Jayco needs to step up their quality control

[Fork in the road]

My less than 1 year old Entegra Odyssey 24B, (similar to the Jayco Redhawk 24B), has been in for various service issues twice already, and needs to go in for a third time. Apparently the plumbing department does not check their work very well. Initially there was a loose connection between my city water fill and the inside of the coach, causing water to leak inside my wall and onto the ground. Next, the shower head came loose from the wall twice. Apparently the screws that were used were too short. Now, I discovered damage to my bathroom vanity wood next to the shower. Upon further inspection and pouring some water in the shower door track, I discovered that there is no type of seal between the bottom track and the aluminum piece going up the wall of the shower stall. It is simply two pieces of aluminum butted together allowing water to seep out onto the floor causing the damage. There have been approximately 10 other things that have been addressed already as well. It is a good thing I have a 2 year warranty. Not sure why issues like this are not caught at the factory. It is a major inconvenience for us owners to travel to an authorized service center, leave our rigs for God knows how long and get them back only to discover another problem. Come on Jayco, Get your act together!

[RetiredOne]

Originally Posted by Fork in the road

Now, I discovered damage to my bathroom vanity wood next to the shower. Upon further inspection and pouring some water in the shower door track, I discovered that there is no type of seal between the bottom track and the aluminum piece going up the wall of the shower stall. It is simply two pieces of aluminum butted together allowing water to seep out onto the floor causing the damage. There have been approximately 10 other things that have been addressed already as well. It is a good thing I have a 2 year warranty. Not sure why issues like this are not caught at the factory. It is a major inconvenience for us owners to travel to an authorized service center, leave our rigs for God knows how long and get them back only to discover another problem. Come on Jayco, Get your act together!

Welcome to RV ownership, and the NEW Jayco (now owned by Thor). Quality doesn't exist anymore... I've experience much of what you posted, and MORE.. Thor has hurt Jayco quality... they don't care....

Something breaks on EVERY trip so far, and I get to repair it... Now, I just expect it.

Bottom line, you'll just have to accept it, and learn how to fix your own issues, otherwise your rig will spend the most of it's time sitting at the dealer, waiting to get fixed. Or, find a mobile tech that will come to the rig to fix issues...

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by RetiredOne

Thor has hurt Jayco quality...

Not defending the issues, but most is due to the high demand and the lack of getting skilled employees.

The Bontrager Family is still running the company.

April 2019..

Jayco has announced that Derald Bontrager, president and CEO of Jayco and its divisions, will be stepping back into managing the day-to-day operations with the departure of Matt Thompson from his position as the company’s chief operating officer.

Send him a letter.

[RetiredOne]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Not defending the issues, but most is due to the high demand and the lack of getting skilled employees.

Isn't not having skilled employees a management issue?

[Fork in the road]

Still, there should be a final inspection at the manufacturer that tests EVERYTHING before it heads to a dealer, then the dealer should perform their own inspection of EVERYTHING before selling it to the consumer. We should not have to be the ones to point out all of their mistakes. After all, the way my coach is equipped, it retailed at over $100,000, granted nobody pays retail, but you would think for $70,000, it should be ready to go with maybe a few minor issues, but we have had over 12 issues now, and some have been pretty major. Not real happy with Jayco right now.

[JFlightRisk]

A thorough inspection should be done at your dealer. When we picked up our Jayco back in 2012, our dealer was very thorough during the PDI, and was holding a yellow paper through the process, and was referring to it as he went. At the end of his presentation of the workings of the trailer, he asked if we had any questions. Four very minor concerns were immediately taken care of, while the tech explained the hitch. When we were both satisfied with the inner workings of everything, he handed me the paper. On it was all the performance specs of the appliances, and what was tested. The furnace output temperature, A/C temp, hot water temps at the faucets, converter voltage, and propane water column reading. It also spelled out the sequence of how he performed the PDI with us. At the same time, another tech was setting up the hitch on our TV. We left happy, and never had to go back for warranty work. Perhaps we were lucky, perhaps it was due to a diligent dealership, but if we ever get a new TT, it'll be a Jayco, and from them. Not all dealers are the same, just like automotive dealerships. Some good, some not so much, but there are really good ones out there. Kudos to JRV Country.

[Fork in the road]

We did a PDI where we discovered about 5 things that needed to be addressed. The dealer was great about it. Since then there have been many other issues that fall squarely on Jayco.

[EA37TS]

It would be greatly appreciated if someone could post the published and accepted quality specs for a 100 K recreational vehicle. Until there is an industry wide quality control standard that is published the term quality as it relates to recreational vehicles is subjective and based solely on one persons opinion, and everybody has their opinion.

Every manufacturer has their "Quality" issues. Just look at their forums or over on IRV2 and there will be someone belly aching about the "lack of quality" in their recent purchase. One thing is constant, not one the folks. is able to post the section of the quality standard to which their rig does not comply.

As to the OP's issue of having to drop off the coach and wait who knows how long for the repairs to be completed that is on the OP in the selection of the dealer. My dealer will not keep someone's coach overnight. You have the. coach while parts are on order and you wait while. it's repaired or pick it up with 48 hours after repair or pay storage.

[Fork in the road]

Quality standard or not, it still remains a huge problem in the industry that these things are just pushed out the door without making sure that people did their jobs correctly. It comes down to the pride in a job well done, and I am not sure that exists in many of the folks that work on the line. It is unfortunate that we have all come to accept it and just roll over and continue to pay good money for shoddy workmanship.

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by RetiredOne

Isn't not having skilled employees a management issue?

You can't hire them if they are not there and that is the issue.

Past articles have listed the fact that many simply can't pass the drug test.
Dealers are also having trouble finding trained, quality service techs, thus the service delays.

[01tundra]

Unfortunately, it's not just Jayco......it's the entire RV industry for the most part.

[THE MEEKER]

Originally Posted by 01tundra

Unfortunately, it's not just Jayco......it's the entire RV industry for the most part.

All you have to do is to go on YouTube and search "RV Manufacturing Process".

You can see videos from most of the RV manufacturers. What I notice in most of the videos is the employees are rushing assembling the units.

When they work that fast, mistakes will be made and overlooked, workmanship will be poor and quality control is basically nonexistent.

[RetiredOne]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

You can't hire them if they are not there and that is the issue.

Past articles have listed the fact that many simply can't pass the drug test.
Dealers are also having trouble finding trained, quality service techs, thus the service delays.

Maybe they should consider upping the hour wage they pay?

[TaftCoach]

The price point is always interesting. If I paid $70,000 for a 20' travel trailer I would expect it it be perfect. If I spent $70,000 on a 40', 605 HP, 5 slide, Class A I would expect a lower overall quality. So price point isn't always a perfect indicator.

More important is what will have to happen for this to change? Many of the problems that get mentioned are simply carelessness and low labor skills like items not being screwed in. Paying more for the same stuff isn't really going to help, the dealer will just appreciate the higher margins. Would the market support a new manufacturer that uses the same materials with the same floor plans but builds slower, adds multiple QC checks, and delivers a substantially better assembled product for 10% more money? Would you pay $22,000 instead of $20,000 because it was "better assembled"? $55,000 instead of $50,000?

My bet, like the RV industry, is no. That company would be in the same rush to complete the build in 55 minutes instead of 68 minutes.

I'm just thinking about my small unit. Jayco builds two styles. One with a porcelain toilet instead of plastic, LED lights instead of incandescent, and a few other material and feature upgrades. The cheaper version outsells the upgraded version. If consumers aren't willing to spend more for upgraded materials, will they spend money for upgraded labor?

Some people will jump from manufacturer to find a better built unit, other will stay loyal believing the evil you know is the way to go. Perhaps I'm overly pessimistic, but as long as humans are assembling these, the average quality will not improve. You just hope the fixes are minor and few.

[RetiredOne]

Originally Posted by Fork in the road

Quality standard or not, it still remains a huge problem in the industry that these things are just pushed out the door without making sure that people did their jobs correctly. It comes down to the pride in a job well done, and I am not sure that exists in many of the folks that work on the line.

It doesn't exist in many industries today, not just the RV world. Very few take pride in their work... Do some reading about the 80/20 rule in business.

Just look how we offshored 90% of what we buy to China. Think people really care about quality anymore, or do they just want low cost?

I came from a manufacturing/retail/engineering career. The more I dig into my rig to fix stuff, the more I shake my head... I appears all the design engineers double as administrative secretaries, just looking on how they decided to design/build many areas of these rigs... then, the actual assembly gets handed off to some piece worker (who doubles as the local car wash attendant) to slap together. What could possibly go wrong??

It is unfortunate that we have all come to accept it and just roll over and continue to pay good money for shoddy workmanship.

Go see my refernce to China above.

[Screwby]

It’s pretty evident that these things are slapped together with little regard for the end product. It is very unfortunate and little known to the vast majority of the buyers who purchase them. This dead horse has been beaten, revived, and beaten again.
The small segment of owners that even care to come on a forum to learn about their RV is small. We are the squeaky wheels that fall on deaf ears because the other 90% of owners buy an RV and quickly regret it and sell it, or they trade it in every couple of years so they really don’t care. Most they have the dealer fix everything because they aren’t DIY type people or care to be, or just run them into the ground and sell them when things get beyond their skill level. The sales websites are full of sad run down campers that were left to leak and rot and fall apart. We are the few who care one way or the other. Most people don’t look under cabinets checking for small leaks. They don’t check their roof and all seams for leaks and reseal every season. They don’t look behind the panels and in the belly and see the rats nest wiring and lack luster plumbing jobs.
It’s frustrating and it’s just how it is. If I had the money to burn I’d have a custom hand built unit. I’d oversee the whole build and it would be as flawless as humanly possible. But I don’t, and I’m guessing most of us here don’t. So we buy these crap sandwiches, we try to polish them up and fix the many terrible engineering decisions we are left with and shake our heads all the while.

[morleyz]

The speed that they crank these out, it doesn't surprise me there are issues, however I think there are definitely a lot of units that roll off the line without issues. I poured over my new Eagle TT during PDI and after PDI before leaving the dealer and still the two "issues" I had popped up several trips in but were also easy DIY fixes.

Don't think this is isolated to the RV industry. I frequent forums for Ford Super Dutys and Jeeps and you'd think every other truck out of Ford and Chrysler were lemons based on the complaints.

[TaftCoach]

There is still competition in the industry. So why hasn't someone been able to offer better workmanship for the same price? I believe it's because competition has sharpened the industry to offer size and features over workmanship. If model A is three feet longer with a slide than model B which has better build quality because it took three times longer to build, model A will outsell it by a wide margin. We want to pay for stuff we can see and use.

Pride comes in part on what is valued by the employer and the people around you. I find it completely reasonable to believe the workers on the line take pride in assembling a unit in 45 minutes instead of 52. Of not using that jig if it takes an extra 60 seconds. It isn't what the end user believes is important but it's what gets someone promoted and raises. We have a different definition of a "job well done".

I would argue that we are getting exactly what we are paying for. Part of the price we pay is in time and aggravation. I do some woodworking as a hobbyist. As a comparison, quality custom build cabinets built by someone who takes pride in making the best product possible are built for a lifetime. Why aren't they in every home? Instead most homes built today have massed produced cabinets built by folks with less skills. Do those folks in the cabinet factory have less pride in what they do than the master woodworker? Are these in our homes simply because we have come to accept shoddy cabinets? Is it fair to blame the master woodworker for not building his cabinets at the same price point as the mass produced factory version?

I believe our expectation should be a hassle free repair process when we catch things or need warranty repair. I have much more of a problem with that than the original build. When the buyer comes back with their punch list don't leave them waiting for 3 months.

[RipinSC]

You can not improve quality when you have none to start. All RV manufactures are the same. Quality starts with a rigid process control, another thing that is non existent in the RV industry. You don’t design quality into the product, you put quality checks in place to validate your process. The RV industry also has zero supplier quality to keep all the supplier parts in check. Garbage in, garbage out. If the RV industry did a rigid final inspection of each unit, nothing would ship! After 40 years of being in the automotive quality field, the rv industry makes me want to vomit. I do have to say that my Jayco is much better than my previous Open Range but I have had numerous issues with my Jayco.

[ekunigon]

We have a brand new Jayco Alante 31V. The shade for the windshield only comes down about 2/3 of the way and stops. Any thoughts?