Jayco quality

[t18skyguy]

I'm on my second Jayco motorhome, and my 2017 has not given me much trouble. A couple little things I fixed myself. But really, that website is just a PR stunt, not to be taken seriously. Yes Airstreams are number one, but if you talk to people in the know their not as good as they used to be. Did you notice that one of the biggest players is not even listed? Winnebago ! You gotta take with a grain of salt what you see on the net.

[groutman]

Originally Posted by Atlee

WRT the Amish, I suspect anything they are building for their homes is of very good quality. However, as soon as they step inside a RV manufacturing plant, they become the same kind of worker that is not Amish. They build by the piece, and as quickly as they can, so they can leave and go home.

If X number of trailers are supposed to be finished on a Tuesday, let's say, as soon as X number have been finished, they get to go home, be it at 5 pm or at 1 pm.

thats exactly what i saw when i toured the plant they were literally running from place to place

[klinner28]

I've been pleasantly surprised at how the Eagle 314BDS we bought has held up. Just passed the 2 year warranty without having to use it.

The valance on the rear window fell off a few times after a couple of long distance rides on segments of rough highways.

The vanity in bathroom basically fell off and was hanging on by a wire. But again, this was on a 2500 mile trip with some rough patches.

Was able to address them both easily. Just replaced the Rainier tires with Goodyears thanks to the recommendations of this forum.

My main areas of concerns - AC, heater, fridge, TV, water have all held up thus far. Maybe it helps that we've only used it 55 nights in 2 years, and now it sits in a private garage at a storage facility. Yes, you read that right. It's pretty amazing that there's a 32-space indoor RV storage facility about 5 miles from my house.

[namusmc65]

After suffering several blowouts on a trip last year, I switched all my tires out to Goodyear Endurance and so far I am really happy. We are out every month with our rig and so far holding up well.

[bleckb]

We are new last year to the RV and we really enjoyed our Hummingbird over the summer and have plans for the coming spring and summer as well. It would be nice to have something a little bigger, and with a closet, but we made do, and will continue to do so.

We attended an RV show last week and I can see why the Airstream comes out on top. Those they had on display were super nice. Not sure about $80K nice compared to our roughly $20K Hummingbird, though maybe down the road.

The show didn't have a lot of Jayco TTs, mostly motorhomes. I can say that many of the other brands looked pretty cheap in relation to our Jayco, and we're at the bottom end of things. A lot of the upscale stuff was just too much for us. I don't want five televisions. I don't want to watch television outside. I don't want a fake fireplace. So much wasted space and stuff that just seems to jack up the price. But, as we know, my mileage will vary!

[JDPEagle]

It seems as though a "quality" post emerges every 2-3 weeks, so this seems to be "right on time."

Some folks like to throw around adjectives like flimsy, cheap and disposable. The fact of the matter is that any RV or travel trailer is a compromise... a compromise of ruggedness and portability. Materials must be light in weight in order to function well in a mobile platform. This does not make them "flimsy," but light and flexible. Things can break, but everything can be fixed. Wouldn't you hold a permanent structure to the same standards??

Most of the stories you will read online are negative. After all, everyone else is out on the road/in nature enjoying their purchase (and not venting to the internet about their bad fortune).

My advice: pick the best floor-plan and LEARN ABOUT YOUR RIG! To me, maintenance and upgrading is part of the fun!

PS: Any list that puts Airstream at the top loses its credibility with me. I personally know that Airstreams are build no better (or with different components) than anything else... they simply come at a higher price tag, and they want to make sure that you know it!

[suzieshome]

We have owned 4 Jayco trailers. All but the first were brand new and we only kept each for 5 years. We traded up everytime and not because of quality issues except for the most recent, a 2015 x23b. We always recommended Jayco to our friends and family in the past. We don’t own a Jayco anymore and are very happy with our new trailer. A major reason for us switching is because we found a dealer that goes the extra mile. They have a proven record with my sister.

[WIBLAZER]

The whole industry is trying to give the customer what they want, a low cost camper that for most people is lucky to see a month of service a year. They say it is a very cut throat industry and we as consumers are just looking at the lowest price camper for the size. So they buy the lowest cost parts available. I don't agree with their logic, but have been told this by three manufacturing reps. We have had 5 Jayco campers in 30 years. They were all great until our 2015. 70 work orders later, we are waiting for the next problem on each trip. We are on the road 2 months of every year.

I believe that the best thing you can do is first make sure you have a very caring reputable dealer. (Freedom RV in Slinger, WI was our saving grace.) Secondly, never buy from an internet company with no service. All dealers will rightfully serve their customers first and with all the problems with the current campers, there is no time for non-customers. Thirdly, and maybe the most important, DO NOT BUY A CAMPER IN ONE DAY. Visit the dealer repeatedly, scrutinize every aspect of the camper, demand to see that every element works before putting money down. This is not like a car. When you buy a 30-50K car, you will never see the problems and down time like you will see in a camper. And when your in 80 degree temps with broken air or fridg it sucks.

[Patchesrv]

We are sticking our heads in the sand here hoping this is wrong. Just bought 2019 Greyhawk, salesperson said he will be seeing a lot of us first year with small to medium issues. I sure hope that's not true because except for the price the dealership and salesman have been useless. Here's hoping if web need service the real workers are better than management

[Jopopsy]

I'm on my second Greyhawk. My first had minimal issues and nothing that kept me from camping. My second so far has something poking out from under the lino, and 2 flickering LED lights.

We bought it in the fall of last year and shook it down over 3 nights for Columbus Day weekend. We are taking it to Disney in a couple month; I don't anticipate any big problems. However you never know ....

If the dealer did a thorough PDI a decent shakedown trip should uncover most of the big items in fairly short fashion. The other items would be simply components burning in and failing (circuit boards, etc. - nothing that wouldn't carry the same concern for a residential home).

[cjack99]

Our 2014 287BHBE was actually in good shape, quality wise, just a couple nits that the dealer fixed no problem.

Then there is the stupid dangerous issue we had, a year after purchase, where someone at Jayco should have been shot. This was so far into stupid that I could not even have conceived of it happening.

This model is a front bedroom unit. The bed sits on a 1/4" piece of plywood, with a piano type hinge at the headboard, and a plywood cross piece at 2 feet from the end of the bed, this piece is vertical, and forms a box like area where you can put blankets / pillows, etc. You can raise the bed up from the rear, and it pivots at the head, and we had "mr. dealer" put those lift piston things at the rear so it would stay up while you put stuff in, take stuff out.

So there we are, 2:30 AM, sleeping peacefully in our camp area, when WHAM!!! the front of the bed collapses and we are dumped into the cargo storage area at the front, head down, at an angle great enough you could not easily get out. Had there been some wood blocks, or maybe some torsion bars, jacks, or other largish things that people use the front space for, either of us could have had a serious injury, up to and including a neck fracture.

Why did this happen? Turns out, 1, 1/4 " thick plywood is not thick enough. 2, the piano hinges (2 each, 6 inch long by 2 inch pivots hinge) were installed in a load bearing position, in other words the hinge was supporting the full weight of 2 adults. Result, with the plywood attached below a 2" load bearing area, the attachment screws simply pulled free of the plywood and down comes the bed.

Most 4 year olds can see intuitively that this is an absolutely stupid bit of engineering. Did I take it back to the dealer? NO. I did call him and thoroughly chew on his buttocks though. Whether he informed the factory, I have no clue.

I fixed this myself, by putting a 2" x 2" 4' long cross block at the front, attached with 6, 3/8" x 4" lag screws that bolt the cross block to the front of the trailer, the new 3/8" plywood base now sits on this block at the front. I tossed the piano hinges and now use 4 strap type hinges, like on a gate hinge. These are not load bearing, they are properly installed so all they do is hold the bed front steady and allow it to pivot when the rear is raised. Finally, I put a cross bulkhead in that stands vertical with about 3/4" space between the bulkhead top and the bed plywood, so there is some give to it. And adding that makes the front storage area no longer a way for someone to crawl into the trailer from outside via the front storage.

Bottom line, anyone with front bedroom Jayco's had better take a very close look at how the bed front attaches to the trailer front. I don't see this as a quality issue, this was a stupid engineering issue, which means Jayco does not hire very intelligent engineers, or they simply do not bother.

cheers
cactus

[JDPEagle]

Originally Posted by Patchesrv

We are sticking our heads in the sand here hoping this is wrong. Just bought 2019 Greyhawk, salesperson said he will be seeing a lot of us first year with small to medium issues. I sure hope that's not true because except for the price the dealership and salesman have been useless. Here's hoping if web need service the real workers are better than management

Don't worry. They almost all say that as to set the expectation (then you wouldn't be shocked if you're one of the 5% who come in for every little thing). We had a few small issues with our 2018 Greyhawk, but I just fixed them all myself. Even if a component fails (keyless door lock, flaking paint on generator door/cover), I call the guy at the parts counter, and he orders me a new one (under warranty).

Some folks will take an entire RV into a stealer-ship for a lightbulb (only to have the unit sit there for three or more months).

On these things, a little bit of knowledge and a little bit of know-how will go a long way.

[LarryB41]

I've pulled a TT 20 years now. Purchased a Jayco 314 in 08, we put 15 to 20K miles on it a year. The only problem was the sliding glass door on the shower, the latch would unhook while driving. So I bought a 1/2 dowel, cut to length, placed in the bottom trough. Will be headed back to Alaska in May. We love wild life photography.

[Steveii]

If all the manufacturers actually built a quality camper no one would want to pay for them.
Airstream comes to mind. I think in the RV business the old saying "you get what you pay for" is true. Thor basically owns all of them now so we'll see what happens.

[HJ Rosch]

We have had our Alante Class A for a little over a year and I get disappointed with some of the negative comments about Jayco. They seem to have a similar theme of people not fully understanding that they are buying a house on wheels that they drive down the highway at 65 mph. While I have had some minor warranty problems all were handled well by my dealer and Jayco. We are VERY happy with our coach but are aware that things can go wrong and are prepared to deal with them. We are doing a 3 month trip to Alaska this summer, hope I don’t change my mind. We will take some key spare parts like a tank gate valve and water pump and others to be prepared for an emergency.

[CampNow]

Originally Posted by Duke4857

I have read that many Jayco owners have quality issues. That in my opinion will happen with any major purchase . . .

We've owned 4 new travel trailers (all from different manufacturers) over the last 8 years. IMO your odds of getting a bad one, or a good one, from any given manufacturer, are about the same. The reality is---95% of TT's manufactured today share the same, seamed, rubber-roof construction.

We've never had any serious problems with any of our TT's. However, there was always an on-going litany of smaller problems that seemed to skirt the edge of being serious. Our optimistic side always hoped we'd have better luck with the next TT. Unfortunately that didn't happen. During the last 6 months or so, a get-out-while-we-can mentality kinda took over with our Jayco. We had high hopes for it, but no-go. We sold it last month. Bottom line, after 4 tries, no more stick-built TT's in our future.

However, before we give up on RV'ing all together, we're going to try keeping our truck gainfully employed with a new, fiberglass in-bed camper. Used to travel in one years ago. They offer a lot of mobility while on (or off) the road. Thankfully it has all the essentials we use: a full-size dinette, 80x60 queen bed, 6cf frig, stove/oven, micro, and a shower/toilet. Definitely gonna miss the Jayco's swivel rockers though--lol! Definitely not going to miss the wood-based framing and seamed, rubber roof construction. Ultimately we're hoping for more fun, and less maintaining

Safe travels to everyone!

[Patchesrv]

The little things we are good for and you tube for the bigger. Thanks

[txauditr-ret.]

While complaints abound in the RV industry concerning construction Jayco will probably receive more than others due to the volume of units built. Correction of these problems rest with their dealers just like the automotive industry. Problem is finding a dealer who is honest and has integrity They are few and far between.
My Jayco is the first I purchased from them and sure I have had problems but my dealer has fixed all of them in a timely manner. He did this with my other 2 units as well
Too many dealers though figure the longer you wait the quicker you will get another unit.... profitability is the name of the game.
In short ..... fix it for the short run, then the upgrade.

[NickM]

We are on our second Jayco product, a Precept 35S motorhome. The first was a 1996 Jayco Eagle fifth wheel.

The fit and finish in the fiver was impeccable, what one would expect from Amish workmanship. It was 14 years old when we bought it and the only problem we had was the water heater control board failed in the first 12 months.

Our second Jayco and likely last RV is a 2016 Precept. I'm happy that we got a 24 month warranty because we had to use it to repair the fridge, awning LED's, toilet, and some other small items. Overall it has been relatively trouble free but the fit and finish is not representative of Amish workmanship.
We toured the motorized plant in 2018 and got a good understanding of how Class A's are built. In respect for the Amish, some of the materials may be sourced from third parties who work for the lowest bid.

If I were in the market for another RV I would look for the longest warranty period along with lemon reports. I would not hesitate to purchase another Jayco if nothing else popped up as a potential better product.

[KillerIsMe]

Originally Posted by cjack99

So there we are, 2:30 AM, sleeping peacefully in our camp area, when WHAM!!! the front of the bed collapses and we are dumped into the cargo storage area at the front, head down, at an angle great enough you could not easily get out. Had there been some wood blocks, or maybe some torsion bars, jacks, or other largish things that people use the front space for, either of us could have had a serious injury, up to and including a neck fracture.

Why did this happen? Turns out, 1, 1/4 " thick plywood is not thick enough. 2, the piano hinges (2 each, 6 inch long by 2 inch pivots hinge) were installed in a load bearing position, in other words the hinge was supporting the full weight of 2 adults. Result, with the plywood attached below a 2" load bearing area, the attachment screws simply pulled free of the plywood and down comes the bed.


cheers
cactus

I mean, that's not funny, but you have to be laughing about it now.