2020 Entegra 29V

[Andrew C]

Well, like so many, I decided to follow the trend and purchase a brand new Entegra 29V. I come from the manufacturing world much like Jayco / Entegra just on the water side and the same thing is happening. Sales have sky rocketed and orders are far behind right now which puts us all in a very lucky position.

This is my first post and the forum is a little tough for me to navigate so I am sorry if I have this in the wrong area. I wanted to send in a small recap of my purchase after building boats for 20 years and dealing with owners group forums just like this. This post is not intended to bad mouth Jayco or the manufacturer but to provide some feedback for them and others considering an RV to purchase.

This is my third brand new RV/Camper which all of them I have purchased new. The first was a Thor Ace 30.2, second was a Grand Design 29G and this is the third.

The Thor was terrible. Nice "looking" but I couldn't keep the thing on the road regardless of what shocks, suspension components I changed. It was a terrible ride all together imho. I decided to go with the tow behind because I trusted my Dodge 2500 to drive straighter down the road. That was also a mistake and having swapped out three anti sway hitches, I decided it wasn't fun to drive either.

So, I decided to give the Entegra a shot. My first 300 miles or so, I am quite impressed with the ride quality without touching anything on the coach. Like any of them, I have had my issues and I go about them and try to fix them myself without bothering the manufacturer or dealership. All I really expect is a little support when it does come time. Here is what I had right out of the gate.

* Stereo at the dash was not responding to the touch. I couldn't get into settings or so anything other than watch the cameras which was fine. So, I decided to reach out to my dealer. They said they would order a new one and a week went by. No response so I decided to reach out directly to Sony who made the radio. Followed all of their protocol with serial numbers, proof of purchase (of the RV) and after a day of screwing around, they declined to work with me because I couldn't come up with the original receipt of the unit. Oh well, $600 out of pocket and I bought a Kenwood and installed everything myself. This is where the big surprise came in. After pulling the dash apart, I don't think I have ever seen such a mess of wires in my life. The lower dash had wires all tangled over and around the E brake pedal, around the radio and the entire dash panel. I pulled as much as I could out, rearranged, used proper connectors and zip tied everything in place.

* I heard a lot of complaints about the doors being noisy. This is no joke so be aware if you are buying one that the inside noise from the door is definitely loud.

* Paint. This is my biggest concern. When I was at the dealership, I brought up several areas that looked dull or sanded and never polished. Little spots about 4" in diameter over one entire side. I picked up the coach and realized they washed it but didn't do anything with it figuring I would deal directly with Jayco on this. After looking more, I found paint lines and rough areas all over the coach. One of the worst paint jobs I have seen. I am more curious to hear if anyone else as seen this problem and how they got it resolved. My plan was to bring it to my local detail shop to see if they can polish and wet sand the areas out but I really don't want to touch it until Jayco gets back to me. I have tried for about a week and they do not seem that interested in the support side which has me a little worried. In my business, if we aren't back to someone in 24 hours, that is rare. I have also painted many boats in my time from a bad job out of the mold but this one is pretty darn bad. When I bought this one, the sales guy made a big deal about the paint job on these saying they are a big step above most in this $100,000 - $150,000 range RV's as they dont use decals. I am kind of wishing I had decals now.... Has anyone found someone decent at the factory that has some authority to return emails or calls about issues like this?

I can fix just about anything on these and have always tried to be super fair but when it comes to paint, that is not my specialty.

Overall, we are very happy. We will plan to rebuild the coach to our standards like we have done in the past! Look forward to reading through the forum and getting to see what others have done.

Thanks for reading,

Andrew

[Rice1951]

Welcome to the JOF and congratulations on the new coach.
My first suggestion would be to bypass the dealer and call Jayco Motorized CS directly and explain your situation. Hopefully you could work out something with them to get your paint issues resolved.
You seem like you’re fairly handy and willing to do whatever is necessary to get your RV to where you want it to be. There is a member on this forum who goes by RetiredOne and he has a Jayco Redhawk that he had vinyl wrapped and he seems pretty happy with it. That may be a solution for you. You can either look up some of his posts or contact him directly for more specifics. Good luck to you.

[EA37TS]

Welcome to the forum. Like you my prior motorhome was a Thor (2015 Challenger 37ND), however, the Challenger was a good unit with very few issues.

One thing you will find is that Jayco/Entegra is seriously lacking in the documentation arena and could take some lessons from Thor in this regard. If you need anything such as electrical or plumbing drawings it will take multiple attempts to get the set and you must be extremely specific as to what you want in your request. Thor has Jayco beat by 1000 percent in this arena.

Enjoy and may your travels be safe.

[Andrew C]

Thanks for this. I’ve done quite a few of the vinyl wraps which is pretty amazing what you can do with them these days. I built a new boat and the customer has the entire thing wrapped and made it a different color. You couldn’t even tell it wasn’t paint! That’s really my only hiccup. Everything else I’ve addressed. I don’t like bothering anyone with more issues but paint is the one thing I’ll have to rely on a professional for. I’m going to bring it into my detail guy to see what he can do with it. Hopeful it’s just overspray and buffing!

Originally Posted by Rice1951

Welcome to the JOF and congratulations on the new coach.
My first suggestion would be to bypass the dealer and call Jayco Motorized CS directly and explain your situation. Hopefully you could work out something with them to get your paint issues resolved.
You seem like you’re fairly handy and willing to do whatever is necessary to get your RV to where you want it to be. There is a member on this forum who goes by RetiredOne and he has a Jayco Redhawk that he had vinyl wrapped and he seems pretty happy with it. That may be a solution for you. You can either look up some of his posts or contact him directly for more specifics. Good luck to you.

[Andrew C]

Yeah, I’ve noticed the documentation I received. On my last Grand Design, I called their customer service because I couldn’t plug into a 15 amp GFCI protected outlet. Talked to their customer service manager who told me on the phone that this was the way the camper was designed and that I couldn’t plug in that way. I quickly explained that I do have quite a bit of expertise on the electrical side and I have something crossed. Two hours later of me diagnosing the issue, I found the neutral ties to the ground on the inside of the generator where they wired it in. I laughed to myself with that guy telling me that I was doing it wrong.

I’m much happier with this than my last camper. They actually do some pretty good stuff. It’s just the stuff you can’t see if was scares me. Every time I drive it I have to fix something but It’s expected!

Thanks for the reply.

[RetiredOne]

Originally Posted by Rice1951

There is a member on this forum who goes by RetiredOne and he has a Jayco Redhawk that he had vinyl wrapped and he seems pretty happy with it. That may be a solution for you. You can either look up some of his posts or contact him directly for more specifics. Good luck to you.

Yeah, that guy, RetiredOne, must have something wrong with him. He took a brand new rig, and had it completely wrapped in custom vinyl...

Oh, wait... that's me...

I'm really happy that I did this. I was originally going to buy the Melbourne, specifically because I liked the exterior paint, and would live with the MB chassis. I wanted the Ford V10. Then, Jayco came out with the Redhawk in the same floor plan, but the Redhawk exterior was horrible, in my opinion.

So, the first thing I did was design and get the custom vinyl wrap done, even before our first trip. All in, including taking off all the Redhawk graphics and decals and Jayco logos was under $4K.

Now, I have a one-of-a-kind rig, which isn't a rolling billboard for Jayco.

[Andrew C]

Thank you! I am with you and why not protect the paint underneath! I agree that it is probably more cost effective for the manufacturer to do this rather than repaint the rig. I’ll continue to work with them and be open to easy solutions which is all I could ask for with our customers! Thanks for the photos, it looks great!

[Rich 92154]

I have an Entegra Esteem 29V with the partial paint.I got mine May 30th. The overhead bunk is the only area painted and it looks good, no scratches or rough areas. The Entegra decals on the back is a different story. After hand washing , the E and A came loose so I removed them all. My Sony receiver works great , once I figured out how to get it off demonstration mode. Right now it's in the shop because the dealership where I bought it, scheduled a courtesy 6 week check up to fix anything I've found after the purchase. After taking it out 5 times and using every aspect of the coach, I only had 6 items, mostly cosmetic.The biggest was the A/C not working on low mode in main compartment. They isolated it to a ground in the wiring by the thermostat. It's been an awesome coach and I can't wait to get it back in the next week.