First Trip-long post

Swinepartner · 03-23-2015, 07:15 PM

Well, we took the 28BHBE out for the first time this past weekend and a great time was had by all. It was a 2 1/2 day dance comp for our daughters and were camping w/ 3 other families from our studio. We had to travel to Concord NC (close to Charlotte). So here goes.....

Hooking up was fair. My trailer is parked on a downward slope, so I had to adjust for that but everything hooked up great and did my walk around for missing things... And out we go. It took a while to learn the trailer. I was a nervous wreck learning the sways and bumps that come with towing a 7100# trailer. But we did good. I was keeping it between 55-60 for a while on the interstate. I was monitoring my trans temp, as that was my biggest unknown... How high is too high...turns out after reading... I had really nothing to worry about. Temps were steady around 160ish. Even clinging moderate hills they stayed around 170. I got really nervous when I had to slow down for small town America to 35-45 in rolling hills. Trans temps hit upper 180s and peaked for a few min at 199. RPM wise, the burb did good. Hit 3K a few times climbing and trying to maintain at least 50, but not for long and then went back down to 2K-2500K. We towed on interstates, 4&2 lane roads, so we hit them all.

Arrival and set up was easy and no major problems. We had full hookups at the arena so that was great. I had 5 women in the camper, so they learned real fast how much hot water a 6 gal tank will hold. Everything in the camper worked great.

Pulling out

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Set Up

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Breakfast in bed with friends

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Coming home was the only problem..turns out the 15A fuse for trailer running lights had blown, cause my buddy following me told me I had none!! So we trouble shot it in Wally World. A few buck later at the auto section and I was back on the road.

So we are headed to Cape Hatteras in two weeks for Easter weekend!!! Great times they are a coming!!!

BigJohnD · 03-23-2015, 07:24 PM

Congrads on that new rig. We have the same thing and absolutely love it. Very well laid out and great bang for the buck. Lots of RV in a small package. Having come from a 40' fiver, a few motorhomes and several other rigs, we are more than happy to have the smaller Jayco now.

Desert RVers · 03-23-2015, 07:28 PM

The pics look great! Glad everyone had a good time. The looks on the girls look like someone just woke them up (with a bribe of food)? lol

NY RVer · 03-23-2015, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigJohnD

Congrads on that new rig. We have the same thing and absolutely love it. Very well laid out and great bang for the buck. Lots of RV in a small package. Having come from a 40' fiver, a few motorhomes and several other rigs, we are more than happy to have the smaller Jayco now.

Agree with you 100%. We have the same one, and find the layout extremely comfortable, eapecially when it's just the wife and I. Can easily spend a couple of weeks away, and not feel like you are climbing all over each other. The shower is a definite plus!

Enjoy your new toy!

**Crabman** · 03-23-2015, 07:32 PM

Great report!

Jace817 · 03-23-2015, 08:13 PM

Great to hear that a suburban will tow it. So you have the lower differential? The reason I ask, is that I have the same rig but I tow it with a duramax. We are considering getting a surburban as a second vehicle and might get used as an occasional tow vehicle when we have more than four people traveling.

Swinepartner · 03-23-2015, 08:44 PM

Jace817, not sure of the rear end off the top of my head. It does have the tow package, trans and oil cooler. We had no luggage in the burb and 2 adults and 2 kids in it. I think when I get some new tires, I'll prob get Micheline LTX and that should help take a little sway out. Smooth acceleration from a dead stop.

As for the trailer, it has a TON of storage places. So I'd hate to see what all we can pack in there. We are looking forward to just the 4 of us w/ no dance schedules.

Jace817 · 03-23-2015, 09:48 PM

One thing to note about the hot water, if you turn on both the LP and electric not water switches, you get a good amount of hot water with quick recovery. We use electric only if just one person in a row is taking a shower, but use both if we are running a bunch of people through.

It's been a great rig for us. There is a bunch of parasitic drain on the battery, so a disconnect switch on the battery is needed. We also found that the thermostat had way too much swing between cut off and back on so I replaced that.

You should enjoy it.

NY RVer · 03-24-2015, 02:25 AM

Jace817, did you replace the thermostat with a digital?

gcloss · 03-24-2015, 10:34 AM

Good luck with your Jayflight 284BHBE. We have the same floor plan in our Eagle and love it.

May you have many years of great camping with your family ..... safe travels.

Jace817 · 03-24-2015, 10:03 PM

Yes, I put in a cheap battery operated digital one. Much better. Now more like 2 or 3 degree swings at max instead of the 5 to 6 we were getting before.

sask934 · 03-25-2015, 03:23 AM

Sounds like a great trip, always nice to have the first one out of the way. Nice pics!

MommieMara · 03-25-2015, 04:22 AM

Glad to hear it went well. We just took delivery of the same model and have it sitting in our driveway as we get it all ready the way we want it. I to love the floor plan. We have 3 kids so it seems perfect. Hope you have many more fun trips with it.

fielro · 03-25-2015, 04:18 PM

Congrats on a great camping trip....May you have many more family memories

NC Roamer · 03-25-2015, 04:29 PM

Thanks for the post. I was wondering how your first trip went and was glad to hear all went well. The Outer Banks will be much more fun than a dance competition. ��

Olgreyhair · 03-25-2015, 04:31 PM

We have the same TT. The DW and I chose this floor plan for the double bunk beds for the grands and the large shower for us. We find out more about it every time we take it out.
Happy camping.

Swinepartner · 03-25-2015, 06:00 PM

Our girls are loving their bunks, or their CAVE as they call it!! Oh, and the burb got 8.6 MPG (hand calculated) on the way up there for those who are curious like I was when researching that stuff.

rick danger · 03-25-2015, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swinepartner

Our girls are loving their bunks, or their CAVE as they call it!! Oh, and the burb got 8.6 MPG (hand calculated) on the way up there for those who are curious like I was when researching that stuff.

Thats .1 better MPG than I got with my duramax towing octane 273 to Fla. I reset it and it got the same coming home....... I thought it would get better MPG going south as its down hill, but comeing "UP" north it did the same.

RedHorse1 · 03-25-2015, 07:00 PM

Excellent post, please update the crowd on the trip to the Cape.

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