RV COMPARISON: Jay Flight SLX 7 vs Cherokee Wolf Pup Head to Head!

[Music] hey everybody josh avenard here at hayward rv of coldwater michigan today we're going to take a peek at a comparison between a j flight slx7 the single axle guys versus the cherokee wolf pup series now they're both excellent rvs they both have high points i'm going to try to be as fair and kind of unbiased as possible so what i want to do here is bounce back and forth between the two and kind of point out something like a feature and then say how they each do it and then kind of maybe say i guess if one has an advantage over the other one in one regard or another and it's all relative they're both excellent rvs but i think maybe this will help you compare two of the top things available out there in the market so let's get dug in wherever doug is we're going to get him in here so right off the top we're going to hit a really big one pricing they're both pretty competitive they're both pretty close but in terms of just pure price point j flight they will probably run the final owner around 800 to a thousand dollars less is sort of of course depends on the specific model the specific equipment but in a pure price point we're gonna say advantage j flight however there's a really good reason for it and you'll see this repeated over and over through this video it's not a clear winner in any case the wolf pup might run a little bit more money but it also arguably has more equipment so they're an equivalent value and that's why comparisons like this are so difficult and that's why i want to try to give you the a b comparison because one rv's greatest asset is also its greatest liability just like people like i'm allegedly good at sharing information like this it also means that i tend to talk a lot which you know anyone around me for a long time can say not ideal now i do want to make a specific point to mention i am specifically talking about like the standard series cherokee wolf pups this is a black label behind me this is almost like an entirely different monster you almost want to compare a black label against a standard cherokee not a j flight or against like a laminated trailer because that's really kind of what they stack up better against so this is a different thing that's not what this video is about just a quick little housekeeping note here now another big hitter item wait so this is the 16 bhs cherokee right here behind me it weighs in about 3 350 pounds or something like that by comparison the j flight comes in just over three thousand pounds at 3055 pounds dry weight so in that regard advantage j flight but again it is largely due to the extra equipment that you find on a cherokee stuff adds up quickly jayco placed more of an emphasis on weight whereas cherokee place more of an emphasis on equipment neither is the wrong answer and that's why we carry them both here at halo rv to help you find the one that works best for you now as long as we're standing here let's talk warranty i don't need to bounce back and forth that one's a pretty clear-cut uh winner right there jayco wins on the warranty front with their two plus three warranty however there is frankly a very legitimate argument to be made for the cherokee mindset right here jayco offers a bigger warranty up front cherokee being a forced river product just has a normal one-year rv warranty front to back whatever upside down inside and out and everything in between that's fine remember though cherokee has focused more on extra equipment so rather than investing money in an intangible cherokee has invested money on things like stable steps and uh and other equipment that we're going to see as we go through this so again it's not as clear as it could be because let's say you've owned this rv for five years the extra warranty on the jayco has expired it's no longer any good to you all the extra equipment on the cherokee though remains valid and valuable so which one's better i don't know i'm just glad we have them both so let's look right up front here starting with the cherokee quickjack as you see eight seconds up and down with a little hex nut adapter on your drill and that thing is in place they also include the handy little kind of safety chain hooks and a little seven way plug buddy so that your stuff doesn't drag through the dirt by contrast you see that the jayco doesn't have the quickjack thing but they do have a removable little wheel right here so that if you want to be able to move this thing around your campsite or like park it in a barn or something and hand shove it around you can so which one has the advantage i don't know i'm going to kind of call this one a wash so how about the windows well they both use sliding airflow windows so in that regard their wash jayco though does use tinted windows that will keep the heat down in the rv it also keeps the nosy neighbor out however i want you to note that door behind me real quick and we'll circle back to that one in just a moment by contrast cherokee does not use tinted windows in their standard series again this is not talking about black label which does use a tinted frameless window that's a different thing entirely so a non-tinted window will give you more light lighter is brighter brighter feels bigger and bigger feels better in terms of luminosity i guess you could say but back to that entry door if you look this has that gorgeous sleek glass on the front and it actually has what i like to call the invis-a-view entry door and you're getting an awesome reflection my ugly dad bought in that thing but the point is you have a full viewing window in this door so who has the advantage this one's tough and i'm honestly i'm not decided even as i say this and this might surprise some folks i think i'm actually going to give a slight advantage to the cherokee here i know that the windows aren't tinted but if i don't want the sun in if i don't want the nosy neighbors in i can just pull down the shade and it's a small camper i can do it lickety-split but that smexy looking entry door with that window in the front i like it i'm a sucker for it this is a personal opinion if yours differs do me a favor leave me a comment i'd love to know about it maybe i got it all wrong my wife will confirm i don't get it all right you know though that front window letting in a lot of light also with a shade also really nice i don't know on the windows thing i don't know i don't know which one i think does it better i like better i think they both pretty much done it in a different way but both done it pretty well general construction jflight has a walkable roof with a 3 8 deck all your normal wood trusses up there uh 16 inch on center average sidewall studs floor studs 5 8 walkable floor well of course blockable floor deck that was the dumbest thing that's like how can you prove to me this rv has a roof and don't tell me because it has a ceiling anyway so j flight construction there you go by contrast cherokee construction pretty much the same 3 8 walkable roof decking 16 inch on center roof wall studs uh 5 8 floor decking in that regard in the general methodology of their construction they're basically a wash they're they're both using a 0.024 inch mesa crimped aluminum skin uh it's hung in effectively the exact same way in terms of the general outline of how they're put together pretty much identical let's talk tires cherokee gives us the slick looking mag wheels they also have the little pressure indicator sensor caps not sensors but pressure indicating valve stem caps which can be a nice little way to check before you leave her trip oh do i got to put a little air in there but frankly folks i always recommend that you check it manually anyway by contrast our jayco has a more plain looking wheel but it's supporting a goodyear endurance radial which that's a best-in-class quality and if you're looking a little bit more closely you can actually see it has a galvanized rolled steel shield above that so i give cherokee the nod for aesthetics and appeal i give jayco the nod for peace of mind but that being said here here's actually a unrelated thing there's no such thing as like underrated china bomb tires in the rv business anymore that was definitely a thing for a number of years whether it's this catalina behind me which you know we haven't even gotten in the discussion on them that'll be a separate thing uh jayco's forest rivers anybody uh rvia code requires that all tires used in the towable rv industry exceed the uh maximum load capacity by like 10 percent you can't use you cannot build rvs with underrated tires anymore now that certainly did not always used to be true but like these bias ply underrated recycled tires that were unfortunately in the business for a number of years i'm really glad that we never carried any brands that use that kind of stuff here um well they're just a thing of the past so there's no there's no underrated tires now i like the idea that i can tow that jayco at 87 miles an hour instead of 60. but i also like the good look of that cherokee wheel i you know it's pretty so with that in mind in terms of safety factors i'm going to give the nod to jayco now they both meet minimum safety things like you got to have fire sensors and co detectors that's all normal but jayco does have the higher speed rated tires and they do have the j smart lighting package now standard once again because they had it then they didn't now they do again uh on their j flight slx 7 series if you're not familiar with that basically if you flip on your turn signal over on this side of the rv all of the clearance lights on this side of the camper and those ox ec uh dark dark duck duck goose extra i don't edit my footage uh lights at the top of the camper on the back will also blink so i'll give a nod for safety in that one and in that respect jayco does have a spare tire standard where it is optional on the cherokee but you're not going to find a cherokee at halodrv without a spare tire so i guess it's a technical jayco nod but not a not a practical one only theoretical now in terms of entry systems you see jayco has the standard kind of fold out step they have the uh larger folding handle and then they actually include a gas strut on the door so that it doesn't go banging open in the breeze by contrast wolf pup was one of the first maybe the first in this class to standardize those really nice stable steps and they have the same larger folding handle and they use a friction door as opposed to the strata door i think most of it's pretty much wash but due to these steps i will give the wolf pup just a slight nod there is an argument to be made i think where if somebody has their rv in a storage location it can be a little harder to flip those uh solid steps out but this is only a two-step system it's not heavy it doesn't stick out very far if you can open the swinging door basically you can put those steps down so in this instance i don't think that's really much of a disqualifier for the cherokee series and i i think i'm definitely giving the nod to the pup on this one but when it comes to daily use exterior sim uh symptoms systems there i think it's a pretty clear winner on the cherokee that's this is where you'll start to see the extra equipment on the cherokee sort of show itself so they both have power awnings but with the cherokee you can actually sync this to the lci1 control system and make it a remote control awning a little check toward the cherokee we have outside tv hookups we have more outside lighting little check toward cherokee you'll have things like more frequent use of outside refrigerators another little check toward cherokee we've got the little drunken uncle leash latches over here in case uncle josh yaravinard if i even come within earshot of a beer opening i get about half tipsy i am the lightest of lightweights i am a cheap date unfortunately i'm taken fortunately unfortunately i don't know i don't know why would anybody care you also got a handy gas grill cooker hooker standard on the front of every single one of these wolf pups very easy to reach now we talked about the smart lighting on the back of the jayco this is a thing cherokee does very well with that handy little fold down travel rack right there used to be optional on the pups um appears to be standard now since basically every single person under the sun ordered them that way there's also things like the little convenience light above your sewer hookup station little detail things like that are things that you will really appreciate long term and again that falls under that argument of upfront warranty versus long-term equipment and which one are you going to be happier with and i don't think there's a clear right or wrong answer that i'm just again trying to point out where they are a little bit different where they each shine through water heater outside shower cherokee has the advantage on the outside shower because they have one so while the jayco might not have the outside shower they do have a best in class water heater like the full big j flights it is gas and electric and auto ignition and fast recharge whereas virtually everybody else in a single axle camper has a gas only water heater maybe auto ignition not everybody's auto ignition the cherokees is thankfully so cherokee wins on the outside shower jaco wins on the water heater difference here is this is going to give you uh 17.8 gallons of hot water per hour out of the same six gallon vessel versus the cherokee which gives you just about 11 gallons of hot water per hour on propane now generally speaking you'll probably never notice much of a difference what is nice about this though is that you can use park electricity to keep that tank kind of topped off you could say yeah but you know i'll give the full advantage over here to the jayco because i could just hook up a y-splitter at the spigot of the campground and i could just have a hose or a spray or something right there yeah you could but it would never be heated water and i don't know if you've ever taken a freezing cold spring quick rinse down after getting out of lake but it's an experience so i'm still giving the nod to cherokee on that one and i'm giving the nod to jayco over here in terms of campsite stability clear advantage to the wolf pub they have front and rear stabilizer jacks the jayco has rear only now you could add some bottle jacks or something but you don't really want to do that do you you know it's nice that these are just on here and they're done it'll keep the camper from wiggle jiggling plus factor in those stable steps and this will feel much more stable at a site not all rocky horror all over the place janet now in terms of interior decors there's no clear winner because that's a very subjective thing what one person thinks looks like garbage the other thinks looks like a royalty kind of establishment cherokee has recently opted to go with this really rich espresso kind of look and some very high contrasting wall patterns by contrast jayco is actually gone with uh it's still in the medium brown but a lighter shade of medium brown and also went with some uh light wall accents so it'll generally look and feel maybe a little larger in here but i don't ever feel cramped in the uh wolf pup um i would normally say interior space goes advantage wolf pub but jayco has finally made their single axle j flights a six and a half foot tall interior just like everybody else and frankly even jayco goes yeah we probably should have had that one done a little bit sooner now in terms of shades you'll see that they both have like the pleated shades as we go through this so let's talk air conditioner since that's behind me right here j flight slx single axles have an 8 000 btu side mount ac generally speaking should be more than enough for this little space they have an option for a 13 500 bt roof air however this air conditioner will keep the rv uh less expensive and lower in height overall by contrast the cherokee uses a full 13 500 btu roof air standard now it's not ducted but it's a tiny camper doesn't need to be ducted if you live in the midwest like us you're never going to really notice a difference from one to the other um you might appreciate the lower ceiling height or exterior height rather on the j flight as comparison by having a smaller air unit but it's not actually that much different because the other stuff on the roof um the thing is like if you're living down south you might appreciate the extra power on this bigger air unit and the thing is they both have enough uh height clearance where obviously my little nugget can slide under this stuff and never hit anything around so advantage cherokee on cooling power advantage jayco standard non-upgraded air on exterior clearance and lower height now we talked about some outside stuff like entertainment things like hookups inside at a glance they both kind of wash out they both have a bluetooth stereo with an hdmi input however if you look over my shoulder here cherokee tends to do a little more obvious job of already installing a tv bracket for us you can do it on on the jflight slx but i don't think most people are getting a little camper like this with the idea of watching a lot of tv in it um i do like that they go ahead and run all that stuff though but i will still give the nod to the cherokee for both kind of pre-prepping everything as well as the sound system they are now including these basically roof mount uh subwoofers things through pretty much the entire cherokee series now i haven't really had them on and cranked on and don't get me wrong i don't expect it to be like some high fidelity residential stereo system but if you're an audiophile yeah you'd probably be a little happier with the cherokee so in terms of interior entertainment advantage cherokee let's talk kitchens this one's tough this one's tough because they both do some very different things that i think different viewers will find as hard deal breakers and i actually think this will be one of those areas where a lot of people no you're crazy this is the right way no this is the right way like you're going to see a lot of disagreement cherokee was the first in this class to use these larger 10.7 cubic foot compressor refrigerators they cool faster much higher capacity which is great plus again they're often using outside fridges but we're just stick to the inside stuff for now the microwave is a bit of a wash the cabinetries um i guess you could say a bit of a wash we'll come back to cabinetry in just a minute kitchen counter uh treatment so cherokee's gone with a sealed edge thermal foil counter and they do that everywhere they do that on the kitchen they do that over here on the dining they have a stainless recessed sink they have that recessed stove top so it has a very aesthetically pleasing look and uh when you're not using the stuff it does give you more prep space by contrast jayco has opted to stay with the smaller two-way fridge here which some folks would argue is more friendly to some off-grid use some people say i need a big fridge some people don't and this is where i think the refrigerator specifically is where a lot of folks are going to end up disagreeing now since they don't use the larger fridge they do have larger kitchen storage capacities per capita it might vary a little bit in some floor plans but instead of just having a little bit of space above a little bit of space below instead of the refrigerator the jayco offers the opportunity for this big pantry space the cherokee doesn't have now you see over here a sealed edge thermofoil countertop like we saw in the cherokee but you only find it in the kitchen the other things are t-molded so in terms of countertops advantage cherokee you notice that you do not have the recessed sink and stove here some people like them some people don't i think overall for kitchens i'm going to say advantage cherokee but it really depends on how you camp you want to spend a lot of time off grid you don't want to be tethered to solar you want extra dry storage you could very easily flip-flop that and say advantage jflight i said we talked cabinetry on this one in terms of cabinet construction method i'm going to say advantage j flight but it's it's like this much of a difference so they both have hardwood cabinet door frames they both have lumber core cabinet styles the style is this part right here if you feel around the back of the jayco you can feel where it's screwed together it's not stapled together but that's basically the only difference on the cabinetry now staple cabinetry sounds cheap it sounds bad it sounds flimsy sounds like it's gonna fall apart walk through used rv lots all over the place and tell me how many old campers are sitting there and how many of them have cabinet problems and folks most of those are stapled i i feel more peace of mind by knowing that the cabinetry is screwed together but i think it's an argument between practice and theory i think in theory this is better and i will still say advantage g flight because i i just feel better with it in terms of actual practice i think it's a wash i really do and a quick advantage j flight in terms of personal bed privacy we're in a little camper so there's not a whole lot of privacy to be had here but jayco is very consistent about including a privacy curtain in these things and for some folks that's a big deal could you theoretically add a privacy curt to the wolf pup probably but i don't like putting screws in the stuff that wasn't there from the factory it just it opens up too many opportunities for finger pointing and i try to keep my customers out of that so let's talk betting i think i'm giving advantage j flight to this one because most of their models wherever they can even in this little single axle class and this is a really big key point folks are 60 by 80 queens they're some of them might be 54 inch queens wide but they are still typically 80 inches long and again it can vary by floor plan but there are models like this one the the bunkhouse little 174 that does have a true queen bed in it whereas cherokees have a 60 inch wide by 74 inch long queen bed all day every day so sometimes they'll be the same sometimes jake would be bigger a little nod toward jacob now this one's tricky because i think it depends on how you equip the camper but solar stuff so the j flight now in the 2021 series and forward which is when this is recorded now has standard roof solar prep there's a plug on the front there's a sticker behind that privacy curtain behind me over there in this specific model its location will vary by model um and uh you know handy little hang tag to tell you hey there's a solar plug on the roof or worth something by us which you know is basically what marketing is propaganda but um standard the jayco has the advantage for being roof solar prepped now they have an optional like 100 watt package um but cherokee also has an optional roof solar package it's 50 watts which is obviously less but it comes with a couple extra odds and ends now naturally they both include a charge controller with the solar package option cherokees include that handy battery disconnect switch down there that red key as well as a 12 volt battery monitor up here obviously again location will vary by model to give you an idea of how much power is remaining actively on your battery right now so jayco has better standard prep because without the roof without the juice pack option on cherry there is no roof solar prep that's part of it um a standard model advantage jayco the optional upgrade solar package i'm going to kind of call that a wash the jayco package is larger i don't know what it's expandable to i do know that you can add a second 50 watt panel to the cherokee to give you 100 watt uh system but cherokee always includes things like that disconnect switch and the 12 volt battery monitor neither of those are hard to add after market but again i like things that are done from the factory and i don't want to factor aftermarket in i want to talk about like what's standard here so standard non-option advantage jayco with option i don't know flip a coin depends on how you're gonna camp and how much what what you're gonna do really now something i'm gonna kind of call catch all here is just gadgets i think cherokee's a little bit better at gadgets and whiz bangs and gizmos and things that some folks might really really appreciate and some might not like we talked about the entertainment things we talked about the hookups but they're also making these little guys uh ready for like an uh lci wi-fi connector they have things like uh this is a bluetooth i'm sorry well yeah bluetooth speaker hub that frankly if nothing else can double as usb plugs and things like usb plugs you will find more of them through a cherokee rv like around your bunks anywhere that you seat or sleep effectively so i'm going to give the gadgets thing to cherokee j flight doesn't really do gadgets they tend to do like core kind of things and gadgets i guess i don't like the word because it sounds negative gadgets just means gizmos and whiz-bangs and every other thing i like the gadgets i'm a gadget dude i'm inspector gadget over here now as long as we are uh standing right here let's talk bathrooms shall we one quick acknowledgement of a gadget jayco does do well again for lack of a better phrase the gadget being a catch-all category is their kia-like system so that baggage door that entry door same key one key basically works the whole rv and it's not that two keys is hard it's just that one key is nicer and easier and in terms of bathrooms i'm gonna say a pretty clear advantage cherokee almost every single time cherokee this year split the difference previously they had a tub then they had just a shower now they have what i call the schlub kind of tub shower in-betweener both cherokee and jayco are going to have the same toilet in here if we start working our way up you see the surround paneling here in the cherokee and that's awesome but you don't see a skylight now for some people that is going to be a deal breaker however their vent fan over here well their vent actually has a fan i should say whereas uh you know what rather than me talk about let's go contrast against the j flight bathroom so now quick look at the j flight bathroom again basically same toilet jayco goes with a full tub versus the schlub which one's better i would love to know what do you guys like do you like the schlub do you like a shower do you like a tub you know i'd really like some input on that one definitely uh leave me a note there now as we start working our way up here you see that there's no shower surround paneling in the jflight but it does have a mirror and a full skylight that allows a person like me to be able to stand in the shower without having to duck whatsoever my head will clip the ceiling panel on the wolf pup that being said i don't care about that much because i'm not going to be in here very awful long and we do have a vent up here but it is not a vent fan so that is you know it's tricky they each do a couple things the other doesn't i guess there is one interesting thing i forgot to talk about in the cherokee though and that's this thing the cherokee models that don't have a dedicated sink in the bathroom have this interesting little corner shower sink thing now it's not large enough to really be obtrusive or anything and it is a little different you see you actually use the shower wand from the shower as the sink faucet now what's cool about that though is it does allow you to like wash your bathroom hands here in the bathroom instead of having to walk through the rv so in that regard definitely uh advantaged cherokee although something i forgot on the jay flight is they have a locking bathroom door so i walked into this thinking the bathroom was going to be a clear-cut winter and i think that ended up being a 50-50 wash they each do things the other doesn't and they're big deal things and they do them well i think that's going to be something like the kitchen where one person's going to look at it go oh no this is obviously better and someone else can be like no so which one's better i don't know that's not for me to decide because it's not my money making the purchase now is it it's yours if you appreciate the information that we've had here today please hit the little subscribe button follow along with us as i have the opportunity i'm going to try to make more of these videos kind of comparing things that are in a similar class um i will only compare against things that we have here at halodrv i don't like comparing against things that we don't carry because i feel that there's no way i can do it fairly because anyone anyone who makes money based off of videos like this which my income is largely based on what i do here as basically the halo marketing guy no one who does this can be 100 percent unbiased however i can be fair and unbiased when i'm comparing products that i carry because i carry them both and when you carry multiple things it gives you the opportunity to say this one's better this way that one's better that way folks at home you make the decision which one's better for you so please leave me some comments let me know what you like what you prefer and i'll try to keep these comparisons coming out as i can i kind of squeeze them in between other things there's some days where i i miss opportunities and there's days like today where i can make it happen i'll do the best i can for you that's what i've always done that's what we do here at rv we ain't perfect it's not for a lack of trying so take care stay safe have fun and happy halo camping everyone you

Channel: Haylett RV Reviews, News, & More

Views: 77,165

Rating: 4.9172058 out of 5

Keywords: Michigan, RV Dealer, camper, wholesale, guaranty, bullyan, general rv, camping world, terrytown, rv nerd, josh the rv nerd

Id: adrYqzPbIng

Length: 31min 4sec (1864 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 14 2020