Jayco Inc., a subsidiary of

Thor Industries Thor Industries, Inc. is an American manufacturer of recreational vehicles (RVs). The company sells towable and motorized RVs through its subsidiaries brands including Airstream, Heartland RV, Jayco, Livin Lite RV, and others. The company's hea ...

, is an American manufacturer of recreation vehicles. The company manufactures fold-down, also called "Pop-up" Camping Trailers, Conventional Travel Trailers, Toy Haulers, Fifth-Wheel Travel Trailers, and Motorhomes (Class A, B, and C). Jayco is based in

Middlebury, Indiana Middlebury is a town in Middlebury Township, Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. It is located approximately 35 miles east of South Bend, 130 miles east of Chicago, Illinois and 165 miles north of Indianapolis. Middlebury is nestled in North ...

, and about three-quarters of its 3,200-person workforce is from the

Amish The Amish (; pdc, Amisch; german: link=no, Amische), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churc ...

and

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the R ...

communities of

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

History

The company was founded in 1968 by Lloyd and Bertha Bontrager. Bontrager developed a trailer fold-down system in 1967 and started the business of making

travel trailer A caravan, travel trailer, camper, tourer or camper trailer is a trailer towed behind a road vehicle to provide a place to sleep which is more comfortable and protected than a tent (although there are fold-down trailer tents). It provides th ...

s in two chicken houses and a barn. In the first year of operations the company sold 132 trailers, and by the end of 1968 it had 15 employees. The company continued to grow and in 1970 built another plant in

Harper, Kansas Harper is a city in Harper County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,313. History Harper was founded in 1877 by a colony from Iowa. The city of Harper, like Harper County, is named for Sergeant Mar ...

. The company was hard hit in the energy crunch of the 1970s, and several of their plants were closed temporarily. In the late 1980s and early 1990s they also suffered another slowdown due to the high price of gasoline. The company recovered to become the second largest U.S. manufacturer of towable products by 1995. On Easter Sunday, 1985, Lloyd Bontrager was killed when his small airplane crashed in the vicinity of Muncie, Indiana. His wife, Bertha, became chairman of the board at Jayco, and later her sons Wilbur and Derald assumed leadership roles within the company. Currently, Derald Bontrager is president and CEO. In addition to the Jayco brand, Jayco acquired Entegra Coach in 2008, Starcraft RV in 1991, and Highland Ridge in 2014. Jayco currently manufactures about 50,000 RVs per year, and reached the 1 millionth manufactured RV milestone in April 2016. Jayco was acquired by

in July 2016 for $576 million. File:Patent 3,337,098.png, camping trailer patent
Lloyd Jay Bontrager 1965 File:Jayco pup up 2006 tent camper.jpg, Jayco camping trailer 2006
"pop-up" model File:Jayco camper trailer floor plan.jpg, Jayco camping trailer
floor plan File:Jayco tent camper pop-out bedroom.jpg, Jayco camping trailer
"pop-out" bedroom

Models

Jayco is known for their Jay Flight model, which became available in 2001. Since 2005, the Jayco Jay Flight has been the #1 selling travel trailer brand. In 2006, the Jay Flight brand expanded its model lineup with the addition of the seasonal model, Bungalow. As part of an exclusive deal, Jay Flights began featuring tires from Goodyear with Durawall technology standard. Jay Flight was the first to be listed as a Gold Medal Green Certified RV. ''Current Model Range''

Sustainability

In 2010, all of Jayco's products were green certified by TRA Certification, an accredited certification. This made Jayco the first major RV manufacturer to be 100 percent green certified and fully recognized for building products with green manufacturing processes and materials. In 2013, Jayco Inc.'s three operating divisions, Jayco, Starcraft and Entegra Coach, recycled 1,284 tons of wood, 13,221 tons of scrap metal, and 1,801 tons of cardboard and paper, saving 59,900 mature trees. Jayco has had a recycling program in effect since the early 1980s and has received several recognitions for its recycling efforts, including a Governor's Award of Excellence.

Awards and recognition

* 2015 RVDA Titan Award (Bertha Bontrager-Rhodes and Lloyd Bontrager) * Jay Flight - America's bestselling travel trailer 14 years running * Travel Trailer - Trailer Life 2015 Bronze Award Winner - Readers' Choice Award * Best of Show - New Unit by RV News (2018 Octane) * Motorhome Silver Award Winner - Readers' Choice Award 2015 (Class C) * Quality Circle Awards

International

Jayco partnered with a UK-based company in the late 1970s and produced a tent camper for the European market. Jayco Australia Ltd was founded in 1975, and production commenced there the following year. Jayco of Australia soon became the largest player in the Australian camper/caravan industry.

Jayco Travel Club

Jayco developed a special travel club called "Jayco Travel Club" that has yearly vacation plans. It has over 100 chapters in the United States and Canada for their customers. The chapters are called "Flights" and often contain references to the blue jay, which is Jayco's logo and mascot.

References

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External links

* {{Official website, http://www.jayco.com
Jayco factory tour (4 minutes)
Recreational vehicle manufacturers Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1968 Manufacturing companies based in Indiana Companies based in Elkhart County, Indiana 1968 establishments in Indiana Caravan and travel trailer manufacturers 2016 mergers and acquisitions