Jayco 17z and Kodiak 172e

Jayco has the two year warranty and in general builds a good coach. Never been a Dutchmen fan, known a few people with them who've had countless QA issues. Just my opinion but the Jayco is in general a better coach.

No argument there at all. My ex Jayco 17Z was a wonderful little RV with not a day of worries in the time I owned it.

Jayco only uses a single door 5 CF fridge where most other brands have a double door 6 CF fridge. I wouldn't judge quality on how much the unit sells for. I think they all have their advantages, disadvantages and Q&A issues.

what are the roofs made of? TPO, rubber, etc.? that is always my first cut.
bumpy

Can you look at both of them and compare? I can't speak for the Kodiak as an owner, but we did look at them. I was not all that impressed with the materials used on the interior. But the floor plans were nice and they had nice features. We bought our 2nd Jayco HTT this year, the previous one was a Kiwi 17a (ancestor the x17z). We had it for 10 years and never had any problems with it.

Bumpy, they use something called "Alpha Ply Roofing" which is a brand name for a type of rubber roof. http://www.all-rite.com/alpha-roofing-p-402.html

i would definitely choose the Jayco over the Kodiak. Dutchmen's reputation for customer service is not stellar or even average.

just so you know, trailers in this size/weight range, have extremely poor CCC's(cargo carrying capacity).

the Jayco has 715lbs. and the Kodiak has 742lbs.
the weights of the "options" that all trailer have, the battery, the propane and the water have to be subtracted from those numbers.
meaning you will only have around 250-300lbs. for cargo.

and the Kodiak's GVWR will be over 3500lbs., while the Jayco's is 3500lbs.

Thanks for the replies so far!!

The Kodiak is about 1.5 hrs away. Been dealing with the dealer online at this point. Noticed in one of the inside pics a piece of trim at front end in falling from the ceiling. Totally low balled the trade in….I mean, wow! Not getting a good feeling. The local 17z was sold as we were looking.


The Jayco we looked at had the yellow sticker stating the weight was WITH full propane...3046lbs. So the CCC would be 454. Still not stellar. I believe the Kodiak has a GVWR of 3800lbs. Don't plan on carrying water.

flash82 wrote:
The Jayco we looked at had the yellow sticker stating the weight was WITH full propane...3046lbs. So the CCC would be 454. Still not stellar. I believe the Kodiak has a GVWR of 3800lbs. Don't plan on carrying water.

well, the battery and cargo will add up. that 454lbs. will be gone very quickly.
and i still don't get why so many don't carry at least some water.
i understand if you have a marginal tow vehicle and have to count every ounce of weight, though i chose a tow vehicle so i wouldn't have to stress over weight.
the water weight will only affect gas mileage in fractions because it's the trailer's air resistance that is the much bigger factor in gas mileage.
i always travel with a full FW tank because i know my home water is very good and i like to have some for stops enroute.

I wouldn't tow with water because of that low CCC.

flash82 wrote:
I wouldn't tow with water because of that low CCC.

yep, I only carry enough water to be able to use the facilities on the road. did the same thing in my chieftain MH when I had about a ton of CCC.
bumpy