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RV review: Jayco Jay Feather 19MRK travel trailer

Tony Barthel

Today’s RV review is of the Jayco Jay Feather 19MRK. This is the same floor plan that I was absolutely enamored with when I saw it a few years ago at the California RV Show, which is coming back! In that case I sat in a Grand Design Imagine XLS 17MKE.

Jayco has taken the floor plan and, as Walt Disney would say, “plused” it. While they haven’t really made giant changes to the design they have done some things that make me prefer this implementation over that of Grand Design’s.

Why Jayco?

There are a lot of things that Jayco is really doing well. For example, Jayco is now running every RV they make through a full pre-delivery inspection (PDI). I believe this makes them unique in this price category.

The quality inspection they’re giving all their RVs might be why they have a category-leading warranty of two years on the entire RV, three on the structure. That’s significantly better warranty coverage than most RVs have.

One of Jayco’s best features, in my opinion, is what the company calls JaySMART lighting. Essentially there are redundant turn signal flashers mounted up high with the marker lights that flash in tandem with the regular turn signals. Further, the side marker lights, too, flash with the turn signals.

I think this is such a significant safety feature that it should be mandated for all trailers, period. But it’s not so you’ll just have to get a Jayco towable if you want this.

Other things I like in Jayco products is their use of GoodYear Endurance tires which are also fitted with tire pressure monitors.

Jayco has also changed their wall build such that now there is a layer of Azdel substrate on both the inside and outside portions of the wall. Azdel is a man-made product that is far less susceptible to water damage and also offers slightly better insulation and sound deadening qualities over Luan, which is what had been common in the RV industry.

What’s hot

When you think of a smaller travel trailer one of the areas that is absolutely a compromise is the counter space. For those who love to cook often smaller trailers offer little prep space. That is absolutely not the case here.

The entire camp-side wall from the door to the back of the trailer is one long counter. Now, granted, there is a sink and a stove in the mix but if you put the sink cover on and close the stove you may have more counter space than in some houses. It’s impressive.

Since there is a lot of counter space, Jayco also puts in a lot of drawers as well. There are more drawers in this than in some larger RVs. Further, there’s even a drawer under the refrigerator. There’s also a cabinet next to the theater seats, if that’s the option you choose.

The theater seats also have a little table that fits into the cup holders for each seating position which is great for beverages or snacks. I suppose you can also use these for proper meal time.

On the subject of refrigerators, this has the option of either a 12 volt DC refrigerator or a traditional propane-electric RV refrigerator. While I really like the 12 volt fridges I think they’ve been too common as some RVers prefer the efficiencies of a propane-electric fridge.

Another nice thing about Jayco’s implementation of this RV is how many windows there are on the camp side of this rig. We recently did a podcast with Garrett Finney of Taxa RV and he was very intentional about speaking to plenty of window coverage on the camp side of his products.

Since I mentioned the theater seats, that is one of two options in the slide room, the other being a dinette. With the theater seats Jayco saw fit to put a light switch there by the theater seats which is a good idea. There’s also that storage cabinet next to the theater seats which I like.

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Murphy’s bed

I should have started with this as I know that there are a lot of you who do not like Murphy beds and this one has one. Further, it’s a camp queen so a shorter mattress. I may have just lost a bunch of you on this.

The Murphy bed implementation here features a mattress that folds up near where your shoulders would be. I don’t think this is bad, but it’s not ideal either.

I do like that you can put the bed down with the slide room in which means you could just leave it down all the time and replace the mattress if that’s your jam.

However you’d lose the functionality of the couch that’s under the Murphy bed. In fact, if you choose the theater seats there’s a nice conversation area in this RV with the couch and the theater seats.

Another nifty feature is a plastic folding table that is stored under the front couch. Since it’s a free-standing table you can use this as your dining room or take it outside or use it to extend the already significant amount of counter space. I like this option.

More details

There are a few other details about this trailer worth mentioning. One of those is the fact that there are no floor registers for the furnace. Instead, the registers are under the cabinets where they won’t collect dust all year long.

The shower features a bowed door that opens space inside the shower. This is a flexible door that slides along a track so another bonus - it’s not a huge piece of glass in a moving vehicle.

There are also both household and USB outlets on either side of the bed so you can charge your noisy toys at night or run things like a CPAP.

Jayco offers two interior color choices, another plus. One of those is pictured with this article and is the “modern farmhouse.” The other is sort of a gray. Choice is good.

Interestingly there’s a high-performance vent fan in the middle of the living space which I like, but small four inch fans in the bathroom and over the bed. This makes them easy to change into better-performing models if that’s your choice.

Lastly Jayco has been adding something they call the Jay Port on the side of the trailer which is effectively a two inch receiver mount. The idea is that you can slide in a barbecue or additional table or that sort of thing.

However they did put the propane connector under the skirt molding on the side of the trailer and the only way you can attach anything to this is to get under the trailer on your back as you’ll need two hands to connect the grill.

Jayco’s not the only ones doing this and I wish RV companies would realize we’re not all contortionists. My first trailer had a propane hose built into the side which was super convenient. This arrangement is the opposite of that.

Conclusions

When I toured a Lippert chassis plant I saw the pre-production version of that company’s Quick Drop stabilizer jacks which are far superior to the typical scissor jacks you’ll find in trailers. Aside from Ember RVs, this is the first time I’ve seen these on a regular production trailer and I like them.

They’re more stable than regular jacks and Lippert even advocates that you can put them down with an electric drill. If you read the instructions on scissor jacks they specifically tell you not to do this.

While Jayco isn’t the first to market with this floor plan I think they’ve done an outstanding job with it. It’s a great size of trailer for couples, especially considering how much counter space there is.

You can also use the whole trailer with the slide in which makes me kind of wish there were a no slide option for this offering. Would that work for you? Am I just a kook with my desire for fewer slide rooms in trailers?

My wife is convinced that I’m a kook anyway.

Overall a really well thought-through implementation of a couple’s camper that I think is absolutely worth looking into.

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Once again thanks to my friend Josh Winters for the inspiration for this review with his outstanding video coverage which you can enjoy here;

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