caralex
Member
We could be a newbie nightmare except we read and researched and drove and looked before we settled on the 2018 Jayco Precept 31UL. We loved the floor plan as we would be traveling with 5 little dogs and the dinette area would be perfect to make a driving bed area for them and we could enclose it. I - wife here - got the wanderlust bug, even though we are not retired, and we sold our home and bought an RV for 4 weeks of initial traveling and then full-timing. To say I love this life is an understatement. to be able to pull over anywhere, at anytime, to see anything is an incredible freedom. And we saw beauty everywhere we went.
However, on our first trip - 4 weeks long - we ran into some issues and trial by fire (not literally) became our education. When we went to pick up the coach it had not been cleaned and the service people tried to make me feel as if I was an overly picky woman. LOL except that the windshield was still loaded up with stickers papers, there was visible dirt everywhere and heel marks on the furniture like a sales person had been using the coach for an office. So they promised to clean it and when we went back the next day it was lick and a promise clean and we found a razor blade under the passenger seat! But we had our coach and we were excited - I mean petrified - I mean excited!
Our plan all along had been to park it locally for a week and get to know it while moving out of our home - that was insane. Best laid planes and all. So we ended up hitting the road and we realized how clueless we were. SO we stopped at friends and camped on their driveway for 4 days till we got the courage and hit the road. Our first stop was boondocking in the Mojave National Preserve and it was everything we hoped for. Almost no one nearby. And we enjoyed this incredible opportunity so much. LOVED it. And we had no problems. (the only problem so far was when the fridge would not light but we held the doors open in the fridge and it fired up once the temp rose). This really is not a travelogue but an explanation that we knew we were newbies but we were committed.
Many other fantastic stops later we ended up in Idaho at the Crater of the Moon National preserve. Boondocking. Beautiful and desolate and cold. Perfect. Until at midnight our heat went off and we would not get it back on. We ended up firing up the generator (and happily no one flipped out) and we had heat. Ok - we could have left but instead we moved the coach to another campsite where the generator could be used and no one would hear it. We were very careful not to disturb others. All was well and we were happy. Until 2 am when the propane heat cut off and the generator stopped running. It was 18 degrees. (Our electric heat only can warm so much and the propane heat is the main warmth.) At 4 am after starting and stopping and checking the pilot light and reading countless manuals with no internet or cell service we turned on the coach itself and warmed it up. So we left the campground and headed to a place to plugin thinking that the battery was not performing (we have two 6 volt deep cycle batteries). Long story longer - we realized that we had lost hot water heater and heater. Three week old coach. (There are other major issues - like the auto levelling system does not function properly but we are darn good at manually levelling now and other smaller issues). And we did contact the manufacturer and they were pretty unconcerned about any of it.
We ended up finding an RV repair person who was pretty convinced that the regulator was bad and we had him replace it fortunately costing 60 dollars installed. No problems since the replacement but we also have not been below freezing.
So now a month later we are back in So Cal full-timing and I know I need to go to the dealer but I am sad about this. We love our coach and I know it will work out one way or the other but seriously is the list always long for RV repair on a new vehicle? Thanks for letting me dump this on here. I welcome any comments.
However, on our first trip - 4 weeks long - we ran into some issues and trial by fire (not literally) became our education. When we went to pick up the coach it had not been cleaned and the service people tried to make me feel as if I was an overly picky woman. LOL except that the windshield was still loaded up with stickers papers, there was visible dirt everywhere and heel marks on the furniture like a sales person had been using the coach for an office. So they promised to clean it and when we went back the next day it was lick and a promise clean and we found a razor blade under the passenger seat! But we had our coach and we were excited - I mean petrified - I mean excited!
Our plan all along had been to park it locally for a week and get to know it while moving out of our home - that was insane. Best laid planes and all. So we ended up hitting the road and we realized how clueless we were. SO we stopped at friends and camped on their driveway for 4 days till we got the courage and hit the road. Our first stop was boondocking in the Mojave National Preserve and it was everything we hoped for. Almost no one nearby. And we enjoyed this incredible opportunity so much. LOVED it. And we had no problems. (the only problem so far was when the fridge would not light but we held the doors open in the fridge and it fired up once the temp rose). This really is not a travelogue but an explanation that we knew we were newbies but we were committed.
Many other fantastic stops later we ended up in Idaho at the Crater of the Moon National preserve. Boondocking. Beautiful and desolate and cold. Perfect. Until at midnight our heat went off and we would not get it back on. We ended up firing up the generator (and happily no one flipped out) and we had heat. Ok - we could have left but instead we moved the coach to another campsite where the generator could be used and no one would hear it. We were very careful not to disturb others. All was well and we were happy. Until 2 am when the propane heat cut off and the generator stopped running. It was 18 degrees. (Our electric heat only can warm so much and the propane heat is the main warmth.) At 4 am after starting and stopping and checking the pilot light and reading countless manuals with no internet or cell service we turned on the coach itself and warmed it up. So we left the campground and headed to a place to plugin thinking that the battery was not performing (we have two 6 volt deep cycle batteries). Long story longer - we realized that we had lost hot water heater and heater. Three week old coach. (There are other major issues - like the auto levelling system does not function properly but we are darn good at manually levelling now and other smaller issues). And we did contact the manufacturer and they were pretty unconcerned about any of it.
We ended up finding an RV repair person who was pretty convinced that the regulator was bad and we had him replace it fortunately costing 60 dollars installed. No problems since the replacement but we also have not been below freezing.
So now a month later we are back in So Cal full-timing and I know I need to go to the dealer but I am sad about this. We love our coach and I know it will work out one way or the other but seriously is the list always long for RV repair on a new vehicle? Thanks for letting me dump this on here. I welcome any comments.