Opinions on Jayco 26.5 bunkhouse?

[Tejasmike]

We're looking for our first camper.

Family of four. We really liked the layout of the 26.5 bunkhouse but it's way more than I initially planned to spend.

Dealer has it for a "clearence price" of 33k

MSRP was 45ish I believe.


This one has the elite and arctic pages.

Any information and advice you guys can provide would be helpful!

[SouthCo]

Price seems good. Nice floor plan and plenty of room for the four of you. We bought our first camper 2 years ago and now I wish we had gotten something a little bigger to start with. We are a family of 5.

[Tejasmike]

Thanks for the reply.


This is honestly much bigger than I ever wanted. I really wanted more of a 23ish foot bumper pull but the boss is really wantingmsetuing with separated sleeping areas.

[Bookemdanno]

Originally Posted by Tejasmike

Thanks for the reply.


This is honestly much bigger than I ever wanted. I really wanted more of a 23ish foot bumper pull but the boss is really wantingmsetuing with separated sleeping areas.

The boss is always right...At least when the boss is your wife!

[Cdash]

We have two kids and I will say that having a separate area for the kids and not having to make beds every morning and night is nice. We had a 33' bunk house that we got when the youngest was still crawling. We just traded that in on a 29.5 BHDS. The narrow bunks on the old camper weren't working for the kids as they were getting bigger. I would have liked the 26.5, however, wife likes the cabinet in back for the kids and the little "room" for changing.

You'll like pulling the fifth wheel. Easy hook up and they pull like a dream.

[SouthCo]

Originally Posted by Tejasmike

Thanks for the reply.


This is honestly much bigger than I ever wanted. I really wanted more of a 23ish foot bumper pull but the boss is really wantingmsetuing with separated sleeping areas.

In a year or two you'd want something a little bigger most likely. And buying twice costs more.

[Edd505]

I replaced a 25ft with the grandson sleeping on the jack-knife couch. Bed time we had no place inside. Traded to the bunk house & now he is off to bed while we play cards or what ever. If he's not along the space is storage and when he leaves home the bunk room will become an office space.

[mtedelen]

Originally Posted by Tejasmike

We're looking for our first camper.

Family of four. We really liked the layout of the 26.5 bunkhouse but it's way more than I initially planned to spend.

Dealer has it for a "clearence price" of 33k

MSRP was 45ish I believe.


This one has the elite and arctic pages.

Any information and advice you guys can provide would be helpful!

We ordered that exact (I assume you mean the 2016 Eagle HT 26.5BHS) trailer from RV Express however and will pick it up in Riverside, CA from Richardson's RV which is the same company in Southern California, we live in Reno. We paid 32,060 out the door before tax and it includes the following options:

Solid surface countertops
16" Wheel upgrade
Electric rear stabilizer jacks
15k BTU AC
Reese Revolution Pinbox (were towing with a short bed RAM)
Voyager Backup camera
Frameless windows

Im not sure what the elite/artic package is, I don't see that listed on Jayco's website?

We are in the same boat as you minus one, right now family of three (and one giant dog), maybe expanding? But extended family will tag along with us so I wanted room.....This will also be our first camper, and when we started looking almost 2 years ago we started by looking at an R-pod!!! Also, that 23' travel trailer you may have wanted is most likely longer then 23' behind your truck. When I measured the 26.5 Jayco fiver, the amount of trailer behind the truck is only 24'. Anyways, hope that helps as far as price negotiation with your dealer

[Tunce the traveler]

If you get the smaller one I bet that before your half way thru the camping season you'll kick yourself for not buying the one that's just a little larger on the outside but way larger on the inside with those bunks. Believe us, you'll be more than happy!

[Tejasmike]

Originally Posted by mtedelen

We ordered that exact (I assume you mean the 2016 Eagle HT 26.5BHS) trailer from RV Express however and will pick it up in Riverside, CA from Richardson's RV which is the same company in Southern California, we live in Reno. We paid 32,060 out the door before tax and it includes the following options:

Solid surface countertops
16" Wheel upgrade
Electric rear stabilizer jacks
15k BTU AC
Reese Revolution Pinbox (were towing with a short bed RAM)
Voyager Backup camera
Frameless windows

Im not sure what the elite/artic package is, I don't see that listed on Jayco's website?

We are in the same boat as you minus one, right now family of three (and one giant dog), maybe expanding? But extended family will tag along with us so I wanted room.....This will also be our first camper, and when we started looking almost 2 years ago we started by looking at an R-pod!!! Also, that 23' travel trailer you may have wanted is most likely longer then 23' behind your truck. When I measured the 26.5 Jayco fiver, the amount of trailer behind the truck is only 24'. Anyways, hope that helps as far as price negotiation with your dealer

That sounds like exactly what we were looking at.

Well also be towing it with a 2014 3/4 ton ram diesel.

The packages i guess I mixed up from the smaller trailers so I need to double check the options this one includes.

I've also found a couple 27.5 HTs with bunkhouse that we may take a look at.

Thanks yall.

[Flapper]

We have the rear living version, this will be the fourth season. Generally just the two of us, with two 60lb dogs. For that it works fine. But things are a little tight. Check things like clearances while sitting at the table (chair to table, distance to the person sitting next to you, etc.). Ditto on maneuvering around the kitchen with others seated nearby. And how easy/hard it may be to get in and out the door when everyone else is in bed. And make sure to double check how hard/easy it is to get to the bathroom or fridge with slides in and everything stowed for travel. We find ourselves wishing that the 27.5 had been available when we bought - that slight extra length would make things much better. But not sure whether that is available in a bunk version.

With my daughter and her two year old added, things get small, quickly. Granted, a high percent of the time, most of the bodies are outside, so room is adequate. But think a bit about how it all might work on a cold, wet day when everyone wants to be inside.

Bigger is of course always better, but it costs a lot more in many ways. And in the end, it is far better than a tent! So only you can evaluate whether the economy of space fits in with the type/length of camping you intend to do.

[RAurand]

We had a Jayco 26BH. There is 5 in our family, Kids are 14, 13 and 10. The 26BH was tight especially when everyone was inside the trailer. We just traded in on a 2016 28BHBE the end of October of 2015. NOW, we all have room with everyone inside the trailer and we can also sit everyone around the U-Dinette. Remember, Kids do GROW and require more space.

[Force]

Family of 4 here, my kids are 10 & 13. We just ordered the same 29.5BHDS model as outlined above and at the same cost (I ended up skipping the electric rear stabilizers, my 18v drill works just fine for that I figured)

My wife looked at countless TT and 5'ers online and at RV shows the last 2 years to finally settle on the Jayco. The only other one we seriously considered was a Grand Design, but at ~40' for the model we wanted, I decided it wasn't worth having something so big that we couldn't (necessarily) camp anywhere we wanted to (many sites have length restrictions for wooded lots, and I didn't want to end up camping in fields all the time). It also would have pushed the limits of my truck.

[jal0710]

Is this a local dealer? I would suggest you go to RVDirect or something like that. I know that my 26.5 RLS was listed at almost $38,000 and I got it from a local dealer who mostly price matched at $26,200, about a 31% discount. You might take a look at the on-line dealers, get a solid quote and then go to your local dealer to see what he might be able to do.

[Onefastdaddy]

We have that exact model, 2016 26.5 BHS, and overall we are loving it so far. We have it parked on family property (Wooded 13 acres in the foothills) and are preparing it for a western states tour in the next few weeks.

Pros:
1. Private bunks. Our girls are 9 and 10 and LOVE the rear bunks. They have windows, a curtain. The privacy to close the curtain and be in their own little world. The bathroom is right there. Perfect for small kids, family of 4 like us.
2. Layout, decor, look at feel inside. The colors and just how it was laid out for us is a huge plus and we really like the larger bathroom. The shower is huge for an RV.
3. Electronics. The FURRION system appears very budget but has every feature we want or need so far. Bluetooth pairing with an iPhone is cinch, DVD player plays video on the TV and audio out the internal speaker system. All good so far. We don't need anything fancier.
4. Single Slide simplicity. We had a much larger 3 slide FW before and it was so huge and heavy we didn't want to take it anywhere. The single slide when in still gives you enough room to get around. So if say you pulled over and want to just sleep until morning everyone can jump in and get to their beds without having to open the slide. Some FW once the slides are in you really can't use it. Also with the slide out it's really a nice open area there. Less slides means less mechanical things to go wrong IMHO. KISS principal.
5. Wired up for most everything we want already. Granted I have yet to find the other end of the solar connector on the roof but I'll get there or someone online here with the same unit will post theirs.
6. Lightweight. It is so awesome to pull this trailer with our 2008 F250 6.4L diesel (SuperCab, Shortbed). We got a sliding hitch but really now after our first tow I really think it probably isn't necessary to have a slider. But man it goes down the road so smooth and easy. We don't have airbags or even an extra leaf (yet) and it towed perfectly. We may not do anything to the truck it's so light and tows so well.
7. Lots of windows all around. Slide windows have side open windows so you get cross flow. Really a nice view all around for a FW.

Cons:
1. Tiny area for a single small battery provided up front. They should have wired everything to the bigger area in the front under the bedroom and let the customer store a toolbox or something in the small area where the battery is supposed to go.
2. Storage. There is really very little outside/underneath storage compared to most RVs and especially FW out there. Closets etc are just really minimal especially for a family of 4 that's 3 girls and a Dad. Maybe a roof rack to put a couple of bins up top?
3. Water and Waste tanks are pretty small. Granted we are hoping to boon dock as much as possible. I'm going to get us setup to be as off grid as possible. So really it's the black tank I wish was a bit larger. Maybe a self composting toilette would be the ticket.
4. Water pump is under the lower bunk in the back. Make sure your deepest sleeper is in that bunk as in the middle of the night a flush of the toilette will sound like a jackhammer. It doesn't wake our oldest (10) who sleeps there. If you have an infant or a light sleeper think of somehow sound dampening that water pump. I'm sure you could box it into a box with sound deadening insulation like for car audio type sound control.

That's about it so far. We sleep every night in the trailer for a few weeks now getting ready for our big trip and it's really comfortable.

Additions:
1. Samsung 4k 40" TV in the master bedroom. Overkill but we watch a lot of DVD and Online Movies. It also is a computer monitor using an HDMI cable to my Laptop. 40" was the smallest 4k model. It's like a Home Theater in the master bedroom now. Great for family movies with everyone together.
2. Mount for TV: I used a TV mount from CostCo (same place we got the TV) and I build a plywood plate to spread out the mount. Mounted the TV mount to the panel then screwed the panel to the wall with a lot of smaller wood screws. Really spread out the load so no one screw really has to hold much. Since it swivels you can move the TV all around for a nice fit. For travel I'll need to put some sort of strap or take the TV off the mount (single Allen screw).

Adding:
1. 500W (Two Grape Solar 250W panels) Solar on the roof
2. TriStar TS-60 MPPT charge controller
3. Second 110Ah truck battery (220Ah total)
4. 600W Pure Sine Inverter
6. 2" receiver Four Bike carrier on the back (no room in the truck or inside for 4 bikes)
7. Space memory foam mattress cover on master bed
Really there's not a lot that's required other than spend some time in it and realize there's not a lot of storage for a family inside or outside. If you can live with the absolute basics, we can, then it's going to be very rewarding to not have to haul around something much larger. We have had much larger and we very consciously chose this much smaller unit. We also like small houses and a much smaller footprint (Greener) way of living. If you have a big house, have lots of stuff, need lots of power it will seem very small quickly unless you only plan to use it for short weekend trips (IMHO).