Jay Flight 174BH little review and simple mods - Page 5

barrettsr · 06-03-2019, 11:38 PM

I am loving this thread. I just bought this camper myself and have never owned one before so don't know anything. But have a question about storage...

In the comments I see the front storage being described as "large". I find it way too small. I have three fold up chairs for by the fire, water hose, power extension cord, small tool box, some blocks and that is about it. And its packed.

Where is everyone keeping all of these things on your campers? Inside the cabin?

barrettsr · 06-03-2019, 11:39 PM

Forgive my lack of knowledge as am new to all of this...

I have this travel trailer. The cargo carrying capacity is 750 - 800 pounds (off top of my head). Now when I bought the trailer I assumed that meant the max weight of all my gear, water in tanks, etc. But looking at the Jayco website it says it includes the weight of the passengers.

So four people sleeping in it who weigh about 180 pounds each would max out the entire cargo weight. That is without one pound of gear or supplies, etc. That can not be correct can it?

I thought GVWR was regarding to the weight of trailer when towing it. And in that case no passengers are in it.

What am I missing here?

rigger4343 · 06-04-2019, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by barrettsr

Forgive my lack of knowledge as am new to all of this...

I have this travel trailer. The cargo carrying capacity is 750 - 800 pounds (off top of my head). Now when I bought the trailer I assumed that meant the max weight of all my gear, water in tanks, etc. But looking at the Jayco website it says it includes the weight of the passengers.

So four people sleeping in it who weigh about 180 pounds each would max out the entire cargo weight. That is without one pound of gear or supplies, etc. That can not be correct can it?

I thought GVWR was regarding to the weight of trailer when towing it. And in that case no passengers are in it.

What am I missing here?

To touch base on your storage question.....
We have stuff in different places. The front storage under the bed is where we keep a lot of larger items. Up there I have a plastic tote, water hose, 4 chairs, grill, two folding tables and more. I still have room for more up there.
I keep TP and extra drinks under the bottom bunk. Kids clothes and extra food in the taller pantry close to the bathroom.
If you look back in the thread, you will see where I put a plastic box on the back bumper to hold the black tank stuff. Sometimes I throw wood and other outside items in the back of my truck.

Your weight question...
Normally they are talking about total loaded weight in the trailer. You are not going to have passenger in the trailer while towing. They may have that on there for legal reasons or for the RV's. I have a neighbor that has a Jayco RV, I am sure that would apply to him.

We do not tow with tanks full. I normally throw about 5 gallons in the fresh water tank just in case someone needs to use the restroom in the camper. I always dump the tanks before we come back home. You will loose a lot of weight by having all of your tanks empty. Unless you are camping out in the woods, there is no need to fill your water tank.

rigger4343 · 06-05-2019, 05:25 PM

Jacks...

The camper did come from the factory with two jacks on the rear of the trailer but I did not like how the TT still bounced around when someone would move or walk, especially in the middle of the night. Even if one of the kids were to just rollover in a bunk, I could still feel it in the trailer.

I took my time shopping and found a set of 4 new jacks. They are a lot stronger than the original ones and now I will have them on all 4 corners instead of just at the rear.

It was not a big deal to throw them on it. Big improvement in stability too. I think it was worth the effort.

rigger4343 · 06-15-2019, 12:52 PM

Ordered up a MaxAir cover and installed it today. It was extremely easy to mount. Had the AC on in the camper and with the new exhaust fan on medium, you could really feel the cool air flow through it. It seems to flow air very well and should do a good job of removing shower steam and rough smells from the restroom while not having to be concerned about rain water coming in through the vent.

I picked this one up off of Ebay for about $30.

rigger4343 · 06-15-2019, 12:54 PM

Also installed my one of my Father's Day gifts today too.

rigger4343 · 07-14-2019, 06:53 PM

Made a couple of simple mods to my outdoor shower....

First thing I did was get rid of the hard rubber hose. It worked fine and really there was nothing wrong with it but I wanted a longer hose. So I went to Lowes and got a much longer stainless shower hose from the plumbing section. Simple swap out and now it is so much nicer to use. And having a lot longer hose is really nice.

I also discovered that now that I had a longer hose, I wanted another spot to hold the shower head. I just took a stainless steel bolt and cut the head off so I would have a smooth stud sticking up out of the bumper. Simple and effective second location to hold it.

rigger4343 · 07-14-2019, 07:06 PM

My wife and I always liked the idea of showering outside. So since we have the outdoor shower now, we figured why not use it.

We went camping this past weekend and there were no full hookups at the site. Since the grey tank is small on our camper, and the temps were in the 90's during the day, we figured it was a good time to try it.

We had one of those small pop up/folding tent things that we had never used. It is perfect for something like an outdoor shower because there is no floor. We just set it up at the back of the camper and now that we have a longer hose on the shower head, it worked out perfectly to shower in. Still had a hot shower and did not fill the tank on the camper.

Yes I know we could just use the campground shower but this was just more fun! We showered after dark and were able to get good a clean under the moonlight.

rigger4343 · 07-23-2019, 07:58 PM

Finally got around to ordering a cover. Got the Adco cover from Etrailer for a trailer up to 20' long. It was really easy to throw over the camper. Hardest part about it was throwing the straps under the trailer and connecting them on the other side. It fits the trailer nicely and completely covers everything.

We have a lot of trees in our yard and our camper gets slammed with tree junk. In the fall it is really bad. Hopefully this cover will last at least a couple of years and help keep the TT cleaner. Guess time will tell.....

rigger4343 · 08-11-2019, 06:09 PM

Finished up a few more little projects this weekend...

One was my bike rack. I had posted a while ago looking for bike rack ideas and finally completed my plan.

I was trying to carry 4 bikes without loosing my entire truck bed to bikes and without spending a small fortune on a bike rack. Long story short, I installed two quick release mounts in the bed of my Tacoma with the bikes turned sideways. This kept me from having to take off my bed cover and gave me half the truck bed back for stuff like firewood and so on.

I picked up some strut from Lowes and welded up a simple frame. Used bolts and L brackets for the rest so that I could easily adjust or even move to another trailer if needed. This has not been road tested yet but I believe it will work just fine. Not that pretty but it did not cost a small fortune either.

rigger4343 · 08-11-2019, 06:22 PM

Next thing I finished up this weekend were some mods to my fridge. Last time my wife and I went, temps were in the 90's and it was actually the first trip we have made in warm weather with it. I discovered that in temps that high, the fridge had a really hard time staying cold. The freezer was fine but the temps in the fridge were getting up to 55 and 60 degrees. Way warmer than I wanted to see it get to. In cooler weather, no issues at all!

So after a little reading, I decided I needed to increase airflow through the back of the fridge area so that she could cool more efficiently.

I have seen some of those kits were you can add a fan or two. That is basically what I did. I ran across a good 12v computer fan the other day and it just happen to be the same size as the one that was in there already. So I snatched it up and made a new mount with both fans side by side. I wired them up together with a new 50c temp switch and removed a few of the unnecessary factory connectors to simply the wires. Used part of the old fan mount for the new temp switch and now she flows a lot more air. Actually the computer fan looks almost the same as the original fan but it pushes a lot more air.

rigger4343 · 08-11-2019, 06:34 PM

Now that it could push more air with two fans, I wanted the air to be able to get out easier.

There is an area above the vent that is kind of an air trap. The air could be pushed up by the fans but the air became very turbulent and really was not flowing out like I felt it should have.

So.... I decided to make it flow better. I took some handyman aluminum and cut a piece to fit in that area above the vent. It kind of slopes up and makes the air just flow out with a lot less turbulence. After sliding the little piece in there, the air can now flow at least three times better than it did before. Seems like this probably should have been the first thing I did to it. You can really feel the air move now with the fans on. Even without the fans on, the heat seems to escape better.

This little project took about 5 minutes to complete.

rigger4343 · 08-11-2019, 06:44 PM

Next thing I did to the fridge was get rid of the white plastic drain tube hanging out of the bottom vent. It was right next to the door and I just hated looking at it! Nothing wrong with it, it drained like it was supposed to. I just hated seeing it.

So while I was messing around with the fridge, I took out the original white tube and installed a new hose. Punched a hole though the bottom of the trailer and ran it out close to the gas line. Sealed up the hole and done. Put the little drain cap back on the bottom and put a little brass 90 degree elbow on the inside so the hose would not kink up.

This was purely a cosmetic thing that I just could not stand.

Hopefully my fridge mods will do the trick and cure my warm fridge in hotter outside temps. I will have to update on this one in the future.

rigger4343 · 08-11-2019, 06:52 PM

Last thing I did this weekend was insulate under the bottom bunk.

My daughter had been complaining of getting hot when sleeping. One morning I went to get her up, pulled the curtain back and even I noticed how warm it was in there. (We have curtains for the bunks and it made it like a little oven in there.)

The hot water heater is under that bunk so I took some foam insulation board and glued it to the bottom of the bunk board. One more piece on that little wall next to the water pump too. Not sure if this will cure it but it has got to help. If it still gets hot in there, I will add a 2nd layer of foam. If a 2nd layer does not cure it, she is just going to have to sleep with the curtain open!

mikegray · 08-12-2019, 05:01 AM

These are the ones I replaced mine with. Bought an adapter for my drill and almost as good as electric.
https://amzn.to/2YITHIc
Mike

jondrew · 08-23-2019, 01:07 PM

I just looked at one of these today. Looks like the perfect camper for towing behind my Jeep. My tow limits are 3500 pounds/350 pound tongue weigh.

We’re coming from a 40 Diesel Pusher, but we’ve had lots of other campers. I like the bunks, not a wet bath, and overall layout. Not sure I’m so crazy about the 7000 BTU side mount AC unit. This camper will live in central florida, so decent AC is a must.

It seems like this camper is the base model of base models. No fans, TVs, radios, slide outs. That’s fine. Just wondering if construction is decent. Have not found a website yet with objective reviews.

All campers have issues. I get that. I just want it to tow without falling apart, no leaky roof or plumbing, and the electrical system to work correctly. So far, I’m not seeing any negatives on these posts. Not sure about the AC though. If you live where its hot, is the AC good enough?

ttavasc · 08-23-2019, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jondrew

I just looked at one of these today. Looks like the perfect camper for towing behind my Jeep. My tow limits are 3500 pounds/350 pound tongue weigh.

We’re coming from a 40 Diesel Pusher, but we’ve had lots of other campers. I like the bunks, not a wet bath, and overall layout. Not sure I’m so crazy about the 7000 BTU side mount AC unit. This camper will live in central florida, so decent AC is a must.

It seems like this camper is the base model of base models. No fans, TVs, radios, slide outs. That’s fine. Just wondering if construction is decent. Have not found a website yet with objective reviews.

All campers have issues. I get that. I just want it to tow without falling apart, no leaky roof or plumbing, and the electrical system to work correctly. So far, I’m not seeing any negatives on these posts. Not sure about the AC though. If you live where its hot, is the AC good enough?

Our previous 195RB had the 8K btu wall mount A/C. We spent a fair amount of time in southern Utah and Arizona with temps regularly hitting upper 90's to 100. I would consider the wall mount A/C adequate for those temps on a short term basis. There is a 13.5K BTU roof-mount A/C option for these campers. If you can't find one on the lot with that option given your location I'd look to order one with it.

As to build quality, these are certainly "entry-level" campers. Our 195RB was just slightly larger than the 174BH and overall we had a decent experience with it. However, we did have some leaking issues on the front window and front corners, but with a little caulking and trimming work it was corrected. We did some mods such as adding the Heng's Vortex fans to the vents to improve ventilation and adding an external fan to the back of the fridge to improve its performance. We put about 25K miles on ours in just over 4 years and mechanically it did well with not much more than routine maintenance.

Kim Gass · 08-23-2019, 03:32 PM

And we have had the bigger 195 RB for 4 years and have had no leaking issues which is surprising after some 100,000 miles on the road( including lots of dirt roads).

In any unit that is a rolling and a shaking you can have leaks.. The A/C was adequate enough but I don't like the directionality of the wall mount..It concentrates a freezing blast right at the dining area and less circulation in the bed area. We had the wall mount.. We spend 6 weeks in FL each year. We got driven outlast year because we like to do outside stuff and can't do it when it is hot( 3 weeks of 87 degrees is too much.. We get three days of 87 a year at home). We don't camp to hide in the trailer.

jondrew · 08-23-2019, 05:04 PM

Lol. Id be in heaven if it was only 87 degrees for 3 weeks. We like beach camping and like it cool to sleep.

Thanks for the replies

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kim Gass

And we have had the bigger 195 RB for 4 years and have had no leaking issues which is surprising after some 100,000 miles on the road( including lots of dirt roads).

In any unit that is a rolling and a shaking you can have leaks.. The A/C was adequate enough but I don't like the directionality of the wall mount..It concentrates a freezing blast right at the dining area and less circulation in the bed area. We had the wall mount.. We spend 6 weeks in FL each year. We got driven outlast year because we like to do outside stuff and can't do it when it is hot( 3 weeks of 87 degrees is too much.. We get three days of 87 a year at home). We don't camp to hide in the trailer.

rigger4343 · 08-23-2019, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jondrew

I just looked at one of these today. Looks like the perfect camper for towing behind my Jeep. My tow limits are 3500 pounds/350 pound tongue weigh.

We’re coming from a 40 Diesel Pusher, but we’ve had lots of other campers. I like the bunks, not a wet bath, and overall layout. Not sure I’m so crazy about the 7000 BTU side mount AC unit. This camper will live in central florida, so decent AC is a must.

It seems like this camper is the base model of base models. No fans, TVs, radios, slide outs. That’s fine. Just wondering if construction is decent. Have not found a website yet with objective reviews.

All campers have issues. I get that. I just want it to tow without falling apart, no leaky roof or plumbing, and the electrical system to work correctly. So far, I’m not seeing any negatives on these posts. Not sure about the AC though. If you live where its hot, is the AC good enough?

Our trailer has the roof mount AC unit and it certainly seems to be more than enough. Up here in Charleston, my local Jayco dealer orders most all of them with the roof top units. I was a little concerned about the smaller AC unit and was originally not too worried if I found a trailer that had the smaller one. (Most of our camping is in cooler weather.) But now I am glad I have the bigger unit.

As far as it holding up.... We have had it for right at a year now. It has about 6 or 7 weekend trips on it. I have pulled it to the beaches north and south of us and up to the Table Rock area in SC. Our kids are not rough but they are not that easy on the camper either. Nothing has come apart or fallen off of it. I do have two marker lights up high that have stopped working but other than that, everything works. I really don't have any complaints with the build of the trailer. I know it is not a really high end unit but I think it is better than average. I looked at a lot of campers and it seemed like for the money, the Jayco was a hard unit to beat. It also has a 2 year warranty on it. If I am not mistaken, I think the 2020 trailers have a 3 year warranty on them.

This trailer is simple. That was one of the selling points of it for me and my wife. I almost got the one with the slide but we went back to our original plan and that was to get a simple unit. One that had very few bells and whistles, less junk to break. And one that would be easy for me to modify to fit our needs.

Ours does have the electric awning and it has been great. It has a stereo, it sounds okay. It has a TV antenna and it seems to work very well.

So far, I have no leaks. No plumbing issues. No electrical issues. The hot water heater works great. The fridge is big enough for the 4 of us on a long weekend. The AC works great. The heater works but we don't use it. There is plenty of storage for our needs.

As far as towing goes.... I think this trailer pulls really good and is balanced well. With only the anti sway like I have, it pulls and tracks great. I have been in some really nasty weather with it and no complaints on the highway. My Tacoma pulls it just fine but it also has a 6500 pound trailer rating too. You might want to get on some of the Jeep Forums and ask those with towing knowledge about how they handle it.

After a year with this trailer, I am happy and would recommend it if it fits your needs. Is the build quality perfect, nope. But I think it is better than average and will be easy to repair in the future. It does have good running gear under it and pulls well.
My wife and I see us keeping this one for the next 4 to 5 years at least. By that time our girls will be 18 and may not want to camp anymore. At that point we may replace it with something a little higher end or more set up just for the two of us.

This up coming weekend, Labor Day weekend, we are heading up to Lake Jocassee for a few days. Should be a fun weekend and will be another good test for it. Two adults, two 13 year old girls and our little dog.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I would happy to answer anything and I can give you an honest opinion.

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