In 2015 we purchased a never-used 2013 Jayco Swift 185rb travel trailer in a private sale. The seller had purchased it new at an RV dealership and for health reasons had not taken it out once. It was clear when we viewed the trailer that it had never been used. Before I launch into our horror story, let me inject a few positives and tell you what we liked about it.
- Light weight. Our tow vehicle is a 2013 Ford F150. The trailer towed and maneuvered like a dream and affect on gas mileage was nominal.
- Layout. Lots of cupboard and storage in a very compact unit. The clothes closet is huge; so is the pantry. Lots of counter space.
- The full queen bed, although we had to purchase a memory foam topper for to make the cheap foam mattress comfortable.
- The fridge worked flawlessly.
We took the trailer on a couple of one-week trips before leaving on an extended winter road trip (January - March 2016) from southern British Columbia into the Baja peninsula. On the way south we encountered typical heavy winter rain storms in Washington, Oregon and northern California. After the first rainy day we noticed water appeared to have leaked in from around the front window area. It was fairly minor and we took precautions to dry the inside and monitor the situation. Once we arrived in southern California we did not encounter any more rain for the rest of our trip.
When we arrived home in the spring my husband attempted to pinpoint where the water was entering. He carefully removed the window and replaced the seal and then caulked around the window. Problem solved. Or so we thought.
Our trailer was in storage during the spring and summer of 2016. When we pulled it out of storage in the fall we were horrified to discover that the floor near the door on the dining table side was soft under the vinyl flooring. We took it to our local RV repair shop. The technician felt that the passenger side wheel well had been improperly sealed at the factory. The result was water had soaked the insulation under the floor - in all probability when we'd been driving through those winter rain storms. The water had no where to go and the floor area around the wheel well had rotted. The massive repair job that ensued cost us over $3,000.
A month later we left on our second winter get-away to Baja, not feeling quite so in-love with our little trailer. Once again, we drove through some winter rain storms in the Pacific Northwest. And once again we noticed a small amount of water entering from around the window area. We knew the window couldn't be leaking and further investigation lead us to conclude that the lap metal siding was leaking where the joints were less tight. Once we were able to dry the area out completely we caulked the seams on the siding with acrylic caulking.
The underside of the trailer has nothing by a flimsy fabric (similar to landscape cloth) covering the insulation, stapled in place very roughly and inaccurately I might add. After two years of gentle, though extended use, the fabric was deteriorating where the staples held it and we had no faith in its ability to keep water out of the insulation. My husband caulked the fabric edges where it is stapled.
The bottom line in this saga is that these trailers may look good but they are profoundly poorly made. If you haven't seen this video, give it a watch and you'll understand why.
They are literally thrown together on a production line that moves so swiftly (pun intended) that there is no time to go back and fix any kind of mistake. If you own one of these nightmares, be prepared to check it over with a fine-toothed comb on a regular basis and caulk, caulk, caulk. In our opinion and based on our experience, they are not suitable for anything but the most sporadic and occasional use. After two seasons of careful use, our trailer was ready for the dump. We drive carefully and are not hard on our equipment. But these trailer are NOT weather tight and not at ALL suitable for sustained living on the road. My husband remarked that it is criminal how poorly made they are. No doubt it's not just a problem with Jayco trailers. Any US-made production line RV is likely to be the same.
We have ordered a high quality Canadian-made Escape brand molded fiberglass trailer. They are twice as expensive, but in the world of travel trailers you definitely get what you pay for.
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