2006 Escapade Elite

 

Not sure where to start my review on this one. California Sidecar makes these and they are one of the top contenders in the GoldWing trailer market. I think they are capable of putting out a fine product. However - the trailer I received had several issues. I would highly recommend purchasing your trailer through a local dealer rather than direct from the factory. This way you have a local resource if the trailer arrives damaged or with issues.

The first thing I noticed that was not right was the paint on the lid. I could see the pattern of the fiberglass matt underneath the paint. In my opinion, totally unacceptable for a $4,000 + trailer.

The next issue I noticed was after my second time pulling it and I was removing some items out of it. As I removed things, I could hear the shocks struggling to rebound. I completely emptied the trailer and pushed down to compress the shocks, when I let go I could definitely hear the shocks binding on the rebound. This was with about 20 lbs psi in the shocks. They should have rebounded gracefully at that setting with no cargo.

I contacted CSC tech support and asked them about the problem., They said they were aware of some of the Elite trailers having rebound issues and they have not yet pinpointed the problem. I removed the wheel and removed the bottom shock bolt that goes through the shock-eye into the swingarm. The swingarm had freeplay as it should, so the issue lies in either the shock or the shock mounting. The eye-bolt appears to be a captive bolt... at least I couldn't remove it from the eye. Closer inspection showed some hard red material (I assume red Loctite ) a few threads outside of the eye. I scraped away what I could and shot some lubricant onto the bolt threads and into the eye as much as possible. This helped a bit, but you still need a wrench to spin the bolt.

Another minor annoyance was where the tongue goes into the trailer receiver. There was some left - right play that made the trailer feel like it was tugging when it was being pulled. I solved that (temporarily) by jamming a piece of hard plastic into the side of the receiver, forcing the tongue to one side.

Another (small) issue was the silver trim which lines the bottom edge of the lid. There are some areas where the trim sags... obviously not glued very well to the lid.

Outside of those issues, the trailer pulls quite nicely. We took it from Sacramento to San Diego and back this 4th Jully weekend and had no functional issues. Even at 80mph it tracked nicely behind the bike.

I am currently working with the dealer I bought the trailer from to resolve the paint and shock issues. I will update this page when we reach a resolution.

Resolution:

CSC fixed the paint at no cost to me. The dealer I purchased the trailer from also fixed the shock rebound issue at no cost to me.