2020 Jayco Eagle 338RETS

Joined
Dec 23, 2021
Posts
11
Location
Bremerton
She really is a beast!
We bought it to live full-time in and it's well suited for full time use.

got bit by the vinyl tubing to PEX connections - serious leakage in the shower! still working on a permanent solution. I'll probably go vinyl tubing all the way to the water heater so I can have an unbroken line.

a few long-term projects on my horizon
  1. relocate and upgrade the batteries - going to figure how to put them behind the fireplace at the rear of the TT
  2. Install a BMPRO compatible generator in the front storage bay
  3. Insulate the front cap
  4. Drop the underbelly and insulate there too.
  5. Upgrade the shower head to multi-sprayer like in newer units
  6. Replace the kitchen sink with that tiktok version with all the sliding trays
  7. Replace the bathroom sink with a drop-in instead of the undermount.
... and the list goes on.
 

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She is a beast, what's the model and year...that must be around 38'. Not sure what to make of the log under the stabilizer foot :cautious:
Are you towing with that setup or did you just leave off the weight distribution bars for a quick pic :unsure:
That's an aggressive to do list, good luck and keep us posted :)
 
2020. We were moving it from Seattle to Wenatchee and into long term storage, so it wasn't pretty. The ground sloped away starting halfway from the back. Thus, the log. :D

Believe it or not it pulled a couple hundred miles and over the mountain passes without the W/D bars in place. That said, the driver was seasoned, truck is beefy, and we followed it the whole trip over, cell phones at the ready. We weren't in a hurry and weather and road conditions were also in our favor. :)

Lots have happened since the picture. We found a house with room to bring it out of storage and begin maintenance and cleaning. Awnings are crunchy due to being rolled up for so long. Lots of discoloration unfortunately. The biggest challenge is the large awning is like 14 feet in the air! I'll have to scrub it just a few inches at a time as it rolls off the tube.

I found that the kitchen slide, Schwintek, blew out a motor due to a connector being outside the RV and behind the wheels. The corrosion had completed eaten the connector pins! I have some waterproof barrel type connectors in my Amazon cart.

I have a lot more pictures to upload.

This first batch shows the faucet in the nautilus bay broke due to the cold. so, I have to air pressure test the water lines before actually connecting water. Good excuse to upgrade to a full metal fixture.

the next 2 are of the awnings. they are a mess! being rolled up so long over a cold wet winter really made them crunchy. I've been able to clean up a lot of the smaller awning, but the larger one is going to be some work!

The hitch area took a beating too! I've put some protectant on the rusty spots until this coming weekend when I can scrub things with a wire brush and then treat and paint the rough spots. it's like this all the back along the A-frame area.

Here's one I didn't consider until I asked some folks about it. the tension and flexing on the slides can shear off the screw heads! I rolled out the slide and the screw heads were gathered up in the bottom trim. Haven't figure out how I'm going to replace these.

The last 2 pictures are of the inside. In case you haven't seen a 338RETS before. There is supposed to be a jack knife sofa where the shelving unit is - we're not sure what is going to end up there though. The little mouse door is for when we were full-timing and the cats needed access to the litterbox in the passthrough storage. Worked surprisingly well too.
 

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Thanks for the update DA...better late than never :) Looks like you've added a lot to your to do list.
I don't believe it was towed like that for a couple hundred miles...you weren't in a hurray for a reason :confused:
You must of got dizzy following from the swaying and brake lights going down the highway at 40 miles an hour 😀
Anyway, continued good luck...it is a nice glamper.
 
I hear you! if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have never believed it myself. There were a couple nail biter moments when a passing semi nudged it towards the shoulder. But the guy driving the truck has some serious towing miles under his belt. Basically, been trailering for more than half my lifespan. :D No way on earth I would have been in the driver's seat for that journey.

I completely credit my wife's uncle and his decades of pulling big trailers. Reminds me of the old heads back east when I was running IT at a trash and trailer company. They referred to any young buck that couldn't run through the 14 gears on a truck as truck steerers, not truck drivers. :D

Wife and I have been bouncing around the idea of doing the rent-an-rv thing. we have some friends doing it and they've had success. Basically, air-bnb on wheels. We'd deliver and setup to campgrounds in a 40'ish mile radius, show how things work, then come back when they're done and pick her up. we have some misgivings about how people treat things that aren't theirs, but as you said, this is more of a "glamper", so we are thinking the renters may be a bit more careful with her.

We're still in the consideration phase, but RV season is just around the corner where we live so our window of opportunity is closing. :D

Thanks for sharing in my story and following along with the fits and starts of our big girl and our journey together. Just writing these words has reaffirmed my appreciation for our RV and how she was our safe haven when everything around us was one big crazy town.
 
For sure you need a WDH to lift the front of the trailer and the back of the truck up...the bars will control the sway not the driver 😨
That will be a nice glamper indeed once you complete your long to do list and add to it :)
Good luck with everything and I hope she's not going to be a bitch 😞
Cleaning my awning was a bitch alright...I extended it fully and lowered it down in the front on both sides, soaked it with a hose then washed it with soap and a broom brush, is was a lot better but not perfect...make sure it's dry and there's no debris on top when you roll it in...they do make an awning spray on cleaner. Speaking of bitches...I hope your plumbing is okay...sounds like you may have some freezing/bursting issues 😞
Not getting the slide screws shearing off issue unless some idiot was towing with slide not fully in. I would either try to drill the broken screw out and put in new screws with some silicon first, or just drill new holes just above those and put in new screws and silicon.
Plenty of good advice and help here, not just from me :typing:
 

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