New here. I'm looking at buying new Seneca TS motorhomes

[Randy G]

Hello everyone. I joined to find out more about the ownership experiences of the Jayco Seneca. I live in Orange County, California.

I've been looking at the Seneca 37 TS because I like the extra love seat facing the couch. We like to have people in our rig to actually talk to, not look at the back of their heads in a dinette. We aren't really much into watching TV, either. The floor plan looks great to me.

I have a 24' aluminum Intech enclosed race car trailer I will be towing with it. It's 29' from the center of the hitch to the rear of the trailer. My last rig was a 500HP CAT diesel NRC Toterhome with a 53' fifth wheel trailer which I sold about 4 years ago because I thought I was quitting my racing but I think I'm going back in but on a much smaller scale. I'm retired so I don't want to dump that kind of money into a rig any more. Has anyone gone back and forth between brands, or done some research that made you chose one way of the other?

I got a price from RV One for a 2018 Seneca TS that seems too good to be true. It has a GVWR of 29,000 pounds and a GCVW of 38,000 pounds. In California it takes a commercial class B license to be able to drive it legally because it's over 26,000 pounds GVWR per the CHP. Unfortunately I just let my commercial class A go. I might go down and try to get it back.

I guess my questions are:

Has anyone weighed theirs with all your stuff loaded in it and full tanks? Does it come close to the 29,000 pound GVWR?

With the small Cummings does it have enough power for pulling 6% grades? Does the engine brake help you stay off the brake pedal going down those hills? My trailer fully loaded will only weigh about 8,000 pounds. Do you think it will have enough for that?

I've heard some strong comments regarding Jayco quality compared to Dynamax. The Dynamax has a 33,000 GVWR with a 54,000 GCWR and a larger engine. The Dynamax DX3 TS is about $60,000 more, and the Dynamax Force HD TS looks like it's about $40,000 more. But watching the Seneca video done by RV One it looks like a nice rig for the money. Just wondering if the difference in price and weight handling ability is worth the extra money or not. I don't think I need 54,000 pounds GCWR, by the way.

Just curious. If I were to order a Seneca TS would they allow me to specify a nicer full kitchen backsplash and wood trim next to the wall over the sink like they used to do on older models? My wife saw some used units for sale online that had the cabinet wall over the sink fully trimmed in wood all the way to the corner toward the aisleway rather than just being a blank wall, and a full backsplash on the wall over the stove and countertop rather than a few tiles over the stove.

I've been looking at pictures of Senecas and I've never seen one in person, so I'm just curious. It looks like there are small night stand type cabinets on each side of the master bedroom bed where you might put an alarm clock. On other brands I see electrical and/or USB outlets on each side so you can have your phone charging or put a small light beside you. But in every picture I've seen of that area on the Seneca 37 TS I don't see any outlets. Does anyone know if there are outlets there? If not I suppose you could go to the electrical supply store and run some yourself.

Finally, are the front driver's and passenger's seats air ride?

Thanks for your time and honest answers.

Randy

[RVermont]

Welcome to the forum. There is a great group of people here that can answer just about any question you have.

I bought my ts last year from rvone and got a great deal well below what was expected

Jayco is that you see is what you get and there are no factory options other than dinette style,entertainment center and colors. The area behind the kitchen sink is were the cabinet slides, there is a small gap and it might be possible to put a wood panel back there however I would be concerned about rubbing in this area.

Others members are better for explaining their towing trailers. Basically it handle up and down hills well 95% of the time the other 5 you slow down climbing but can maintain 55 or so on the steepest. My unit is 20 hp less than the new units with only 70 gallons of fuel vs new at 100 gallons. There are several people towing full 10000 trailers

I have not had a chance to scale mine yet to dial in tire pressures. Mine empty with full fuel is 22119. I run right 24000 full. So my towing would be limited to 9000 lbs. The new units have extra capacity so if you stick to your plan (8000 lb trailer) you should be fine on weights.

There is a good google search tool available on this site which is much better than normal search. It will give you tons of information.

The bed tables don’t have power but there are outlet on both sides of the bed. I learned the hard way to be up plug when the slide comes in or the slide will rip the plug out. Would need to change out if you want USB port built into outlet.

The seats are not air ride but are very comfortable. We run to NC from Vt in straight 13-14 hour runs and I have not had any issues with the comfort of the seats.

While there have been some issues on my unit. Jayco has been great on getting them repaired.

Overall I think the unit is great and just wish I could use it more.

Best wishes on your journey to find the right unit for your needs.






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[SloPoke]

Here are some answers... or links to where it has been discussed previously!

""Has anyone weighed theirs with all your stuff loaded in it and full tanks? Does it come close to the 29,000 pound GVWR?"" --- Our Seneca 36FK - fully loaded is under the GVWR. That is with ALL of our stuff, full tanks and loaded for two weeks dry camping with 2-extra propane bottles and full Ice Chests of Beer. Add our 26' trailer with our Toyota, and we can end up over the GCWR if the MH is fully loaded. I try to shave some weight by having the Fuel in the Toyota at 1/4 tank, travelling with Black and Grey empty, not driving with a full Fresh Tank. Our last trip from Salt Lake City to Ft. Lauderdale and back was right under 33k.


""With the small Cummings does it have enough power for pulling 6% grades? Does the engine brake help you stay off the brake pedal going down those hills? My trailer fully loaded will only weigh about 8,000 pounds. Do you think it will have enough for that?"" --- With us living in the Salt Lake Valley - we have to climb many 8% grades to get out. When at 33k# we will drop to about 50-mph on long grades and are usually passing most loaded semi-trucks. We have the OD lockout switch and use it! The same goes for downhill grades, the Exhaust Brake works well "WHEN" we lock out the overdrive. It will hold us at 45-50 without using the service brake at all. As long as you can adjust from going backwards from a 500HP CAT to 340HP and not get frustrated... The Seneca might be disappointing in performance otherwise.



https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f...tml#post546764

[Rustynuts]

We are getting ready to take a trip pulling our trailer. I loaded up our 2018.5 37RB with everything out of our old motorhome plus a lot of stuff I used to carry in the trailer like EZ-up, chairs...things I didnt have storage for on our old Moho. Full Fuel, Full Proppane, Full Water...we just need to add cloths and food for a week and we are at 25240lbs. Trailer weight is 8350lbs so I am well under the 39,000 CGVW on ours. Pulled a Jeep Wrangler 4dr (5K) home from when we picked it up and didnt even know it was back there, pulled all the passes on I5 from Sacramento to Oregon at 55 and engine brake worked great....first time having one, I love it. I know it will be MUCH better than our old Winnebago 26P with the 8.1 pulling that same trailer. As far as quality...lots of little things, starting to think ours was built on a Friday or Monday. Everything I have found I just fixed, usually took me 5-10 minutes and I know its done right and a lot less hassle than taking into our local dealer which is always 1 month our. I will try and remember to report back after our trip.

[Randy G]

Wow. Thanks for the replies.

My prior rig was 70,000 pounds so it didn't do as well on the grades as you guys are reporting with your lighter set ups. 35-40 mph was about it on 6% grades.

Rustynuts runs up and down the 5 through the Oregon Siskiyou's which has a long 6% grade with few level off to let the brakes cool. When we race at Woodburn or Seattle that's the route we take. Good to know that the engine brake holds it back. I used to drop the cruise control of my Columbia Freightliner to 5 miles per hour under what I wanted to run with the engine brake on and it would hold it at 5 miles an hour faster at the speed I wanted to run without touching the brakes. It would automatically go from high to low engine brake, keeping it at a constant speed.

I was looking at the storage under the bed in a video and it seems like if you got under the rig you could manage to snake 12V back to the nightstand area and put in a 12V power port and USB in there somehow, but you would need to consider the operation of the slide in whatever you did.

I had one of these from Amazon put above the workbench in my trailer with a trim plate.



Here it is in my trailer.



Very handy.

[Rustynuts]

I want to add USB charging outlets on each side of the bed also. I haven’t looked yet but it should be pretty easy to do as the power distribution box (12v and 110v) is under the bed....at least on my RB model. I would think you could pull 12v right off that panel. With the bed slides on the Senecas, the base is stationary, and the bed slides on top of the base. Could probably be done easy with one of these panels.

[SloPoke]

Originally Posted by Rustynuts

I want to add USB charging outlets on each side of the bed also. I haven’t looked yet but it should be pretty easy to do as the power distribution box (12v and 110v) is under the bed....at least on my RB model. I would think you could pull 12v right off that panel. With the bed slides on the Senecas, the base is stationary, and the bed slides on top of the base. Could probably be done easy with one of these panels.

We have three big dogs, and chose to keep our phones charging on the headboard with this setup

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