New Owner

[BeckyManley]

Hi! My husband and I are in the process of purchasing our 1st 5th wheel to take on the road FT. I have been trying to find true and honest reviews of the North Point. I found several on RV Insider that wasn't good at all. It's making me wondering if we are making a bad decision. Any thoughts on the North Point?

[maejoicer]

Hi and congrats on your new adventure. We are FT too, but have the Pinnacle. We looked at the North Points but preferred the layout and a few other items better for us. I know there are a lot of NP owners on this forum and I am sure they will chime in to give you more info. :-)

[Thomson]

We have good news and bad news. The wstove-top, fireplace, propane regulator, propane lines, and numerous other things were dead or dying. The good news is, so far, nothing major has broken. Read all the manuals forthe slides and leveling.

Now don't trust the dealer to have completed the checks he said he did. You check EVERYTHING. Make certain everything works. Hook up water, electric, drains and make sure all valves work. There are web sites for checklists. Look for kinked hoses and iwres leaning against hot surfaces like the fridge gas system. You may want to stay in it overnight and take a shower. Our shower faucet was very touchy going from full hot to cold. We put in a new two handle faucet. We cannot stress the importance of you doing the checks before taking it off the lot. Expect to spend a minimum of six hours, They will be pissed but that's not your problem; especially if you find stuff. Then don't take it. Make them fix the stuff first.
Check the tire pressures. Ours were at 50.
We're waiting on our third radio, but think we are over the hump after 18 months. BTW the dealer has been cooperative. It takes a long time for parts.
So, we are beginning to like our NP, but had we done what I said above, including overnight, we would have been a lot happier Good luck.

[ALJO]

At present with manufacturing process expect some errors, so expect some warranty issues. But overall it isn't as bad as you read on RV forums, because they are a minority.
For a full-timer you have to be handy and are able to repair things yourself with the amount of tools you can carry. (It means you need a place to stay when you're unit is in the shop for how many days?). Used RV's from a couple years old have most warranty behind them and if you find a well looked after RV you're better off. More electronics in the high end units will give more trouble, so carry some extra parts as controllers with you. Would I be afraid of buying a new RV, definitely not, as I can do everything myself.

[JFlightRisk]

And welcome to the Forum from Western New York State!

[2edgesword]

Having heard a mix of reviews on just about every manufacturer the importance of the inspection prior to taking delivery is extremely important if you want to have some peace of mind as you start this new journey. Let the dealer know you are going to want to run EVERY system...overall water system, hot water system, furnace, microwave (actually heat something up), all entertainment system (put a DVD into the player), bring a laser temperature gun to check the temperature at all air conditioner outlets, an A/C electrical outlet tester to test all A/C outlets, activate every switch, lever and knob, watch and listen to the slide go in and out, the same for the awning, if they won't let you walk on the roof (violation of their insurance policy) have them bring a ladder tall enough to got to a few spots to take a look at the roof, get under the unit with a creeper to look at the underside...you get me point.

Now you may be dealing with a excellent dealer that won't mind spending a lot of time with you knowing this is your first RV. We were fortunate to have that kind of good experience with our first purchase. During the six years we owned that unit we learn a lot that served us well the second time around with a dealer that tried to rush us through the process. We weren't having it.

[AKRUEBBE]

Our first fifth wheel was a North Point. We were very pleased with it and had very minor problems which were taken care of in a timely manner. When we decided to go FT we bought our Pinnacle which is about four feet longer than our NP. And more importantly it is six inches wider. Doesn't sound like much but oh what a difference when going FT. We have had very few problems with our Pinnacle. The POS Furrion receiver has to be replaced but haven't got around to contacting Furrion. Hope they will just send me a new one that I can install myself. Since going FT I refuse to drive hundreds of miles to a dealer to have something taken care of. Would prefer to have a reputable mobile repair service to do the labor with the manufacturer supplying the parts.

[BeckyManley]

Thank y'all so much! You have put me at ease. I have my PDI list printed out for our walk through Wednesday. I'm ready ��

[Cannon]

DW and I purchased North Point 377 in Sept 2017. Camped 38 days first year. Did have some issues but none that made us miss any trips. In Dec after we were through for the year Jayco pick up and returned to factory and made repairs. They were very nice to work with. did a good job on repairs, and even did some extras that I didn't ask for. Camped 40+ days this year with one more trip in two weeks and only repair all year was loose strut on storage door.

[Lake Huron]

Purchased our Northpoint 375 in 9/16. Had an issue with the fridge working off battery power once we got it home. Ended up being a miswired issue that was minor and I fixed it myself. My dealer is a stellar dealer. The PDI went smooth. We had a couple minor issues on the PDI that needed new parts. They ordered them and shipped them to me. Again minor. Our shower faucet was also very touchy to adjust the water temp. If you sneezed on it, the water became either very hot or very cold depending on what direction it was sneezed on. I also replaced ours with a dual handle shower faucet. Ours has been an excellent unit and we love it! Like previously posted, check EVERYTHING. Make sure everything works, gas, electric on both shore power and battery, heat, a/c, water via the pump and city water connection. Open and close every door and drawer. If you can take along someone that's been thru this for their experience. Even if you dont know anybody, take someone anyway as another set of eyes. If something is not right, make the dealer make it right BEFORE you sign ANY papers. There are very few dealers you can trust out there.
Btw, congrats on the new rig and post back on your experience!

[DonaandDon]

We have been full timers for about 10yrs. Have had our NP 381 for about 2+yrs and about 12000 miles. Everybody has the kinks to work out when buying new. I don't take ownership on the day of delivery. We have a chack list for inspection and tell them when you have repaired everything we will inspect again. The dealer charges you for prepping your RV, ask for that inspection sheet. They have to report to Jayco their findings during the inspection. Don't let them tell you your not entitled to it. You paid for it.

Active customer involvement is key to limiting your warranty down time. Don't let your dealer put your RV on the back burner. I schedule a inspection date and the repair date , and always tell the them every time I'm a waiter. I drop it off and tell them I will pick it up today (be sure to inspect it with the service writer). Jayco warranty department is very customer friendly. They have claim number and investigator assigned for you to call, so use them often in the repair process. My experience with my dealer is a big sorry in the warranty department (lots of excesses) and outstanding in the service install department. We had the washer/dryer installed this spring. From talking to the parts department they scheduled and completed the install in less than a week.

You will hear what seams like complaining about quality from owners, but I feel it's more about understanding and learning what we don't know about our rigs. I have learned a lot about my rig(s) from this forum so you 'll need to dig in and learn about yours. Ask al lot of questions, I do still. Keep in mind we pull or push our RVs down the road at break neck speeds, expect them to stop on a dime, all the while were white knuckling the steering wheel. And , then wonder why something won't stay in place. Use pool noodles throughout your RV (Micro/Fridge/cupboards).

The best advice I have is for the North Point 381 DLQS is never use the front landing gear relocation pins. Let the RV raise it's self when disconnecting. It will need to lower the front when auto leveling, or you may find the tires off the ground. It's not good thing. I was told it can cause positive frame camber and that appliance slide is a close tolerance slide and can hang up on you.


Simply put we love our 381 DLQS, wouldn't trade it for any other 5r.

Love our life.

[Octane2Go]

A thousand times, agreed! Be prepared for this. Don’t let the dealer schedule you for a 430, walk through.

[Marmot]

In Google, type “Jayco North Point problems.” You can use this phrase to investigate any RV.

[Joan617]

Welcome and happy holidays. We are FT in a Pinnacle which is by all accounts a NorthPoint with 6” more in the waistline and some different floor plan offerings.

We have found the Jayco warranty dept. to be about as useful as a screen door in a submarine. But we went into this caper with extremely low expectations of the dealer and manufacturers and as such we are not disappointed. Where we were pleasantly surprised was that the supporting vendors of the sub-systems are so far available, helpful and supportive with warranty and other tech support issues.

Being full time with eight pets, we knew from the start that we would not be leaving the rig with a dealer for weeks or months waiting for parts. So we expected to do some work on our own or using mobile techs (which Sometimes can be paid under warranty).
The big exception is the dreaded structural crack which means leaving the rig for weeks, but even Jayco mercifully referred us to a third party for warranty repair. We have just sucked it up and decided to turn it into another family adventure. We are now working our way to Ft Worth TX where the work will be done and we will use the opportunity to have other minor nuisance warranty work completed.

The advice here about the PDI is good but you will still miss things and in our case, much of it was because we were/are newbies. Nine months later we are still finding little gotchas. “Honey, what does this switch do....?” Some of our greatest disasters were self inflicted.

Overall we are really happy with our home and lifestyle. We loved our old home but in the last few weeks we have done so much more than we could have there. Even the cats have adjusted. Last night we endured a frontal thunderstorm with 30+ mph winds and the Gulf of Mexico lapping inches from our back window but we were warm, safe and dry (and everything worked!). Today, the biggest chore was washing the windows and walking the dogs.

We’ll spend Christmas a few feet from the Gulf, watching the sunset and making homemade pizza on a charcoal grill- all just a few hundred yards from a real Tikki bar. A week later on the New Year we move another few hundred miles to a whole new place and time.

Good luck with the new home and hope to see you on the road.
Angus and Joan

[AKRUEBBE]

[QUOTE=We’ll spend Christmas a few feet from the Gulf, watching the sunset and making homemade pizza on a charcoal grill- all just a few hundred yards from a real Tikki bar. A week later on the New Year we move another few hundred miles to a whole new place and time. Angus and Joan[/QUOTE]

Angus, you sound just like us............really enjoying the new life style and always looking forward to the next stay!!

[AKRUEBBE]

Originally Posted by BeckyManley

Thank y'all so much! You have put me at ease. I have my PDI list printed out for our walk through Wednesday. I'm ready ��

I would definitely take a look at the Pinnacle also. That extra 6 inches in width is remarkable. Depending on the model you select, it could add up to 21 square feet. Also I recommend special ordering your FW. You will be very pleased with having it exactly the way you want it as opposed to accepting someone else's concept. I also think you get a better product with less flaws when ordering..........JMHO. AND you should be able to get the very same discount that you would get if you bought one off the lot.