Now back into Camping !

[Jake]

So my wife and I last week decided to get back into camping after a 20 year hiatus. Now that we are empty nesters and almost retired we decided maybe having camping as an option on the weekends, might be a good thing. We picked up a 2012 Jayco 18 ft Jayflight SLX 185 RB last week, and I fixed a few things ( silly fuse at battery and a frayed propane hose) but with the help of this site I figured out a few things and remembered the things I almost forgot from 20 years ago. (hey propane hot water tanks lighting has not changed in 20 years !) . We are doing our maiden voyage this weekend , just a short one up to Lake Suprerior (Pancake Bay provincial park) it has electricity , but eventually we will be roughing it more next summer with generator and propane only use, and beside more remote lakes we have in mind.
The model we have has the full size queen mattress and smaller dining table , so actually only sleeps three adults , or two adults and two small grandkids!) Our last trailer was the same size but was way back in 80's and it was a 1983 terry taurus.....but it had dual axle. I am waiting to see if there is any disadvantages to having only single axle on this Jayflight.
Anyway I hope to rely on this site for any further questions and common interests.

Jake and wife and dog Lucy

[JFlightRisk]

Welcome back to the camping world! ( Pun intended). Some things have changed a little over the years, but you'll get used to them right away. The only thing we've found having two axles vs. one, there's twice as many tires to buy! Good luck, and happy camping.

[Jagiven]

Congratulations! When you retire you'll be able to wonder off during off peak periods during the week.

As for single verse dual axles. Dual axles tend to allow for more cargo, and they tend to be more stable on the road. Single axle trailers tend to bounce more.

[mike837go]

Welcome to the fold. Both to the forum and camping.


It's interesting. I just sold my 1983 camper after buying 2015. The change in tech on some items is amazing. Some things haven't changed at all.


Feel free to ask anything here. There are no stupid questions. Just boneheaded "d'oh" mistakes!

[TWP723]

Welcome!!!

[Jake]

Thanks everyone , had a good first weekend with the trailer, learned that reason we did not have hot water was that a valve was closed that should of been open under the bed (former owner must of closed it from last winterize) , learned that fridge does not work on propane, but I searched this website and will take apart the unit from access panel and clean the orfice area, (former owner never used on propane so I imagine it is dirty after two years) .............wife left a window open when we were driving home and the wind severed the blind string apart , I doubt we can restring that but will try..............and table fell off wall during travel home and the aluminum track was made loose where it attached to table with screws. (I fixed that by moving the track half an inch over and having new wood to install longer screws into the table.......learned that camp sites might have electrical service boxes 100 feet away instead of the 75 feet of cord I had, (and that remote camp stores charge twice as much for extension cords (smile) ...........okay so now I learned you need to be handy to be a camper , and that is alright, I like to fix things!

[tbwill]

Originally Posted by Jake

.............wife left a window open when we were driving home and the wind severed the blind string apart , I doubt we can restring that but will try..............

I did the same thing on a trip to Oregon several years ago. The aluminum blind slats broke from all the flexing. Take a look on the bottom of the blind, ours had a sticker from the OEM supplier, called them up and bought a replacement from them at about a third of what Jayco wanted.