Well, I decided to pull the trigger on a Jayco Eagle HT 26.5 BHS last Saturday. I am having a fifth wheel hitch installed today and I pick up the trailer on Tuesday. I will need to adjust the trailer suspension to the taller of the two settings that it has and see how level everything ends up from there. I will post pictures when I get the rig home. Thanks to all who have provided information on this, it was very helpful in deciding what to purchase.

 

Could you let me know your impressions on the camper. My wife and I are in a similar situation where we want to get a slightly smaller 5th wheel with the same specs you have.

Current rig is a 07 Gulfstream Mako and I want to go to something a bit lighter and has one bathroom.

Thanks in advance.

 

I will definitely provide my impressions of the camper after our first outing with it. I am picking the camper up on Tuesday and we are planning out first trip for about three weeks from now. Just from walking through this particular camper and several others of similar layout, I felt like the materials used are of a slightly higher quality throughout, which is reflected somewhat in the pricing. I also really like the fact that in this model, it is completely usable with the slide retracted. I think that this is the only camper that I have walked through where you can walk between the table/couch and kitchen with the slide in. We are very much looking forward to camping with it this summer.

 

Excellent! Good luck and thanks again!

 

congrats on the new unit, you'll love the way these small 5er's tow.

 

Check level with a level. I had to make some changes when I traded my F150 for an F350 which made it better, but thought I was still nose high as the roof is higher in the front than in the rear. When I put a level on it, I was perfectly level.

 

I got the suspension adjusted to the taller setting on Friday and got the Sidewinder installed yesterday. I am glad that I adjusted the suspension because the Sidewinder has to sit one hole (~1") further down in the wings for the rotating arm to clear the bottom of the wings, so I would have been quite nose high. It looks pretty good right now, but I will check it with a level at some point to see if and when I might upgrade to the 16" wheels and tires. I am thinking of doing that upgrade anyway just for the additional load carrying capacity of the tires.

 

I ended up replacing my Sidewinder with a MorRyde because of that adjustment problem. I had to lock out the Sidewinder function to raise it and lower the nose, then the rough ride became irritating.

 

it's a worthwhile upgrade to get some LT's on there - depending on wheels spacing you may want to look at LT225/75R16's (29.3" dia) or go the same route I went and go with LT215/85R16 (30.4" dia).


Before:






After:

 

We took the camper out for its maiden voyage Wednesday through Saturday to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. (tent pads with room to park an RV in a number of the spots, but no hookups) I was extremely happy with how the truck towed the trailer, it seemed to be a very well matched pair. I got my money's worth out of the Sidewinder when I had to make a u-turn after I took the wrong half of the exit (I took B when I wanted A) and I did not have to worry about rear window contact at all. There were some pretty severe crosswinds on our way home on Saturday, with high wind advisories posted on the message boards along the highway, but the truck and trailer pulled very smoothly without any notable sway. The first time I ever pulled a fifth wheel was bringing the trailer home from the dealer, and this trip was very smooth and comfortable.

Notes on the trailer and how it camped:
- Overall, we were extremely pleased with the camper for our family of four (Me, my wife, 9 year old son, 6 year old daughter) and we are looking forward to our next trip with it.

- I did upgrade from the single 12V battery that came from the dealer (80 Ah) to a pair of 6V Golf Cart batteries (Trojan T-125 240 Ah) before we left on the trip since out previous experiences with rented Travel Trailers told us that the furnace was unlikely to run through the night with a single battery and I wanted everyone to be comfortable in the mornings, not cold until I could start the generator. (Honda EU2000i)

- The trailer was at least as easy to get parked as the 24' class Travel Trailer that we rented for the same trip last year.

- With the slide extended, the camper was very spacious and comfortable for all four of us to be inside at once without running into each other. With the slide retracted, we were still able to walk the full length of the camper by using the main entrance door. We made and ate lunch on Saturday with the slide retracted, and while it wasn't as nice as when the slide is extended, it was still very doable.

- The booth dinette was large enough for all four of us to sit down and eat at the same time, which is something we did not experience with the u-shaped dinettes in some of our rentals.

- The 42 gallons of fresh water capacity was more than sufficient. Although we used the campsite bathrooms quite a bit and poured our drinking water from a 6-gallon jug that we brought along, we used less than 1/3 of the fresh water over the 3.5 days that we were in the camper

- Cabinets inside the camper are more than enough for what we needed to store, but I get the impression that we pack lighter than most. Several of the cabinets are only useful if you have a step stool, and we did not use those tall cabinets on this trip.

- There is not a huge amount of outside accessible storage, but it worked well for us. My upgraded battery setup did not fit in the stock battery location, so I reinforced the floor of the basement area with a sheet of 23/32 exterior rated plywood that I cut to fit the space and secured through the sheet metal from the bottom side with eight stainless steel screws. The basement area is basically filled up with the two new batteries in their box and the generator, which is secured to the plywood floor with a ratchet strap and a couple of rope loops for tie-down points. The stock battery location is a great place for wheel chocks and some pieces of wood for leveling things out, and more wood fits in the similarly sized portion of the basement on the opposite side of the trailer from the stock battery location.

- In the outside accessible storage area that is under the bunk beds in the back on the street side, there was more than enough room for the electrical cord, potable water hose, non-potable water hose, leveling legos, an Andersen Rapid Jack, jack pads to put under the landing gear and stabilizer jacks, etc. Those items only used about 1/4 of the space available in that compartment.

- Friday night into Saturday morning was exceptionally windy, so we got to feel the inherent lack of stability from the stock landing gear having the quick adjust legs fully extended. It never felt like the trailer was going to tip over or anything like that, but it does make me want to look into purchasing something along the lines of the JT Strongarms to triangulate the landing gear and rear stabilizer jacks to the frame for added stability. I think that this is something that we would have experienced with any trailer, but is something that I will likely be upgrading in the future.

- With the upgraded battery setup, we rarely dropped below a full reading on the gauge, and only needed to run the generator for 30-45 minutes to fully recharge the batteries after running the furnace all night long. The LED lighting throughout the camper really helps to reduce the electrical load, and I think that we probably could have gone two days without running the generator.

Hopefully this is helpful. If you have any specific questions, just ask.

 

Awesome! Thanks for the inside track on the camper.

We are still interested in this model, but I also found the Forrest River Cherokee 235B or 265B that we may be looking into as well.

I hope you have many wonderful trips with lots of great memories! Thanks again!

 

Good luck with your search and let me know if there are any questions that I can answer for you about the Jayco. I hope that you are able to find a camper that fits your needs and wants well.