From Casita sd17 to a 21 Escape

[Glenn Baglo]

I have a 17B and your wife is correct. Get the 19 for the extra aisle space and so you can play cards or dine with another couple in your trailer.
Mine is ten years old. Took it to ETI a few weeks ago to have caulking checked and for any other maintenance issues. They replaced the battery box, which was cracked and fixed a break in the Maxxfan wiring. I've found no issues.
I did have the furnace motor replaced under warranty and a couple bits in the Dometic fridge have broken, but those are the same appliances used in other trailers.

[trainman]

We have a 2018 Casita and the wife now thinks we need a larger trailer, I showed her the Oliver and told her to get her checkbook out, she thought a stick-built would work for less money, boy was she wrong, now she sees the difference and looking at me with her checkbook in hand. Now we need to upgrade the 2017 Ridgeline with a Ram 3/4 ton pickup, she told me to get my checkbook out. Moral of the story is, have a checkbook.

trainman

[buellfire]

Originally Posted by trainman

We have a 2018 Casita and the wife now thinks we need a larger trailer, I showed her the Oliver and told her to get her checkbook out, she thought a stick-built would work for less money, boy was she wrong, now she sees the difference and looking at me with her checkbook in hand. Now we need to upgrade the 2017 Ridgeline with a Ram 3/4 ton pickup, she told me to get my checkbook out. Moral of the story is, have a checkbook.

trainman

We sold the Casita this past week and have placed adds looking for a used Bigfoot or Escape. Got a feeling that I'm just going to write that big check to Escape and take a trip in June! One good thing for us, my truck was overkill for the Casita 2016 Tundra w/ 5.7l. The Escape should tow just as well!

[buellfire]

Ordered an 2019 Escape 21 this afternoon, to be built this spring. Thanks for the guidance!

[trainman]

Originally Posted by buellfire

Ordered an 2019 Escape 21 this afternoon, to be built this spring. Thanks for the guidance!

We have a friend who purchase a 5.0 Escape, they picked it up in the U.S. as Escape will bring it across the border and it saves you the border crossing BS that Canada can impose. Other things to think about would be insurance, etc. I have looked into the Escape, but for now we are looking toward the Oliver, just a personal choice for us.

trainman

[slowpat]

I am curious about what we call the Canadian Discount. Is the ratio of US money to Canadian money figured at the time of the order or the time of the picking up?

[steve dunham]

Originally Posted by slowpat

I am curious about what we call the Canadian Discount. Is the ratio of US money to Canadian money figured at the time of the order or the time of the picking up?

They use the exchange rate that is in effect on the day you make your payment
There are several good threads on this subject on the Escape Trailer Forum
The exchange rate the other day was $1.30 CND to $1 USD

[buellfire]

With the Canadian exchange rate the escape 21 is about half the price of the Oliver

[steve dunham]

Originally Posted by buellfire

With the Canadian exchange rate the escape 21 is about half the price of the Oliver

That’s like comparing apples to oranges with price being the only criteria

[sclifrickson]

Originally Posted by buellfire

With the Canadian exchange rate the escape 21 is about half the price of the Oliver

I did a full breakdown of a fully optioned Escape 21 vs a fully optioned Oliver Elite II a few months ago for a neighbor who was considering both, trying to make it as "apples to apples" as possible. Of course some things are just going to be different, eg Oliver's double hull construction, lack of permanent bed size bigger than a twin on the Oliver, and no oven option on the Oliver. The Escape came out about $25,000 cheaper, so it's up to individual buyer whether the remaining differences are worth that sum or not. Also noteworthy, Oliver has a "comparison tool" on their website that compares their trailers to Escapes and Airstreams, but the Escape data is full of misleading errors.

This is what I came up with. I had to call Oliver to get pricing on some of their options. Prices on some items has likely changed in the months since I put this together, so consider it a rough guide. I know Escape has altered their pricing on the awnings (manual awning is now standard, again, and electric is an upgrade, but they also dropped their base price by the same amount, so no price change overall).

[MyronL]

An Oliver pulled up beside me at a dump site in Mesa Verde last year. Had to chat with its owner and he invited me inside it for a look-see. Very impressive detailing and upscale look compared to the more conservative, traditional, lower rent oak look in my 19 footer. I was impressed. The Ollie certainly has a solid feel to it. It is the heavier lift of the two, though, and I don't mean just in the price. I came away feeling with an Escape I got much more than my money's worth.

[jgilliam1955]

Originally Posted by Myron Leski

An Oliver pulled up beside me at a dump site in Mesa Verde last year. Had to chat with its owner and he invited me inside it for a look-see. Very impressive detailing and upscale look compared to the more conservative, traditional, lower rent oak look in my 19 footer. I was impressed. The Ollie certainly has a solid feel to it. It is the heavier lift of the two, though, and I don't mean just in the price. I came away feeling with an Escape I got much more than my money's worth.

I did the same thing. Was invited to look in one. The folks had been using it full time. It WAS impressive. It's one of those "If I won the lottery" type of Trailer.

[buellfire]

I didn’t mean to disrespect any other camper owners when I compared an Escape vs Oliver. The Oliver is built much closer to me and would be a weekend trip down and back. However a equipped Oliver is $65-70,000. This is just to far out of our budget. Also while l love the modern sleek interior, the storage lacking compared to the Escape. Lastly if you go on to the main RVTrader type sites you can find used Oliver’s for sale, much less than msrp just a few years old. You wouldn’t find a used Escape much under msrp even a few years old. This is just my opinion.

[Perryb67]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

That’s like comparing apples to oranges with price being the only criteria

Actually, with price being the only criteria it would be comparing apples to apples.

Two years ago we had a chance to purchase a 2014 Oliver for $39,000, located in Clearwater, Minnesota, in absolutely immaculate condition. I wanted to purchase it, but Terry did not (only later did I realize we could have made $10,000 just flipping the Oliver).

I liked Oliver's:

• Stainless steel and aluminum parts
• Double wall construction
• Four 6 volt batteries
• Overkill construction

I didn't like Oliver's:

• Weight of the trailer
• Wires everywhere when I looked under all the seats, ruining potential storage
• Small refrigerator

Terry liked Oliver's:

• Really nothing

Terry disliked Oliver's:

• Stark, white, sterile interior
• Narrow twin beds with a lip that your legs would sit on
• Small refrigerator
• Lack of counter space

On October 26 we pick up our Escape 5.0 TA.

We like Escape's:

• Much bigger refrigerator
• Queen bed
• Flush mounted cooktop
• More usable counter space
• Warm wood interior
• Properly routed wires
• More usable storage space
• Lighter camper
• Solar panel
• $5,000 cheaper the used Oliver, but is configured with options we want ($30,000 less than a similarly equipped new Oliver)

We dislike Escape's:

• Soft vinyl walls (we prefer the carpet that was in our Casita)

Terry gets what she wants (especially, no crawl-over bed or narrow twin) and that's the most important part. I save $5,000, plus what it would have taken to add solar, and a lighter pulling camper.

And that is comparing apples to oranges.

We also owned a 2003 25' Bigfoot for a year and foolishly sold it. That Bigfoot was built as well or better than the Oliver and functionally was far superior.

Enjoy,

Perry

[trainman]

Originally Posted by buellfire

I didn’t mean to disrespect any other camper owners when I compared an Escape vs Oliver. The Oliver is built much closer to me and would be a weekend trip down and back. However a equipped Oliver is $65-70,000. This is just to far out of our budget. Also while l love the modern sleek interior, the storage lacking compared to the Escape. Lastly if you go on to the main RVTrader type sites you can find used Oliver’s for sale, much less than msrp just a few years old. You wouldn’t find a used Escape much under msrp even a few years old. This is just my opinion.

I personally think the Oliver and Escape both depreciate at the same percentage rate, as do Casita's and Scamps. The higher the list price the percentage rate decreases about the same. I still think that the Oliver is the best built trailer on the market today in the fiberglass class. The Bigfoot may be the best bang for the buck in the larger fiberglass trailers as you can get good discounts on then through there dealer group here in the U.S. and there very nice trailers. Casita and Scamp you can't go wrong, what can you say bad about them. Escape for me and there old style cabinets just looks like a trailer manufactured 30 years ago, but the trailer is build ok, but wouldn't be my top choice in fiberglass trailers. We have a 2018 Casita which we really like, but like everyone else someday we might want to move up to a large trailer. Number 1. choice would be the Oliver with the Bigfoot number 2. and the Escape number 3. Price would not be a factor in our choice of trailers, but size and floorplan would be. There is almost no right, or wrong here, just personal preference.

trainman