Why did you buy a Jayco Class C?

[SoulReflection]

I am sure there are many reasons out there but, here is mine:

After 9/11, my wife and I lost our desire to fly and, soon after, found an alternative in RVing. As we eased into retirement, we traveled less and found a great place to have a permanent spot on a lake. It was affordable, close to our house and it became our second home. We started with a 27.5' trailer, then upgraded to a 34' fifth wheel. That one was delivered to the site because I had no intention of ever towing it. My truck and I were too old to deal with that.

Times changed. The deal we had with the permanent spot ended when the park was sold. The new owners decided that this spot was theirs. We had 30 days to vacate and had to pay to move the 5'er into storage. That led to our next decision.

Given the fact that I did not want to tow the 5th wheel and could not justify buying a new truck to do so, I investigate other options and came to some very interesting conclusions.

First, our "kids" have children of their own, live a long way away and have RV's of their own so, how much room do we need?

The 5th wheel, with it's bedroom and living/dining room slide outs was great. But, the fact was, my wife and I only used the bedroom and dining areas. The living room with it's sofa and two rocker recliners, not so much. The extra storage was great, but it ended up being filled with stuff we transferred from home and was rarely used.

So, I weighed these factors and concluded that we needed was a smaller motor home. Something that I can afford, and be comfortable driving. We would use it less but give us the flexibility to still travel, tow my trailered boat, my old truck or a used, smaller truck with a car top boat.

I found a new, old stock Jayco 22J on-line at a reasonable price. Since it was over 100 miles away, I decided to buy it, and sell the 5'er in storage, privately or on consignment. But, two things happened.

First, shortly after taking delivery of the Jayco, I was hospitalized with pneumonia. That put me out of commission for two months.

Just when I was recovering from this, Number Two happened...Covid 19. Who wants, can afford or visit an RV lot?

I do not want to give my 5th wheel trailer away. I also do not want to continue to pay storage fees any longer than I have to.

I am hoping that our return to a "new normal" will allow this to happen and we can finally get out and enjoy.

Anyone else?

[Rice1951]

Thanks for sharing your story and I certainly hope you get healthy and things return to some semblance of normal and you can get out and enjoy your new to you RV.
I don’t quite fit the title of this thread but I came home from work one day about 5 years ago and my DW told me if we ever won the lottery the first thing she wanted to buy was a MH. I told her if she had to wait until we won the lottery it was never going to happen. So I told her to go look. She found a SOB 32’ Class C which we had for 2 years. I decided I wanted more bells and whistles and as they say “the rest is history.”
Life throws us a curve ball every now and then and it’s not always positive. Someone once said “it’s not what happens to you, but rather how you react to it that matters.” You have shown an ability to adapt to your circumstances and I’m quite sure you will come out of this better than before. Good luck to you and your wife.

[JmsNMar]

Hello. Although things have been strange, and in some cases unfortunate for some, you sound like a pretty tough person. You know what they say about tough times and tough people. With things starting to turn normal, I bet that 5th wheel doesn't last long in your possession. Get that thing advertised online, and the phone will start ringing. You also have the advantage of the ending of these crazy times, and the beginning of camping season. Most of all, take care of yourself, and those close to you. I hope your kids are telling you the same thing I always tell my parents... Spend it all and leave nothing for me and my brothers and sister. Get on the road before the gas prices go up, again. Oh...and also- don't rush the road trips. Limit the miles you drive per day, and enjoy the small towns one at a time. Happy Trails...

[pconroy]

We have a son with Autism. After a horrible night in a hotel, or more accurately trying to stay in a hotel... I ended up driving him around for hours in Las Vegas while he slept. I said "Never again."


We bought a used 2008 Coachmen to see if he'd like it. He did.


We walked around Camping World and he loved the 31FK.
One magically showed up for sale on Craigslist very shortly thereafter and we bought it.


We didn't go out seeking a Jayco.
Our son just wanted a 31FK.

[Eric&DianeN]

We started many years ago with pop-up's, then went to a travel trailer. But as the kids got older we realized we wanted to move to a MH. One my wife loves having the bathroom and kitchen access while not stopping. We like the C class for how it handles more like a truck than an A which she would not be comfortable driving. Right now we are waiting for our 37K to be finished up and trade in the 31FS for it. I also like having the engine access to work on since I do a lot of maintenance myself. Happy camping everyone!

[Trapper2020]

After full timing in a class A it was time to down size. Being in Texas we required 2 ac units. Many will say one is enough but having been there in a fifth wheel no way were we going with a single unit again. This narrowed down the available choices a lot. Jay had The best layout for our needs. Covid 19 has delayed our travels l8ke everyone’s. Now we are just waiting for parks to open. Good luck with your sale and enjoy the days ahead.

Enjoy the journey

[Mahatnmacoat]

Toward the end of my career I spent more and more time delivering yachts up and down the Eastern Seaboard. It was great for an old salt. Their boat, their credit cards, their car rentals, their hotel rooms, their provisions and I made $300 a day portal to portal. And I always hired my girlfriend to crew for me. The owner payed her too. We both love to travel, we both have a stream of income and we both guard our respective privacy. When we stayed in motels on the road she use to grouse about 'not being the only ones in the room.'

Enter the Jayco Designer 3230. A spectacular deal, very affordable, PLENTY of interior volume, easy to drive, manageable for parking and maneuvering and with a towed an ideal base for sightseeing and longer term stopping. And we're the only ones there.

We're tuned in to the RV'n With Tito YouTube videos. They have a Four Winds class C. We are very much in tune with Dave and Melissa's priorities when it comes to how we want to use, adjust and enjoy our MH. We intend to use our MH to commute up and down the east coast between home in Delaware and the Keys. The Jayco is large enough for one or two friends or family members to visit us for a few days at a time and then go home.

I strongly recommend that you get a look at THE LEISURE SEEKER. An excellent movie about an old couple making a sunset trip in their MH. Spoiler alert, Helen Miren's character pulls a shotgun on a couple of bad actors.

Every boat I've owned for the past thirty years has been named LISTENER. When asked about the name I've always said it's named LISTENER because everyone needs a listener. But actually there's a deeply spiritual reason for that name. I won't bore you with it but that name on the MH means a lot to us. That's why we bought a Jayco Class C.

[SoulReflection]

What great responses here. Thanks to all!

[Tockert]

Years ago I have a popup tent trailer. I loved not sleeping on the ground.
During the divorce, I sold it because the ex wanted half. I should have cut it in half and gave her, her half. haha.

I returned to tent camping when hauling the Jeep to different Jeep events. During one such event here in Texas, it turned cold and rainy. I had had enough and started looking for RV's. I needed something with enough towing capacity to tow the Jeep on the trailer. Class C's provided more towing capacity than an A unless I went diesel.
We pulled the trigger on our current and new Jayco Grayhawk 29MV last July 5th. It became a wedding present, Christmas present to both of us. We love it.
New we just want this virus to pass so we can start using it again.

[eeek]

I am a photographer and was covering a music festival out in Live Oak, Florida. I needed power even though I was tent camping, so they put me in the RV section. I was put next to a couple who had a small pop up. I really liked it and set a goal to get one. I started saving up and told myself when I hit a certain amount, I’d pull it out and put half on a pop up, half on a truck.

Years and years went by where I kept saving, hit the number I wanted, and we started looking. It took my wife 30 seconds in a pop up to say ‘no’. We started looking at pull behinds and thought that’s what we’d do. In the meantime, my money, which was in stocks, kept growing. We made our yearly trip to the local RV show and went into a Class C. We hadn’t considered them and realized we could make them work. Plus- neither of us wanted to drive a truck as our daily driver. So if we did buy a truck and trailer, they’d both sit if we weren’t using them.

The prices on a Class C were a bit more than we wanted to spend, so that meant more savings. We did that a few more years and decided to rent a class C just to make sure we’d be happy with it. We got a site, which is pretty tough to do on the fly in Florida, and everything at the site was perfect. I mean, it’s rare to get a level site, but it was, and the camping experience was awesome. Even the rental was right- it was the same model we were looking at- a Freedom Elite 22FE. However, there were a lot of things I wasn’t happy with. The AC for one- living in Florida, it wasn’t going to cut it. Then research pointed to CW’s less than stellar reputation when it came to repair.

We ran across an 2018 Entegra Coach Odyssey Class C motorhome 22J and fell in love. So much that we made an offer on it. That’s when I found out that you cannot low ball offer RV dealers and expect them to budge. It isn’t like buying a car. They know if you don’t buy it at their asking price, some one else will. We found a 2019 south of us and went and looked at it- first off, we didn’t love it. It was a RV show model and was to me- too beat up to buy. Plus, same thing- they wouldn’t budge on price. We ran across a Redhawk 2018 22J for sale at a CW and checked it out. It had all of the things we liked and was less than what the Entegra was. Again, it was CW.

We found a wholeseller and a great price on a 2019 Redhawk 22J. A lot of the little things were fixed in the 2019s- for example, the door piston was moved and they added a ladder & slide toppers. After extensive research, it checked all of the boxes for what we wanted. We pulled the trigger, ordered a new one from Jayco, and waited for 10 weeks for it to be built. November 2018, we picked it up. I couldn’t be happier. We still go to RV shows just to see if we’ve made the right decision. And we have. I have yet to run across something that made me question what we’ve bought.

[eeek]

Oh- and one other huge, HUGE reason I went with Jayco- they were pretty much the only ones in the sub 25 foot range that got rid of the step when going to galley / bedroom. I did not want an RV with that step.

[pward]

After extensive pondering and soul searching after retiring in late 2015 we decided we needed to move from Washington state to be with what remained of family in western New York state. My wife can't ride in a car for very long, and we have a cat that also had to be relocated with us so a plane was out unless I flew it myself. Could do that but didn't have a plane


Looked at small camp trailers at first as we only have a Subaru Outback for towing. Those were way too expensive for what we would get, and would only be a one trip option essentially as we wouldn't use it again after moving. Started considering motorhomes and looking over websites and forums to get an idea what was out there. We were actually very interested in a Minnie Winnie that a local dealer had, but it was at a sister dealer a couple states away. Waiting for it to be brought to our area, I got a call from another local dealer who had the Redhawk 22j.


The MW we were waiting for was a 25 footer and I thought the 22 would be too small so didn't go look. After many failed promises by the CW dealer I said goodbye to them and looked at the Redhawk. It had very low mileage and was in excellent shape so we decided it would be big enough. Jayco had a good reputation online so we went with it. Truthfully, I think I'd prefer to have the Winnie but am very happy with our choice so far.

[RetiredOne]

We figured we would try RVing for the early years of our retirement. Nvere owned one before, except for a small, old pop-up over 30 years ago. I did a lot of tent camping, when involved with the Boy Scouts, but the days of laying on the ground are long over.

We went to a bunch of RV shows and visited a few dealers, and looked at every thing from trailers up to Class A diesel pushers, and weighed the pros and cons of each and what we wanted to do in our travels.

We decided that a short Class C would probably be the best choice, so we wouldn't have to tow a toad. So, we rented a 23 footer for a long weekend as a trial. We felt a 22 - 24 foot would work, as long as it had a big slide to open and get some floor space.

After looking at how the rigs were built, I felt the Jayco's were built the best. We were going to buy a 24L Melbourne, because we liked the exterior paint and the layout, but I didn't want the MB Sprinter chassis. When I saw that Jayco came out with the Redhawk 24B, which is the same floorplan ans the 24L, and on the Ford E450 chassis, that helped me make my decision.

But, I hated the exterior on the Redhawk, so with the money I saved over the Melbourne, I did the custom exterior vinyl wrap on my rig.

Originally Posted by eeek

Oh- and one other huge, HUGE reason I went with Jayco- they were pretty much the only ones in the sub 25 foot range that got rid of the step when going to galley / bedroom. I did not want an RV with that step.

That was the other reason for the Jayco. We rented a Chateau with that step, and it was horrible. I'd rather have an extra step to get in, and then have a continuous floor inside.

[SoulReflection]

Good point and yes, I did as well...my old toes would not be able to stand the bruising.

[SloPoke]

Over the years as a kid, our family had a slide in Truck Camper that took us from California to Iowa and all places in between. As I ventured out and did a ton of tent camping, backpacking in the wilderness and Mt.Whitney a couple of times along the way. Eventually the DW wanted nothing but Hotel / restaurant treatment.

After the divorce, Camping was back! mostly in the back of the Suburban until we could afford a 14' Aristocrat Lo-Liner and drove the tires off of it for a few years... upgraded to a Wilderness 22' and wished we kept the Lo-Liner.

Then an opportunity came along to pick up a 24' Class C for next to nothing... everything worked, but showed it's age (green shag carpet of the 70's). That rig took us lots of places and many good times. After a few remodel projects, eventually we grew out of it, mostly in towing capacity as we wanted to take our trail rig with us where we went. No matter how big of a radiator I put in, it could not shed the heat of the summer pulling the trailer. We were camping out in the boondocks and Stacy asked if we should get a bigger rig? That was all it took to respond - SURE, how bout a lot bigger? She said OK and we went looking for something that would pull a full 10k trailer.

We contemplated going to a little larger C, or an A that was diesel and then the search pointed us back to the Front Kitchen floor plan with the entry door closer to the rear axle. We looked at Renegade, Dynamax, Haulmark and Jayco. We wanted plenty of towing capacity and the Freightliner M2 chassis was dominating the field with most all of the brands sharing the same capacity (with some variation) When we found the Seneca FK, we pulled the trigger that evening.

For now it is just the two of us and our three big dogs. We would rather take them with us where we go, even when it is a business trip we take the Seneca and sleep each night in our own bed. We can go out for food, or cook in - and the dogs don't have to worry about what bugs they might get from the Hotel carpet. We now have almost 34K miles and are happily Airport and Hotel Free!

[LI-Camper]

In 2001, I sold my TT and rented a gas Class A for 4 weeks. My DW and two teenaged sons traveled from Long Island to Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Rocky Mountain NP among other stops. The Class A was a bear to drive. It was all over the road. Some years later, I wanted to buy a MH and so bought a small Used Class B+ GulfStream. The bed was a jack knife sofa. I am 6’2” and 235+ lbs. Not good. A friend said his friend was selling a 2004 27DS GreyHawk. This was in 2013 so it was in its 10th year. It was terrific to drive and was in good shape. It had a queen bed but no couch. In 2015 my DW and I were headed to Syracuse area for a wedding in our car. I wanted to stop at a large dealer to look at a new GreyHawk - just to look! I knew exactly which model I was interested in - 29MV. The 2016’s had just arrived. It had a 6 speed tranny (the ‘04 was a 4 speed), J Ride, 1000w inverter and a really nice kitchen/living room set-up. My wife steps inside and says “Let’s buy it!” I said “WHAT??” She said that we are in our 60’s and have never owned a new RV. What are we waiting for? RVone in Latham,NY gave me the price I wanted and took my trade-in for my price, too. They couldn’t have been nicer. They never saw my trade-in 2004 GreyHawk until I drove it there the day I picked up the new GreyHawk. I did send them photos. We have never regretted buying the new Jayco. We had some issues but they were fixed. Jayco sent me replacement LED lights when some failed and a new on demand water heater which was a newer generation than the original one. This new water heater works well. I liked that Jayco had a two year warranty and the J-Ride features. I have added solar panels, two 6 volt batteries and two Rec Pro recliners to replace the uncomfortable couch. The inverter was replaced with a 1800 watt Xantrex and was moved closer to the batteries. Now I can make coffee in the morning without running the generator using a small Keurig-type coffeemaker. Last summer I camped for a week at a state park without hook-ups and ran the generator only one hour the whole week. We watched TV, made coffee and charged our iPhones, iPads, hot spot and other devices. Whichever MH you buy, you will need to customize it so it works the way you need it to.

[TwinDad]

We’ve had a TT and when our kids needed a potty break it was stressful to quickly find a place big enough to pull over in time. We wanted the convenience of potty breaks and more space while on the road. Also, while I drive my wife can get up and get the kids snacks out of the fridge.I also wanted auto leveling and easier set-up.

As I type this I’m in a campground and watched two TT struggle to back into sites. I just told my wife “That looks like a lot of work.” I don’t miss driving up on levelers and sweating while unhooking the hitch.

The space while driving and the easier set up is what made us want a Class C.

[rgolding]

The Spouse wanted a single unit. I wanted to keep a diesel engine. So that eliminated the normal Class C's and got us looking at Super C's. I like the principal of the truck of a Super C over the concept of a bus of the Class A's.
Our neighbor's daughter came in to town from Gunnison, Co. with a Seneca and we were sold. Have never looked back and really have never looked at much else. It totally fits our needs. We live in it about 9 months a year. Have 75,000 miles on it and almost as many hours on the generator as we do on the engine. It fits our needs.

[Camper_bob]

I love reading these kinds of threads, they're so inspiring.

Our reason for getting a C isn't quite so lofty though. Or at least the impetus for the decision isn't anyway...

DW and I both grew up camping. We both spent some time "tail gate" camping, I spent a lot of my childhood family weekends in a travel trailer (a late '70s model Citation). I spent most of my camping time during high school in the "back country" carrying everything with me. She spent most of hers either tail-gating or at her parents' "lake house" (a used single-wide on a small lake front lot) boating and fishing. Both of us essentially grew up outside.

After we got married and began to gain some financial independence, we decided we wanted to explore how we would travel. We tail-gate camped most of this time early in our marriage. Anyway, she thought she wanted to road-trip staying in hotels, staying a few nights in a city and moving on to the next. I thought we should give backpacking a try.

So I refreshed my backpacking gear and we planned a trip to a place I've been so many times I can navigate in my sleep on a moonless night. Short story was she had a horrific time. There was dehydration, heat exhaustion, thunderstorms, a raccoon stole half our food rations ... generally a "normal" trip for me, but she didn't have a good time.

So I convinced her to give it another shot. We went to another place and basically the same things happened (despite the provision of SIGNIFICANTLY more resources) except for the raccoon. After leaving our gear at the primitive site and having dinner at the local Dairy Queen, she said "no more of that, I'm done".

So we embarked on a road-trip journey to try it her way. After staying in many different hotels that were sometimes "seedy" at best, and NOT cheap, on the way home she gave me the greenlight to shop for a trailer. A few weeks later we were picking up our 28BHBE. We made some serious memories in that rig over the following 4-5 years and absolutely fell in love with the RV lifestyle; we had found our perfect travel match.

Here's where we decided to pull the trigger on a Class C: We often take our rig to my dad's house where he has a nice concrete pad with power in his back yard (which also has a VERY nice pool) to visit on the weekends. On one of those trips, we were stuck in traffic on Beltway 8 in Houston; 6 lanes of standstill traffic and we were in the 2nd lane in a 3/4T truck towing a 33 ft trailer. My son (3 at the time) says "I have to pee!" No way I'm getting off the freeway any time soon to get him in the rig safely, and if you have kids, you know the timeline between notification of the urge and having to clean up a mess; it ain't all that long!!

DW (my hero BTW) grabs an empty 32 oz Gatorade bottle, proceeds to climb in the back seat of the truck saying "I got this". A few seconds later after she has him unbelted and in position to fill that bottle, I hear screaming and "get it in the bottle!!" He "missed" and ended up peeing all over the back window, the door, the side window, and of course, my dear wife. After she got everything cleaned up as best she could, she plopped down in the front seat and huffed "we need a motorhome".

And the rest is history!!

Now they can "relieve" themselves whenever the urge strikes, and DW makes me drinks and snacks and the occasional lunch while I drive. We traded in the truck on a Grand Cherokee that we equipped to tow behind the MH, and I'm getting ready to equip a new Jeep Wrangler that I traded the Grand Cherokee for.

We absolutely LOVE our rig, and it has enhanced our love for the lifestyle. With COVID and us not being able to use our rig, my soul is dying a little each day...

[Click_here]

Good topic for a thread!

When my wife to be and I started dating, we used to canoe and camp on the river banks here in the north Texas area. Went through several different size tents. After our child, only camped a few times before storing all that gear. Over the years, it was mostly sold off, except for a camp stove, a propane lantern and a Therm-a-rest pad.

Over the past decade or so, now that our daughter is out of school, employed and married, we started going to RV shows for fun. During that same period, we rented several Class C rigs for family vacations and loved it.

Finally, after spending too much for a week rental up in Missouri to view the total eclipse, which I have to say was phenomenal, we decided it was time to buy our own.

Lots of research and we ended up with Jayco due to their 2 year warranty and floor plans for the Greyhawk. We have really enjoyed camping nearly every month, mostly in Texas state parks (plug for their annual pass goes here) with an annual trip somewhere cooler (NM and CO) during the summer.

Now, a Seneca is on the horizon, hopefully... one of these days! Really would prefer the longevity and power of a diesel but still prefer the Class C style over the larger Class A models. And don't get me started on those claustrophobic, evil incarnations, Class B!

Cheer, stay safe.