Brought Home my Eagle 324BHTS

[jasoncw]

Wow, is this a tall trailer! It is much higher off the ground than my previous Keystone Bullet. Plus I opted for the 16" wheel/tire upgrade, which makes it even taller. I'm not sure my hitch is even high enough to tow it level, but I'll find out this weekend. With my Bullet, I had the hitch at almost the lowest slot, but now with it flipped up, I have it all the way as high as it will go. Very different. In the pic below, it is actually sitting level. It looks like the tongue jack is almost maxed out.

I had a very thorough walk-through, and even before I went out there, the tech told me they had a couple items on order from Jayco. First was simply a clip that holds a cap on the end of a water line under the outside sink, and the other was the mis-matched colored sink covers (I have the solid surface counters). Overall I highly recommend my dealer (General RV in Brownstown, MI). They worked with me very well on price, did the usual robbing me on my trade-in (but not too bad), and have been great with communication and service.

Other than the two items mentioned above, the only other items I found:

1. No dealers in my area had this floor plan in stock, so I only looked at similar Eagles before ordering this model. I didn't realize I would not be able to access pretty much anything without moving the slides (bathroom, bedroom, bunkhouse, kitchen). Kind of a pain, but I will deal with it. At least the kitchen is on a curb-side slide, so that will be easy to deal with. But it would be nice to be able to pull off the side of the road to use the bathroom in an emergency.

2. Lessmore warned me to make sure I tested the sofa HAB (Party Sofa) to make sure it had enough room to open with the island. Of course that is the one thing I didn't test, and guess what? It doesn't fit! I'm going to eventually have to take it back in for them to either move the sofa back a bit, or move the island (most likely the sofa).

3. The kitchen faucet is finicky, and it has to be turned off just right in order to fully turn off the water. I got home from the dealer and found a good amount of water on the floor from the residual dribble (even with the pump off).

Time to take it out for a test run. Going to Hocking Hills State Park in OH this weekend. It's forecasted for rain all day Saturday, so if nothing else, at least I can make sure it doesn't leak.

[need-a-vacation]

Congrats on the rig arriving in time to get out before the white stuff flies!!!

Looks great! Have a safe trip!!!

[ecksdude]

Nice!

I can't wait, my 284BHBE Eagle is supposed to show up next week!

[Perry]

We just bought the 2016 Eagle 324BHTS. We had a 2007 Jayflight 31 BHS for 9 years and it treated us well (I am a mechanic so repairing and upgrading is no big deal, but never had any major flaws with it).

We love the new trailer and layout overall and I can see it is built well for the most part, but here is what I found in the first week!

1. As posted, slides in, do nothing. thats the price you pay for SqFt.

2. Kitchen slide leaked today in first rain, the trailer is listing a bit and the water is running toward trailer, but still. I like to have the slides out when parked at home for access. Might need an slide awning if it fits.

3. Bunk house cannot have a flip couch because of egress window on back left side, they give you cool "gaming" chairs unfortunately the bunk cabinet facing the chairs has a ladder right in the middle. outlet and tv location are in the top back of trailer!

4. Main are LED lighting is all or nothing, no individual control or dimming, just one switch near entry.

5. Remote control relay board had very bad quality to the wiring, many wire were frayed out of the terminals lowering ampacity and creating possible shorts. I repaired that immediately.

6. Stove has no cover.

7. Hard surface sink covers need to be stowed before traveling or they will fly out (mine did but no damage).

8. City water hookup in (6 in one) is in the middle of the bike rack, and the water hookup is very flimsy plastic tube that sticks out. dont think that will last long before cracking.

9. Master bedroom light switch is located all the way around by the right side headboard so you need to go all the around the bed to get to it. Why?

10. Nice big med cabinet in bath except SURPRISE when you open the door and everything falls out. Very shallow and has no shelf lip.

11. Dopey velcro is the only thing holding the shower plumbing access door to the front of the unit. It keeps falling off since the glue wont stick to the slick surface.

12. Plywood under the bunk, over outdoor kitchen, is overlapping each other rather than butting up. I will need to remove, cut and re-install properly. Also noticed a lot of splintered wood wherever they drove in screws under bunks. Not good for the cushions.

13. Switch for front "jack lights" is hidden under front cowl, bumped my head reaching under for it at night, on the fiberglass bubble front.

14. Not much storage outside except for the front compartment (thats the cost of having the outdoor kitchen).

15. Nice storage hatches, but they still use the "flip catch" instead of the magnetic one hand catches.

16. Lift bed in Master is still the same flimsy board as they always are. Always afraid when lifting to break something.

17. Electric Stabilizers are not independent. good luck leveling left to right, also not powerful. Rather have old scissor type with power drill.

18. Dinette is small but we knew that going in. That is the sacrifice for the center island feature. Table still uses the shaky "cup and post" method.

19. Main windows are crank outs with small openings, but they added sliding windows in the sides of the slides.

20. Sliding door in master bedroom to bath has no "closed" catch or lock. dont forget to strap that door open or it will slam back and forth in transit. That has been a problem with their sliding doors since my first Jay.

Even so, I think this is probably one of the better trailers on the market if not the best.
I just think quality control folks and some of the design folks need to spend some time with these trailers. I saw worse flaws on other "like" brands and layouts at the Hershey show.

[fielro]

Great looking rig,congrats and enjoy

[Campfire79]

Jason,
Thanks for posting about this trailer. We have still not purchased but did look at this model at Terrytown in Grand Rapids. How did the first camping trip go? Any issues?

Perry,
Thanks for all the details, really appreciate it. This will be a good "checklist" of things to look at/consider if we decide to look at this model again.

For all of you with this trailer:

1. Where does the outdoor kitchen sink drain to? We are finding on some models of other manufacturers with this floor plan they drain ON THE GROUND and not into the gray tank.

2. For those with the cargo/bike rack, how do you mount/secure bikes to it? The one at Terrytown we looked at has the rack and I messed around with it a bit and could not see any safe way to put bikes on it.

Thanks!

[jasoncw]

Originally Posted by Campfire79

Jason,
Thanks for posting about this trailer. We have still not purchased but did look at this model at Terrytown in Grand Rapids. How did the first camping trip go? Any issues?

The only hitch we came across during the trip that we hadn't prior to the trip is the operation of the Schwintech slide (kitchen slide). It now does not operate properly unless someone is forcefully "helping" it in, while the button is being pushed. Everything else was great.

Originally Posted by Campfire79

For all of you with this trailer:

1. Where does the outdoor kitchen sink drain to? We are finding on some models of other manufacturers with this floor plan they drain ON THE GROUND and not into the gray tank.

2. For those with the cargo/bike rack, how do you mount/secure bikes to it? The one at Terrytown we looked at has the rack and I messed around with it a bit and could not see any safe way to put bikes on it.

Thanks!

1. My guess would be the rear gray tank, but I did not test it yet. It definitely does not drain onto the ground. In my last TT (Keystone Premier), it drained into the black tank.

2. We didn't bring the bikes on our last trip, since we knew there was going to be a good chance of it raining most of the weekend (which it did). The only place I can see to secure them would be to the post that you fold upright and secure with a pin. Maybe a secondary strap to the bumper as well.

[jasoncw]

Took it out last weekend, and the Schwintek slide is now operating flawlessly. I don't know what caused it to finally reset properly, but I'm glad it did. I just dropped it off at the dealer on Tuesday to get a few things fixed:

1. Sofa needs to be moved back, so the HAB can fully open (see my original post above).

2. Sofa had several upholstery staples sticking out underneath the sofa where you would instinctively grab to open the HAB. I ripped a big gash in my finger when I first tried to open the HAB.

3. Replace the kitchen faucet (see original post above).

4. The bottom seal on the kitchen slide does not touch half of the slide.

5. The faulty pex fitting on part of the plumbing for the outdoor kitchen came in, so they will replace that (originally discovered by the dealer and ordered from Jayco).

6. One of the island cabinet doors ripped off during the last trip on the way home. They are two large doors, so I'm surprised there are only stops on the top. I plan to add another to the bottom to hold it closed better.

7. I had mentioned in another thread that the rearview camera was operated on the same switch as the hitch lights on the front cap. Definitely odd. Well, I happened to be reading over the shoulder of the service writer when I brought it in, and I saw a notation that the hitch lights were inoperable from the factory. So instead of installing a new switch, they hooked it up to the rearview camera switch. This will be fixed.

8. I noticed that the trailer does not track straight down the road. It doglegs a bit to the right. It is clearly visible when looking down the side of the trailer from my driver side rearview mirror.

9. This is not warranty work, but... I have had a TT for 6 years now, and my last one I never even put a scratch on it. The 2nd outing I go on in the new TT, and this happens. Bottom panel is scratched/dented, door stopper broke off, awning scratched (hopefully not leaking), and stairs slightly bent. Damn tree jumped right out in front of me as I was leaving the site.

[jasoncw]

Can anyone tell me what type of connection this is? It is on the forward-most part of the frame, just below the a-frame.






I also found this loose wiring under the trailer, just rear of the propane tanks. Anyone know what this might be for? It is pretty thick cable (8 AWG).

[ocps9823]

I would guess the connection is for Solar. Some trailers have a prewired connection.

[jasoncw]

Originally Posted by ocps9823

I would guess the connection is for Solar. Some trailers have a prewired connection.

Thanks for the input. I don't know much about solar, but I do know that there are wires just inside the main door, and they exit through the roof. I imagine these would be the wires to connect to the battery?