Jayco flight 27BHS vs jayco feather 25BH

[Socalcamper87]

I'm stuck between the jayco flight 27bhs vs the jayco feather 25bh. The 27 foot bhs weights 6335 lbs unloaded vs the feather 25bh's 5265 lbs . I see a 1,000 lbs difference. What I've read so far in specs is the feather is about 1.5 feet shorter overall length. And about 3 inches shorter interior height. Is that where the weight difference is? How's the construction different from each other? Quality difference?

Thanks everyone again.

[bearcat77]

We were in the same boat in December. Ended up going with the Jayflight because it felt so much better to us. We tried to like the Jayfeather, since on paper they are very comparable. We were going to try to pack carefully and watch the weight, but ended up unloading the Suburban and getting an HD truck for piece of mind.

What's your tow vehicle?


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[Socalcamper87]

Originally Posted by bearcat77

We were in the same boat in December. Ended up going with the Jayflight because it felt so much better to us. We tried to like the Jayfeather, since on paper they are very comparable. We were going to try to pack carefully and watch the weight, but ended up unloading the Suburban and getting an HD truck for piece of mind.

What's your tow vehicle?


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2017 chevy silverado only about a month old so upgrading anytime soon is out of the question. I can tow 9400 lbs. Thats why im leaning more torwards the jayco feather. Im just curious where the the construction of the trailer changes. Or what im sacrificing

[bearcat77]

I'll fill in until an expert chimes in. I think you save weight by giving up a little everywhere. I know the floors were different. I think the roofs were different. And lots of little things. Jayflight has a porcelain toilet, Jayfeather has plastic. I remember thinking the Jayflight's cabinet doors felt a lot more solid. No flexing during opening and closing. Little things like that, that bugged us when we walked through one model, and then immediately walked through the other. And our dealer made it sound like, if a repair were ever necessary, the aluminum siding is much cheaper/easier than the fiberglass. Cosmetic-wise, two things we really liked in the Jayflight were the stainless-look appliances and the bench seat/storage + coat hanger by the door.

Check the payload on your truck sticker. (It should be better than my Suburban's was). If it can handle the tongue weight plus your family and gear, I would go with the Jayflight. If it's too close for piece of mind, then I'm sure once you have a Jayfeather all your own, you will forget all the little differences you don't see, and be completely happy in that.


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[bondo303]

I have a 2017 jay feather 25bh upgraded from a 2007 jay flight 20bh. I can tell you that the jay flight felt a little more 'solid' and it was heavy for a little camper. With that being said, our jay feather is amazing. Fit and finish is spot on. I think the main construction difference, which makes it lighter too is the TuffShell vacuum-bonded, laminated floor, side, rear and front walls including slideout room walls.

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[Atlee]

To me the biggest draw back with a Jay Feather is the small grey and black tanks. The ones I looked at were very small, down to about 22 gals of black.

[FeatherFam]

The Flight has a plywood floor which is more sturdy and durable than the Feather's laminate which is foam sandwiched in thin luan sheets. If you have little ones that will be bouncing and banging about, the Flight may hold up better. Other than that, we could go round and round all day about the Flight's wood stud framing versus the Feather's aluminum framing.

We love our Feather 23rbm! I would prefer a plywood floor, but our Feather is pretty tight. We've had virtually no trouble with it, and we prefer its styling. The plastic toilet is also less desirable. We are going to put in a porcelain toilet after our warranty expires. Be very careful with your payload capacity. It doesn't take much to max a 1/2 ton's payload capacity. That's why we went with the Feather. Even still, we are right on our 1/2 ton's weight margins. All of your cargo, occupant weight, fuel, and hitch count towards the payload weight.

[FeatherFam]

Originally Posted by Atlee

To me the biggest draw back with a Jay Feather is the small grey and black tanks. The ones I looked at were very small, down to about 22 gals of black.

Yes, good point. Our Feather has 30.5 black and gray. It's better than the smaller tanks on the other Feather models, but the 39 gallon Flight tanks would be better for us.

[sennister]

There are a lot of little things they did to shed weight as mentioned. One of the big ones is that the frame is quite a bit different. The Feather and White Hawk have a Norco Next Gen Frame. The Jay Flights have a beefier frame. I know our 25BH says it has an aluminum construction. They basically are shedding pounds everywhere possible. A pound here and a pound there ultimately adds up to 1000lbs.

We went with the 25BH because I wanted to keep the GVWR below 7000 if possible. The 27BHS was 8250 and the 25BH is 6750. That number is big. You can look at dry weights but that is without options and such so your camper will be heavier than this. The 27BHS does have a lot more room in weight between that non-optioned out empty weight and the GVWR. This means that after adding options you will still likely have more cargo capacity in the Jay Flight than a feather and that is where the frame difference probably came in. With a GVWR that high it probably has heavier axles on it as well.

As far as side walls being fiberglass vs stick and tin. Our last camper was stick and tin and we had issues. Fiberglass can have delamination issues. It think most say it is a wash.

We looked at both models quite a bit. Here is where the 27BHS is different as far as interior layout.

Single pass through to front bedroom on 27BHS vs two doors on 25BH. I liked how the 25BH had the two doors which moved the TV to the middle of the camper for better visibility from sofa and dinette. Though the 27BHS has the bench, coat rack which would be nice. The reason there is the single door on the 27BHS is the front bedroom is quite a bit bigger. We only sleep here so the size wasn't as important but consider this. They had to do the double doors on the 25BH because there isn't enough room to walk around the foot of the bed. Also note the bed size. The 27BHS has an 80" residential queen and still has room to walk around. The 25BH has a 75" RV (Short) queen and no room to walk around the foot. That means the front bedroom is 5" shorter for the mattress and probably another 8-10" for walking around if not more. There is probably at least a foot + of the difference. Also everyone knows the mattresses are not that great. Having a RV mattress limits our replacement options and possibly increases costs. Also mattress pads, sheets and such don't fit RV mattresses as well as residential.

Next is the entertainment which I already discussed. The dinette is basically the same as is the kitchen. Though I think the 27BHS has a little bigger fridge. Doesn't it have the 8CF vs the 6CF in the 25BH?

The back of the camper you have the bunks which are about the same. The bathroom is different. The 25BH has the tub/shower, toilet and sink all in the bathroom. The 27BHS moves the bathroom sink outside the bathroom. The good is that it can be used while someone is using the bathroom. The bad that I noticed is that by moving this outside it made the bathroom a little smaller in square footage. I felt like I had more room to get dressed with it in the bathroom rather than outside. We camp to go camping. My wife and daughter are not in there putting on makeup. I say that but we are going camping for the first time this weekend in the new camper and we are attending a wedding so this is the one time they probably will be doing that stuff.

Outside kitchens are pretty much the same. The fridge and stove are flipped for some reason but basically the same.

Neither one has a ladder for getting up in the bunk though for some reason.

Really for us it came down to a weight numbers thing. I didn't want to worry about blowing past the 1000lbs hitch weight max that we have. If I was fine with buying a new truck to go with this we would have looked harder at the Jay Flight. Though that would have been a 3/4 ton or 1 ton and then we would have looked at the 32BHDS as it has everything. I really wanted two entry doors, one dedicated to the bath to cut down on traffic. It also comes down to how one intends to use the camper. We are boondocking most of the time. We go out for 2-3 nights. We are outside a lot when we camp and where we go is private land so if at the last minute the weather sucks we don't go or if it is nice we head out. That is kind of mandatory because it is along a small river that floods out the campground when they get a lot of rain. In this type of use a lighter trailer works. We are not out for an extended period so we can get by. If we were full timers or did more extended trips then a Jay Flight would be better. We just don't have the time for that.

I would say that this is my $0.02 but it was closer to $.50 in length.

[sennister]

Originally Posted by Atlee

To me the biggest draw back with a Jay Feather is the small grey and black tanks. The ones I looked at were very small, down to about 22 gals of black.

The 25BH does have a 22 gallon black but we should be fine with that the Grey is 30 gallons and that is where most people have issues. Though with our camping style. We are hanging out in the river all day normally and rinse with the outdoor shower. So we should be fine with tank capacities. We also have a port-a-pody on our campsite.

If we are in a traditional campsite, showers and a lot of the bathroom duties are done in the bathhouse.

[FeatherFam]

I have read several articles saying that BAL NORCO has addressed problems with the early NexGen frames. I believe ours is a pretty solid structure. I cannot find any flaws in it. At this point, I call the NexGen frame a decent product. Ultimately, time will tell. I do like its design; it is very strong.

[scottyt24]

We have a 27BHS and are towing with a Silverado half ton. But, we do have max tow which is almost 11,000 lbs tow capacity and a sticker on the truck of around 1900 pound cargo capacity. The receiver can handle 1100 pounds of tongue weight.

The Silverado does great towing it and we have the equalizer hitch and it is dialed in. Have been in both windy and highway conditions with trucks and while there is definitely movement, it is nothing that makes me get nervous.

The yellow sticker on the trailer is 6,604 lbs.

We love the layout and the trailer. Plenty of room for everyone and it definitely seems to have a well put together feel to it.

Best of luck in your search.

[foxrider68]

We went through all of this as well and just put a down payment on the white hawk 24mbh. 27bhs was too heavy and I wanted plywood floors but lighter weight. The white hawk covered all of this for us.