Jayco or Coleman

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
N

newbiecamper

New member
Joined
Feb 2, 2017
Posts
4
Trying to decide on Jayco tt or coleman. Probably 22ft to 25ft. We looked at Coleman light and lantern series at a camper show in Michigan. Haven't seen Jayco up close yet. We have the floorplan figured out not sure about the important stuff.   Any thoughts on construction and quality on either would be appreciated. This will be our first Camper since we had a StarCraft pop-up in the 1980's which we loved.
 
Welcome to the  Forum!

The floor plan IS the most important thing!!

If you are looking at new campers, all units of a similar size and similar price will be very similar build quality with nearly identical quality parts.  Virtually all TT manufacturers use one of the two brands of RV refrigerators.  Same for water heaters, stoves and furnaces.

Why buy new?  A gently used 2 or 3 year old unit can save you thousands of dollars.  If you decide camping is not for you or if you love and want a bigger camper, you lose much less money when you sell or trade.

Almost all campers, especially entry level ones, have numerous flaws from the manufacturer, requiring several trips back to the dealer for warranty repairs.  Some dealers are very slow getting to low reimbursement warranty jobs, so your camper may sit there for a month or more.  You must still make payments, but you can not use the camper.  A gently used camper will have most of these things fixed, so you can enjoy using your new toy.

What is your tow vehicle?  Not every SUV can pull every TT, despite what the dealer tells you!  You must be better educated on tow capacities than the sales staff.  Fortunately, that is pretty easy to do, and you are at the right place to learn!

http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php/topic,90933.0.html

Enjoy the search!!
 
grashley said:
The floor plan IS the most important thing!!

If you are looking at new campers, all units of a similar size and similar price will be very similar build quality with nearly identical quality parts.  Virtually all TT manufacturers use one of the two brands of RV refrigerators.  Same for water heaters, stoves and furnaces.

Why buy new?  A gently used 2 or 3 year old unit can save you thousands of dollars.  If you decide camping is not for you or if you love and want a bigger camper, you lose much less money when you sell or trade.

Almost all campers, especially entry level ones, have numerous flaws from the manufacturer, requiring several trips back to the dealer for warranty repairs.  Some dealers are very slow getting to low reimbursement warranty jobs, so your camper may sit there for a month or more.  You must still make payments, but you can not use the camper.  A gently used camper will have most of these things fixed, so you can enjoy using your new toy.

What is your tow vehicle?  Not every SUV can pull every TT, despite what the dealer tells you!  You must be better educated on tow capacities than the sales staff.  Fortunately, that is pretty easy to do, and you are at the right place to learn!

http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php/topic,90933.0.html

Enjoy the search!!
Click to expand...

^^ I was going to say all that... good advice there.  :)
 
Thank's for reply.....As for vehicle we have 2017 Ram 1500 big horn crew cab 4x4 3.6 liter V6 the Ram site says it has a max towing capacity of 4400 pds. So is there a formula on this site that can help?

Thank you
Keith






 
Do NOT believe all what you see on the Ram site. The data shown there is usually for a base model truck with no options included. The most important number is on the Yellow sticker located on the drivers doorpost of your truck and is labeled payload or CCC for YOUR truck as it left the factory. This number has to be adjusted to arrive at the true capability of your truck by subtracting the weight of any passengers and other material to be carried in the truck.
 
Stu is exactly right!!

On the driver door B pillar is a yellow label stating the max load the truck was designed to carry based on its weight as it left the factory.  This is the REAL payload for THAT truck.

Now add together the weight of all passengers, car seats, toys, snacks, tools, firewood and other cargo carried in the truck or in the bed.  Add 80# for a WD hitch. 
Subtract this from your payload to get the max TT hitch wt the truck can handle.
Assuming a 10% hitch wt, multiply by 10 for the max TT LOADED  GVWR it can handle.
Assuming a 12.5% hitch wt, multiply by 8 for the max TT  GVWR.

The other limit of GCWR is rarely an issue if there is a fair amount of weight in the truck.

Hope this helps!
 
Don't know much about Coleman but the Jayco is a nice trailer. Jayco is one of a few that have a two year warranty. Most are only one.
 
I didn't know they were putting such small engines in full size pickups now... with that V6 in your Ram, it might be tough to find a trailer much over 20' that is going to fall at/under 4000# where you probably would need to be. 

The primary two numbers you need to start with are the actual towing capacity of YOUR truck (see the yellow sticker in the door pillar as mentioned above) and the GVWR, which is max loaded weight, of any trailer you are considering buying.  See where you're at once you have those two numbers.

Here's an article in our forum library that discusses more details on calculating towing capacity.  That library category of "Towing and Towables" has some more details on weight management, and we also have a section of the discussion forum with the same title.  You need to become familiar with weight terms/acronyms such as GVWR, GCVWR, CCC, UVW, TW (tongue weight), and understanding axle ratios for weight distribution.  It might seem really confusing at first, but will become pretty basic in your mind after awhile.  ;)
 
Never used a coleman camper, but use their camping products. Used several Jaycos growing up. For the price, Jayco has what would work for me.
 
Thank's for all the replies......... it has two pieces of information .............the max load for the truck is 1525 PDS and here is the important one I believe..........GVWR 6800 PDS. I should have gone with the bigger engine options but were trying to keep costs down. Anyway do I start the calculations with this number?  Will try to calculate with both pieces of information.
 
Thanks New.  What is PDS?

The GVWR os the absolute most the loaded truck should weigh.

If the max load is from the yellow label, and it sounds about right, it is by definition the GVWR minus the weight of the truck as it left the factory.  It is what it says.

Use this 1525 number in the formulas above.

While 20/20 hindsight says get bigger engine, at least 20/20 foresight should help you not overload your truck.
 
As an FYI to the OP, the accepted abbreviation for pounds (weight) is lbs.  PDS ?? Not sure where that one came from.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,177 (members: 21, guests: 1,156)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,984
Posts
1,388,631
Members
137,732
Latest member
jeffandjoan
Back
Top Bottom