Escapees May June 2015 Demo

Gary retired from the paper industry and Judy closed her window treatments work room

in May 2004. In June 2004 they went on the road full-time in a Honda Civic and a tent.

They purchased a 2001 Alpine motorhome in September 2004 and joined Escapees that

fall. Gary says, “It has been a great journey.”

Early in the project, my mate,

Judy, threw me a curve. “Wouldn’t

it be nice if we could use it as an

overnighter? All you would have to

do is make a space for a queen-size

air mattress.” Actually it is the kind

of challenge I enjoy. I made the two

benches on opposite sides of the aisle

with flip tops. They are hinged with

full-length piano hinges and meet in

the middle. As it turned out, I only

had enough space for a standard-size

air mattress.

Saw Mount

The most interesting feature is the

mount for the Shopsmith saw. It is

mounted on a 60-inch long Kwik-kie

storage bay tray mounted crossways

at the front of the van. What you buy

from Kwik-kie is a kit to build a tray.

You supply the plywood bottom to

fit your storage bay and bolt the rails

onto the plywood. My plywood is

only 20 inches wide. I removed the

Shopsmith’s legs and built two 4.5-

inch tall legs that are bolted directly

to the tray. With the tray fully

extended from the side

door, I can cut 13-

inch slices off of

full-length plywood

sheets. It would be

better, of course, if

I could cut a bit over

24 inches. I could

ESCAPEES

May/June 2015

www.escapees.com

probably create an added slide func-

tion to get that width of cut. We will

wait and see how important this issue

becomes. As it is, I get along with the

skillsaw for those cuts.

Weight Check

With everything settled into its perma-

nent position, the van tips the scales

at 9,500 pounds. This leaves us 500

pounds of unused capacity before it

becomes overloaded. The only issue

while towing is the inability to back

up. With the Haulmark trailer, I could,

and did, back up frequently, once for

nearly a mile when the road we were

on turned into a cow-path. On the

other hand, it is nice to pull in and dis-

connect and then only have to back the

coach into that tight-fitting campsite.

Driving and Parking

At this time, we have towed the

Sprinter 6,500 miles. We have only

gotten into a pickle once. We

parked across several park-

ing stalls in a parking lot between

curbed islands with trees. Extracting

ourselves from these tight quarters

required disconnecting and jockeying

each vehicle independently.

Everything has worked out won-

derfully. The Sprinter is easy to drive,

gets about 18 miles to the gallon and

we can find a parking spot almost

anywhere. It is about 2,000 pounds

heavier than the trailer, but yet the im-

pact on our fuel mileage on the Alpine

motorhome has been minimal.

I will add that, as a camper, it is a

bit Spartan. First of all, it is not self-

contained. There is no water and no

potty, unless you count the paint buck-

et chamber pot. It is about equivalent

to camping with a tent. You blow up

the mattress and make the bed every

night and take it all down every morn-

ing. It is wired for 30-amp service,

so there are lights, and you can bring

your coffee pot—so life is good. All I

need is a sign to mount over the door

that says, “Gary’s Man Cave.”

As a veteran and a member of Escapees RV Club you are eligible to receive a five

percent discount via our online store. This includes Escapees membership dues, Es-

capade registration fees, Escapees Mail Service dues and club products (excluding

gift certificates and donations). It doesn’t matter whether you are joining Escapees

or have been a member for decades. Once your club membership is designated as

“veteran,” your discount will be active immediately!

For more information, visit:

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OR CALL 888-SKP-CLUB

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“…we have towed the Sprinter 5,300 miles.

We have only gotten into a pickle once.”