Light Weight, No Slides Micro RV | 2023 Jayco Jay Feather Micro 171BH

foreign [Music] hey everybody it's Mike coming to you from VOD RV here in Fort Worth Texas I have behind me a j feather micro this is a 171 BH what's special about this among other things is it does not have a slide it does have bunks and it does have a flexible bunk area in the back where the bottom bunk flips up and allows for a lot more storage in it flexible storage so let me get started showing this up this is one of my favorite micros because if you're going to buy a micro you want it to be micro and this is one of the smallest lightest weight units they have 20 feet long right at 20 feet long less than four thousand pounds so you can pull this with any half ton truck pretty much a lot of SUVs and a lot of vehicle choices to pull this with now I'm going to point out some differences in 2023 from 2022 if you've watched or looked at a 2022 so it's we go around I'll point out some differences the overall facade of it's going to look very consistent with what you've seen before it's asdel fiberglass exterior which is very nice you can see we have nerf bars or brush guards all the way around this protects the side of the coach from brush and grass and so on if you're buying something like this you're probably going to want to take it off grid I hope you are it's really equipped to do that so it's lifted it's about three inches higher clearance you've got off-road Goodyear Wrangler off-road tires here and notice it's also a wider stance than the typical travel trailer this is seven and a half feet wide body and then you can see the wheels come all the way out and actually past the the frame of the coach so it's very stable this way when you're getting it off-road like that and then you got these nice steel Fender Wells here that protect the side of the unit too now I've got a nice awning up here with an LED light strip speakers on the outside which you can stream music through from your cell phone while I'm on this side I'll just point out I have electrical power here and cable satellite connection so you can hook up a TV out here or maybe just one of a coffee maker or blender out here you can do that there is a mount that comes with this unit so you can pop a television out here if you want to do some tailgating this is your furnace vent and then this is a light switch which of course we can't see but there's a nice blue light underneath these steps now these steps are new for 2023 I'm going to trade places here with you Brian so these are Lippert solid steps that come standard on all these units I like it these legs are infinitely adjustable and easy to adjust so if you get some place where the ground's uneven all you're going to do is pull out on this knob where that little yellow collar is the leg drops down and you have a nice firm point of entry for the coach have a little pass-through storage up here with a magnet catch I have these are the light switches for the front of the coach right here which are going to turn on the LED lights in front I have household current and a light for the compartment there now what you see in here is a griddle this comes with a griddle and this is the platform on which that griddle rests in the back of the trailer and I'll get to that in a second and this is the crank for your Jacks which I'll point out when I get around to the back as well now you can put cameras on this if you want it's prepped for cameras prep for a side camera as well as rear camera coming around to the front there's an electric tongue jack that's also lighted makes hooking and unhooking a breeze there's a lot of redundancies and you should know what they are you should get to know your trailer one of the redundancies is you can pop this grommet out and crank this down by hand so and there's a crank in there for that I always like to have a plan B what if the battery is dead heaven forbid what if this motor ever fails I haven't seen that happen yet but if it does I still want to be able to crank this up and down and you can with that hand crank in there so always think about that two propane bottles that are connected together and then your battery tray here which will accommodate to group 27 um flooded cell batteries back here now you can see these lights I turned them on here you can probably see them even in the bright sunlight neat neat marker lights in front so sneaking around here on the what I call the utility side is the opposite side of our pass-through storage here now this is cool for 2023 these feathers are coming standard and White Hawks are coming standard with a furion tankless or on demand water heater so no longer are you heating a tank of water all the time this is on demand water just like that you have hot water here's something else that's cool about this that you won't find in many other on-demand water heaters this is 60 000 BTU it's a lot so you're in a hurry gonna take a shower your partner gets in there and wants to take a shower you've got plenty of hot water 60 000 BTU it's a neat little upgrade that's standard on all of these feathers now as well as White Hawks so kudos to Jayco for doing that that's really cool we've got a blank tank flush here and then your main city water connection below there that's your pressurized water if you're off grid and hopefully you will be with something like this you're going to fill this tank your holding tank with fresh water right here it's a gravity fill now best practice is to only carry a few gallons at a time for a trip otherwise you're just hauling around a few hundred pounds of of water that you don't need to be dragging around you can usually get good fresh water close to your campsite where you're going so but during the trip you want to wash your hands flush the toilet or whatever put a few gallons in here just for the trip obviously we have a an outdoor shower here hot and cold with a long hose here so you can wash off the pets the kids your Sandy feet at the beach and so on it's even got a holder right here so we've utilized the outdoor shower on our unit a lot for a lot of different reasons most often stinky dogs perfect place to give them a bath out here detachable 30 amp power cord right here and then we've got our little marker lights right here notice the nice alloy wheels true too on all the Jay Feather micros now one thing I love about this floor plan and we'll see when we go inside but this is the bunk area right here and look boom we have a door so if you're gonna use this area for storage and you probably will in addition in addition to bunks so there's a bunk up here a bunk here and look at this nice storage so let's say you have easy up tents uh Grill camping supplies bag chairs all this nice room to do that now this just hinges up like so and puff this up and that latches in now look at that I can put a bicycle in there there's a lot of ways I can use that storage space very flexible storage space and easy to pop back down just pull that pin and now we're back to the bunk it has a deadbolt lock right here just like your main entryway to the coach so it's real secure and you can uh black it out entirely with this thin shade which is already in here so if you're using it for a bunk obviously you don't want this open for to keep it dark in there and everything so that's nice we have our Diamond plating here on the back so that really protects against Rock chips and so on and you can see where we're prepped for the camera now here's a cool thing in 2023 and a different thing in 2023 is this ladder so before you might recall there was a ladder that you popped out of a bracket and you could move it around the side and jayco's opted to go with this collapsible ladder I'm a huge fan of these I want one myself and I think I'll buy one eventually but here's cool cool thing there's two clasps here that lock this in place a lot of people when we first rolled these out said well somebody's just going to come steal it here's the thing you can put a lock there you can put a lock there and their bow branded Jayco that's what secures it in place so now that I've flipped those up just lift it up out of here and it's super lightweight now what's cool about this is even though it's only this high you can whoops let me undo the velcro you can raise it to any height you want so let's say we're going to need to get up on the roof and come around this way see that little bracket up there to make sure it's a secure point of contact just drop that in like so pull this out at a comfortable angle and it locks in place now I'm safe to get up here get those fighter jets in the video we're being dive bombed here but so and I got a little bit extra to grab onto up here so this is great now I can move this around anywhere and it's aluminum so it's not going to scratch up the side of the coach but this is the most secure place to get up here I have two luggage racks right here so if I'm going to bring up a kayak or something like that this is the perfect place to do it it gives me access for this while I'm up here I'll point out that there's a solar panel up here as well so this unit's upfitted with solar so come back down here I'm going to lift this up out of those two little cleat locations like that now here's the trick and turn this around so you can see it better what you want to do actually see these little tabs I'm going to push in on them keep your fingers out of here all right if you keep your finger in there you're going to lose a finger so pop it down like that and it's going to collapse for you see how that works as long as you keep your fingers out you're good same way down here and here so let's take it back don't make the mistake I made and put it on this way you want these cleats to the outside otherwise you'll scratch the side of the trailer so have them pointing out put the bottom one in first like so and then just lift this top one up to where it grabs this now I can pop these down put the pins in lock it and we're good for travel this just goes up around this and holds these together so pretty cool I like that that's a neat feature I would mind wouldn't mind having that just around the house to have a handy ladder around the house when I needed it now Jax real quick let me point out these quick drop Jacks right here so these are different than what you've seen before so let me go up front and grab the crank and I'll be right back and show this to you now you have a crank here that you can use but you can also use a cordless drill with a three-quarter inch driver do not use an impact drill an impact drill can put too much torque on this and actually damage the Jack assembly just a regular Cheapo cordless drill will work fine or this now these are quick drops so you're just going to give this thing a crank down like so and notice how much faster it's dropping down than the old style I'd be cranking here for at least two or three minutes on the old style so just crank this down until that foot makes contact and then have a look at it now here's the secret I want to preferably see some daylight between this red plate and that Jack so it's at least parallel so I'm good here's the thing the more vertical you can get this leg the better and more stable it's going to be once you get it set up chances are you're probably gonna need not going to need to adjust it much but if you do you can and it's easy to do so lift this up a little bit now you notice the the higher I get on this the faster the jack is going to retract so that's pretty quick even if you're stuck with just this and you don't have an electric drill that's pretty easy easy to adjust this by just lifting up on this and pulling this leg up or down right so if you're lucky enough you can actually lift it to about right there crank it down now if I do that I'm not going to have the desired angle so in this case I'm going to keep it as high as I can and do the drill that I just did and that way I've got a good stable contact point when these are all four drop down there's very little movement inside the coach kids running around one of you is an early riser you're not transferring motion and so these are great Jacks and glad to see Jayco did that now if you want to put your outdoor griddle right here is where it's going to go that little platform that I pointed out earlier it's going to go right here and that's your propane quick connect under there now we've pretty much gone around the outside of this coach anything I'm forgetting Brian I think it looks pretty good got our steps so these are solid steps these are a little bit different than the more ride Step Above steps but again adjustable legs all you do is pull out on this and that goes up and down wherever you need it to to make a good firm contact point and these are standard on all J feathers too so with that let's go inside and have a look okay now we're on the inside of this 171 BH Jay Feather micro again a really distinguishing characteristic of this is not only do we have bunks but we have that handy door back there remember I can flip up this bottom bunk and turn this into a storage area either way you have this storage area under here which I can access from outside or just pop this elastic away if you've got a pet that's the perfect place for the pet to hang out got little kiddos they're probably going to like to play house under there whatever or you can just use it for storage like I said so my wife and I have had several units with bunk floor plans and we don't have any kids so but we still utilize this for different things if you do have a guest you have a sleeping position if you uh just things like guitars and arts and crafts and extra blankets and stuff like that use it for storage so it's real Handy and in 2023 it used to be there wasn't a ladder here you just sort of gave it a dive and hoped you ended up in there and now we have a ladder that just drops down from the side so now there's an actual ladder to help especially the kids get up to that top bunk and then when you're done with it just pop it up out of the way I appreciate having that there because a lot of people in the past well how how's my you know six-year-old supposed to get up there good eye Brian thank you so nice little Decor this is modern Farmhouse Decor if you're keeping score at home a lighter color brightens the inside nicely and uh nice backsplash material which is a carryover from previous the previous model here it looks like real tile but it's not it looks 3D I had to touch it the first time it came in to believe that it wasn't actual real tile now a little Galley area here and remember we're in a micro so everything in here is pretty cozy and yet it's very functional three burner cooktop pop that back to be your backsplash this removes for easy cleaning we have our igniter here controls for the burners here and then storage under here jayco's famous for always putting solid wood faces on their drawers and and door cabinets so no difference here ball bearing full extension drawer Glides a little bit of storage under there as well and finally on top as well a little microwave here so big enough to warm up leftovers and do those popcorn popcorn stuff like that now this is vented to the outside and it is lighted so that's venting the Heat and the smells out to the outside new in 2023 everything's stainless where it was black in 2022. minor change but pointing it out now we have a little dinette here that will drop down into a bed if you want another sleeping position this drops down these posts come out and now you have a bed here so how many can we sleep two in the queen bed up front I would say one here so there's three and four and five could sleep comfortably now you notice this guy flashing back here we have solar on board already so this is your charge controller this is sending and monitoring the sending a charge and monitoring the battery condition on the trailer here we have a 12 volt refrigerator here which is running off batteries so it's important to keep those batteries happy and healthy and this solar is going to help do that while I'm talking about it let's look at it it's a 12 volt fridge I'm a fan of these it's a compressor fridge works just like your refrigerator at home and it cools down a lot quicker uh 12 volt fridge you very much can still Boondock with a 12 volt fridge again you just be want to be mindful of your battery charge if you don't have any other source of power besides solar you're going to need a generator if you got a long string of cloudy days you're going to need a generator you'll always need a generator to run this air conditioner and microwave anyway so uh the best of all worlds have a little generator have a little solar and you're covered and that's what you would have here okay now looking at the front end of this coach we've got a queen bed here East and West why do they do East and West you ask so it keeps this trailer overall length shorter I.E lighter so Jayco could turn the bed this way you end up with a longer trailer and a heavier trailer so again everything in this with is with keeping in mind of taking it off grid so short as possible light as possible we have an East and West bed up here there's a little wireless charger if you can see this right there um there's wireless charging capabilities for most phones so you can see my phone is starting to charge right there just by laying it on there if you pop this up now I have USB as well as household current there as well so that's handy right at the headboard of the bed where you need it underneath the bed here I have little storage ottomans basically so you can store blankets and shoes and pet toys and stuff plus you can use that as an ottoman on either one of these if you're watching TV or help the kiddos get up into the bunk besides that ladder so a lot of ways you can use these little Ottomans here is our TV this is a 12 volt TV it's also a radio tuner so this is all running off 12 volts so you can be out in the middle of nowhere if you can get a signal of any kind tune in your channels and you can have TV now this will pull out away from the wall and then adjust for different viewing angles inside the coach here now I have a little bit of storage up on top here as well Behind These smoked glass inserts and again these are solid maple doors on all these cabinets two lights up here that you control just right there easy enough and a nice thick mattress that's actually quite comfortable so there's a little USB port right behind the dinette there for charging gadgets makes it easy for keeping things charged up so now in the back of the coach let's take a look at the bathroom um not huge but neither is the trailer so I do have a sink right here a nice big medicine cabinet um a little bit of storage underneath toilet so this is what I call a traditional bathroom not a wet bath that's a plastic toilet it's a foot flush what's the pink stuff you say that is RV antifreeze so these this unit is has come from Indiana where the tundra is still frozen 12 months out of the year it never thaws out up there no it's not true I'm from Elkhart County it does throw out but these units come in winterized that's why you see pink stuff there as well as in the bottom of the shower right there so I have a one piece shower surround in this again not huge but plenty big enough to get in here and do what you need to do this is new and 23 a larger shower head here so again separate sink separate shower separate toilet big enough to meet your needs so we're in a 171 BH this is a j feather micro smallest and lightest weight of the bunkhouse micros and part of the reason for that is it does not have a slide if you really want to slide they do make a unit with a slide and it does open it up in here costs a few more bucks weighs a few more pounds but this is a super simple lightweight Nimble travel trailer if you want to get off grid and really enjoy the outdoors so let me know what you think I'd love to hear what you think about it your vote's way more important than mine is if you have questions about this unit drop them in the comments below do my best to get to them if you'd like to see a video of a unit that we haven't gotten to let me know by the way we did get a request for a 174 BH that's a j flight and we'll jump on that as soon as we get one in here so thanks for that request I've already made a note of it and I'll get to that as soon as one comes in hey my name is Mike I appreciate you joining me click like And subscribe below that way you'll be the first to know when we post more videos just like this I'll see you next time howdy everybody thanks for joining me today I hope you learned a thing or two from what I had to say if you did and feel like it then click subscribe below and when I post a video you'll be the first to know see you next time

Channel: Vogt RV World

Views: 391,800

Keywords: RV Lifestyle, Camping, RVing

Id: yjUXwts4Fs4

Length: 23min 53sec (1433 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 26 2022