Jay feather floor construction

[Chasemech]

Look at purchasing a jay feather 2021 25RB, should I be concerned about the floor construction, and in general is Jayco a solid RV

[IamSpartacus]

I have a jayfeather 23mbh. My family loves it.
Travel trailer like jayco are built to a price and weight point. Once you understand this and are okay with it, it is easier to accept the many short comings of travel trailers in general. I have 5 kids and so far, after a year of moderate use (about 3 months total time) in a year nothing too terrible has happened. Here's the cool thing though, if stuff break, I have zero qualms about tearing it up and fixing it.

If you want a better product you will pay more but here some pretty standard issues I see in jayco trailers in their white hawk, jayfeather and Jay flight series.

1. Materials are generally flimsy compared to, say a house, because of the weight issue. But critically, jayco uses luan vs azdel. Luan is a crappy and inexpensive method to add fair structural strength, insulate, and prevent water intrusion. But the luan itself is extremely vulnerable to water intrusion. Azdel is all synthetic and doesnt have near as much of an issue.
2. I weigh 250, I am not small and my floors, luan, are going to fail. I am already looking at laminated plank flooring and that will effectively distribute my and the wifes and the kids weight so that floor issues wont be a concern.
3. Jayfeather trailers are meant to go to a campsite with electricity and hookup. These are not boon docking trailers, to happily boon dock in one you will need to increase battery, gray water and a couple other changes.
4. Trailer weight and total capacity is a problem. To save weight and money, these trailers are always bumping up against their max gvwr. This means it can eat into your cargo budget. Be aware of this.
5. Travel trailers shake. You'll want to add any combo of the following to the already included stabilizing jacks. X chocks, JT strong arms, wooden outriggers, etc.

Look, I really enjoy my trailer but i also realize its limitations. I've already addressed most of them, some will surely pop up in the future and i will address them then. My trailer isnt a financial investment(because financially, trailers are tragic), its an investment into family time. For that I am very happy with my jayfeather.

[ALJO]

Agree - financially they are a poor investment, for family joy investment they are great

[Sundancer330]

I would not buy any brand trailer that uses Stronghold VBL™ vacuum-bonded, laminated floor. This has been a problem area for years, the foam breaks down and the floor delaminates causing it to feel soft like its rotted. Have read too many stories about this process that doesn't last.

[Midnightmoon]

Here is a thread from a couple of years ago concerning what some of us Feather owners are doing as a preventative measure with the flooring.

https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f...ion-53941.html

My Jay Feather floor is still doing really well after 4 seasons of what I would consider frequent use.

[Tunce the traveler]

Originally Posted by Midnightmoon

Here is a thread from a couple of years concerning what some of us Feather owners are doing as a preventative measure with the flooring.

My Jay Feather floor is still doing really well after 4 seasons of what I would consider frequent use.

Mine is after 5 years and 100 weeks of travel and it’s condition is very good, never had to replace a tile. Now if you have a large dog with long nails you will get some puncture marks, it’s closed cell foam so nothing to loose sleep over as it’s just a travel trailer.
An Xacto knife is great for these curved cuts and you can just roll a square right around the corner so no seems at this location. Look to the right and you’ll see the puzzle connection.

[Quantum]

We have a Whitehawk. I understand the limits of the floor and so I don't let the kids jump down from the bunk, they climb down. They don't rumble and tumble in the trailer, they can do that outside.

Our trailer is now 5 years old and the floor is holding up just fine.

If you respect what your have, you can work with it.

[Murff]

From experience, our White Hawk had the infamous soft spots in several places. Depending on who you liaten to, the problem is the luan floor and/or how it is laid on the trailer frame. Seems that where the panels are place aren't always on a cross member support. So, you have two panels that are kinda "floating" between two cross members.

Fortunately for us, we made a claim during the two year warranty period and the dealer did an authorized repair. Fast forward 18 months later and the same spot was once again soft. Approached the dealer with the rig and asked them to request some "goodwill assistance" from Jayco. The service manager didn't think there was a snowball's chance in hell that Jayco would approve a repair as the rig was now several months out of the warranty period. However, Jayco agreed to repair the floor.

I have posted this story before in this thread with pictures of the completed floor:

https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f...ted-51685.html

I have also attached the pdf file showing what they do for the floor repair.

Murff

[Crabman]

I'm a bit surprised they are still making floors that way. Didn't the White Hawks switch over to plywood floors a few years back ?

[16WhiteColly]

Jayco uses the one piece floor on a lot of their trailers, because of cost and weight. Poor design and numerous problems, but still do it.

[ALJO]

The floor construction on itself is a good design, the flaws are in the materials.
Due to Luan-ply and low density Styrofoam with water intrusion, these floors get destroyed.
If you use good ply-wood or OSB and high density Styrofoam and able to avoid water intrusion, then you got the best floor system.
Similar problems the roofs have with the Luan-ply and TPO with hairy backing, the moist destroys these roofs.
With new ideas, practice and time will tell - usual the customer pays in the end.

[Jopopsy]

Resurrecting this is I was intent on looking at some Jayfeathers at the Hershey RV show. If the floors aren't solid wood or some sort of solid composite (I think only Airstream is doing this but I could be mistaken), it's a pass for me.

So it looks like the JayFeathers are out. Between trying to avoid laminate floor construction, and Schwintek slides I'm finding my choices are getting narrowed down significantly.

Maybe the Jayflight 212QB. I see it's not on the SLX line anymore, so maybe it'll feel a smidge higher end then otherwise. Jayflights framed out in wood or aluminum nowadays?