2020 Trillium Outback Review

[RVnewbie]

Thanks Jon,

I have been lurking this site for probably close to 10 years, and Armadillo is only an hour away from me. However, much like Granbow, the $10K more for base model is off putting. Even the Outback base model is quite expensive for my budget, realistically I can afford a used trailer. But I am not at all mechanically inclined nor do I have a time to redo a used trailer, so a used one in good refurbished condition often comes in $5K less than a brand new Outback. So my brain goes brand new for $20K or $15K for a 30 year old trailer! I know good trailers come in cheaper than that but in BC that means you need to be on all the classified sites every day and willing to travel the day it posts to buy it on the spot, lol, these trailers are very popular here.

Thanks for the thoughts!

Originally Posted by Jon in AZ

You might want to take a look at the new Armadillo Backpack model. Similar size and function as the Outback and seems to have an excellent reputation for build quality, customer service, and on-time delivery.

[Jon in AZ]

Originally Posted by RVnewbie

Thanks Jon,

I have been lurking this site for probably close to 10 years, and Armadillo is only an hour away from me. However, much like Granbow, the $10K more for base model is off putting. Even the Outback base model is quite expensive for my budget, realistically I can afford a used trailer. But I am not at all mechanically inclined nor do I have a time to redo a used trailer, so a used one in good refurbished condition often comes in $5K less than a brand new Outback. So my brain goes brand new for $20K or $15K for a 30 year old trailer! I know good trailers come in cheaper than that but in BC that means you need to be on all the classified sites every day and willing to travel the day it posts to buy it on the spot, lol, these trailers are very popular here.

Thanks for the thoughts!

I totally understand. I didn't realize there was that much difference in the price, assuming similar features. I saw Armadillo's prices on the website, but I wasn't acquainted with Outback's pricing. I was thinking they were in the mid-$20K range with typical options (USD, since that's how my brain is wired, similar to Happier Camper), and the Backpack only seemed to be a little higher than that.

They've all been going up pretty steeply in recent years, even Scamp. Used prices follow.

I hope you soon find yourself in the right place at the right time!

[Mikmay]

Being fg is a major component to fg construction it stands to reason single shell vs double hull will make for a substantial difference in price, it’s literally 2 complete trailers. Both the armadillo and outback I believe use single shell construction and a base model of each should be reasonably comparable in price .
The double hulled trailers such as the Oliver ,newer Park liner as well as some others including the HC1and HCT start out at least 30-40% higher due to their build process .

[Sayde]

Hello! I was wondering if you picked up your trailer! Are you loving it?

[ShelbyM]

OP hasn't posted since November. Surely must have it by now, I'd love to see pics of that custom color combo.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by RVnewbie

I was just about to place an order with Outback, when I started reading the google reviews. I decided to come here and see what I could find. This is exactly what I was hoping to find, but I really want to hear the end result of your experience!

My experience....I travel a bit and if I'm only spending the night I don't bother to unhook or deploy the stabilizer jacks. When parked in a campground for a few days the stabilizers are deployed. Are they needed? In my opinion YES. The trailer is very rocky with them deployed, which is ok when sleeping but NOT good when walking around attempting to cook a meal or getting dressed.

[thrifty bill]

Originally Posted by ShelbyM

OP hasn't posted since November. Surely must have it by now, I'd love to see pics of that custom color combo.

No news in this case is not good news.......OP was pretty convinced this was going to go perfectly. Hopefully it did.

[k0wtz]

We had an A-Liner it was perfect. Pulled flat, was easy to tug and you could set it up under 1 minute.

Then big-time back surgery came not once but twice. Rods and more rods! This limited me so I sold the A-Liner and got a 13f Scamp no bathroom no shower.

We carry a porttapottie and have learned to do military baths since we boondock. We don't like looking for or paying for camping(our way) so this works perfectly for us!

Now setting the A-Liner up at Walmarts was certainly an attention getter. I am thinking we sold one putting on our show. We had that drafty trailer in 18d weather in a snowstorm, ice storm in Iowa and made it fine. I did have to park it by a semi the next morning as the wind was very scary ever seen an A-Liner blew apart but other than that if was fantastic!

Whatever you choose I am sure you will love and be happy with! We two chose used over new!

good luck

bob

I have been lurking this site for probably close to 10 years, and Armadillo is only an hour away from me. However, much like Granbow, the $10K more for base model is off putting. Even the Outback base model is quite expensive for my budget, realistically I can afford a used trailer. But I am not at all mechanically inclined nor do I have a time to redo a used trailer, so a used one in good refurbished condition often comes in $5K less than a brand new Outback. So my brain goes brand new for $20K or $15K for a 30 year old trailer! I know good trailers come in cheaper than that but in BC that means you need to be on all the classified sites every day and willing to travel the day it posts to buy it on the spot, lol, these trailers are very popular here.

Thanks for the thoughts![/QUOTE]

[Grabow]

My apologies for the lack of follow up lately, but there hasn't been a lot to report.

I haven't picked up my trailer yet, but it is definitely under construction (see pics)

At the moment, I'm in no hurry to pick it up, as the border between the U.S. and Canada has already been closed for about a month, and they just announced today that they are extending the closure by another 30 days.

If the trailer is finished before they reopen the border though, I may look into seeing if picking it up might qualify as "essential travel", since they've left the door open for commerce/trade.

Either way, I'll be excited to pick it up as soon as that's an option! Once this crisis is behind us (whenever that may be), I can't wait to take a nice long family trip with the new Trillium!

[ShelbyM]

Cool! Good to hear they are continuing to work on it, however slowly. Be optimistic!

[gtblue]

Originally Posted by Grabow

My apologies for the lack of follow up lately, but there hasn't been a lot to report.

I haven't picked up my trailer yet, but it is definitely under construction (see pics)

At the moment, I'm in no hurry to pick it up, as the border between the U.S. and Canada has already been closed for about a month, and they just announced today that they are extending the closure by another 30 days.

If the trailer is finished before they reopen the border though, I may look into seeing if picking it up might qualify as "essential travel", since they've left the door open for commerce/trade.

Either way, I'll be excited to pick it up as soon as that's an option! Once this crisis is behind us (whenever that may be), I can't wait to take a nice long family trip with the new Trillium!

Hello Grabow,

I appreciate your sharing photos of your partially assembled trailer. I enjoy seeing the normally hidden spaces, and how they are put together. Thanks.

The worldwide landscape has changed significantly in the last few weeks/months, and I can see why you might be ok with a short wait to pick up your trailer.

In your recent post you wrote, "...there hasn't been a lot to report.", and "If the trailer is finished before they reopen the border...". Based on the discussions in the earlier parts of this thread, seems like there should be more than a few things to report on.

To begin with, was the trailer done March 1, or no? That seems worth a mention, especially since it is at the core of your stated intent in starting this thread. What happened to the "hard" delivery date? Back in November(?) there was talk of unalterable vacation dates, scheduled 6 months in advance, to facilitate the trip of a lifetime immediately following pickup. I wouldn't expect that you'd be taking that trip right now, still, doesn't appear your trailer would have been ready anyway . Have been following this thread with interest, but we haven't heard from you since last year. (You may have noticed multiple inquiries in the first part of March.) Inquiring minds wanna know!!! For sure, the Covid-19 pandemic plays a part in this story, but wasn't your trailer due before this all ramped up?

You started out forthcoming, in sharing your experience with purchasing a custom Trillium from TrilliumRV. Please do not leave us with months of undocumented experiences.

I too, wish you a positive experience, either way.

MJ

[gtblue]

“You started out forthcoming, in sharing your experience with purchasing a custom Trillium from TrilliumRV. “


Wanted to correct an error from last post. Should have written Trillium Outback, not Trillium RV.

Having difficulty editing that post.

MJ

[Grabow]

I'll try to be more thorough than I was in my last post, it certainly wasn't my intention to leave things undocumented.

I'll try my best to address everything you've mentioned, but I have to assume that some of your questions are rhetorical. (like wether or not my trailer was ready on March 1st) I think it was pretty obvious from my post that the trailer wasn't finished.

My "hard delivery date" was changed when I cancelled my travel plans in mid February due to the coronavirus situation. I know most people weren't really paying attention to the virus until March, but we (my business partners and I) have been following things since early January. We rely on many products from China, so we decided to start building back stock in our inventory in early February to reduce supply chain issues.

By mid February, we already had contingency plans in place for alternate supply chains, social distancing in our locations, and for operating with reduced staff. At that point we also felt pretty certain that this was going to hit every corner of the globe, so this is when I changed my travel plans. (which, for the record, wasn't something I was considering an once in a lifetime trip)

Although I spoke with Joe several times in January, and a little bit in early February, I never actually communicated to him that my travel plans had changed (I was pretty busy with my business). So I presume my trailer wouldn't have been finished on the agreed date, but because my travel plans had changed I wasn't all that worried about it.

Joe then reached out to me on March 13th to let me know that even though he was having some supply issues, because of Chinese manufacturing, he had plenty of components to finish my trailer and a few others.

It was a week after this that the border between the U.S. and Canada was shut down to non essential travel, and it looks like it will be closed at least until May 20.

Anyways, that should get things caught up to my last post.

As I've said from the beginning, Joe has been very responsive and hasn't left me hanging at all in regards to communication. I'm still pleased with how things are going at this point, and don't have any complaints.

[kootenaigirl]

Love the colour of your trailer.
So just to clarify on your original hard delivery date of March 1st was the trailer just the shell that is in the pictures or had they actually started work on anything else?

[theresa p]

Brian----thank you for your response to the queries some readers had regarding your experiences. Just off the top, I want to make it clear---abundantly---that we did not purchase our Outback thru Joe, as ours was ordered in bulk by someone in Nova Scotia who purchased 5 with his choices of options---we were lucky enough to learn of him when he had just one unit left--ours!---and we bought thru him.

However, we have dealt with Joe numerous times for little things that we wanted to order thru him and our experiences have ALWAYS been 100%. He has always been helpful and responsive to our requests.
Some folks here on this forum have documented experiences that have not matched ours. Being that we didn't have the $$$ invested in a deal with him directly, we can offer our opinions and experiences for our type of business dealings only.


So.....that brings me to you. I am so very pleased to read that your experiences, to date, have been positive. Sure, it is disappointing to not be able to have your trailer to use right now. But things will change, eventually!


Our Outback, of which we are the original owners, is perfect for us. We have had zero issues with it. Sure, we needed to reseat the windows 2 years ago--we had a small leak----but it was due to age, not workmanship. Other than that, we've had a wonderful 15 years in it....with plans for many, many more to come. It lives up to its name OSOKOZY.



Please post here once you have received your Outback. I'd very much like to know how the rest of this journey goes.

[gtblue]

Originally Posted by Grabow

My delivery/pick up date is March 1st, 2020, and I couldn’t be more excited.

My main goal in posting this is to document the current state of customer service and workmanship at Trillium Outback. I know I would have loved to read a positive account of dealings with Joe and Reece Thoen before placing my order and sending a deposit. This thread will serve as just that: a thorough account of the process of purchasing a Trillium Outback, from start to finish. I’ll add updates as things progress, so check back often and feel free to ask any questions you might have.

Hello Brian,

Thank you for filling in some of the gaps in your trailer buying experience.

Since we’re communicating on the internet, it is possible the intended tone of my inquiry was “ lost in translation”. I honestly want to follow along, check back often and ask questions. I chose to ask, about your trailer delivery date, rather than presume Trillium Outback didn’t finish or fell short on workmanship, meaning it was done on time, but unacceptable. Sounds like both parties made adjustments, but there was no way to know.

Sounds like you’re a busy guy, and chronicling your trailer purchase may have taken a back seat to keeping your business going and your loved ones healthy/safe. No worries. You aren’t obligated to keep us updated.

Please post ( with lots of photos please) when you take possession.

Toodles

[Replay]

Wow. I am in the market and went to visit Trillium Outback recently. I'm pretty sure I saw yours (yellow colour and fabric choice), and seeing it definitely helped to convince me to place an order. Hopefully all goes well.

[Glenn Baglo]

Originally Posted by Replay

Wow. I am in the market and went to visit Trillium Outback recently. I'm pretty sure I saw yours (yellow colour and fabric choice), and seeing it definitely helped to convince me to place an order. Hopefully all goes well.

And, you've check out Better Business Bureau?

[Replay]

Yes. Like the original poster, I have seen the bad reviews and lately, a few positive ones. Also, like the original poster, the product seems to fit my needs and budget (would love to be able to afford an Armadillo). Since I'm in no rush for this, I decided to go ahead with the order. Hopefully I will have a good experience as well.

[thrifty bill]

So you saw a trailer being built. It was due to deliver March 1st. So it’s over FIVE months late already. Impressed, not so much.

Long record of not delivering on time.