Jay Flight 174BH little review and simple mods

[rigger4343]

I went ahead and moved the toggle switch to inside. It is in the cabinet next to the fridge. Makes it really easy to cut the fans on if I feel it is needed.

Guess I will update on this after our next trip in a couple of weeks.

 

[selectgear1]

Since this thread is still going strong, I thought I might do a little"Updated Review" of our little 174.

We are now going on right at three years with this camper. Our girls have gotten bigger, 15 and 15 and 1/2 years old, and we have added another dog to our family.

While Covid was strong, we used this camper almost every month. I think during the Covid year, we did about 10 trips. Most all of them were quick weekend trips like we normally do but still a good bit of use.

The trailer still works well for how we use it. The bunks still work out fine for our girls. We have enough fridge space for us for a 4-day trip. (I normally have drinks in a cooler.) It is easy to pull, set up, take down, park at home, and take care of.

Some people may say it is way too small but we don't spend a lot of time inside the camper unless the weather forces us inside. And yes, with four of us and two dogs, it does get a little tight inside but it is manageable and really not a big deal.

With three females and myself, four days seems to just about fill the black tank. We have never overflowed but according to the tank indicator, it has gotten pretty full a few times. I have thought about getting a 20-gallon portable black tank and making a mount for it to ride on the back bumper. We do have a 5-day trip coming up soon but we will not have one of the kids with us so just maybe we will be fine. About 95% of the time, we do not have a full hook-up site so I do watch the tank levels.

The camper itself has held up great. Still no leaks anywhere. The roof still looks great. No plumbing or electrical issues. No frame issues. Even the tires have held up great.

The only things that have broken were two of the outside marker lights burned out back when the trailer was under warranty. My dealer gave me some new ones so I could replace them. ( I was not going to take the trailer up there just for that.)
And two of the inside lights in the ceiling started flickering. I replaced them with some new ones off of Amazon.

That is it. No other issues with the 174 at all. No, its build quality is not perfect but for the price, it is not bad at all. I still do not have any regrets at all with our choice and at least as long as our girls are still going with us, I do believe we will keep this particular TT.

In the future, maybe when the kids don't go with us anymore, we may sell this camper and possibly get a small Toy-Hauler. That way my wife and I can hit the mountains a little more often with the motorcycle. But even if we do not do that, this trailer would still work great for just the two of us and the dogs.

By the way, both dogs now sleep on the bed with us at night. Thankfully they are both little!

Rigger
I did the memory foam too, big improvement. As for the extra tank capacity I bought a Rhino 22 gallon portable tank and this bumper bracket to stow. This setup really works well.
https://www.ebay.com/ipp/373331739098?transactionId=1284056005024&_trksid=p2047675.l48352

 

[rigger4343]

Rigger
I did the memory foam too, big improvement. As for the extra tank capacity I bought a Rhino 22 gallon portable tank and this bumper bracket to stow. This setup really works well.

The link you posted would not work but I think I know what mount you are talking about.

Last month on Amazon they had a 21 gallon Rhino for less than $100. I noticed now that price has gone up. Guess I should have ordered one then.

I was thinking about making a mount so the tank could mount above the spare tire. Or maybe on the spare tire. I would like to keep the area on the right side open because that is where we normally use the shower and my box for sewer stuff is on the other side.

When you get yours mounted, post up a picture.

 

[MXL]

Since this thread is still going strong, I thought I might do a little"Updated Review" of our little 174.

We are now going on right at three years with this camper. Our girls have gotten bigger, 15 and 15 and 1/2 years old, and we have added another dog to our family.

While Covid was strong, we used this camper almost every month. I think during the Covid year, we did about 10 trips. Most all of them were quick weekend trips like we normally do but still a good bit of use.

The trailer still works well for how we use it. The bunks still work out fine for our girls. We have enough fridge space for us for a 4-day trip. (I normally have drinks in a cooler.) It is easy to pull, set up, take down, park at home, and take care of.

Some people may say it is way too small but we don't spend a lot of time inside the camper unless the weather forces us inside. And yes, with four of us and two dogs, it does get a little tight inside but it is manageable and really not a big deal.

With three females and myself, four days seems to just about fill the black tank. We have never overflowed but according to the tank indicator, it has gotten pretty full a few times. I have thought about getting a 20-gallon portable black tank and making a mount for it to ride on the back bumper. We do have a 5-day trip coming up soon but we will not have one of the kids with us so just maybe we will be fine. About 95% of the time, we do not have a full hook-up site so I do watch the tank levels.

The camper itself has held up great. Still no leaks anywhere. The roof still looks great. No plumbing or electrical issues. No frame issues. Even the tires have held up great.

The only things that have broken were two of the outside marker lights burned out back when the trailer was under warranty. My dealer gave me some new ones so I could replace them. ( I was not going to take the trailer up there just for that.)
And two of the inside lights in the ceiling started flickering. I replaced them with some new ones off of Amazon.

That is it. No other issues with the 174 at all. No, its build quality is not perfect but for the price, it is not bad at all. I still do not have any regrets at all with our choice and at least as long as our girls are still going with us, I do believe we will keep this particular TT.

In the future, maybe when the kids don't go with us anymore, we may sell this camper and possibly get a small Toy-Hauler. That way my wife and I can hit the mountains a little more often with the motorcycle. But even if we do not do that, this trailer would still work great for just the two of us and the dogs.

By the way, both dogs now sleep on the bed with us at night. Thankfully they are both little!

Thanks for creating this thread. We found this right after we bought the 174bh and made a bunch of mods based on it! The reach of this thread is far! We’re in Wisconsin, a couple of weeks ago, we camped in souther Illinois, next to another guy from Pennsylvania with a 174, we immediately knew we were both reading this thread because we had the same hose box on the back!

 

[mrmojo]

Here are some pictures for you. I drew on one to kind of show what is there. The red are studs that are existing. The yellow is what I added in there for solid support around the shower kit.

Thanks to this thread and the pictures here I just completed this mod to our Jayco 174BH. Really appreciate the detail and pictures that helped me out a lot on this upgrade. I spent a little time trying to pin point the stud location even with the schematics from Jayco(I’m a bit of a skeptic), but it turns out the stud was right where they said it would be.

I reinforced the cutout area by adding in some studs using some pocket screws to attach them to the existing framing.

First time doing PEX so fingers crossed everything is leak free!

 

[rigger4343]

Thanks to this thread and the pictures here I just completed this mod to our Jayco 174BH. Really appreciate the detail and pictures that helped me out a lot on this upgrade. I spent a little time trying to pin point the stud location even with the schematics from Jayco(I’m a bit of a skeptic), but it turns out the stud was right where they said it would be.

I reinforced the cutout area by adding in some studs using some pocket screws to attach them to the existing framing.

First time doing PEX so fingers crossed everything is leak free!View attachment 73735

Glad you got it figured out! We use our shower every trip.

PEX is easy. Only trick I do with my PEX connections is I will put a tiny little bit of pipe dope on the nipple before crimping. Sometimes, and I stress the sometimes part part because it is rare, my connections may ever so slightly drip just a tiny bit. But I think it may be my crimp tool too. My entire house is plumbed with PEX so I’m not concerned about leaking.

 

[rigger4343]

I ordered one of the Camco 21 Gallon portable poop tanks. I was going to get the 15 gallons due to the size but in the end, I figured the 21 was better since the tanks are supposed to be 20 gallons.

It actually looks pretty nice and comes with everything you need.

I thought I was going to have to make some kind of a mount on the back to carry it but I really don't need to. At least not for the moment anyway.

I added an eye bolt to the top of the tire carrier and the ladder hook on the tank sits nicely on the tire itself. A couple of cam straps later and I can't pull off the back. I think this will work for now until I come up with something better.

Now my three females can poop all they want!

 

[rigger4343]

Now for the first real issue I have had with the camper.

The AC died!!

Not really the AC's fault though. Remember back when I had that rat make a home in the AC unit? Well apparently he must have chewed through some copper somewhere and created a slow freon leak in the unit. I did notice it did now seem to cool as well after the rat but now it is done. This last trip, it was freezing up and not cooling. Had all the symptoms of low freon.

I thought about my different options for repair but in the end, I decided to just replace the unit with a new one.

I took it to my work last Saturday so I could use our tractor to help me lift the new one up on the roof. It was actually a very easy project except I did have one of the bolts try to cross-thread on me. That was an easy fix though.

The roof area around where the unit sits seems to be well supported and glued together well. I was thinking about some extra braces in there just because but there was no way I could do it anyway. So I left it all as it was and now we have an ice cold AC again.

Edit... I was going to add a few more pictures but I can't get them to upload at the moment so maybe tomorrow

 

[rigger4343]

And here are a handful more pictures.

 

[pecro]

I figured I'd give a little update on my rig, with some pictures of the mods I've made so far, all inspired by this thread. First thing I did was the most popular one on here, adding the black hose box on the back bumper.

I also wired up some led strip lights in the pantry and storage under the bed so it's easier to see what's in the back. The pantry light is on a push switch controlled by the door and an additional switch out of sight on top inside in case the door needs to stay open and the light is not needed.

I put the additional grab handle and a 12 volt fan in the top bunk to get the air circulating better up there.

We've had it out on a couple of trips so far. On the way back from the first the camper was leaning noticeably to the passenger side when hitched up. Took it back to my dealer and they determined the leaf spring had flattened out on that side so they ordered in a replacement. On the next trip the water heater quit working so I will have them look at that when I get into the shop next week.

 

[rigger4343]

I figured I'd give a little update on my rig, with some pictures of the mods I've made so far, all inspired by this thread. First thing I did was the most popular one on here, adding the black hose box on the back bumper.

I also wired up some led strip lights in the pantry and storage under the bed so it's easier to see what's in the back. The pantry light is on a push switch controlled by the door and an additional switch out of sight on top inside in case the door needs to stay open and the light is not needed.

I put the additional grab handle and a 12 volt fan in the top bunk to get the air circulating better up there.

We've had it out on a couple of trips so far. On the way back from the first the camper was leaning noticeably to the passenger side when hitched up. Took it back to my dealer and they determined the leaf spring had flattened out on that side so they ordered in a replacement. On the next trip the water heater quit working so I will have them look at that when I get into the shop next week.

I have had no issues with our hot water heater. It is a pain to light but that’s just because it takes so long for the gas to get to it. But once it’s lit, it works great.

I haven’t had any issues with leaf springs either, and our TT has some miles on it now. A lot of really rough back roads too. But it would not be the first time I have seen or heard of a spring going flat. It does happen.

Your other mods look good. I guess I’m going to have to rig up some lighting inside the cabinets too. Can’t let you guys out-do me on mods!!

 

[pecro]

The pantry lights has been the most helpful so far. We keep a lot of stuff in the totes you can see in my pictures and it's really dark in the back of there even with the light the trailer came with right outside of there. World of difference with the little light strip inside of there.

 

[rigger4343]

The pantry lights has been the most helpful so far. We keep a lot of stuff in the totes you can see in my pictures and it's really dark in the back of there even with the light the trailer came with right outside of there. World of difference with the little light strip inside of there.

How do you like the fan? Our kids use the fans all the time. Being able to adjust the speed on them is nice too.

 

[pecro]

How do you like the fan? Our kids use the fans all the time. Being able to adjust the speed on them is nice too.

I've only had it up for the last trip, but it seems to move the air well enough. The kid who sleeps up there is excited about. I didn't get fancy like you and put a voltage controller on it, the two speed switch it came with seems to work.

I have another one that I am deciding where to put. Either by the master bed somewhere or on the lower bunk. We've just been dry camping on all our trips so far and I haven't splurged on a generator yet so it gets a little stuffy in there on these 95+ Montana days. We've mostly been staying up at higher elevations though so spending most of the day outside and the nights cooling into the 50's has allowed us to survive.

 

[rigger4343]

I've only had it up for the last trip, but it seems to move the air well enough. The kid who sleeps up there is excited about. I didn't get fancy like you and put a voltage controller on it, the two speed switch it came with seems to work.

I have another one that I am deciding where to put. Either by the master bed somewhere or on the lower bunk. We've just been dry camping on all our trips so far and I haven't splurged on a generator yet so it gets a little stuffy in there on these 95+ Montana days. We've mostly been staying up at higher elevations though so spending most of the day outside and the nights cooling into the 50's has allowed us to survive.

Sounds like you have some cool places to camp. All of our camping has been on regular camp grounds but I would love to do some true boon docking.

 

[pecro]

Sounds like you have some cool places to camp. All of our camping has been on regular camp grounds but I would love to do some true boon docking.

Ya, Montana is full of some gems. Looking forward to finding some more of them with this new TT. This was from last weekend up in the Beartooth Mountains.

 

[rigger4343]

Ya, Montana is full of some gems. Looking forward to finding some more of them with this new TT. This was from last weekend up in the Beartooth Mountains.

Really nice looking spot! I would love to do some stuff like that. Maybe downsize the camper or set up a Jeep for camping up in the mountains.

Enjoy!

 

[pecro]

Really nice looking spot! I would love to do some stuff like that. Maybe downsize the camper or set up a Jeep for camping up in the mountains.

Enjoy!

This spot was just fine for my trailer and the Tundra. My friends were there with a 24' TT, I would want to try to squeeze anything bigger than that in one of these spots. Only about 3 miles of gravel to this campground. There were some others farther down on the paved road though.

 

[rigger4343]

SUSPENSION AND TIRE UPGRADES

Has anyone done any suspension and tire upgrades to their 174 yet?
Our next trip is about four and half months away and it will be running from here in Charleston to New Orleans for a week's stay. I have had no issues with running gear or tires yet but I have noticed the springs have started to flatten a little. My tires still look good but are starting to show a very small amount of dry cracking in the tread. When I say small, I mean really small.
I am sure the springs on the trailer are pushed to their limit and I have always felt they are a tad soft but the trailer has always and still does pull great.
If I remember correctly, the trailer's gross is just over 3,750 and I think I remember seeing the axle tag rated at 3,750 pounds. ( I need to double-check those numbers)
I was thinking of maybe upgrading the running gear well before this trip to New Orleans as a preventive action.
Curious if anyone has done anything of that nature and if so, what did you go with?

 

[colby-JAY]

Don't forget that your tongue weight comes off of the gross weight as it is transferred to the hitch and to the vehicle. If you want true numbers, load things up like you are camping and go to the scale and get it weighed.