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While our trailer is being built, each week, Escape Trailer Industries sends some photos of it. It's very exciting. Here are our week 1 photos.
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When you order an Escape trailer, you receive a list of the standard equipment for the trailer model and a list of the optional equipment. Yes, they build them to order and if you don't see what you want on the list, ask and they will probably add it to the build. Where else today can you get a custom built trailer? Probably on high end motor homes and some trailers, but this is the first I have run into on a main stream product. Escape is a small manufacturer; they just completed their 1000th trailer, but they are growing fast. The wait time is about 9 months, although we were able to get a faster delivery slot by asking - and waiting for a cancellation.
So what did we add to our standard equipment? We decided to name our new Escape 19 trailer "Blanquillo." This is Spanish for "little white thing." We originally thought about naming it "huevo nuevo" as I like the alliteration, but I found that "huevo" means "egg" but also is often used for "ball" as in testicle. That seemed too crude for us. The Urban Slang Dictionary suggested "blanquillo" as an alternative, more polite term.
Why a Spanish term? We live in northern California and there is a heavy Spanish influence here. We saw others using French terms, so we thought about possible names in other languages and Spanish seemed appropriate given the area where we live. I started camping with my parents first in a tent then in a 1958 Tour-a-home stick built Trailer (a trailer made with a wood frame covered with aluminum sheet). The Tour-a-home was a park model, that is, it was built only for connecting to utilities in an RV park. My dad modified it to be self-contained, installing gas and water systems.
Our family of 6 toured the country from Maine to San Diego and we loved it. While waiting for our new Escape 19 trailer, which we have named "Blanquillo" for little white thing, I have been researching information on it and similar trailers. It has several features we haven't had before and a lot of features we have had. For example, our prior trailer had wheels, tires, bearings, and brakes and I know a lot about how to take care of them, but we didn't have a bathroom or holding tanks, so I need to learn how to, well, dump them.
And I am discovering a lot I should have known and just didn't pay much attention to. I have been taking care of the tires and bearings. Since we had a blowout last fall, I have learned and re-learned about tire care. I started putting the trailer up on jack stands when it would sit for a while so that the tires wouldn't be stuck in one position with weight on them. But I haven't adjusted the brakes since we got it. This is despite the fact that I bought a brake adjusting tool. I just didn't use it. And did you know how important it is to check the tightness of the lug nuts after changing a tire? I didn't but I have seen stories of people losing wheels due to lug nuts loosening. Or so they claim. I will check them just to be safe. I haven't had any loosen on me so it obviously doesn't happen often. There have been two forums that have been helpful to me in learning about the new and the old. The first one is the Escape forum (http://escapeforum.org) and the second is Fiberglass RV forums (http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/) |
Our EscapeRetirement is great. We bought a travel trailer and are exploring National Parks. (Actually, we bought one and sold it and bought a second one better suited to us. It happens...) And I have time to do some woodworking projects and things around the house. And now I have gotten interested in ham radio so there goes any free time. Archives
July 2015
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