We purchased a 2014 23' Jayco Hybrid trailer back in July and had a major frame failure where the tongue attaches to the longitudinal frames. The unit narrowly escaped scraping the freeway while traveling around 65mph. If this had happened, we would have made national news for sure. We got lucky. The unit settled at about 4" off the ground with the battery boxes acting as a wedge between the tongue and front wall. Needless to day, we are pretty shook up. We are curious to know if this might be an isolated failure or if there are any others out there that have experienced something similar? It seems very abnormal to have this type of failure. Sure the roads in Alabama are rough but we never ventured off the freeway 10 and was using a Uhaul van to tow it at the time. It was very lightly loaded with only some clothes and food stuffs. The Uhaul was used to take the brunt of the load to save wear and tear while moving from Washington to Florida.

I have a 10-year-old Jayco 23B and have not had any frame issues, and have been on the Jayco forums and haven't heard of that happening before. Sounds like an isolated incident. I hope warranty is taking care of you.

How is the response and or support from Jayco?Markiemark

First off, I am glad to hear no one was injured and you and your family are safe. In all my 40+ years of trailer towing, I have never heard of, or seen such a failure happening so I would have to say it was an abnormal failure.Please keep everyone informed when you find out the exact cause. Once again, I am glad no one was injured.

Welcome to the forum, always good to hear from new contributors.First time I've heard of such, on any trailer.

I am glad to hear so far that no one else has experienced anything similar to this. This would be a tragic and potentially fatal flaw if it was repeated. I just can't imagine what would have happened if the tongue and frame had separated or even failed just enough more to have the unit make contact with the ground. Moving that fast would have caused an explosion of the unit and the level of traffic would for sure have resulted in some level of collisions. Like I mentioned earlier, we feel very fortunate.I certainly do hope that this was an isolated case. My background is boat and ship construction and mechanical engineering which has helped me to become quite familiar with metal fatigue, quality vs. sub-standard welding etc. Looking closely at this particular failure leads me to the feeling that the thickness of material was not sufficient. The welds did not fail but the material near the welds tore. It could be an incorrect piece of material was used or something caused an initial fracture that led to further damage from the Louisiana section of I-10. I am hesitant to post pictures at this point as there are still open issues with Jayco. This leads me to my next comment.Jayco has been very disappointing in their response. Both the selling dealer and the dealer we dropped the damaged unit at have been great and as helpful as they can be. Jayco on the other hand has not made a single attempt to make contact by email, phone or mail. We have made several attempts to contact the right person within Jayco but have yet to succeed. It has now been a over six weeks. We have not even been offered use of a loaner unit in the interim so we resorted to hotel rooms and a vacation rental. We are at the point now where we are exploring the hiring of an attorney to get some results.If anyone has any contacts inside Jayco or other tips to get results, we would love to hear. At this point, we are about ready to call it quits on the brand altogether. So far, nothing has led us to feel good about the company.

Jayco Hybrid Frame Failure | Good Sam Community

Jayco254
Explorer
Dec 17, 2014
This surprises me I wonder if your dealer could be part of the hold up, since this seems unusual for Jayco. I would go on their website Jayco. com and see if you can get any better results. Then if all else fails consider legal action, but only as a last resource. Being nice and polite no matter how much it hurts is your best bet. Then if that fails do what you think you need to do and good luck. Let us know what comes out of this. If they don't come across the bad rap they get here will hurt their good rep. and cost them in the long run.
spadoctor
Explorer
Dec 17, 2014
it is your dealers job to deal with Jayco...they are jaycos customer not you.
Markiemark32
Explorer
Dec 17, 2014
spadoctor wrote:
it is your dealers job to deal with Jayco...they are jaycos customer not you.

Hope Jayco does not think that way?

Markiemark:C
pitch
Explorer II
Dec 17, 2014
I am beginning to think you are unique. I have a 2013 23b that I had a self created problem with. I called Jayco CS and talked to a woman,who took my info ands said that someone would be contacting me.
I am thinking, "Yeah OK I am not holding my breath!". Twenty minutes later a Jayco tech calls and spends 20 minutes discussing and ultimately correcting my problem.
Leaf-Peeper
Explorer
Dec 17, 2014
Is this a BAL/Norco frame?

Maybe take a look over here >>> http://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21161
PAThwacker
Explorer
Dec 17, 2014
I don't know if you had any weight in it or loaded with options. I have seen CCC stickers on some 23b as low as 500lbs.
Lynnmor
Explorer
Dec 17, 2014
Leaf-Peeper wrote:
Is this a BAL/Norco frame?

Maybe take a look over here >>> http://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21161

And I thought that I had junk for a frame! Everyone should look at the link above.
Jayco254
Explorer
Dec 18, 2014
I've noticed that when my w/d bars are on that the tanks ore closer to the box, it seems that there may be a small bow, but so far no damage. Guess I better keep an eye on it. Maybe I should of checked farther into the unit that they kept asking me about last time mine was at Jayco for warranty work. I had a feeling that I had been having so much trouble that they were checking out about maybe taking mine back, don't know for sure just a feeling I had but we liked the floor plan on ours so much I wasn't interested but now I wish I'd of listened to what they had too say.
Retired2RV
Explorer
Dec 20, 2014
We were not using any load transfer system since we were using the Uhaul to tow it with. It was set up just as it came from the factory. It is interesting looking at the photos of the other Jayco frame failure posted in one of the previous posts. Ours has no bracket but is welded directly to the cross-member. The cross member metal is torn. Still not successful contact from Jayco. We are collecting the documentation needed to pass along to an attorney. Enough of the waiting around. I don't understand what has happened. From all of the previous posts to this thread, Jayco has had a pretty good reputation for taking care of their customers. It makes me think something is going on with this one behind the scenes and there is a reason they are saying nothing. Soon it will be up to our attorney to figure out. He is a specialist with federal lemon law cases. The closest we could find to one that would fit our needs. We will see what happens...
Lynnmor
Explorer
Dec 21, 2014
If Jayco were to acknowledge the problem, it might cause them to be forced to repair or replace many units.

Report the problem here: recall