
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.