Jayco Jayflight BHBE

[kiknads]

We did the same upgrade except with the 287bshw, same trailer slightly less bells and whistles. We dont regret it one bit. Found the 26 a bit tight with 2 dogs and a 2 year old, the new one has tons of room

[RAurand]

Originally Posted by need-a-vacation

TX,

Did I misread your signature or did it originally state an Explorer??? Still haven't caught up from a lack of sleep a few days ago so maybe that's it.... Lol

Anyway, Subaru has nailed almost everything that you should be more concerned about regarding the payload of the Expy vs the "tow rating". The one item missed is the Ford factory receiver hitch rating. It has a max tw rating of 920lbs when using a wdh. It is found here in the Ford Expy Towing Guide at the bottom of page 1.

As Subaru mentioned, it is very unfortunate that most of the sales people at both the car dealers and the trailer dealers just don't understand everything involved regarding towing and usually look up the tow rating of a vehicle, and its a yea or nay. A lot of us have learned after the fact as well. "Oh, the trailer is under the tow rating, so we are good!!!" Once we have learned all the other factors it is definitely an eye opener....

Will something instantly break if you're 10lbs or 100lbs over, probably unlikely. But the unknown question is just how much is the vehicle and components under rated.

Packing wise it sounds like you are still on the lighter side of things. Definitely seems to grow over time of ownership and as kids get older! Lol Don't hesitate to remove unused items at the end of every season. Didn't use it all camping season, must not need to carry it for every trip.

Good luck!!!

I think you do need a vacation..... It says 9,200 pounds, NOT 920 pounds.

[TXCrew]

Originally Posted by need-a-vacation

TX,

Did I misread your signature or did it originally state an Explorer??? Still haven't caught up from a lack of sleep a few days ago so maybe that's it.... Lol

Anyway, Subaru has nailed almost everything that you should be more concerned about regarding the payload of the Expy vs the "tow rating". The one item missed is the Ford factory receiver hitch rating. It has a max tw rating of 920lbs when using a wdh. It is found here in the Ford Expy Towing Guide at the bottom of page 1.

As Subaru mentioned, it is very unfortunate that most of the sales people at both the car dealers and the trailer dealers just don't understand everything involved regarding towing and usually look up the tow rating of a vehicle, and its a yea or nay. A lot of us have learned after the fact as well. "Oh, the trailer is under the tow rating, so we are good!!!" Once we have learned all the other factors it is definitely an eye opener....

Will something instantly break if you're 10lbs or 100lbs over, probably unlikely. But the unknown question is just how much is the vehicle and components under rated.

Packing wise it sounds like you are still on the lighter side of things. Definitely seems to grow over time of ownership and as kids get older! Lol Don't hesitate to remove unused items at the end of every season. Didn't use it all camping season, must not need to carry it for every trip.

Good luck!!!

No, you saw right. I had to uodate it. So. 9200 lbs towing capacity and 920 lbs. tongue capacity, correct? That is what I read as well for the HD towing upgrade.

[need-a-vacation]

Originally Posted by RAurand

I think you do need a vacation..... It says 9,200 pounds, NOT 920 pounds.

Unfortunately you didn't look far enough to the very right column, next to the max trailer load column when using a wdh of 9,200lbs, is the column for the MAX TONGUE LOAD (tongue weight= tw) of 920lbs....

I would bet your '12 Expy is in the same situation of the factory receiver hitch tw rating possibly being exceeded depending on how your trailer is loaded and the actual loaded tw.

[need-a-vacation]

Originally Posted by TXCrew

No, you saw right. I had to uodate it. So. 9200 lbs towing capacity and 920 lbs. tongue capacity, correct? That is what I read as well for the HD towing upgrade.

Ok... thought I did!!! Lol

Correct on the rated towing and tw, at least what I read also. You might consider purchasing a Sherline tongue scale just to make sure you don't exceed the 920lb tw rating. Remember as mentioned, the "brochure" dry tw does not include weight of the propane tanks and a battery.

The 28 is a great floor plan. We narrowed our choice down to it and the 32, which by my signature you can see the 32 won. Was not an easy choice though!!!

Good luck!!!

[Richard49]

Yes, but that is towing on level ground. I think you will find your King is only a prince when you get to the mountains, BUT I hope not.

[Ottawasteve]

No experience towing with an Expedition, but I have towed an Eagle BHBE for the last 3 years with an F150. You are correct in noting that the Maxtow or HD tow package will make your TV more capable than it would be without the package, but staying within your rated limits will be a challenge.

My 2010 XLT Supercrew F150 with Maxtow is rated by Ford to pull 11,200lbs but only has an available payload of 1683lbs which is sufficient for DW, my son and I because we pack light and carry very little in the box of the truck. One of the things that I have been surprised about is how much the higher trim levels cut into available payload when I have seen the payload stickers for the Platinum and Lariat F150's.

The other thing I was surprised about was the tongue weight on our delivered BHBE. I factory ordered mine and the Jayco site claimed a dry tongue weight of 660 lbs and a dry weight of 6600 lbs. I have never actually checked the dry unloaded tongue weight on my trailer, but I have difficulty believing it is only 660lbs. I already had my F150 when I purchased by BHBE and thought I had a large comfortable margin because with rated tow capacity of 11,200 and payload of almost 1700 lbs, even with 1000lbs of camping gear (which I knew from previous trailer) which would add another 120-150 lbs (at 12-15% tongue weight) I THOUGHT I would still have 900 lbs of available payload in the truck.

Delivered trailer as per yellow sticker ended up being 7300lbs (8200lbs loaded for camping) and a loaded tongue weight is 1050lbs and TW could be a lot more if I put heavy stuff in the front pass through on the BHBE. With our family of 3 we are very close on our weights and I have read the posts of some who claim this too much trailer for any half-ton without any experience actually towing it with a properly equipped half-ton.

At the end of the day, you probably have a pretty good idea how your setup will handle based on your previous tow experience as the weights and length are comparable to your previous trailer. If, as Subaru estimates, you are 156 lbs over on a TV with a GVWR of 7720 (2% over) it will be up to decide whether you are comfortable with it and it will depend how far and how often you are towing.

Being in the upper capacities of your TV, you may wish to consider adding some airbags to handle the rear tongue weight and upgrading to LT tires. I would also recommend getting a very good WD anti-sway hitch properly setup. I have been impressed with our Propride 3P (similar to the Hensley Arrow) which I have used for last 3 years.

We love the floorplan on our BHBE as well and no the glacier package is not wasted. You will appreciate the ability to better maintain temps in the trailer. We've only filled our 80 gallon tanks upon arrival at Stateparks without serviced sites and it goes quick using the outdoor shower for dogs and kids.

[domotang]

You're going to have a problem with the 1365 lb payload. Deducting around 900 lbs of loaded hitch weight, which would be required to achieve at least 13% of your total trailer weight from that, leaves a mere 465 lbs, minus 100 lbs for your WDS, which doesn't account for passengers, food, etc.
This puts you hard against a wall, and IMHO in an dangerous situation, especially with the short wheelbase of an SUV.
I advise that you begin looking for a f150 with at least 1900lbs payload on the sticker, or a f250.

[Decrows2]

Congrats!

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[Louie79]

We bought the 284bhbw. It only has one a/c. Because we didn't buy the next model update, we don't have the option of adding a second a/c. How well do the single a/c units cool? I think the factory unit is an 15,000 BTU unit. We also live in Texas and as most know, it can get scalding hot here in the Summers. What are yalls thoughts?

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[Pcschwenke]

We have a single unit 28BHBE and it is more than sufficient in Michigan. In fact we had relatives visit and they said we could hang meat inside. They were freezing! Summers here do get into the high 90s at times and very humid. We love our trailer.

[Louie79]

Michigan is a big difference from Texas. Probably by 30degrees. But good to here the ac is suffcient

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[NY RVer]

I have the same TT with one AC unit, and so far never had a problem with it not being enough. Never been to Texas yet, but have been as far south as South Carolina.

[Louie79]

U apologize. I reread what I wrote and thought it sounded rude. Texas is simply just hot!. Just hoping we didn't make the mistake of not buying a bigger model with 50a service in case we need another ac.

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[TXCrew]

Adding an update. Picked up the trailer Thursday morning and pulled it 275 miles to the campground. We love the trailer. Wish we had about 1 move foot of space in the bedroom, but that was the trade off of requiring a shorter trailer.
On the way down, we had wind in our face and side. Had three wiggle incidents that triggered the sway brake. Expedition had more than enough power. I do not know whether the tongue weight would have caused the wiggle to increase, so I hoping for a comment on that. Gas mileage was 7.8 mpg.
On the way back, the wind was to our backs and there was no towing issue. Gas mileage was 11.9 mpg.
Because of advice on this forum, I am going to start looking for a truck. Which one do you recommend? I would like it to be the right truck and not overkill, and I would like for it to fit into a standard garage.

[Vaquero]

Originally Posted by Louie79

We bought the 284bhbw. It only has one a/c. Because we didn't buy the next model update, we don't have the option of adding a second a/c. How well do the single a/c units cool? I think the factory unit is an 15,000 BTU unit. We also live in Texas and as most know, it can get scalding hot here in the Summers. What are yalls thoughts?

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When the triple digits hit, it won't be real comfortable.
Park in shade if you can.
Jay flight 28 RLS.

[kayakterp]

Originally Posted by NY RVer

You will have to be careful how you load the trailer. Most of the storage in that trailer is under the queen bed and front exterior compartments. Before adding a second battery and more stuff under the bed, I came off the scales around your towing capacity. Keep in mind full tank of water alone is around 700 + lbs. You dont have to fill them, I just always prefer to leave on a trip with full water.

I thought towing with a full water is dangerous to the straps breaking and tanks coming off the trailer? Especially when going on bumpy roads. I understand that 'boon docking" is different but if you're going to a facility that has water hook-up doesn't it make sense to fill up where ever you're camping. I had RV mechanics advise me to not tow with full water tanks because they have had to repair several that just bounce off while going down the road??

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by Louie79

We bought the 284bhbw. It only has one a/c. Because we didn't buy the next model update, we don't have the option of adding a second a/c. How well do the single a/c units cool? I think the factory unit is an 15,000 BTU unit. We also live in Texas and as most know, it can get scalding hot here in the Summers. What are yalls thoughts?

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We have the 28BHBE with one 15K AC unit, but we have 50A and 2nd AC prep. My only regret with this trailer is not having the second unit installed at the dealer when we bought it. I thought to myself "yeah, it would be nice, and I can install it later if I want to". Knowing what I know now, I would have just had it done right then.

That being said, most hot days our AC can just keep up if we're in some kind of shade. If we're in full sun, forget it. The AC will run all day and it'll still be 80 degrees inside. The only relief in that scenario is to find some place to get wet during the day (pool, river, etc) and spend the day there and finding shade outside the trailer. Keep the awning out to keep as much sun off the trailer as you can. I have a roll of Reflectix, but DW doesn't want to use it because she thinks it looks "trashy". It is what it is.

So, if it's going to be over 95, we will usually stay home unless we're going to a place we know has shade on our trailer, and a cool place to take a dip. That means we don't usually go out in late July through mid-September.

Eventually, we will install a 2nd unit. Perhaps even this year, maybe next year, but it'll happen. But we're still left with being stuck inside the trailer all day to keep cool, and we'll still likely skip trips during that hottest part of the year... Gotta love TX!

[RAurand]

Originally Posted by need-a-vacation

Unfortunately you didn't look far enough to the very right column, next to the max trailer load column when using a wdh of 9,200lbs, is the column for the MAX TONGUE LOAD (tongue weight= tw) of 920lbs....

I would bet your '12 Expy is in the same situation of the factory receiver hitch tw rating possibly being exceeded depending on how your trailer is loaded and the actual loaded tw.

I apologize, You are correct. I see that. My loaded trailer weight is 7818 on the scale and I have my tongue weight at 850 pounds. the way we load it.
Yes, I agree we have that 12 Expedition maxed out. I just wish Ford would have kept making the Excursion.

[Louie79]

I bought Firestone airbag kit and compressor controller kit. Helps a ton!!!!!

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