Serenity, an Ekko RV

01/20/2022

Ekko January 2021 update:

So first, here is a little tour of the inside of the van during my trip to Florida earlier this month! I’m sure we will add some storage solutions and personalize it more over time but this is how it looks now.

The big news of the week which we are very excited about is that the recall Winnebago has on the shower drain finally has a fix. We are waiting to hear from our dealer when they will have the parts. At that time, I’ll drive it back to SC and get those installed. So, so excited for this! Currently, we can use the toilet and we can use the kitchen sink but we can’t use the shower or the bathroom sink so this will be great for stays at Harvest Host or boon-docking locations where we don’t have a shower house available to us!

I know some fellow Ekko folks follow this page so I promised to do an update on how we like the Ekko as we camp with it and any issues that come up. So I’ll get into that here.

Drivability - This is GREAT. I haven’t ever driven anything larger than our F-150 pickup and I had no trouble driving or parking this. It is barely bigger than a van so we can fit in many regular parking spaces and it is narrower than most RVs too so very easy to move around. I do want to add 360 degree cameras at some point to make it easier for me to get in and out of tight spaces when I’m alone and don’t have a spotter. But, I think most people won’t find that necessary.

Storage - I’ve found this so far to be adequate. Our bikes take up more of the garage than I expected them to. So we had to get creative with where to stuff other things back there but I think it will be ok as we figure out what we do and don’t need. We actually have less total storage space I think than when we had the truck and the teardrop, if we are bringing the bikes. I’ve already realized we won’t want to bring a lot of the stuff we used regularly with the teardrop actually. We just don’t need as much. (Like, an elaborate outside lighting set up for example, since we will spend more time inside at night I think) I’ve added some storage bins from Amazon and the container store to the cabinets to make them more useful and will do some more of that kind of thing moving forward I think. They have a good amount of cabinets just could use more shelves and drawers to divide them.

Heat/AC - The heat works great. It is extremely quiet and get warm fast. I did notice that the front of the cab was much, much colder than the bedroom on a cold night. I didn’t put up the insulating divider though. I probably will next time because it was a pretty huge difference so I know a lot of heat is being lost there. I did get an error message a couple times and didn’t find a way to fix it other than turning off the coach battery and turning it back on. I didn’t use the AC on this trip at all although Richard used it on his solo trio and he said it was extremely cold and very loud. Lol 😂 So I’m not looking forward to that. I did use the fan with window open combo one night and it worked great. The fan has a thermostat and will turn on and off a needed which is amazing. Only thing is bugs can get in around the edges of the screen. Very annoying design in bug country. Not sure what we will do about that.

Power - We recently had a second battery installed and I looooove it. Was pricey but allows us to go unplugged for a long time. I was there 5 days using it including the microwave and battery still had 35% left. After 3 hours driving to the next location they were back up to 100% on both batteries. Nice. So I was gone 8 days and never plugged in. Pretty sure between solar and the battery power we rarely will. I love that. I did have one issue with the inverter beeping at me and giving me a red light while using the microwave a few times. I need to investigate more what is going on but keep forgetting now that I’m home. I was not running anything else so we shouldn’t have had any issue.

Broken things - Yeah, we got some broken stuff. Our awning won’t go out but about a foot. It did work at the dealership and once after but now it isn’t working. Called Carefree, the manufacturer and they were great. They are sending a part and it seems easy enough for me to fix. Second thing is the lock. The deadbolt got stuck in the out position so the door wouldn’t close. 3 hours at a dealership and they couldn’t fix it. We got it to go in enough that I can close the door just can’t use the deadbolt. Using the other lock has been sufficient while we wait for the part from Winnebago to be sent to our dealer. It’s been a few weeks and they don’t have it yet. So… looking forward to that being fixed but also it is just one of the two locks so the camper is still useable in the meantime.

Some other EKKO owners have had issues with leaks, power problems were the inverter won’t turn on or the batteries won’t charge, things like that. So glad nothing we have had go wrong so far has kept us from using it. Looking forward to our next trip!

01/20/2022

Recently I took a trip to Florida in the new camper van but I haven’t gotten around to posting photos from the trip. I went to Wekiwa State Park for 5 days to spend some time with my parents and a group of friends. On the way I stopped for a night at Reed Bingham State Park in Georgia and on the way back I stopped at a Harvest Host goat farm. I found that 4 hours was about my limit for driving the van in a day so that worked out perfectly. Surprising since I can easily drive 8 in the car. But it is more taxing driving the van for sure.

Highlights included lots of ukulele playing. I recently bought my dad one for his birthday so it was super fun to play with him and we have some other ukulele and guitar players in the group so we got to do some group songs which was super fun for me!

Dad and I also played some games and rode bikes down to the spring. Carly enjoyed all the smells as always, and getting sleepy by the fire. It was a great trip and the weather was the best you could hope for! Was a fun trip and we are looking forward to so many more!

I’ll make a separate post with Ekko related notes for those who go are interested in that specifically, and a tour of the inside of the RV.

12/26/2021

Look at us fitting in a regular parking spot! We got Outback take out on the way home after camping and ate it right at “home” in the parking lot. Such an awesome feeling. It is so nice to go to the grocery store and load your food right into the fridge in the parking lot. I’m loving it all.

12/26/2021

Christmas camping (Day 2)

Was wonderful to wake up to a cute snuggly puppy, and a gorgeous view! Today we walked all over the park, checking out all the campsites for future stays. Richard cooked our Christmas meal on the outside kitchen stove and we enjoyed the beautiful view. A perfect Christmas Day!

12/26/2021

Maiden voyage, Christmas camping! (Day 1)

Everything went as planned. We are only 2 hours from Tugaloo State Park in Georgia. Stopped for a quick bite to eat along the way (ate on the table in the Ekko) and got to the campsite a few hours before dark, in time to decorate for Christmas Eve!

12/26/2021

Here are a few early photos, inside and out. I’m sure we will personalize it more along the way. 😉

12/26/2021

Richard and I (Cynthia) are pretty new to camping as adults. I grew up tent camping with my parents and at one point we had a pop up camper. Richard had nothing but bad experiences camping as a young person. Mostly lots and lots of rain and waking up soaking wet.

We after Covid began that we wanted to try camping as a family (us and our dog Carly). The spread of Covid-19 had put a damper on our international travels and we were looking to spend some more time with my parents who had been camping for over 3 years in their Rustic Trails Teardrop Camper. After looking at some big travel trailers, we decided to keep it simple and affordable and go with a RTTC too, a Kodiak Stealth. We picked it up in the summer of 2021 and immediately started camping with it. We had numerous trips in Georgia but also went to Alabama, South Carolina, and Florida. In short, we loved it!

In December of the same year we decided that we wanted to actually look at getting a campervan. I wanted to travel some without Richard (when he had to work) so I wanted something more self contained that required less set up and tear down. And, I wanted something with a bathroom inside. I started looking at some class B campervans which would have been a great size for just me and Carly, but wouldn’t really be enough for Richard too. Most of the class Cs were bigger than I wanted to deal with on my own though. Dilemma.

In the end we found the Leisure Travel Vans Wonder RTB which seemed pretty perfect with a great mix of a good floorplan with a cargo area under the beds that could fit two bikes. We even went to see one and it was beautiful. But, then I found the Winnebago Ekko. It wasn’t quite as fancy as the LTV but was still really nice, had a very similar floor plan, but was also a 4 seasons camper, had 4 wheel drive, solar and large battery capacity, and was slightly smaller. It was a tough decision but we felt the Ekko was a little more in line with what we wanted to be able to do with our RV. There was a huge wait, at least a year to order one but we luckily found one of the few demo models in the country and snagged it!

So that is how we found ourselves to be the excited new owners of a 2022 Winnebago Ekko, with only a few hundred on the road. It is a brand new model and this year has come with more than a few issues for the Ekko but we were aware of those problems when we purchased it and I don’t think it will affect our enjoyment of the camper much as we wait for those fixes by Winnebago. Just excited to have one and already have a bunch of trips planned!

12/26/2021