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Old 08-07-2015, 10:13 AM   #1
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Any Alante owners..

Greetings and first off thank you to everyone to contributes to this forum. It has been a good resource for us in our search for a new MH.

My wife and I have been looking at a few different class A's (FR3, Windsport) and are going to look at the Alantes in person this weekend. We were close to pulling the trigger on an FR3 but the quality didn't seem to be there and some things didn't work on our test drive (if a 2016 doesn't work at the dealer, what does that say for when we get it home?!). The Alantes look great and the 2 yr warranty is se great piece of mind.

I would love to hear feedback from any Alante owners. We have read great posts about the Precepts which r a step up, but wanted to see if there was a big difference based on owners.

Also how has everyone's usage of the 2 yr warranty gone? Is it pretty smooth or a hassle or completely based on the dealer?

Thanks again!!
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Old 08-15-2015, 02:19 AM   #2
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I read your post with interest the day you posted it. I’ve been checking back to see the responses and am surprised there have not been any. A couple of weeks ago, we were returning to Chicago from the Jayco Rally in Amana on US 80. About every 30 minutes we would see an Alante on the westbound side. At first, I thought “how can I be seeing so many of a new rig”. Then it dawned on me that these units were going to dealers in Davenport, Omaha, Denver, and other points west. So, I think your lack of responses may be due to the fact that the coach is so new and the buyers even newer. Just a thought.
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Old 08-15-2015, 05:05 AM   #3
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Welcome to the forum. I agree with Bobs A that the Alante is so new there aren't may out there
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Old 08-15-2015, 10:14 AM   #4
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I thought I wanted a Greyhawk 31FK until I saw the Alante 31V online. Soooooo confused. My dealer won't t have an Alante in stock until mid October, so it's killing me to hear what everyone thinks about them.

Here's my assumptions. Alante might have a little less material quality (cabinets, seating, etc) than the Greyhawk, but gets you the openness of a class A for essentially the same price.

Please, as soon as anyone sets foot in one, add your thoughts and comments!
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Old 08-16-2015, 06:37 AM   #5
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Csyrell, I have not been in an Alante, yet, but here are my thoughts. Motorhome Mag's May issue has a test of the Alante you may want to read. I have owned 2 Greyhawks and currently own a Precept 31 UL. I would not assume that the cabinet or seating quality in the Alante is less than the Greyhawk. In fact I'd be inclined to assume they are the same. The HP on the Alante is much greater than Greyhawk. The MH Mag review was quite negative about the driving of the Alante. I would drive both, one right after another and make that comparison myself. Dollar for dollar, Alante looks interesting. Would be interested to find out what you decide.

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Old 08-16-2015, 06:48 AM   #6
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Thanks Bob. I'll definitely check that article out!
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Old 09-03-2015, 12:39 PM   #7
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If anyone is going to be in the Hershey, PA area for next weekends RV Show, I reached out to Jayco and they advised the following:

Thank you for contacting Jayco and your interest in the Class A Alante 31V. I show the following Alante’s will be at the Hershey RV Show:

26X Alante
30M Alante
31V Alante
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Old 09-03-2015, 03:05 PM   #8
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I was in the 2 Alantes we got from the Jayco Dealer meeting in June from Denver. The interior is much like a Greyhawk Class C. Its about price point for a Class A. Competes well with Thor ACE from quality and price. As with all Jayco's you have the 2 year warranty. As pointed out the V-10 in a Class is not the same as a V-10 in a Class C.

If you look closely at an ACE you will buy the Jayco Alante
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Old 12-20-2015, 09:20 PM   #9
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I pick up my new 2016 Alante 26Y on the 4th of Jan so I get to check everything out on the 1000 mile drive home. I will post up my impressions. I have been Motor Homing for 10 years and do a lot of boondocking.
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Old 12-21-2015, 08:51 AM   #10
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JesseS, good luck with your new coach. Since your retired, take your time going that 1000 miles. Travel well

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Old 12-21-2015, 10:07 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobs A Class View Post
JesseS, good luck with your new coach. Since your retired, take your time going that 1000 miles. Travel well

Bob
Thanks for the advice, we are spending a couple of days in a RV park in Tucson (close to the dealer) to give all of the systems a good check before heading out. I will also Install the TPMS on the coach & toad, as well as get the GPS installed. Depending on the West Coast weather we will take 2-4 days getting back to Sacramento, been pretty wet here, which is a good thing.
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Old 12-30-2015, 08:51 PM   #12
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Just curious, JesseS. You do a lot of boondocking, which is one of the prime reasons I bought a Precept. It has a 70 gallon fresh water tank, a 51 gallon black tank, and a 41 gallon gray tank. The larger 32'3" Alante has the exact same size tanks, but the 26 footer has the smaller tanks of the Greyhawk. I believe the fresh tank is only 32 gallons? I'm a bit surprised you didn't opt for the larger model for that reason alone.
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Old 12-30-2015, 08:55 PM   #13
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Originally Posted by Cycledoc675 View Post
Just curious, JesseS. You do a lot of boondocking, which is one of the prime reasons I bought a Precept. It has a 70 gallon fresh water tank, a 51 gallon black tank, and a 41 gallon gray tank. The larger 32'3" Alante has the exact same size tanks, but the 26 footer has the smaller tanks of the Greyhawk. I believe the fresh tank is only 32 gallons? I'm a bit surprised you didn't opt for the larger model for that reason alone.
Hi, if you look at the spec's of the Alante 26 you will see that the 'X' has the tank capacities you mentioned, but the 'Y' model, which I bought, has the exact same tank capacities as the larger Precept. That is one reason I went with the 'Y' variant.
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Old 12-30-2015, 09:01 PM   #14
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My bad....just looked at Jayco's site again. I could have sworn that several months ago when the Alante was announced, the site showed much smaller tanks. But I see that it has the same fresh water and gray tank capacity. The black tank is 32 gallons compared to 51.5 gallons for the Precept, but honestly unless you have an army going in and out of your coach, that would do fine. (During WERA motorcycle race weekends, I have an army going in and out of mine. LOL!)
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Old 12-30-2015, 11:41 PM   #15
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Clcledoc, not sure what stats you are looking at, fresh water is 71.5, grey is 40, and black is 50 gal. AllAlante 26's have this tankage except for the 26AX which has 33 gal fresh due to the bedroom config not allowing much under the bed for the larger tank.
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Old 12-31-2015, 09:51 PM   #16
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On Jayco's website.....but they change specs all of the time and I'm certain the website is always lagging behind. That's cool that you got the same size tanks as the Precept. The Alante looks like a great deal. I was torn between the C-class Greyhawk or going with the A class, mostly due to concerns about servicing an A class. But now that I have an A class, I could never go back. Hope you enjoy your Alante and let us know your experience with it!
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Old 01-10-2016, 06:42 PM   #17
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OK, for anyone who is interested I have about 1200 miles and through inspection under my belt and here is my findings.
First off let me say I am happy with the coach, what I am not happy with is the QC as indicated by the number of things I found that needs correcting. Seems Jayco just shoots these down the assembly ling and leaves it up to the dealer to fix all of there mistakes.
1. Lots of bad caulking on the exterior and interior of the coach, had to have CW of Tucson fix 2 exterior spots due to possible leak.
2, Found no less that 8 loose screws on the slide frame, 2 have broken heads and will need to be drilled out
3. Outside entertainment center door missing caulk on 4" of top seam allowing the entire interior to get wet, along with water flowing out from under the shower. Once I found the entry point I used tape for a temporary fix.
4. Have found several places where the expanding foam sealer is missing allowing road spray to get into places it doesn't need to be in.
5. The Auto-leveling system stopped working in auto mode on the 3rd use, seems the factory did not purge all of the air out of the system and my use did, dropping the ATF level in the tank below the safety switch, showing a 'jacks down' condition all of the time. I had to use manual mode until I figured it out and bought more ATF at the next gas stop.
6. Accent LED lights on the front of the coach had one segment that did not work, upon inspection it seems the guy doing the wiring that day was in a hurry and decided it did not need to be wired. (wires hanging loose, no plug)
7. Lots and lots of junk behind the drawers, bits of wire, connectors, sawdust, chunks of foam insulation, screws, staple gun strips, a zip lock bag with something that looked like mustard on the inside. (but no money)
8. Bathroom mirror separating from the frame (bad liquid nails job)
9. Toilet paper bracket has striped screws on one side.
10. Shower door latch installed in wrong place allowing door latch to release while driving.
11. A mysterious wire with a push switch dangling from the top left of the windshield shade, curious as to what it is and where it is supposed to be.
And last but not least, and still counting one of the bathroom led's flickers.

OK, you might think this is a lot, but it is mostly small stuff that should have been caught at the factory, and wasn't. This tells me that the quality control isn't what it is supposed to be. My dealer has made an apt for the 20th to get it all taken care of.
Now for the one big thing.... drum roll..... this thing drives like a PIG!!!
Steering wander and tracking is bad, the tail wags the dog a lot, and roll is also bad. It looks like chassis performance was compromised for a 'soft ride'. Well, I have driven MCI buses, tractor trailers, and a lot of specialized military rigs and this one needs help.
So I am going to get rid of the cheap OEM shocks and use Blistien HD shocks, also going to install Blue Ox Tiger Trak Bars both front and rear. That should go a long way in stabilizing both steering and roll.

The interior of the coach is fine, everything now works, plenty of power to haul my toad over both the San Bernandinio mountains and Tahachapi Pass without struggling, although the engine noise in the lower gears was to me excessive. Perhaps some additional sound proofing in the doghouse would help.
So once I get all of these small pesky issues taken care of everything will be OK, only time, and miles, will tell.
I have installed the inverter, the 2 Trojan T-105 golf cart batteries, the solar panels and controller, and the battery management system.
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Old 01-11-2016, 10:48 PM   #18
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Curious to hear about the poor quality ride and handling, at least in stock form, especially since Jayco touts the "J-Ride" as a signature feature of their motorhomes. My experience with my Precept 29UM ride and handling has been outstanding on the 18,000 lb Ford F53 chassis, but I have read of Precept 31UL owners, also on the 18,000 lb chassis, report poor quality ride and handling. Now with full fuel, my Precept still has 2,009 lbs of additional weight capacity, so even with a full 70 gallon water tank, it is still 1,500 lbs under the GVWR. The Alante 26Y is built on the 16,000 lb F53, so I'm wondering how far under GVWR it is with full fuel? Concerning the quality control, I have heard consistently that all of the manufacturers lack it. I have had great luck with my Precept so far (12,000 miles and 11 months), but read about another 29UM owner here that has not been as fortunate. Hopefully for you though, it's all just "small stuff" and after upgrading your suspension, you'll have years of good service and performance out of your Alante. I am fortunate to have an awesome dealer just 1.5 miles from my house. In fact, they are replacing my front AC unit and fixing some very minor issues right now.
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Old 01-12-2016, 10:25 AM   #19
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I was not impressed with the 'J-Ride' hype at all. Perhaps I was spoiled from driving a Class 'C' for the last few years as it drove like my car pretty much. I had full fuel and 10 Gal of traveling water, along with nothing in the basement storage and almost no personal belongings except for one suitcase each. I did have the toad to pull so maybe the combination of a light load and the toad added to the problem. With full fuel & Propane I have an 1875lb cargo capacity, so after 300lbs of water that leaves 1500 lbs, so as driven I was at least (don't forget the occupants weight) 1200lbs under GVWR as there us no tongue weight on the toad. I attribute the Porpoising & floating front end to the low end shocks, Body roll isn't to bad so the anti-sway bars are OK, the steering wander and rut tracking is caused by front and rear axle shift due to the overly long leaf springs, thus the trak bars. I will start with upgrading the shocks and adding the rear trak bars to eliminate the rear axle shift, damping the front, and last add the front trak bar. I would do both at once but at $600 each I will go one at a time. Good thing is I can install it all myself.
On a good note my CW service manager stopped by my house (remember I know him well) to inspect the coach for any needed ordered items prior to the apt date.
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Old 01-13-2016, 06:42 PM   #20
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For those Alante owners.. thought you might like this Rollinontv Episode featuring
the Alante..

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