[ChevyFan]

Picked up the new trailer today at Hayes RV Center in Longview, Texas. Could not be any more pleased with the trailer, how the traverse tows it, the deal I got, etc.

However. The folks at Hayes hooked it all up for me, the Reese WD hitch with sway control and the brake controller, and I took it on a 30-mile maiden voyage in terrible rainstorm with flash floods. (Now that I look at the pics, I see the problem)

When I got to the campground, I realized that I had lost all trailer lights! I had to make a sharp turn getting into the campground and it severed my trailer connection!

Guess I'll worry tomorrow about how to get it fixed. No lights, no brakes, etc.

Looks good though.

 

[xPosTech]

Maybe you can see the problem in the pics but I sure can't. It's maybe in an additional pic that you didn't upload?

Looks like a good setup. Many good weekends to come in that trailer.

Yeah we have had a lot of rain in the past few days. Quite a bit of difference from 6-10 years ago. I'm on Sam Rayburn. Nice to have a lake again.

Enjoy the new trailer.

Ted

 

[ChevyFan]

The power plug got caught up in the sway control on a turn and sheered in half instantly. Not a huge deal, but I have to drop trailer and doesn't look like they have me the eaz-lift bar to get the bars off now.

I'm enjoying this, except for that mishap, just fyi.

 

[ChevyFan]

Trailer is wonderful otherwise! The folks at Hayes RV Center in Longview are coming out to fix the plug, now that's good service! Oh, the leverage bar just rolled around and I dug it out, it's all good.

I think it was just a fluke, the cord just happened to get caught up on a turn and sheered off.

 

[Chesters]

Do you have the electric drop Steve? Hey might want to temp that cord in and keep the replacement till you get thru your rookie year??!!

 

[Crawdaddy]

Yeesh, that's not good. Thankfully you were in the campground and at low speed when it happened. Not having trailer brakes on a camper can get kinda scary. On a previous trip when I had the old brake controller, it randomly would decide it wasn't going to actuate the brakes. Needless to say, that trip home was very precarious.

Have you loaded your camping gear in the trailer and filled the tank with water? In the pictures the trailer looks pretty level, almost a hair nose-high. Maybe not, it might just be an optical illusion. In either case, nose-high is bad; it can lead to sway. Nose slightly down is fine though.

I also don't see a lock or pin through the coupler. It's cheap insurance to make sure that coupler lock doesn't open while you're bouncing down the road. Pretty much any old piece of pipe like conduit or the end of a breaker bar can serve as an expedient spring bar release. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

 

[ChevyFan]

It's all fixed. Their tech said that they should have routed the plug to the other side because of the sway control ... and because the plug is on that side of the vehicle anyhow. It's all good.

 

[Enkeiavalanche]

Ouch!!! I hate when that happens.. Seen it too many times..

 

[xPosTech]

I've been carrying around a Harbor Freight magnetic towed vehicle light set for years, since way before I bought the 2010. I originally got it for my 2 ton utility trailer. I've never needed it but . . . It won't stick to aluminum on a trailer but usually the bumper is square steel to carry your dump hoses.

I bet you had a little steam coming off the top of your head when you saw that. Good of the dealer to step up and take care of you.

Ted

 

[Chesters]

I've been carrying around a Harbor Freight magnetic towed vehicle light set for years, since way before I bought the 2010. I originally got it for my 2 ton utility trailer. I've never needed it but . . . It won't stick to aluminum on a trailer but usually the bumper is square steel to carry your dump hoses.

I bet you had a little steam coming off the top of your head when you saw that. Good of the dealer to step up and take care of you.

Ted

Ah Steve, I thought you might find a bit of humor in my last post, hope your enjoying your new toy.

 

[ChevyFan]

Do you have the electric drop Steve? Hey might want to temp that cord in and keep the replacement till you get thru your rookie year??!!

Yeah, maybe that's needed.

Went to a new campground and the traverse tows fine at 60 mph. Got here though and after 10 seconds of power tongue jack ... blew a fuse do no forward light and no power jack. Ugh.

Otherwise, it's nice. I Like the outdoor fridge a lot.

 

[xPosTech]

Ah Steve, I thought you might find a bit of humor in my last post, hope your enjoying your new toy.

Yeah I think Steve did. So did I.

When that hookup sheared off it might have melted some insulation under the trailer. If it did it won't be easy to find. Maybe Hayes will step up again.

I would check the 40 amp trailer feed under the hood. With the trailer hooked up it might give you some power but will drain the battery pretty quickly. (Don't ask how I know that.)

I'm jealous of that little fridge. Will keep the little ones from having to take dirty shoes off to go inside. Does that big access panel convert to a table? Of course that would block access to the fridge.

Quite a shakedown cruise. Hope you've had the last of the headaches.

Ted

 

[Crawdaddy]

Were you bumping the jack button or reversing it before it came to a complete stop? That would have blown the fuse for the jack which is usually at the battery box.

 

[ChevyFan]

No, just wound the Jack up and it blew. Then replaced the fuse the next day and it blew again. Not had another problem after that though.

Just got home, cruises perfect at 60 mph and I got a dead 10.0 mpg as well on the return trip. It seemed to turn too high rpms at 65 mph and started to get some sway as well, so I backed of and it was ok. Shifted between 5th and 4th gears on the hills and 5th and sometimes 6th on flats and downhill runs.

 

[ChevyFan]

Here was our last camp site at buck horn campground in chickasaw national recreation area, near Davis & Sulphur, Oklahoma. Loop d. We had one of the best sites in the entire park.

 

[ChevyFan]

AND NOW A WORD ABOUT JAYCO'S 2-YEAR WARRANTY!

We've been having more issues with build-quality on the trailer. To recap, I bought it in east Texas (which I love going to, but it's 150 miles from my house) because I got a deal on the exact model that I wanted that came with the exact features that I was looking for! So I got the exact trailer that I was looking for at a great price, and working with Hayes RV in Longview was great, I don't have any qualms with those guys out there.

TRAILER IS FALLING APART
However, the trailer is showing a significant amount of problems already. These are truly manufacturer build-quality issues, some are simply and some I'm afraid suggest that this unit was not built up to their quality specs. I'll make a list and add it to the bottom of this post.

GETTING SERVICE - DEALERS SET THEIR OWN SCHEDULE
So, in the travel trailer world to get work done under their 2-year factory warranty, you use their dealer network that has qualified service shops. That's fine, in that respect it works very much like the automotive world.

There is one difference though ... Jayco (and maybe all of the manufacturers) let their dealers call the shots on how they will do the service work and which customers they will see first and how they schedule repairs. So, like any business they see their own customers first for service in hopes to offer existing customers (for the dealership) great customer service and if you didn't purchase from them, then you get put into a non-customer waiting list.

So to get service on my less than 6 week old trailer (which is starting to be VERY considerable!!!!) I have to spend an entire day and drive 300 miles round trip to go to Hayes in Longview. I actually had an appointment for today that I blew off because I had things come up that I had to address, so sorry Hayes.

Calling around to the other two local Jayco dealers (and they only list THREE for the 6.5 million people that live in the DFW area) it looks like I have to wait 8 weeks to get service work done on my trailer. I actually did this over a week ago, so I would have to wait 8 weeks for warranty work to be completed on a 4-week old trailer.

FRUSTRATED and DISAPPOINTED
I guess I'm just disappointed at how this works. Had I known that I would have to wait literally 8x longer to get warranty work done as a non-customer to the dealership, I would have thought twice about buying a trailer from a dealer so far away. But what happens if you move or if you're on vacation somewhere and something significant happens? Just seems very odd the way that these dealer agreements are setup and they're in favor of the dealership and not doing a whole lot for the Jayco manufacturer brand image.

 

[ChevyFan]

Here are a few of the issues that have gone wrong with the trailer over the first 4 weeks that we've owned it and took it out twice.

1. FIXTURES, VENTS AND CABINET DOORS. About a dozen of the screws are misaligned or put into defective wood that won't hold the screw. This is not a huge issue, but it's really annoying in that a bunch of the doors don't close, including one for the dining seat that keeps flying open! Plus at least one of the air vents has come out of the wall because the screws aren't sticking into the wood.
   
   
2. 30 AMP FUSE. The 30-AMP battery fuse keeps blowing. We've had this trailer out for two trips and we've blown at least 10 fuses. Really? Something going on here.
   
   
3. KITCHEN COUNTERTOP FAILING. The kitchen countertop surface material clearly wasn't installed properly and it's already started to separate from the osb underneath where there is a seam. I'm afraid that we're going to need an entirely new countertop if they can't address is ASAP. Not my concern though as it's "under warranty" but it's going to be damaged if not addresses asap.
   
   
4. BAD WOOD PANEL NEXT TO FRIDGE. There is a very large entire wood panel next to the fridge is presents itself as being swollen from moisture and is defective and needs to be replaced. I rubbed my finger over it and the putty they put on to try to mask this can be easily wiped off. I actually noticed this before we purchased it and it was recorded in the sales documents.
   
   
5. CEILING SUPPORT FAILING? One of the ceiling seams is not connected properly and is actually twisted and pushed down. I fear that they'll have to remove and replace this entire strip and is there a problem on the other side? On the outside of the trailer there is a gouge in the sheet metal near this same linear problem, not sure if they're related or not.

That's all I can think of for now, let me upload some pics later today to showcase some of this stuff.

 

[ChevyFan]

NOTE: These photos were taken BEFORE I bought it and took possession. Most of these items are noted in the exceptions and comments portion of the sale contract, so they're clearly covered by the warranty, just disappointing that I have to wait two months to get the work done locally.

Ceiling Trim Not Flush With Ceiling.
Not sure if this is an indication that there's something wrong on the other side of the material, but it's off and i'm afraid eventually will fail and the ceiling material will droop down.

Wood trim around microwave.
Notice the huge chip in the wood surface?

Wood panel in kitchen next to fridge.
Wow, really? Looks like someone knew that this was a bad piece of wood and they tried to putty it up. Remember this photo was taken BEFORE I bought it, and I noted this in the sales contract that it was a defect that would have to be taken care of. You can't really see this all that well, but the wood is not flush either, it's recessed at the bottom and it's swollen up at the top and it sticks out.

Another pic of bad wood panel. It's not in focus, but the flash is on so you can see a difference in texture.

Kitchen Countertop Seam.
I guess I took notice that the seam in the back of the sink was faulty, I actually don't remember taking this picture, but that's exactly where the countertop is starting to fail after we just took two trips in the trailer.

WOW! Untrimmed ceiling molding!
Did this trailer go through any type of review before it was checked off? They forgot to trim this piece of molding off in the master bedroom area! They took care of it at the dealership, but they just cut it with a knife and it looks funny.

 

[Pikey]

Damn Steve! Sorry to hear about all of those issue that you are having. Hearing this sure makes my buddy's 1985 19 ft hi-low parked in my driveway look awesome. it does not look nearly as nice as yours but he has no problems with it at other than a busted lift cable that I fixed for him yesterday

 

[ChevyFan]

Damn Steve! Sorry to hear about all of those issue that you are having. Hearing this sure makes my buddy's 1985 19 ft hi-low parked in my driveway look awesome. it does not look nearly as nice as yours but he has no problems with it at other than a busted lift cable that I fixed for him yesterday

Check back to the posts I just made as I just added a bunch of pictures.

Mind you, I have no doubt that Jayco is going to stand by their warranty and fix all of this stuff, but it's just really frustrating that the local dealership calls ALL of the shots and will see you according to their schedule. Honestly, if I were a dealership I would be tempted to do the same thing, but then I would also think that I could maybe earn some new business in the future by showing me what they can do.

Like I said, I made the decision to go to Hayes RV in Longview, Texas because they had the exact model with 100% of the factory-installed add-ons that I was looking for including the outdoor fridge, the rear ladder and the thermal package. NO one else had those, so when I say it for a really good deal, I jumped on it! Little did I know that there would be all of these issues so soon after buying it (and some I knew before I actually purchased it) ... or that I would have to wait so long to get service work completed.

It's possible that Hayes knew they had a defective unit so they dumped it at a very attractive price, but there is no way for me to know that and honestly I bought it knowing there were a few issues, but I thought, "hey, it's got a 2-year warranty, so I'm covered!"

MORE PICS IN NEXT POST ...