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Old 02-20-2012, 04:38 PM   #1
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Jay feather 228 questions

Hello everyone. We are currently eyeing up a Jay feather 228 ultra light (would be our first TT) and am hoping to find some others that may already own this model. We have three kids (seven and twin three year olds) along with my wife and myself. We really like the floor plan as we all have a bed without having to make down a table or pull out a couch. As well it meets the weight requirements (5000 lbs) to allow it to tow behind out 2011 Ford Explorer. I would like to know if anyone has had any problems with the the trailer. As well of there is anything you may dislike about it. I have only see one so far at the showroom. I need to go back to have a second look at the sewer hose storage. It looks to store in a plastic tube inside the front storage compartment. To me it would seem to be difficult to clean it out once the left over water and waste runs down to the bottom. Anyone have this issue. Also it would of been nice to have a third window in the exterior door for the bottom bunk. That seems to be a dark place without any outside sun light. Are there any other issues you find with this unit? Thanks for your time everyone.
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Old 02-20-2012, 08:32 PM   #2
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we picked up our 228 we ordered about two weeks ago last Friday, I guess they had some built and may have just had to change a few options around.we were told 6-10 weeks. love it so far. everything seems as advertised. got 1 thing extra. none of the 228s we ever looked at had a skylight over the tub. not an option that is stated and none online had one. go to take delivery and there's a skylight right over the tub. I was very happy to see it! much more headroom and more natural light. it pulled nice behind my sequoia. extremely happy with that. we got an e-2 1200/12000lb hitch.....2way built in sway control as apposed to the 4way of the equalizer hitch. worked great with this camper although I have only been about 100 miles. rear bunks are bigger than the pictures looked(I thought) I'm 5'11" and fit with a few inches left over.
were excited for spring, day after getting our camper it snows for the first time this year! go figure.
we love jayco....had a 94 jayco 12kb pop-up....and the inlaws have a 2007 jayco 218. didnt even consider another brand. looked at them only enough to realize how light weight and well built jaycos really are.
I would love to hear about others that own the 228 but haven't found anyone discussing them on here.
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2012 Jay Feather Ultra Light 228
1200/12000lb e2 weight distribution(slight overkill)
2006 Toyota Sequoia
me wife 2 girls (3 & 9)
2 dogs a boxer and a bloodhound
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Old 03-11-2012, 02:26 PM   #3
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Ry-guy are you still thinking on the 228. We pick our knew 228 up in april. I really wanted a knew explorer but at the time we wer'nt sure on which trailer so we got the f150 just to be safe. I can tell you more about it when we take our first voyage.
Ctsvslp we are having the skylight put in our shower.We didn't know the knew ones come with it .Just how big are the tanks in yours. My broucher says 28 fresh 30 gray 22 bl.
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Old 03-13-2012, 06:18 AM   #4
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my tanks are 36 gal grey, 30 gal black, and 24.5 gal fresh. jayco says they made some mid year changes that i apparently got ordering mine in feb. the skylight and the tanks.
i also weighed mine the other day @ "cat" scales. the tv was almost full of fuel but lacking 3 people and a few hundred pounds of luggage which will be split between the tv and trailer. oh and 2 dogs. about 150lbs there lol.
the wd set up is very good putting almost all the empty tv front axle weight back up there. that amazes me!
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2012 Jay Feather Ultra Light 228
1200/12000lb e2 weight distribution(slight overkill)
2006 Toyota Sequoia
me wife 2 girls (3 & 9)
2 dogs a boxer and a bloodhound
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Old 03-13-2012, 07:22 AM   #5
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Thats a pretty good upgrade from the tank size in my broucher. I do recall seeing some information on the street side of the trailer that had something like 270# with full fresh tanks but i did not take notice of tank size.
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Old 03-13-2012, 07:36 AM   #6
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my door says full fresh water is equal to 237.....and @ 8.3 lbs / gal. it is written for only having a 22.5 gal fresh water tank and including the hot water heater full. so dont believe that cause under my camper is 24.5 and another 6 for the water heater. so my door should say 253lbs. but I surely won't be complaining about that!!! lol
I had to crawl under it to find all this. I thought I was getting what is written in all the literature.
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2012 Jay Feather Ultra Light 228
1200/12000lb e2 weight distribution(slight overkill)
2006 Toyota Sequoia
me wife 2 girls (3 & 9)
2 dogs a boxer and a bloodhound
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Old 03-13-2012, 07:47 AM   #7
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under my camper....my grey tank, and my incorrect label lol
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2012 Jay Feather Ultra Light 228
1200/12000lb e2 weight distribution(slight overkill)
2006 Toyota Sequoia
me wife 2 girls (3 & 9)
2 dogs a boxer and a bloodhound
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Old 03-13-2012, 09:12 AM   #8
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Thanks for checking. My curiousity is up now. Either way it is just the two of us so i think we"ll be ok. Buy the way after we purchased our trailer with the 600# hitch they sold us i had noticed you had a 1200# while digging in this forum. I checked with Equalizer and told them i might want to upgrade to bigger trailer some day. They said the 1000# would do as well and understood my reason. Went back to the dealer with this information and agreed as well but might just be a little stiffer ride. They had no problem making the change.
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Old 03-13-2012, 09:49 AM   #9
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How has your winter been? We're having an unbelievably mild winter. Never needed the snow blower once. I'll put it away already winterized. Knock on wood. Upper 60's for the rest of the week. I'm going out to wash the truck now. Wow middle of march.
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Old 03-13-2012, 10:47 AM   #10
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i did get a 1200lb, (e-2 it was a bunch cheaper but only 2-way sway control, both equalizer and the e-2 are made by progress manufacturing though)the price difference through my dealer was so little between the 1000 and 1200 and i was told it wouldn hurt to have overkill.
my ride isnt bad at all. bumps and dips all feel good with it.
from what im seeing though im glad i did upsize. my rear axle weight increases by 540lbs. with my weight distribution set up. but what puzzles me is that without weight distribution my rear axle weight goes up 940lbs!!! these trailers were supposed to have around a 375lb tongue weight all unloaded. i have very little stuff in front of the camper. ( a couple chairs, a couple plastic 3 wheelers for my girls, hoses stuff, chocks, blocks, a book or two, a battery and 2 20lb propane tanks) the point is that its certainly not 565lbs worth of stuff, and im glad i have the wd that i do. 1000lb will definately be just fine tho. i would certainly put the 1000lb on mine and not worry.
our winter has been super warm also. nice for my heating bill!!! we got about 5" of snow the day after i picked up my camper lol. (there are some pictures on my page) other than that we have had a few dustings and thats it. its looking like 70s all week here and close to 80 later this week!!! we have made reservations at holiday state park for this weekend. our first trip in the camper so were super excited! my girls are just bouncing off the walls in anticipation.
i put water through the camper this past weekend for the first time and all seems well there, the hot water heater fired right up and i checked all pipes and no drips.
a little story time there lol!!
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2012 Jay Feather Ultra Light 228
1200/12000lb e2 weight distribution(slight overkill)
2006 Toyota Sequoia
me wife 2 girls (3 & 9)
2 dogs a boxer and a bloodhound
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Old 03-13-2012, 01:28 PM   #11
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I think they try hard to make some trailers look minivan towable. The dry tongue weight 375# is only 10# of the 3600# quoted empty weight . I was told that 13% of loaded weight is a good number when considering tongue weight for payload calculation. Someone correct me if i'm wrong. I found it odd that model 221 has a 500# tongue weight while the trailers weight and length are similar to the 228
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Old 03-15-2012, 07:38 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bigbird View Post
I think they try hard to make some trailers look minivan towable. The dry tongue weight 375# is only 10# of the 3600# quoted empty weight . I was told that 13% of loaded weight is a good number when considering tongue weight for payload calculation. Someone correct me if i'm wrong. I found it odd that model 221 has a 500# tongue weight while the trailers weight and length are similar to the 228
It looks like there are three of us now with the 228 model. We are waiting on the custom window to be built and installed for the bottom bunk in place of the hatch door. The dealer has already gone and installed the skylight over the shower. Our unit is a 2012 model but had a November 2011 build date. I am doubtful that the tanks would of been upgraded, but not a big deal. Hopefully, and depending on the Alberta weather we should be taking our unit out for the first time either the last weekend of April or the first weekend of May. But again that will depend on weather. As for tongue weight, I too have read that 10 to 13% of the total weight should be tongue weight. I guess it all depends on how the unit is laid out and placement of the heavier items (ie furnace, hot water tank, fridge, etc.). Ryan
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Old 03-16-2012, 06:52 AM   #13
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Congratulations on your knew 228. I never did ask what dimention the skylight was but i'm sure it will give me more head room. It could be installed by now but i don't want to go see. I might just want to bring it home and its to early for me to. We'll set up a mid april day when all threat of freeze is over.
Do you have a tv. That is one mod i'll have to do. If so is it on a swivel type bracket. I was thinking i might want it just flat on wall since it is right over top the dinette seat.
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