile repair services too.

Like anything, you will learn as you go, and by the third year, you will wonder why you were ever worried about the things that intimidated you at first, and you will love your Escape experiences!

[Donna D.]

Just a tip from a single and solo traveler who has years of experience camping.

As long as your trailer is safe to go down the road, you're good. Don't get all upset when something doesn't work. IF you ever tent camped, backpacked or car camped, you are STILL ahead by owning a travel trailer. You're dry, warm and safe. Treat your trailer like a hard-sided tent until you get to where you can get whatever broke, fixed. Tent campers don't (typically) have heat on-demand or flush toilet or lots of lighting, and on and on. You'd survive without some of that stuff for a couple of days.

IS a trailer where everything doesn't work convenient? 'EL no. But I still think we often need to put things into prospective. Heck, I've done without heat and hot water in my sticks 'n bricks for a few days and managed to survive!

Manage your stress. THAT's a real killer. A new day comes around shortly. Enjoy it.

[Centex]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

.... Manage your stress. THAT's a real killer. A new day comes around shortly. Enjoy it.

Amen to that, and all the other wise words

[bborzell]

Simply speaking; the odds of having a good experience with your new Escape are strongly in your favor. If something does not work as planned, there are paths toward resolution.

[John in Santa Cruz]

if you're having a solar charging issue... measure the battery voltage when its dark, then again the following sunny day. the solar charging voltage should be like 2V more than the rest voltage.

[SageRpod]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

Just a tip from a single and solo traveler who has years of experience camping.

As long as your trailer is safe to go down the road, you're good. Don't get all upset when something doesn't work. IF you ever tent camped, backpacked or car camped, you are STILL ahead by owning a travel trailer. You're dry, warm and safe. Treat your trailer like a hard-sided tent until you get to where you can get whatever broke, fixed. Tent campers don't (typically) have heat on-demand or flush toilet or lots of lighting, and on and on. You'd survive without some of that stuff for a couple of days.

IS a trailer where everything doesn't work convenient? 'EL no. But I still think we often need to put things into prospective. Heck, I've done without heat and hot water in my sticks 'n bricks for a few days and managed to survive!

Manage your stress. THAT's a real killer. A new day comes around shortly. Enjoy it.

What Donna said. Couldn't have said it better.

Adding one more positive note; the daylight gets longer starting today!

[Chamberman]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

2018. Tammy was finished on Memorial Day 2018. Finalized on June 1, 2019. Reace stayed on as a 'consultant' until August 12, 2019.

Just to back up your dates.

The original owner of our E19 told me that when he picked up his trailer the 3rd week of May 2019 he got to meet Reace. However Reace couldn't spend but a few minutes with him because according to Reace it was his last day at Escape and he was busy finishing up. The import date on our trailer is 5/24/19.

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by Chamberman

Just to back up your dates.

The original owner of our E19 told me that when he picked up his trailer the 3rd week of May 2019 he got to meet Reace. However Reace couldn't spend but a few minutes with him because according to Reace it was his last day at Escape and he was busy finishing up. The import date on our trailer is 5/24/19.

Yeah, my mistake. Reace mentioned June 1, 2019 here: https://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f...ire-15973.html

[oldwave]

Originally Posted by Katemcginn12@gmail.com

Hi! We're from Afton Minnesota! We picked our new 21C up during a cloudy rainy week and were not able to test the solar charge. Our lithium batteries were fully charged at pickup....but not apparently, by the solar system. When we got back home, we discovered that the batteries wouldn't charge from the solar panels. I think that wasn't checked by Escape. Multiple communications later, it still doesn't work. We're going to have our "family expert" fix it in January when we go to Florida. That said, we are very pleased with the trailer itself. No problem is insurmountable and you can find the help that you need one way or another. You are wise, though, to check out every system that you can. It's A dang long road trip back to Escape!

How cold was it? Your batteries have low temp protection. They will not charge under 32f. Unless they are heated which will only work on shore power.

[oldwave]

Originally Posted by scottarue

Katemcginn12@gmail.com. -- Good to see someone else on the thread from Minnesota. The solar system that we are getting is what makes me the most nervous. We are getting two solar panels and four lithium batteries. If the solar is not charging the batteries, I have no idea what I will do to search out the problem. I am not mechanical or electrical Knowledgeable. There are a few RV dealers in Fargo, North Dakota which I live near, but I have no idea what their expertise is with solar. Hoping we have good weather the week. We stay around Cilliwack. My hope is to drive back to Minnesota without any problems. Wouldn't that be great! I hear there are a lot of people that have no problems so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks for all of your replies.

It’s unlikely that you’ll have major issues with the solar system. Remember that it won’t charge when the batteries are below 32

[MrLynn]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

Yeah, my mistake. Reace mentioned June 1, 2019 here: https://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f...ire-15973.html

OK, build of our 21C was completed 13Feb19, so we can say that ours is a 'Reace Era' Escape.