2022 JAYCO JAY FEATHER

STRUCTURE:BODY

On [XXX], my wife and I were driving northbound on [XXX] in Georgia, pulling our Jayco Feather Micro 166FBS travel trailer. It was early afternoon on a sunny day with moderately heavy traffic; we were traveling in the outside lane at approximately 65 mph. We were approximately 40 miles south of the South Carolina border when a car, then a semi, in quick order, waved us over. We did not feel or hear anything amiss on the trailer. We pulled over as quickly as possible and saw that panels of the undercarriage of the travel trailer were dragging on the ground. Further examination revealed that the built-in 50 gallon fresh water tank was missing and the plumbing and electrical lines to the rig were severed. After failing to obtain road service after several hours, I crawled under the trailer and tied up what loose ends were available so I could cautiously drive to a Campers World Service Center in Ridgeland, SC, 46 miles distant. The trailer has been under repair since that time and the estimate is that it will be complete by mid-August with a repair bill of approximately $3000. I am a retired structural engineer, registered in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. My quick examination of the failure is that while the 2(?) flat steel straps appeared sufficient, they were only attached to the frame of the trailer by 2 self-tapping screws per strap (one strap was dropped on [XXX] and the other was only held by one loose screw, dragging under the trailer). Multiple thru bolt attachments should have been required with lock washers and/or lock nuts in order to insure a vibration resistant assembly. Further compounding the inadequacy of the design is that the entire underbody of the trailer is insulated and covered by coroplast (corrugated plastic) preventing inspection of the structural integrity without a major strip down of the trailer. This trailer was purchased new in late August 2022 and came with a 3 year structural warranty which Jayco has refused to honor. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION