Jpod pick up from Jayco
We were booked into pickup our Jpod. The staff at Jayco were fantastic and did the run though of everything to do with the Jpod. We ended up buying a few extras which quickly added up – a blue food hose, a lock for the tow ball etc.
Once our registration was finalised in the office I drove the car and reversed using the camera to line up the tow bar to the Jpod. The Jpod was hitched onto our new tow bar on the Jeep and we were shown how to plug in the brake plug, attach and crossover the chains, and lock it all in safely. The brake lights, headlights and indicators were tested and all were working ok. The Jayco rep then got behind the steering wheel of our Jeep and took us around the block and checked the brakes were working as they should. She also made us feel like it was so easy to tow which helped our confidence levels. Once we were back on the main road she pulled over and David took the driver’s seat.
Easy to tow!
School pick up time is not the best time to get on the road with a caravan!. First test was to do a u turn on a main road. With patience we got through the traffic, round a bouts, and kids crossing the road. Everything took a bit longer making sure to allow the extra space for the length of our Jeep and Jpod. The Jpod followed the car around corners really well and David found it very easy for his first towing experience. ( I will have a go at some stage)
The real test was getting it up the driveway and into its space under our carport for the first time. I got out to make sure there was no scraping from the kerb of the road to the incline of our driveway. David said it would be fine and sure enough there was about a hand width gap between the axel and the concrete ground.
Next came the unhitching and moving of the Jpod into its spot under the carport. It did take a bit of time to do as it was our first time – but it was very easy to move around with 2 people on the flat of the top part of our driveway.
Once in place we pulled out the kitchen and set up the awning. All very easy to do. The tool to wind the legs up or down on the Jpod was too long to fit in the space we had ( and we were given a much shorter one to replace the extremely long one that comes with the caravan) so we found the right size socket tool so we could wind down the legs.
Set up and packing of our gear in the Jpod
We need to go through all our camping gear and work out what to pack and use for our new Jpod. We are also booked into to do a towing course in a couple of weeks. This was personal choice as everyone we spoke to at Jayco said we didn’t need to do a towing course for the Jpod because it is so light and easy to tow. We will take the Jeep and the Jpod with us and have a full day of learning more about towing.
Very exciting!