Initial Trailer Outfitting

[Brian B-P]

Not much if anything is metric on any trailer chassis built with common North American running gear - think 1960's American car hardware (as far as wrenches are concerned, and in other ways as well).

 

[lefttee]

I would echo check the door seal. We had to bring ours back from a KOA in Washington to have the door replaced. Even then they had to use foam strips to supplement the main door seal in places. Probably the biggest and only real negative of my Escape experience.

 

[ATHiker]

We have that covered. The Mrs is using this as an opportunity to upgrade the home kitchen. We'll take the "old" stuff camping (and I'll keep my mouth shut about the expense).

I'll toss a 13/16" socket and a torque wrench in for the drive. Why would I use a bottle jack? I'd assume that I can drive onto a 2x6 to change the tire on a dual axle trailer or am I missing something?

I think the standard jack in the Tacoma is a bottle jack.

 

[ATHiker]

I would echo check the door seal. We had to bring ours back from a KOA in Washington to have the door replaced. Even then they had to use foam strips to supplement the main door seal in places. Probably the biggest and only real negative of my Escape experience.

Could you provide some additional information. Does the Escape door not come with a door seal or was the seal not adequate? Just wonder how I should check it during my orientation?

 

[kvermeulen]

Could you provide some additional information. Does the Escape door not come with a door seal or was the seal not adequate? Just wonder how I should check it during my orientation?

I think if u check around the bottom of the door when closed u may see daylight. I would ask eti to check and make sure it is sealed before pick up.

ken

 

[gbaglo]

I've rationalized the "problem" by considering it a safety feature, allowing propane to escape should there be a leak inside the trailer.

 

[MacMan]

Thank you all for the lists. Extremely helpful for us new RVers getting ready to pick our trailers in Chilliwack. My whole life is made up of lists and allow me to be semi-functional on a daily basis. Thanks.

 

[Dave Walter]

I've rationalized the "problem" by considering it a safety feature, allowing propane to escape should there be a leak inside the trailer.

Actually, our propane detector started going off randomly within a day or two after I added additional weather stripping on the bottom of our door. Coincidence? I don't know. Ended up replacing the detector.

 

[gbaglo]

Did you replace with the same brand detector or another? ( cheaper )
Mine is original and I guess due to be replaced.

 

[steve dunham]

We carry pads to go under the base of our stabilizers . We laminated some 1/2 " treated plywood for pads and gave them a couple coats of paint. We camp in early spring (May in Wisconsin)) and when the frost starts to comes out of the ground ,the stabilizer sink and are useless. The pads allow you to stabilize the trailer and keep the stabilizers from being covered in mud. If you live in a warm dry climate disregard the above

 

[kvermeulen]

We carry pads to go under the base of our stabilizers . We laminated some 1/2 " treated plywood for pads and gave them a couple coats of paint. We camp in early spring (May in Wisconsin)) and when the frost starts to comes out of the ground ,the stabilizer sink and are useless. The pads allow you to stabilize the trailer and keep the stabilizers from being covered in mud. If you live in a warm dry climate disregard the above

How big are the pads.

thanks

 

[steve dunham]

Pad size

We carry pads to go under the base of our stabilizers . We laminated some 1/2 " treated plywood for pads and gave them a couple coats of paint. We camp in early spring (May in Wisconsin)) and when the frost starts to comes out of the ground ,the stabilizer sink and are useless. The pads allow you to stabilize the trailer and keep the stabilizers from being covered in mud. If you live in a warm dry climate disregard the above

How big are the pads.

thanks

We have the standard rear stabilizer and the pads are 10" x10"
I added 2 front stabilizers and the pads are 8" x 8"
I would have made them all 10" x 10" but I ran out of treated plywood and I was too cheap to buy another whole sheet of treated plywood just to gain 2 more inches on a pad .
Hope this answers your question.

 

[lefttee]

RE the door seal. There is a semi rant / thread posted earlier about the issue. We just noticed a large amount of light around the door our first morning. The sun was just right and it was rather dramatic. We went back to ETI and they paid for a space in a park across the freeway from them for the night. Door was replaced and we were on our way again early next day. They also had to tuck some rubber stripping behind the main door seal in places which I felt was kind of a bandaid approach given the otherwise superb quality of the trailer. Not a big deal overall...we're still loving our 19 and would do it again in a heartbeat. Now if they could just get a decent refrigerator but that's another chapter.

 

[cpaharley2008]

The door rubber seal will compress upon closing and when first installed the trailer sits, closed up. Upon use the rubber may not fully open/extend to it's original size, thus gaps may appear, more prevalent in cold weather than warm. Reace just places an additional piece of rubber behind the area where light appears. Your results will vary with both temperature and amount of time the door has been closed. I found that later the additional strips were not needed and I removed them.

 

[lefttee]

Even with the rubber strips behind the main door seal and even with the new door, we still can see some day light around the door. Maybe they have changed the main door seal since summer 2013 but ours is still a ways south of perfect.

 

[J Mac]

SEARCH - rubber+weather+stripping - Home Improvement, Home Renovation, Tools, & Hardware | Home Depot Canada

Ten bucks ought to fix you up.

 

[Dave Walter]

Did you replace with the same brand detector or another? ( cheaper )
Mine is original and I guess due to be replaced.

Sorry for late reply, I missed seeing your post. I replaced it with exact same model as was installed originally by Escape. Don't know if there was a better option or not, I simply stopped at a local RV shop on my way out of town on vacation and picked one up. (was a bit painful to the wallet). Took about 10 min for me to replace the original and I was set to go.

 

[Hawaiian Escapees]

A "BIG" Mahalo to Bruce for starting this thread and to Ellen Smith & Jim Bennett for their great suggestions!!!
Hawaiian Escapees

 

[Jim Bennett]

I just got a couple more requests for copy of my gear list. Here is a PDF of the latest revision. It is not as well organized as I would like, and there are items I want to permanently delete, as well as others to add, and once I pick up the 5.0TA, I imagine there will be more changes.

If anyone would like an excel copy to start their own list with, PM me your email and I would be glad too send it to you. You can then make changes to make it your own, for what would work best for you. Lots of others have given good ideas in the past that are not on here that you could then add too.

View attachment Escaping List.pdf

I quoted this post of mine to explain how I use it.

What I do is to take the master list made in Excel, and immediately delete items that I know are in the trailer, as well as the ones not needed for that trip. What is left is what we need to do, or load. When closing the file, I just choose to not save changes. Of course, like any other files on my computer, I have a couple backups in case something goes wrong.

 

[Loren & Cathy]

Invest in a good potable water hose. The one that comes with the trailer is not of the best quality and the end blew off of it at our first night in a campground. We were saved by our next door neighbors, Charlie and Lucy. Loren