TWX's '19 Jayflight 174BH Baja thread

[TWX]

A couple months ago we bought a roughly one year old used Jayflight SLX 7 174BH Baja Edition. We're looking at a roughly 6000 mile road trip sometime this year, so I figured I'd go through the trailer to fix any nagging issues. Guy I bought it from had purchased it new, he was a field engineer that got a per-diem for going to rural sites, so he had this trailer parked up at a storage lot in the part of the state he usually went to work in, and when he used it he took it to KOAs.

To be upfront about it, I am not terribly thrilled with the build quality. I know that these are made to a price-point and to minimize weight in the process, but what started out as a quick little 'fix the microwave mounting' turned into opening most of the compartments and doing some fairly major carpentry. I found cheap materials, poor and mismatched cutouts for panel-mounted components, stripped out mounting surfaces where the screws were overtightened, general shoddy workmanship anywhere concealed from view. I also found lots and lots of sawdust and metal shavings in concealed compartments.

So what started all of this is the microwave was floaty in its compartment above the vent hood. I pulled the bezel screws and found that the microwave was simply attached with sheet metal screws through the sides of the housing, or was supposed to be. Of the four screws, only one was installed. Three screws were sitting in the compartment down around the edges.

When I pulled the microwave completely out I found this:



That's the wiring for the vent hood. Additionally two of the four screws for the microwave tray are not present, there aren't even any holes in the wood for them.

I went ahead and pulled the tray:



So here's what I think happened. Somehow during the build process the vent hood came loose, tearing the wiring through the wall. They pulled the microwave enough to get in and fix it but in their haste did not put all of the fasteners back in.

I ended up tucking the wiring back into the wall, removing the most jagged chunks of walboard, and using some adhesive-backed foil tape to cover the damage:




I also took the opportunity to put four actual screws in to hold the plate down:



Then I properly attached the microwave to the mounting bezel, likewise with four actual screws:




and then reinstalled into the cubby.

[TWX]

After the microwave finding I figured I needed to go a lot more in-depth with this trailer, since we're going to be relying on it.

I started by opening the port-side compartment under the front queen bed, the small sealed spot next to the large hinge-up lid for under-bed storage. I found the fresh water tank. I also found a LOT of debris from when they installed it, including the cut-off disc of metal from the outer wall when they drilled through, wood shavings, and metal shavings.

Plus I found a large empty void between the tank and the bulkhead aft of it:






I thought this unit had a 20 gallon fresh water tank, that was how I saw these advertised, but I guess the Baja Editions got a larger 30 gallon tank. Here's the barely-readable white-on-white and after I adjusted the heck out of brightness and contrast to make it more readable:



The yellowing is merely because of how much I manipulated the image.

I was curious so I tested, a six-gallon milk crate fits in this space with room to spare:






The tank is also pretty low-slung, there's many inches between the top of it and the bottom of the mattress pallet:





And on my trailer at least, the width of the opening into the compartment is 21¾" across:





Now, another flaw. The hole for the filler into the trailer is too low. It's below the height of the tank, and the hose actually curves up to enter the tank. This means water coming out of the side of the travel trailer and running out on the ground. not quite sure how I'm going to go about fixing that, I might just have to find a flat rubber washer to put inside of the cap to seal that, leaving the vent tube above it open for proper venting.

[TWX]

At this point I turned my attention to the compartments under the lower bunk, at the aft corner on the port side. The seller had briefly showed me because of the water pump and water heater, but I wanted to give the area a closer look.

First I found a loose-fitting box installed in the forward of the two halves. The screws set into the bulkhead between the bunk and the seating booth and into the outer wall were both loose, only the lower screw into the floor was solid. I pulled them to find the cavity that the power cable stows into when it's pushed in from the outside:



Notice how the studs are barely marked with little dashed lines, but that the holes don't correspond.

So I don't have a picture, but I was able to easily fit a four gallon milk crate and a six gallon milk crate in here. If I rework the box for stowing the power cable I think I could get two of the four gallon milk crates and a six gallon milk crate in here.

Then I turned my attention to the further-rear compartment. Similar to the water tank, the space is very poorly used:


The water pump is basically using half the space. It would have easily fit next to the water heater, either floor-mounted or bulkhead-mounted.



Not sure what the clear hose is for.

Plumbing around the water heater:



I didn't make any changes here, but I vacuumed-up all the debris and tried to make the compartments tidy. Eventually I will revisit this, likely I'll use this for storage of things that we won't need daily access to, but we would want to have along and could put up with the inconvenience of having to root around to get at. Extra towels, extra bed linen, possibly even extra shoes since it's really inconvenient if those get muddy. Might even look at extra water since the forward of these two areas is over the axle enough to be a fairly good place to load-up without overstressing the frame.

[TWX]

Well, I didn't want a shocker. While working on the aft compartments I noticed that the electrical panel was only attached on one side:



I discovered that the wood was stripped-out on that side, so the screws were just hanging out:



The other side was still solid, but wow, the screws were crooked:



I ended up taking some scrap wood and setting all four screws through the cabinets into this wood:



this firmly attached the panel.

I may revisit this rat's nest of cables at some point. I don't like how much stuff is floating in here:

[TWX]

Next I turned my attention to the rest of the queen bed pallet.

I'd noticed that there was a lot of flex in the 3/8" plywood. When I looked from below I found that the reinforcing strips that pass for joists were not end-to-end, the wood glue had failed, and the screws were trying to pull through which would have meant catastrophic failure.



I measured 40.5" if I went across the structural frames:



I had some 1x2 boards, which are more like ¾x1½. I cut these to length and clamped them loosely in-turn to the existing boards, then closed the lid to let them slide against the existing to align. Then I drove screws in through them to the existing to hold them in place.



I attached boards at the front and back with screws and wood glue for these refurbished joists to sit onto when the lid is closed, then I took them off to add new glue:



After that I screwed them back into place.

I noticed that the CO detector:



is in a similar situation to the electrical panel, it looks like they missed when they installed it, the hole cut in the panel is too big:



That I'll have to get to later.

[TWX]

and lastly, for now, my wife was examing cabinets for storage and thought the under-sink and under-stove cabinet was wrong. I found a weird panel board, installed with only one screw into the floor, flapping in the breeze:



when I removed it, it was pretty obvious it had been installed because someone drilled the hole in the floor for the gas line in the wrong spot:



Fixing this will have to wait for later. I'll probably just build a smaller, proper-sized box to enclose it and make the undersink area more useful. I'm probably not going to make fresh holes in the floor, even if that would be a better solution for the long term.

[TWX]

...I'm glad I wasn't the new buyer of this thing and that I didn't spend a lot on it. Because if I was the new buyer, I'd be pretty pissed off. I found construction debris everywhere, I found things already coming apart, I found improperly drilled holes that aren't easily fixed like for the water inlet, and for the routing of the gas line. Today we road-tested it around the metro area for 95 miles to determine the kind of fuel economy, and I discovered that the door latch isn't aligned well, the if the bolt isn't set, the locked handle moves enough to unlatch it and open the door. I'll have to fix that too.


I don't expect a whole lot, I know it's both inexpensive and lightweight, but c'mon guys! Figure out templates for drilling holes. Have a guy at the end with a shop vac cleaning up the crap before screwing closed the compartments. This shouldn't add much to the cost and will make the trailer so much nicer.

[JFlightRisk]

snip..."Not sure what the clear hose is for."

The clear hose is for drawing antifreeze through the pump when you winterize it. You'll turn two valves there, to get the suction to that hose, and pump it through the plumbing.

We had some debris in the nooks and crannies in out TT, but not quite that bad. I was the guy that finished cleaning it up.

[ranchosinvacas]

We own the smaller BAJA version, a 2014, 145RB. All of what you encountered is much like what I had to deal with when ours was newly purchased. I would suggest that you very carefully go through all the loose spaghetti wiring that you discovered. I found many loose wire nuts and non-tightened screws in the various 120VAC and 12VDC wiring connections. After a 50 mile dirt road trip...not a 4x4 road...one window had slid downward creating a good size opening in the sidewall. Your location states Tempe which is likely urban but you should also check out whether or not rodents have ever made the TT their home. AZ packrats and AZ rock squirrels love the under floor space between the actual floor and the black plastic liner (coroplast) screwed to the frame rails.

[TWX]

Originally Posted by JFlightRisk

snip..."Not sure what the clear hose is for."

The clear hose is for drawing antifreeze through the pump when you winterize it. You'll turn two valves there, to get the suction to that hose, and pump it through the plumbing.

We had some debris in the nooks and crannies in out TT, but not quite that bad. I was the guy that finished cleaning it up.

Thanks. There was some kind of winterization done to this unit, I flushed out the lines with just water at the hot/cold exterior drains below the sink area in addition to having drained the fresh water tank, but I'm not entirely certain what else I should do for clearing any remaining chemicals. I'll also need to do a flush/sterilization/flush/fill again of the fresh water tank, for my mileage-test yesterday I just filled it with water that we then ran some of into the grey and black tanks before treating the black tank and then draining all out. Haven't used the onboard water systems otherwise.

I do plan on bringing bottled water for at least drinking, but obviously there are limits on both space and weight in the trailer particularly. Phoenix-area tap water is not pleasant to drink so unless I want to go through the effort to figure out a filter system then it just may not be in the cards to use tap water for drinking.

Originally Posted by ranchosinvacas

We own the smaller BAJA version, a 2014, 145RB. All of what you encountered is much like what I had to deal with when ours was newly purchased. I would suggest that you very carefully go through all the loose spaghetti wiring that you discovered. I found many loose wire nuts and non-tightened screws in the various 120VAC and 12VDC wiring connections. After a 50 mile dirt road trip...not a 4x4 road...one window had slid downward creating a good size opening in the sidewall. Your location states Tempe which is likely urban but you should also check out whether or not rodents have ever made the TT their home. AZ packrats and AZ rock squirrels love the under floor space between the actual floor and the black plastic liner (coroplast) screwed to the frame rails.

I will do that. It looks like there's some orange spray-foam coming out of any penetrations in the black corrugated plastic, but no idea if those were proactive or reactive. The area the seller had it stored in is in the transition between desert and a more forested zone, so it's possible that he experienced a problem and dealt with it that way.

I'm also tempted to add some reflector tape on the sides and rear. The black faux-diamond-plate looks cool but I'm worried that with the added height of the Baja edition, modern automotive headlights with their sharp top-edge cutoffs to the beam pattern might not let nighttime drivers see the thing as well as they should with the black frame, black wheels, black tires, and black lower quarter.

As for the water inlet to the fresh water tank, I think i'll see if I can find a mounting plate with a roughly eight inch diameter, cut a hole in the center for the plastic inlet, then expand the hole on the side of the trailer upwards as high as that new plate will allow where the new plate completely covers the hole. Or I might also look at just how high the inlet can be positioned and if the wall is thick enough to allow the inlet hose to run within the wall for something like half a foot, so that the water doesn't slosh-out on turns or on a track with some off-camber slope. I have some roughly 20 gauge stainless steel paneling that I'm planning on lining the kitchen wall and cabinet next to the stovetop with, so some of that might work.

I suppose lastly the lack of wet walls in the shower area may be a problem, but attempting to permanently line that with something may be too much weight. Perhaps a shower curtain hanging from hooks may do the trick and still be removable for cleaning/drying.

[ranchosinvacas]

I'll offer a suggestion...use the search function to review my numerous posts related to our issues and solutions to some of the problems I needed to solve with our southern AZ based Baja 145rb. The likely best search term would be "Jayco Baja 145RB. I have posted my experiences with correcting many installation and/or quality issues with our unit. Most of my postings range between 2015-2020 good luck!

[TWX]

I've ordered a generator. I used a clamp meter to measure power draw of the roof-mount Dometic Brisk II 13,500 btu air conditioner, the microwave, the rest of the travel trailer circuits, and a countertop convection toaster oven that we have in the house kitchen. My clamp meter unfortunately is not capable of giving me maximum momentary info, it has no memory.

Dometic Brisk II 13,500 - 1512W, 12.6A
Microwave - 1296W, 10.8A
“converter” (DC rectifier) - 180W, 1.5A
Refrigerator - 60W, 0.5A
Toaster Oven BOV800XL - 1788W, 14.9A

The only device that had a significant inrush-current was the rooftop air conditioner. I saw 24+A when it kicked on but again I can't trust the meter to provide me with truly accurate info.

I had originally wanted the capability of running two at a time but that's just not in the cards, I'd need a generator that's simply too physically large to mount anywhere reasonable on the travel trailer and my original idea to go propane-only simply isn't going to work out with the lower-power generators. The smallest generators that had even close to enough oomph were more than a hundred pounds and even then it was going to be iffy if they'd have enough output on propane.

I ended up settling on a Westinghouse iGen 2500. Gasoline only, recoil-start only, but 2500W for surge-demand, 2200W continuous. It ended up costing me $510 before tax due to a promo code I had for 15% off. It should arrive sometime in the next week or so. The intention is to mount it on the trailer tongue, securely enough that theft should be difficult. To achieve this I need to reconfigure the tongue.

This is the tongue's current, presumably factory configuration:

Propane cylinder is mounted in a circular mount that bolts down to self-tapping holes in both rails of the tongue, right behind the jack. Battery box is centered on the welded-in mounting rails.

This is what I have in mind:


Battery box is relocated to the port side of the mounting rails. Propane cylinder mount is relcoated to the starboard side, as close to the quarters as possible, perhaps with somewhere between an inch and half an inch of clearance.

The milk crate footprint is 13" by 19", the generator footprint is 11.4" by 19.8". Close enough for the mockup. I'll have a little clearance at the tongue jack and a little clearance a the propane cylinder. Not much, but should be enough if I'm not stupid about how I position the generator so that exhaust isn't pointing at the cylinder.

Some additional photos:





The intention is to avoid making access to anything critical impossible. I might end up putting the propane cylinder mount up high enough to clear batteries on the support rails though, especially if later I decide to install a second battery and even a second propane cylinder. For now I think this will do fine though, won't require moving the regulator, will probably require moving the battery switch for easier access.

And this is the battery that's installed on my trailer I assume it's a mid-grade battery. I have some other deep-cycle batteries, I might end up putting this one in the truck since the extra terminals would make a good spot to tie down the winch power cabling.

The intention is to be able to run the generator when it's installed on the trailer tongue. I might still take it off of the tongue to run it where that's possible, but since the first big trip is going to be cross country in lieu of flying and staying in a hotel it's likely I won't have opportunity to dismount it to run it away from the trailer.


I've heard of using sportbike mufflers on extended tubing to further quiet generators and to direct the exhaust away, I may look into that.

[Jay2504]

Please show pictures of the generator mount as you do it. I like the idea for mounting a small generator. Jay.

[TWX]

Originally Posted by Jay2504

Please show pictures of the generator mount as you do it. I like the idea for mounting a small generator. Jay.

Most likely I'll go through several iterations, so I'll probably take apart whatever I come up with to get photos of how the completed thing goes back together.


Right now I'm mulling building a five-sided aluminum box to serve as an enclosure that drops down over the generator when it's not in-use, securing to the plate that the generator will sit on. If the box is rigid then I'll probably end up making some kind of steel band that goes under the generator handle and also secures to the tongue so that the generator is secure even if the box is removed, but as an alternative I may think on a design where the box partly remains at all times with covers removed for access. I guess it'll depend on how loud the generator is when it's running while sitting on the tongue. If it's quiet enough then something that has removable covers may work just fine, but if it's too loud then I might want to more readily dismount it.


What I am considering is how airflow and cooling works. If it works like other generators, it'll have some kind of fresh air intake on the front below the control panel or on the bottom near the front. It'll blow hot air from around the engine out the back and likewise will exhaust out the back. The front above the control panel, the sides, and the top have no airflow, so within reason I do not have to concern myself with providing airflow, only in making sure I don't trap excessive amounts of radiated heat off of the generator's plastic housing. I also need to try to allow for easy maintenance though, so access to oil drain and fill ports, access to the air filter, access to the carburetor bowl drain, access to the spark plug. Plus the obvious fuel filler on the top.


So perhaps it'll be more like a skeletonized frame around the generator with removable panels, depending on how thoroughly I affix it to the tongue. Obviously until I have the generator in-hand I won't know for sure what I'm going to do.

[rigger4343]

Just a couple of ideas on the generator....

On mine, I set up twin tanks on the front with an auto-switching regulator so I have no more room to do a generator on the front like you are thinking. But you could go up if you needed to. If you look back in my thread, I built a bike rack above the tanks. You could do something similar and mount the generator just above the tank. That would be one option for me anyway.

The other idea would be maybe mount it off of the back bumper depending on it's weight. If you put it where I put my sewer hose box, it would be close to your power cord.

I have an amp clamp that will hold peak amps, I can check my AC and see what it pulls on startup if you need it.

[TWX]

Originally Posted by rigger4343

Just a couple of ideas on the generator....

On mine, I set up twin tanks on the front with an auto-switching regulator so I have no more room to do a generator on the front like you are thinking. But you could go up if you needed to. If you look back in my thread, I built a bike rack above the tanks. You could do something similar and mount the generator just above the tank. That would be one option for me anyway.

The other idea would be maybe mount it off of the back bumper depending on it's weight. If you put it where I put my sewer hose box, it would be close to your power cord.

I have an amp clamp that will hold peak amps, I can check my AC and see what it pulls on startup if you need it.

If you have an opportunity that would be splendid. When I tested mine, I took the face off of the panel (exposing the wiring from the front), loosened the clamp on the main input cable under the booth, and pulled the 10AWG black/hot wire forward to clamp onto. That allowed me to switch between circuits by flipping breakers on and off.

Biggest hurdle to a rear bumper install is the fairly small amount of room I have to store the trailer. I have an area that's less than 24' long, has walls on three sides, and right next to it is the door to one of my workshop stalls. I have to back in the driveway minding the overhead branches from a tree, angle-in to the spot, get the axle over far enough, then chock one wheel, disconnect from the truck, and push the tongue over. I end up with only a couple inches from the spare tire to the gate behind it, and I have brushed the tire a couple of times.

This actually was part of why I went with this model, I had to shop for units most definitely under 23' long, under 22' preferred. I have considered if I end up wanting a second one to parallel them I might put that second one on the rear bumper and make my own cables to connect the two. If I do that I'd have to get creative with the rear bumper mount, probably something folding. But that would be down the road if it turns out we want more.

It looks like my generator will be here before the weekend, we'll see if I have time to work on a mount for it or not. I found a company that makes mountings for a few popular higher-end generators, I've e-mailed them to ask if they are considering making one for the Westinghouse iGen/iPro 2200/2500 and Generac GP2200I/2500I. We'll see if they answer.

Having read through your modifications thread I'm going to see what I can do to improve the fridge cooling/efficiency. There's one cooling fan visible below the top hatch but I'm not actually sure it's working, it's dusty/dirty but it does spin freely. I've got a metal 12V fan that I might put in if it'll fit but it's a bit bigger. Also plan on putting some aluminum in to get rid of that dead spot at the top. Not sure why they made that white hose drain out the side, it looks like there was a hole drilled through the floor for it that was later filled-in on mine.

[rigger4343]

Originally Posted by TWX

If you have an opportunity that would be splendid. When I tested mine, I took the face off of the panel (exposing the wiring from the front), loosened the clamp on the main input cable under the booth, and pulled the 10AWG black/hot wire forward to clamp onto. That allowed me to switch between circuits by flipping breakers on and off.

Biggest hurdle to a rear bumper install is the fairly small amount of room I have to store the trailer. I have an area that's less than 24' long, has walls on three sides, and right next to it is the door to one of my workshop stalls. I have to back in the driveway minding the overhead branches from a tree, angle-in to the spot, get the axle over far enough, then chock one wheel, disconnect from the truck, and push the tongue over. I end up with only a couple inches from the spare tire to the gate behind it, and I have brushed the tire a couple of times.

This actually was part of why I went with this model, I had to shop for units most definitely under 23' long, under 22' preferred. I have considered if I end up wanting a second one to parallel them I might put that second one on the rear bumper and make my own cables to connect the two. If I do that I'd have to get creative with the rear bumper mount, probably something folding. But that would be down the road if it turns out we want more.

It looks like my generator will be here before the weekend, we'll see if I have time to work on a mount for it or not. I found a company that makes mountings for a few popular higher-end generators, I've e-mailed them to ask if they are considering making one for the Westinghouse iGen/iPro 2200/2500 and Generac GP2200I/2500I. We'll see if they answer.

Having read through your modifications thread I'm going to see what I can do to improve the fridge cooling/efficiency. There's one cooling fan visible below the top hatch but I'm not actually sure it's working, it's dusty/dirty but it does spin freely. I've got a metal 12V fan that I might put in if it'll fit but it's a bit bigger. Also plan on putting some aluminum in to get rid of that dead spot at the top. Not sure why they made that white hose drain out the side, it looks like there was a hole drilled through the floor for it that was later filled-in on mine.

Went to check the AC last night but discovered my old meter at the house has crapped out. If I don’t forget, I will bring home my good one from work and check again.

[TWX]

Originally Posted by rigger4343

Went to check the AC last night but discovered my old meter at the house has crapped out. If I don’t forget, I will bring home my good one from work and check again.

No worries. I appreciate the attempt.


It looks like my generator is delayed, Fedex is citing weather. I find this a bit suspect as it doesn't look like there are any significant weather problems from Sparks, NV to Phoenix, AZ, but at least I didn't need the generator in a hurry.

[TWX]

Heh. Fedex has yet again changed delivery on the generator. It's on the truck out-for-delivery, for Monday, two days from now, citing 'next business day'. I don't know if that's because the truck operates next on a business day, or if because they somehow think they're delivering to a business and that I won't be available to receive it until Monday. *sigh*

Early on when I realized how small the hatch to the under-bed storage area is I started thinking about modifications. I'd tried to locate a conventional-ish travel barbecue grill that could fit into the hatch and nothing I found fit. I have since learned that there may be an option or two, but I am still mulling a change to that hatch, the previous owner ended up dinging-up the inner lip pretty badly in the course of getting the Husky WDH in and out as it just barely fits when contorted to a weird angle, and the space would be much more useful if the hatch was bigger.

Between rigger4343 and a followup from Jayco I've got plans on the existing design, and here's what I'm thinking of changing:




Yellow lines reflect approximately where a new horizontal board would go, defining the new rough-in size. Element 10 I presume is for the bed pallet to affix-to, as is the corresponding boxed-X on the right side of the image at roughly the same height. That boxed-X ends up becoming the limiting factor as to how high I can go, both because of needing to support the bed and wanting to keep at least some kind of insulation below the bed to avoid making the bed too chilly in colder climates.

I'm looking a going from a roughly 40" wide, 11" tall rough-in to something more like 40" wide, 15" tall. One basically loses an inch in all dimensions due to the inner lip, so that's going from 39" wide and 10" tall to 14" tall, a height change of 40%. It looks like many of the Coleman folding portable grills will fit in through that sort of height, which is the goal. As much as it would be nice to put one of those slide-out kitchens like the Black Series and CRUX camper trailers use, I don't think it's practical just due to the position of the door to get into the RV and the canopy arms are positioned. Plus they're very, very expensive, like $3000 for a prebuilt one from Dometic.

I'm going to investigate further before I order a custom hatch, to confirm whether or not this mod is worthwhile. One hatch manufacturer offers something custom in this size for around $300. That's not horrible by any means but it's not chump-change either, especially considering the changes I have to do in order to use it.

[TWX]

Dumb question, but if anyone knows the answer I'd love to hear it.


Is the wallpaper or whatever they call the interior texture available on a roll from somewhere? I already can foresee this being an issue down the road, I'd like to get a roll so when I invevitably have to repair a section I'll have matching material.