Jayco vs. Coachmen

[kristina_ms28]

In the market for a toy hauler. i have been doing research and haven't found any helpful reviews on the two brands so far so any input would be much appreciated. I have been looking at a new jayco octane super lite 222 and a coachmen catalina trailblazer 22th. curious to know what people's thoughts are on the 2 brands regarding quality and satisfaction. i would be hauling 2 harley's.

[jyrostng]

Go look at both brands 99 to 2005 I'm sure you will see the difference quickly, I won't bias your decision. after shopping for a couple of months it was clear the difference in how they hold up over time.

[wrgrs50s]

It's a **** shoot. I have many RV friends with different brands and they all have some degree of issues when new. Some have excellent luck with a brand and others will have terrible luck with the same brand even in a high end Motorhome. It's a myth to believe that any one brand is superior to another. They are all built in a similar fashion with similar materials, just different locations and brand names. Buy what you like the most and hope the dice fall in your favor.

[Iraqvet05]

I have owned my Jayco for 4 years and have never returned to the dealer for a repair. Yes, there were minor quality control issues and minor problems but I have resolved them all with the help of forums like this.

[Ralph_Cramden]

Harold Fairbanks II wrote:
They both USED to be better than now.

Coachmen was bought by Forest River and quality has gone down since.

Jayco has always had problems, most specifically not that long ago with massive roof rot that lead to the entire roof collapsing if not fixed. But, Jayco was recently bought by Thor of all companies, and Thor is notorious for absolute abysmal (lack of) quality, terrible construction, cheap parts, wiring fires, and laughable customer "service" that can be appallingly bad and flat-out insulting.

So, it's a crapshoot. I'd probably go with Coachmen if I was pushed...I'd still reluctantly trust Forest River more than Thor any day.

It's kinda like the choice between stabbing yourself in the foot or stabbing yourself in the hand. They are both gonna hurt, you just gotta figure out which type of pain you can handle the best.

Jayco without a doubt.

Stay away from Forest River anything and that's coming from someone who has one currently and had one previously. The two we had in between were both Thor products and were head and shoulders above the Forest River products in build quality. The fresh water tank started falling out on our 2017 Rockwood Roo before we ever used it. Rockwood pawned it off on Lippert who made the frame, Lippert him hawed, paid lip service, and ultimatly wanted to replace the supports that failed with new supports that were exactly the same.

Our friends 2017 Jayco TT is on a Bal Norco frame. It has more steel in one of the Bal stab jacks as is in all 4 of the flimsy Chinese Lippert jacks on our Rockwood.

As far as everything else You're going to get the same appliances, the same WFCO converter, etc, no matter the brand.

Given a choice between Jayco and Coachmen......Jayco. We were looking hard at a Coachmen 254dsx awhile back. I looked at half a dozen on lots of 3 different dealers. Every one had some sort of exterior lamination defect somewhere.

[Harold_Fairbank]

They both USED to be better than now.

Coachmen was bought by Forest River and quality has gone down since.

Jayco has always had problems, most specifically not that long ago with massive roof rot that lead to the entire roof collapsing if not fixed. But, Jayco was recently bought by Thor of all companies, and Thor is notorious for absolute abysmal (lack of) quality, terrible construction, cheap parts, wiring fires, and laughable customer "service" that can be appallingly bad and flat-out insulting.

So, it's a crapshoot. I'd probably go with Coachmen if I was pushed...I'd still reluctantly trust Forest River more than Thor any day.

It's kinda like the choice between stabbing yourself in the foot or stabbing yourself in the hand. They are both gonna hurt, you just gotta figure out which type of pain you can handle the best.