New owner questions

[beornls]

Good morning all,


New owner here of a 2008 Jayco 1206. Not new to RV's as I've previously owned a Casita, a 27' Keystone TT and a 1974 (maybe it was a '78?) Apache Ramada popup.



I know most of the basics in other words, but I do have a couple of questions on my new Jayco:


Lift system - I seem to recall reading somewhere that the Jayco lift system had some grease zerks somewhere for ease of maintenance, am I correct on this? If so, can someone point me the right direction on where those are located? If I'm wrong on this (zerks), is there any normal maintenance required on the lift system?



Height cable - Not sure what it's called, but I know this one has the little cable or wire by the post nearest the cranking system that lets you know when you have cranked it high enough. My question on this is, are you supposed to crank until that thing is tight like a bowstring, or just crank until there is no slack in it?



Canvas repair - I noted mine has a very small hole in the canvas that the previous owner placed a piece of clear tape over. Seems to be holding fine. My question is, is there a 'go to' repair method or kit that most people use?


Battery - The previous owner never used the battery, so the cables are all taped up on the tongue. They do have a battery in place on the box though, but I noticed it's a marine starting battery, not a deep cycle. I know of course a deep cycle will be preferred, but is there any risk or worry using this starting battery in place of the deep cycle just until I can afford a good one? I understand of course they aren't designed for this application, thinner plates and all that, but this is just a crutch to basically test the operation of things before I do any serious boondocking.



I'm sure I'll have more questions moving down the line, in the meantime, thanks in advance!!


B.

Richmond TX

[paul_ottawa]

Hello,

I had a 2009 1206 (upgraded this year).

For the height cable, I brought it up until it was snug. The most important thing is it needs to be high enough to get the door in.

One thing to be careful of is pushing/pulling the king sized bed out. The first time I pushed it in I put a ~6" tear in the fabric by the door. The bed rails need to slide up on some brackets on the slide-out for the dinette, and mine would occasionally slip off and get too close to the canvas on the side. I always made sure to have a helper put some pressure on the slide to make sure it stayed on the brackets and didn't touch the side.

I also got it hung up on one of the shade strings when pulling out the queen bed, so just be aware of that as well.

I didn't do anything with the lift system (we got it used and used it for 2 seasons before upgrading).

We only used the battery for the lights and the fan. We didn't use the water (ours had a cabinet instead of the "washroom", so we just used the battery that came with it. We almost always had electric sites, and when we did, we used a lantern and kept the battery power for the fan (this was before I found this site and learned a whole lot more about batteries and deep cycle batteries).

Happy Camping!