Another S.O.B. converted

[Ian G]

Anyone remember last year's (2013) Escape Rally and that lone Casita sitting in a campground full of Escapee's? Well that started something; today we put down our deposit on a 19' Escape.

This will be our third fiberglass trailer, we will be selling our 2008 Casita Freedom Deluxe (probably to my sister-in-law), The Escape will become the big brother of our very tricked out 1974 Boler which we will continue to have fun in. After using the Casita for a full year and really enjoyed it, but we are looking towards future retirement and much longer trips we both feel the floor plan of the 19' Escape is more suited to us.

We are looking forward to working with the Escape team to build our "forever" trailer.

 

[Jim Bennett]

Congrats Ian.

Always great to see more Escapes here in Calgary.

Do we at least get to refer to you as an SOB at the rally this year? ;D

 

[gabeck]

That is an awesome rebuild and design . Congrats on the 19 , and I do remember your Casita - first interior Casita I had seen .

 

[Ian G]

Congrats Ian.

Always great to see more Escapes here in Calgary.

Do we at least get to refer to you as an SOB at the rally this year? ;D

Thanks Jim

Yes we will still be SOB's for this year but unfortunately I cannot attend this year's event, we have a trip planned to Scotland then stopping in Montreal on the way home to take in the Canadian F1 Grand Prix. the Escape Rally occures while we are away.

 

[gabeck]

So .... maybe an Alberta rally some day ? How about " Escape Chinook Edition" .... ! ! ??

 

[Ian G]

That is an awesome rebuild and design . Congrats on the 19 , and I do remember your Casita - first interior Casita I had seen .

Thank you
The Boler has been a passionate redesign and build, we are thrilled with how it is turning out. The exterior is being done this winter, full body work, paint, polishing all the aluminum (windows, belly band, etc)

So .... maybe an Alberta rally some day ? How about " Escape Chinook Edition" .... ! ! ??

Great idea, sign me up for the 2015 event

 

[Jim Bennett]

Thanks Jim

Yes we will still be SOB's for this year but unfortunately I cannot attend this year's event, we have a trip planned to Scotland then stopping in Montreal on the way home to take in the Canadian F1 Grand Prix. the Escape Rally occures while we are away.

Too bad, but you will be having good fun anyway. We are hoping to make it to Scotland late summer/early fall.

So .... maybe an Alberta rally some day ? How about " Escape Chinook Edition" .... ! ! ??

We tossed the idea about on the FGRV forum back a year or so about having a Fiberglass Rally. I know there was a bit of interest (from Ian too), the issue is the planning. I would love to help, but am way too busy with work not to do it all.

If we ever wanted to do an Escape Rally, we could easily fit a bunch of trailers out at our land on the James River NW of Sundre. We have no services (other than an outhouse ), but do have a nice cookhouse to use if the weather is bad.

 

[Brian B-P]

Ian, the wine rack is absolutely brilliant - I think it would be great if you could work that feature into your Escape. Presumably ETI could leave the appropriate cabinet space somewhere for you to add the rack, or you could supply the rack for ETI to install. I don't know where in an Escape the wine bottle curve would integrate well into the cabinet design as it does with the sink curve in the Boler, but I'm sure you'll think of something.

 

[Ron in BC]

Having done a bit of frame fabrication I can appreciate how well you did the new improved frame.

I feel your pain at not having an Escape to attend this years rally. How about you use our brand new 19 in return for the Montreal F1 tickets ;D Haven't been at that race since Schui won there for the last time.

But seriously, I love the table leg mod. As much as I love lots of things about the 19 the one thing that I noticed sitting in demo units is that the table rocks when I sit in my lounging position. That's sitting with my back to the wall and my arm on the table. If there's full glasses already on the table then that can cause spills etc.

So I've been wondering whether I'd fabricate my own leg system or use a more steady commercial system. Your solution looks like the answer. Is your final version one you fabricated or is it commercially available?

 

[Ian G]

Hi Ron

Looks like you are building a LoCost Super 7, is that what the frame is for?

The final table legs I used were commercially available (although not cheap)

I found them at Factory RV Surplus
Shipping costs up to Canada were crazy expensive because they would only ship UPS and I got hosed with their "brokerage fees" but I just had to have these.
You can see pictures of the commercial legs on my thread in the Fiberglass RV forum It Started as a Kitchen Reno- Project Boler - Page 6 - Fiberglass RV

 

[CADreamin]

Love your whole blog!!

 

[Ron in BC]

Hi Ron

Looks like you are building a LoCost Super 7, is that what the frame is for?
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You're right, looks like there's more than one Escapee car guy. Three years of sometimes beating my head against the wall, fabricating everything from the windshield frame, roll bar and pretty much everything else made from metal and 4 years of having an absolute ball blasting around in it.

I posted this photo on FGRV as an April fool's joke. I said I'd found the perfect fun tow vehicle Not sure I fooled anyone. At 1260lbs., even with trailer brakes, it could have been dicey.

Thanks for the table leg info and the website link. I'm going to ask EFI not to install the table. I'd like to eliminate the bulky and wobbly double pedestal. Since I don't expect to ever have to make the table into a bed my solution might be even simpler. Since I seem to have a bit of square tube around I might just weld up a fixed version first and try it out.

 

[Ian G]

Nice car, always like the 7.

If you go to my website check out the Volvord link, that is my car (which I call my Mid-life crisis) and it will work to tow my Boler.
www.Proud-Canadian.com

 

[Ron in BC]

it will work to tow my Boler.

[]

No kidding

What's the yellow badge? At first I thought it was a take-off of the prancing horse of Mananello with moose horns to make it Canadian

Ron

 

[Brian B-P]

What's the yellow badge? At first I thought it was a take-off of the prancing horse of Mananello with moose horns to make it Canadian

The "Raging Moose" is a Volvo thing, discussed in Volvo forums such as this one: Raging/Prancing Moose stickers, and explained in this post from a VW forum:

Understanding how this whole moose thing evolved.
Moose History 101: When the XC90 debuted in 2002, Volvo organized several test drive events, where quite a few Volvo fans came out to see and drive the new SUVs on fast cone slalom courses. Volvo was showing off their new and advanced Dynamic Stability Traction Control (DSTC), a first of its kind for an SUV. One of the courses was a special slalom, where a professional driver would take a carload of folks, accelerate to a high speed (60 mph if I recall correctly), keep his foot firmly planted on the gas... to the floor, and then crank the wheel as fast as he could one direction, then the other. This dangerous maneuver simulated the avoidance of an obstacle in the road, such as a moose (even though it was really just some cones). The DSTC was truly an amazing feature. Many other tall vehicles would have certainly become very unstable and possibly lost control, spun out or even rolled over during such an extreme maneuver, but the Volvo's DSTC took over and kept the SUV in perfect form without a hint of trouble. Volvo was calling this course the "Moose Avoidance Test," which seems to be a fairly common and useful test in places that might actually have mooses running out in front of cars.

Later, when Volvo began showing their new SUV at various places, such as car expos, one of them was sporting a pair of moose stickers on its fenders, although it was a cartoon-like standing moose profile (see photo), not a prancing moose. This concept inspired me to design the Volvo Prancing Moose. So if you own a Volvo and have a sense of humor, these stickers are a must for your car. And as you can see, they are also available for our SAAB cousins and many other worthy makes of cars. Moose stickers are turning up on many cars and trucks. Maybe the moose will insire world peace one day.

A member of my family has a Volvo C30 with these stickers... and a small toy moose on the dash. Perhaps tacky (the toy part), but done with restraint and thus amusing. You may need to drive in an area where moose roam across rural roads to appreciate the importance of moose avoidance. The Raging Moose is Swedish, but given the number of moose in some parts of Canada (and likely some northern U.S. states), it is relevant here, too.

 

[Ian G]

Thanks Brian

Yes in short the original Raging Moose was a tongue in cheek which was a take-off from the Lamborghini Charging Bull, was developed for the SEMA show. The following year the Prancing Moose was used as a parody to the Ferrari Prancing Horse.

The Moose logo is synonymous to Sweden because of their very high population of the animal.

 

[Ian G]

It has been a long time since my last posted, but I have been lurking in the background especially enjoying the "It's Friday" thread. But also reading other posts, threads to get ideas. The production date for our 19 is still almost 5 months away but our build sheet is almost set.

I stopped in to ETI today in our Boler on our way down to the Oregon Gathering, I want a visit and to seriously look at what we would and wouldn't include on our 19...all I can say is there were not too many blank lines on the build sheet, and we even added a few extra lines at the bottom.

The ETI team was great, helpful and cheerful. I am now back at the camp reviewing what we discussed and getting ready to sign it.

Our Boler waiting for her new companion:

 

[Karen H.]

That looks like a pretty spiffy Boler!

And I just checked out your blog and it's one of the best I've seen.

 

[Ian G]

That looks like a pretty spiffy Boler!

Thanks Karen
The Boler has been a 3 year ground up rebuild, a very unique project, but also lots of fun
Here are a few shots

 

[Jim Bennett]

Sure looks great, Ian.