To Whom it may concern,
I am writing today to share my nightmare as a Jayco 5th Wheel owner. In April of 2018 our cabover camper went on it's final camping trip. My husband and I started shopping for new cabover's only to discover we could get a 5th wheel unit for not much more. Considering we are almo...
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To Whom it may concern,
I am writing today to share my nightmare as a Jayco 5th Wheel owner. In April of 2018 our cabover camper went on it's final camping trip. My husband and I started shopping for new cabover's only to discover we could get a 5th wheel unit for not much more. Considering we are almost empty nesters and also preparing to rebuild our home, we decided to go big. We started shopping for toy haulers, husband wanted a garage, that we could also live in while our home was being rebuilt. After much searching, we decided that a Jayco Talon 413T would fit our needs the best and contacted a family friend that was an RV salesman. We gave him the go ahead to order the unit and scheduled pick-up of the unit for June 13, 2018. We purchased a new Ram 3500 to tow the unit with and spent the month preparing our yard, new truck, and purchasing the things we would need for such a large unit. A week before the scheduled date, our salesman called to let us know that delivery would be delayed due to the manufacture having to close it's facility due to an “incident”. On July 11, 2018, we finally were able to make the four hour dive to pick up our unit and all had a good laugh when we noticed that the factory had put the wrong designation stickers on it. We were due in Indiana that weekend for a family event so we left straight from the dealership on our first road trip. We stayed 4 days and had a wonderful time but when we packed up the passenger side slide wasn't acting right. We were also having more trouble than we should have dumping our gray and black tanks. Once we returned home, we planned a camping trip with family members and headed out. First stop, gas station to fill the fuel tank! What we expected to be a 10 min chore ended up being 2 hours at a pump, trying to get the fuel station to fill. Once we finally we able to head out, got to camp, and started to set up I noticed the passanger side slide was moving unevenly. During that trip, the unit would not switch from fuel station to generator, and the exterior handles to empty the tanks had both fallen off.
In December of 2018, it went to our local dealership for repairs as it was still under warranty. At that time, the passenger side slide was rebuilt, all of the plumbing had to be redone because it was done wrong at the factory (hence why the tanks wouldn't drain), the fuel system was fixed but then put back the way it was because that's how Jayco wanted it, the handles were replaced, the door between the living area and garage had to be re-hung since it was crooked , screws in the molding and stairs had to be replaced because they weren't placed properly and were protruding, lights in the storage compartment and under the stairs had to be wired because they weren't done at the factory, and the roof had to be resealed due to damage incurred during it's original transport from factory to dealership. It took the dealership almost 4 months to make said repairs due to push back and delayed shipping of parts from Jayco.
We were able to go on a couple of camp trips before going to the Dakota's for a month. That trip, the unit was parked in a rv park and we tested the theory of full time living in the unit. For the most part, everything went well until the unit started to fry every phone charger plugged into the kitchen island. Once again, when we went to pack up and head home, the passenger slide started coming in crooked again. Knowing that we were already committed to a hunting trip at the end of October and we had out of town guest coming, we called the dealership and planned to bring it again after the hunting trip. During that trip, the outside weatherstripping on the nose started to come off as well. We also learned on that trip that even though Jayco put a nice little climate sticker on it that the unit could not handle nighttime temperatures of 35 degrees without the heater (set at 55) running the batteries dead by morning and the plumbing freezing. When we got home, we winterized the unit, cleaned it, and prepped it to go back in the repair shop.
I have not been able to get my unit back from the shop yet because Jayco keeps giving us the run around, gives us and the dealership false tracking numbers and delivery dates They refuse to fix the fuel station or the electrical outlet in the kitchen island. I have tried to call the warrenty dept, customer service, and even the main office number for Jayco. A lady by the name of Anita was suppose to help us resolve these issues, but that to was just lip service. They won't return phone calls or emails. They won't respond on social media. At this point, my traveling palace has turned into a traveling nightmare and I'm making monthly payments on a lemon that I can't even make lemonade from. It has spent half the time we have owned it in the shop or unable to use due to Jayco's negligence
Livability
Overall quality
Floorplan
Driving/towing
Factory warranty/support
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