Make sure you know what you're buying?

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by Randel J

But I believe that customer satisfaction comes more from the RV Dealer than it will from the make/model of the unit purchased.

BINGO! If the dealer doesn't do a thorough PDI, doesn't follow-up or properly submit a warranty claim the problem doesn't get corrected. That applies to every brand they sell.

[Quantum]

I watch Keep Your Daydream on Youtube as I'm sure some of you do as well. They currently have an Airstream and I was surprised with the number of issues (albeit minor) that have cropped up on that trailer. You pay a premium for an Airstream, and they run into some of the same quality issues. I don't think any manufacturer is immune.

[Moconno]

You sound very inexperienced or just plain miserable. If you have ever owned an RV or boat before you would understand. I don’t care what type or brand of RV you own there will always be issues. It’s all part of the lifestyle. A lot of problems are components that are the same be it a 1 million dollar Motorcoach or a $25,000 travel trailer. If you expect everything to operate perfectly all the time you will never be happy.

[oldcodger]

You can have a new camper and be the lucky one with few problems. If however as time passes if you aren't staying on top of bearings, tires, roof membrane, lap seal, corner joints, etc, you'll eventually have a very bad day.


RV living can be full of happy leisure time but it is also a labor of love. If you don't know how to fix and maintain your unit, better get up close and personal with UTube. It's all in there somewhere.

[Moving Along]

"RV living can be full of happy leisure time but it is also a labor of love. If you don't know how to fix and maintain your unit, better get up close and personal with UTube. It's all in there somewhere."

Amen

[TXJACO]

Just think about what would happen to your house if you slapped wheels on it and headed down the road? Furnace, hot water heater, furniture, refrigerator, etc.. All the bumps, potholes, curves, wind, etc. would probably wreak havoc on it. Yes, they’re designed and “built” to withstand the road, but stuff IS gonna happen! I accept that with everything I own; TT, home, vehicles, motorcycle, etc.. Unless it’s a major issue, I’d rather fix it myself rather than take it in and be in worse shape than when I brought it in. Plus, I have to listen to the DW complain about the crappy service!

Paul

[darlos]

I’ve had my 2011 Jayco SLX for 10 years. I’ve been all over the US and Canada and have had no problems at all. Very pleased with this product.

[JJVDAV98]

My 2017 JF 29RLDS has been great. Actually put 12,000 miles on it this year traveling x-country (June thru October)...

[mikesellshomes]

We are on our 3rd Jayco, 2 of which were brand new. Our 2013 X18D only went back for low hanging wires and a warped bathroom door. both such minor annoyances that if they had not fixed those, it would have been no big deal. So far on our 2021 SLX8 212QB there are only a couple little minor things and now that it's in winter storage, I can't even remember them. I have no issue with Jayco.

[haweinberger]

We have a 2017 37 rsts. Have it 2 years now and have put about 15,000 miles on it. Have spent about 6 month in it on about 6 different trips. Longest being cross country to the east coast for 3 months. We did have a factory recall on the suspension, this was a big one. Other than some minor cosmetic issues everything has been good. We are enjoying the unit with no complaints.

My point is : we do not live in a perfect world, stuff happens. that's the world we live in. The difference is how corporate America handles your problems with their product. Do they stand behind it and treat you like the paying customer you are, or once out the door and who are you?
Have had it both ways over my 71 years and it can be right or terribly wrong.

Always appreciate the right and proper way.

[weezer]

Just a few examples of the problems with my Pinnacle 36KPTS:
1 - Lots of minor issues, too many to list separately. Trim hanging down from ceiling (supposedly fixed THREE times), theater seat heaters quit (both), embossing on one of the stair treads disappeared overnight and the floor started squeaking like crazy at the same time.
2 - Theater seats weren't screwed to floor, just "floating around" loose. Actuator on one failed on first outing and months later Jayco sent the wrong one. In spite of photographs I took showing obvious differences they insisted they sent the right actuator. Upon returning home after 3-1/2 months snowbirding the dealer finally got it straightened out and replaced - another 4 months later!
3 - Furnace quit working in December and wasn't repaired until late February. Purchased electric heaters to make the trailer liveable.
4 - Water leaking around front cap seam. Dealer looked at it, I had an independent repair service spend 2-1/2 hours trying to find the origin. Nothing found, nothing resolved. Still drips occassionally but no one knows why. Dealer said it wasn't possible... until I showed them a video of water dripping, rapidly, out of the end of the vinyl trim piece.
5 - Fireplace quit/worked/quit depending on condition of the last road driven. Dealer couldn't find anything wrong even though it wasn't working at the time but did get it replaced. The new one works great, no issues.
6 - Water pump didn't work for a long time. Dealer ordered replacement and then the original decided to start working. Still operating on the original but really don't trust it.
7 - Jayco "forgot" to put screws anchoring the slide topper's fixed end to it's track. Arizona wind shifted the fabric off of the anchor "rope" and started ripping up the awning. The other 2 toppers were done right but the guy that did the door side topper just got lazy.
8 - Rear air conditioner not properly mounted by Jayco resulting in water flowing through the ducts and out the air return grate.
9 - The biggie! Jayco did not screw the wall to the frame from the rear pass-thru wall to the rearmost point of the raised floor section (6 to 7 feet) resulting in a gap between the stairs and the floor section outside the bathroom that would change on a daily basis from 1/8" wide to a maximum of 1/2" wide. I contacted Jayco to get, in writing, that it would be safe to tow. They said it would so I took it to my dealer when I got back home. They supposedly fixed it (+ other issues) but the gap returned. After the reorganization at my dealer's (and the return of the gap) the wall finally got screwed to the floor framing and the gap disappeared.
10 - Many other problems. Too many to get into here. Some minor and many more major ones that I've managed to forget (thankfully).
Many of these issues I fixed myself and many of those repairs were done after my dealer's original staff had supposedly fixed the problems. New staff seems competent at least.
These things are just thrown together. As Sr. Project Engineer in charge of bus/RV suspensions I visited many, many RV manufacturers' facilities and have seen the good ones and the bad ones. Based on my experience with this, my first and last, Jayco product I can honestly say that they are among the worst! As a friend said about my fifth wheel: You got one of those Saturday trailers, and they don't work on Saturday's.
Enough complaining... thanks for listening and sorry to have bent your ear for so long.

[SuperdutyFord]

Would anybody know how to secure the diamond plate on a Jayco Jay Flight bhbe that pulled away from the aluminum siding behind my propane tanks? Jayco doesn't seem to know how to repair it at their service station? 1 servicemen told me to screw it back in? which you cannot screw it in because when you drive the whole face of the RV moves depending on the terrain of the road you're driving on and you can't screw it because as you're driving it's going to rip the whole face in the RV off but I don't know what type of glue adhesive too use to secure a back? because Jayco built my unit not using enough diamond plate they cut corners and they should have put another inch of diamond plate on my unit so it was snug under the aluminum siding which they did not do and it buckled because of the heat expansion and pop out from the aluminum siding but I need to know how to secure it because I'm going to do it myself since no RV repair person knows how to fix it? For now I pushed it under the siding taped it and put a block of wood between my propane tanks which seems to be holding it.

[ALJO]

Just get one aluminum cross channel (similar on the bottom), use butyl tape. Usual there is wood backing (check it first) you ca screw into.

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by ALJO

Just get one aluminum cross channel (similar on the bottom), use butyl tape. Usual there is wood backing (check it first) you ca screw into.

+1

But Jayco "not knowing how to fix it" is absolute baloney. That very same thing happened to my 28BHBE (2014), and was repaired by the dealer, paid for by Jayco under warranty. I've read of at least a half-dozen other similar repairs on this forum alone, most done under warranty.

As an alternative to Aljo's suggestion, you could pull up the side moldings, remove or pull up the bottom most aluminum panel, and either slide up an additional piece under the existing aluminum panel, that overlaps the existing diamond plate, or install your own larger piece of diamond plate. Seal it all up and be done with it knowing you have a lasting, properly installed repair.

In my case, the dealer actually was shipped a new piece of diamond plate from Jayco, and installed it how it should have been installed in the first place with the appropriate overlap. I told the technician how I would repair it, and he agreed, and installed as such.

Luckily, it didn't rain because that bowed out piece of diamond plate would act like a huge funnel for water to get into the floor in the front of the unit.

[SuperdutyFord]

Well this is what I did because we're having a lot of rain lately where I'm at presently. It seems to be working? I just want to get it fixed the proper way. Thank you very much for your input.

[EBCTrekker]

Two things to enjoy RV camping - 1 ) be able to do some tinkering when needed and 2) have a great dealer to work with. After that, its just playing out the cards as they are dealt.

We've owned several Jaycos thru the years and have been happy with all of them. The 2021 on order is the first one since Jayco went under the Thor umbrella.

[klinner28]

Is the problem that more campers are living in them full time or near full time?

We've had ours 4 years, and other than securing the bathroom mirror and valance, we've had zero issues. But the other thing is that we've used it about 25 days a year and store it in an indoor garage.

The manual clearly states it's not meant for full time living. It's clear that the components are pretty crappy - fridge, heater, Ac and that if not used sparingly, they will go bad fast. And stuff like the showers and furniture, it's not built for wear-and-tear.

My point is that it's expectations... campers are expecting them to be this robust unit when they weren't built that way.

[Bayoutalker]

Originally Posted by klinner28

Is the problem that more campers are living in them full time or near full time?

We've had ours 4 years, and other than securing the bathroom mirror and valance, we've had zero issues. But the other thing is that we've used it about 25 days a year and store it in an indoor garage.

The manual clearly states it's not meant for full time living. It's clear that the components are pretty crappy - fridge, heater, Ac and that if not used sparingly, they will go bad fast. And stuff like the showers and furniture, it's not built for wear-and-tear.

My point is that it's expectations... campers are expecting them to be this robust unit when they weren't built that way.

It is definitely worse the more you use them but then again that's the way it is with most things. Those of us that spend a lot of time in our units expect normal wear to occur but some things are excessive. Would you accept it if you bought a new vehicle but it could only be driven to church on Sunday? Some things are just poor quality workmanship and that is not acceptable.

[craigav]

Actually two separate things that many RV mfgs try to tie together.

First item is that they do use cheap components and build these things so fast that quality suffers as a result.

Second thing though is that the "legal" reason that they say that the RV is not intended for full time living is because if they did then the RV's would have to meet federal HUD standards such as used for a mobile home, which RV's do not meet.

There was a big todo about this a couple years back related to "park model" RV's and seeing that they are intended for full time living, but didn't meet the standards. If anyone is interested I can probably locate the HUD ruling on how that worked out. ~CA

[Bayoutalker]

Originally Posted by craigav

Actually two separate things that many RV mfgs try to tie together.

First item is that they do use cheap components and build these things so fast that quality suffers as a result.

Second thing though is that the "legal" reason that they say that the RV is not intended for full time living is because if they did then the RV's would have to meet federal HUD standards such as used for a mobile home, which RV's do not meet.

There was a big todo about this a couple years back related to "park model" RV's and seeing that they are intended for full time living, but didn't meet the standards. If anyone is interested I can probably locate the HUD ruling on how that worked out. ~CA

I knew there was a legal reason but now I know what it is. Thanks for the info.