--- title: "Jay Flight brake wires wear through inside the axle tubes" kind: "owner-report" recall: false brand: "jayco-travel-trailers" model: "jay-flight" year: 2018 slug: "jayco-jay-flight-brake-wires" url: "https://www.rigfixhq.com/issues/jayco-travel-trailers/jay-flight/2018/jayco-jay-flight-brake-wires" markdownUrl: "https://www.rigfixhq.com/issues/jayco-travel-trailers/jay-flight/2018/jayco-jay-flight-brake-wires.md" --- # Jay Flight brake wires wear through inside the axle tubes Owner reports are not official NHTSA recalls. Each report cites a public complaint, bulletin, forum thread, or manufacturer page. It is not a failure rate, a diagnosis, or a repair procedure. **Owner report** · Electrical · 2018 Jayco travel trailers Jay Flight ## Symptoms NHTSA complaint ODI 11508247, filed February 20, 2023, on a 2022 Jayco Jay Flight, says the electric trailer brakes failed suddenly and stayed failed. The owner wrote that the trailer is a dual-axle Jay Flight with Lippert 3,500-pound axles, and that the brake wires that connect the left and right brakes run through the axle tubes. The owner wrote that the wires are not shielded and bounce inside the tubes, that the thin insulation fails, and that the brake circuit then shorts to ground without warning. The owner wrote that this happened in the first year of ownership, and that the connectors are not sealed. On the Jayco Owners Forum, the owner of a 2018 Jay Flight 24RBS wrote that the brakes were gone for the last 150 miles of a 200-mile trip. A meter, and moving the wires, showed that the brake-wire pair inside the rear axle tube was shorting. The same post says that pulling the wires out of the front axle tube showed two spots where a wire strand was breaking through the insulation. The owner then ran new wire on the outside of both axle tubes. ## Likely causes Both accounts say the brake wires run inside the axle tubes and that the insulation was damaged there. The 2022 complaint says the wires bounce and the circuit shorts to ground. The 2018 post says the rear-axle pair was shorting and that two spots on the front-axle wire had a strand through the insulation. Those are the owners' findings. They do not show one shorted wire on every Jay Flight. ## Common fixes If the tow vehicle says the trailer wiring is at fault, or the trailer brakes quit, stop. Do not treat a trailer with no brakes as ready for the highway. The 2022 complaint describes a sudden loss that stayed lost, and the owner asked NHTSA to have the wires moved outside the tubes. That request is the owner's. The 2018 owner taped the exposed rear-axle wire, hung it on the outside of the tube for the trip home, and later ran 16-gauge wire through half-inch PEX on the back side of both axles, held with hose clamps and zip ties, with 3M waterproof connectors. That is one owner's modification, not a Jayco repair. The owner wrote that a later 150-mile trip had no trailer-wiring alert and that the brakes worked. Ask a trailer shop or the dealer to inspect the wires at the axle tubes before the next trip. ## DIY difficulty Finding the short, in the 2018 post, meant a meter and moving the wires at the axle. The PEX reroute is that owner's modification. The 2022 complaint does not describe a finished repair. There is no Jayco procedure on this page. ## Parts needed No Jayco part number is named. The 2022 complaint describes the wires inside Lippert 3,500-pound axle tubes. The 2018 post lists 16-gauge wire, half-inch PEX, hose clamps, zip ties, and 3M waterproof connectors. ## Warranty notes This is not a recall. The 2022 owner asked NHTSA to demand a recall and does not record a warranty decision. The 2018 owner did the reroute and does not say Jayco paid. A complaint is not a coverage decision for another Jay Flight. The years on this page are 2018 and 2022, which are the years these reports name. The leaf-spring report and the 2021 axle report are different pages. ## Sources - [NHTSA complaints for 2022 Jayco Jay Flight (ODI 11508247)](https://api.nhtsa.gov/complaints/complaintsByVehicle?make=JAYCO+TRAVEL+TRAILER&model=JAY+FLIGHT&modelYear=2022) - [Jayco Owners Forum thread on a 2018 Jay Flight 24RBS, including the brake-wire reroute](https://www.jaycoowners.com/threads/2018-jay-flight-24rbs-mods.518445/page-12) Year page: [2018 Jayco travel trailers Jay Flight](https://www.rigfixhq.com/issues/jayco-travel-trailers/jay-flight/2018) HTML page: https://www.rigfixhq.com/issues/jayco-travel-trailers/jay-flight/2018/jayco-jay-flight-brake-wires