The Quilting Lady
Senior Member
Picked up our Escape a few days before Rally and then traveled for three weeks through all kinds of weather and terrain.
Here is a quick review of things I like about options I choose. These are just my opinion... and everybody has their own needs and likes and dislikes. I hope that this is helpful for others out there and why I took the time to write this. Here are our experiences with what we ordered.
We went through one scary thunderstormand had no leaks and condensation on the walls or leaky windows unlike with our 2014 Casita. Glad we got the double paned windows and insulation. We have the old slider windows. We had cold nights and a few really hot afternoons.
We bought an Accurite remote refrig. monitor and we could always tell what temp our refrig was on, while we were driving and this saved us a few times. We had ordered it from Amazon, recommended by someone on this forum. One time we didn't close the refrig tight enough and the door came open while we were driving and without the remote we would not have known that the temp was going way up.
I used the additional door under the bed next to the bathroom door a lot!!! I had a small storage box there that was easy to slide in and out.
We put outlets between that door and the bathroom door. it was sometimes hard to use if the br door needed to be opened and closed, but it was very useful to recharge my phone, sit on the bed to use the hair dryer or plug in my computer while using it sitting up in bed.
I love the paper towel holder suggest here on this site. the one that has a long name that starts with K?????? The rachat feature was great! Love it.
Love my light counters and colorful fabric cushions. but my light beautiful floor only looks beautiful the second after I mop it and looks dirty the rest of the time. I would rethink that one!!!!
Haven't used the outdoor shower thing yet and may never, but if at some point we need it we will have it.?!???
Wondered if I would use the oven , but I did several times. Glad I got it. It was great to have warm bran muffins with huckleberry jam. Oh, and a pizza.
We used the microwave a few times at first, but after boondocking for 6 days we really didn't miss it at all and didnt use it after that.
We did not get the inverter. I was afraid that was a mistake, but since I could do without the microwave after all and it wouldn't work for the AC we didn't get it.
I Used an old fashioned rangetop percolater on the stove or campground fireplace and towel dried my hair. We also had the solar panel to help out with battery recharging. We never got below 75% . We used the zamp port with extra solar panel some, although we found we were moving it around a lot to find the sun, so the longer cord helped.
I am still debating whether i like the dicor slide, we need to take it off and redo it. The way we put it on, it is wobbly. The springfield works well and we put it up and down every time we travel, just one more step to do.
I like having amber lenses on my outside lights, didn't attract any bugs. ETI will put the amber ones on if you ask. At the last minute we added a light to each side of the trailer with an inside switch to turn them all on. That was for me! It was great one night when we got to a campsite late and we were hooking up. We actually needed all four sides lit since we had bikes on the back too. A few other times when I heard strange noises at night I turned them on temporarily.
The optional front window was great. It added a lot of light to the trailer and sometimes it was good to see what was going on out that side of the trailer. We didn't always open it, but I did like it. I like a lot of light in small places.
I bought a light and softer shower curtain and ditched the stiff plastic one that was so bulky. I just cut the new one to the same size.
I used the fold up table next to the sink often. My husband and I could actually cook together. I was stirring over the stove while he was helping chop up things on that little extension.
We used the sway bar all the time, but did not get the weight distribution bar, because we were told by some professional truck driver we wouldn't need one for our size trailer and we seemed to do just fine driving up and down mountains, sharp curves etc.
I guess we loved all our options, except the outdoor shower that we probably don't need and the flooring that is so light it looks dirty most of the time. A few times my husband said he regretted not getting the extra door on the outside under the dinnette, Although he says he can use that area to put things that will be more secure and safe since there is no outside door there to be easily broken in to.
Walter just added a few things. He says you should have a torque wrench to adjust the 95 lbs on the lug nuts. He wished he would have had one on our trip because a smaller wrench was difficult to use. He hates having to get on his hands and knees at his age to read the solar panel. If you have a new build ask if you can get it back up on the top cabinets if you have a hard time getting down on floor level to read it. While boondocking we checked it often and often had to get a flashlight to see it since it was up under the table.
He would like to see ETI offer a two step version of the steps. If you know someone who does that let us know. We heard Larry Gambel in Texas is not doing that for Escapes because it is much more difficult than the ones he puts on Casitas. Also there is a very sharp point up under one side of the step that injured one man a couple of years ago. We met him at a state park after leaving the rally and he showed us the same thing on ours. He ground his down and mentioned this to ETI. ( Please don't give me a hard time for mentioning this, but I just wanted folks to be careful.)
I hope this helps someone out there with all the tough decisions you have to make, everyone has their own opinions and own needs. I surely appreciated all the advice given to us along the way, by all the great folks here in the forum and all the great folks at ETI. It really made things wonderful!
Here is a quick review of things I like about options I choose. These are just my opinion... and everybody has their own needs and likes and dislikes. I hope that this is helpful for others out there and why I took the time to write this. Here are our experiences with what we ordered.
We went through one scary thunderstormand had no leaks and condensation on the walls or leaky windows unlike with our 2014 Casita. Glad we got the double paned windows and insulation. We have the old slider windows. We had cold nights and a few really hot afternoons.
We bought an Accurite remote refrig. monitor and we could always tell what temp our refrig was on, while we were driving and this saved us a few times. We had ordered it from Amazon, recommended by someone on this forum. One time we didn't close the refrig tight enough and the door came open while we were driving and without the remote we would not have known that the temp was going way up.
I used the additional door under the bed next to the bathroom door a lot!!! I had a small storage box there that was easy to slide in and out.
We put outlets between that door and the bathroom door. it was sometimes hard to use if the br door needed to be opened and closed, but it was very useful to recharge my phone, sit on the bed to use the hair dryer or plug in my computer while using it sitting up in bed.
I love the paper towel holder suggest here on this site. the one that has a long name that starts with K?????? The rachat feature was great! Love it.
Love my light counters and colorful fabric cushions. but my light beautiful floor only looks beautiful the second after I mop it and looks dirty the rest of the time. I would rethink that one!!!!
Haven't used the outdoor shower thing yet and may never, but if at some point we need it we will have it.?!???
Wondered if I would use the oven , but I did several times. Glad I got it. It was great to have warm bran muffins with huckleberry jam. Oh, and a pizza.
We used the microwave a few times at first, but after boondocking for 6 days we really didn't miss it at all and didnt use it after that.
We did not get the inverter. I was afraid that was a mistake, but since I could do without the microwave after all and it wouldn't work for the AC we didn't get it.
I Used an old fashioned rangetop percolater on the stove or campground fireplace and towel dried my hair. We also had the solar panel to help out with battery recharging. We never got below 75% . We used the zamp port with extra solar panel some, although we found we were moving it around a lot to find the sun, so the longer cord helped.
I am still debating whether i like the dicor slide, we need to take it off and redo it. The way we put it on, it is wobbly. The springfield works well and we put it up and down every time we travel, just one more step to do.
I like having amber lenses on my outside lights, didn't attract any bugs. ETI will put the amber ones on if you ask. At the last minute we added a light to each side of the trailer with an inside switch to turn them all on. That was for me! It was great one night when we got to a campsite late and we were hooking up. We actually needed all four sides lit since we had bikes on the back too. A few other times when I heard strange noises at night I turned them on temporarily.
The optional front window was great. It added a lot of light to the trailer and sometimes it was good to see what was going on out that side of the trailer. We didn't always open it, but I did like it. I like a lot of light in small places.
I bought a light and softer shower curtain and ditched the stiff plastic one that was so bulky. I just cut the new one to the same size.
I used the fold up table next to the sink often. My husband and I could actually cook together. I was stirring over the stove while he was helping chop up things on that little extension.
We used the sway bar all the time, but did not get the weight distribution bar, because we were told by some professional truck driver we wouldn't need one for our size trailer and we seemed to do just fine driving up and down mountains, sharp curves etc.
I guess we loved all our options, except the outdoor shower that we probably don't need and the flooring that is so light it looks dirty most of the time. A few times my husband said he regretted not getting the extra door on the outside under the dinnette, Although he says he can use that area to put things that will be more secure and safe since there is no outside door there to be easily broken in to.
Walter just added a few things. He says you should have a torque wrench to adjust the 95 lbs on the lug nuts. He wished he would have had one on our trip because a smaller wrench was difficult to use. He hates having to get on his hands and knees at his age to read the solar panel. If you have a new build ask if you can get it back up on the top cabinets if you have a hard time getting down on floor level to read it. While boondocking we checked it often and often had to get a flashlight to see it since it was up under the table.
He would like to see ETI offer a two step version of the steps. If you know someone who does that let us know. We heard Larry Gambel in Texas is not doing that for Escapes because it is much more difficult than the ones he puts on Casitas. Also there is a very sharp point up under one side of the step that injured one man a couple of years ago. We met him at a state park after leaving the rally and he showed us the same thing on ours. He ground his down and mentioned this to ETI. ( Please don't give me a hard time for mentioning this, but I just wanted folks to be careful.)
I hope this helps someone out there with all the tough decisions you have to make, everyone has their own opinions and own needs. I surely appreciated all the advice given to us along the way, by all the great folks here in the forum and all the great folks at ETI. It really made things wonderful!
