Catchlight
Senior Member
I have good news, and bad news: first the good.
We picked up our Escape 21 at ETI last Friday, spent two nights at the beautiful Lightning Lake campground in Manning Park, then moved on to Rossland where we "camped" in a friend's driveway for two nights. The 21' tows beautifully, and our V6 Toyota 4Runner has the power and stability to handle the hills and tow it safely. Although we have nothing to compare it to, the Andersen hitch seems like an especially marvelous bit of technology, which leads me to the bad news, and then to some more good news.
When we went out this morning to hitch up, we discovered that the Andersen ball assembly had been stolen from our hitch receiver. Rossland has one of the lowest crime rates anywhere, but somebody apparently hadn't heard of the town's great reputation. I feel stupid for not locking the hitch assembly in the front storage box, the SUV, or my friend's house, and particularly stupid for not using the locking pin, still in the box, that we bought for the hitch ball. My lame excuse is the steep learning curve we've been on getting ready to tow, and the avalanche of minutiae that accompanies preparing for our first trip in our first trailer.
Back to the good news:
1. In true Rossland fashion, seconds after we discovered the theft, a young neighbour walked by with her dog, asked us what was wrong, and reappeared minutes later to offer to give us a standard hitch ball that was an extra in their garage. Of course it wouldn't fit an Andersen hitch, but our faith in humanity was immediately on the path to recovery.
2. I phoned Rhonda at Escape to ask if they could ship a replacement Andersen ball mechanism. Within 30 minutes she called back to ask for the ground-to-receiver measurement so Dennis could set it up, and to say new unit would arrive tomorrow by courier.
The moral of this cautionary tale is obvious, but I'll state it anyway: if you have a trailer, lock everything, no matter where you are. There was nothing to stop that thief from putting the Andersen ball in his receiver and stealing our trailer, but there will be from now on.
Anyway, it's a first-world problem, nobody was injured, and we will be happily back on our way to Waterton Lakes tomorrow with a lesson learned--the hard way.
We picked up our Escape 21 at ETI last Friday, spent two nights at the beautiful Lightning Lake campground in Manning Park, then moved on to Rossland where we "camped" in a friend's driveway for two nights. The 21' tows beautifully, and our V6 Toyota 4Runner has the power and stability to handle the hills and tow it safely. Although we have nothing to compare it to, the Andersen hitch seems like an especially marvelous bit of technology, which leads me to the bad news, and then to some more good news.
When we went out this morning to hitch up, we discovered that the Andersen ball assembly had been stolen from our hitch receiver. Rossland has one of the lowest crime rates anywhere, but somebody apparently hadn't heard of the town's great reputation. I feel stupid for not locking the hitch assembly in the front storage box, the SUV, or my friend's house, and particularly stupid for not using the locking pin, still in the box, that we bought for the hitch ball. My lame excuse is the steep learning curve we've been on getting ready to tow, and the avalanche of minutiae that accompanies preparing for our first trip in our first trailer.
Back to the good news:
1. In true Rossland fashion, seconds after we discovered the theft, a young neighbour walked by with her dog, asked us what was wrong, and reappeared minutes later to offer to give us a standard hitch ball that was an extra in their garage. Of course it wouldn't fit an Andersen hitch, but our faith in humanity was immediately on the path to recovery.
2. I phoned Rhonda at Escape to ask if they could ship a replacement Andersen ball mechanism. Within 30 minutes she called back to ask for the ground-to-receiver measurement so Dennis could set it up, and to say new unit would arrive tomorrow by courier.
The moral of this cautionary tale is obvious, but I'll state it anyway: if you have a trailer, lock everything, no matter where you are. There was nothing to stop that thief from putting the Andersen ball in his receiver and stealing our trailer, but there will be from now on.
Anyway, it's a first-world problem, nobody was injured, and we will be happily back on our way to Waterton Lakes tomorrow with a lesson learned--the hard way.
But, even in campgrounds, I tend to leave things of not great value out. Knock on wood, but after a lifetime of camping, I have never had anything taken. Well, that is if you don't count my brothers staying up later than me, and stealing my Scotch (not that I would think twice about 'borrowing' theirs). 
