We’re going to compare the Jay Feather Micro Trailer versus the Wolf Pup trailer. And specifically we’re going to be comparing the Jay Feather Micro 171BH model to the Wolf Pup 16BHS model. And the reason for that is these two floor plans are very similar. So this is the best way to compare apples to apples.
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We purchased the Jay Feather Micro 171BH trailer a couple of years ago, but before we purchased it, we were looking at lots of different types of bunkhouse trailers. The Wolf Pup was one that kept coming back up. So I wanted to go through and do a comparison of some of the pros and cons of each to give you an idea of why we ended up going with the Jay Feather Micro.
Siding
The Jay Feather Micro has what’s called Azdel siding, and Azdel is a newer type of siding. It’s a composite material and it doesn’t mold or mildew. The Wolf Pup has standard stick and tin siding. They do also have a more expensive model called the Black series, which looks like it has Azdel, but it’s actually fiberglass on top of the standard construction. So it is still susceptible to mold, mildew, and delamination. The stick and tin siding does have some advantages. It’s easier to work on and it’s more cost efficient. But because of the increased lifespan that the Azdel brings to the trailer, I’m going to say that the Jay Feather Micro wins this category.
Length
These two trailers are pretty similar in length. The Jay Feather Micro is just over 20 feet and the Wolf Pup is over 21 feet. Since the Jay Feather Micro is shorter, I’m going to give the win to the Jay Feather Micro for this category.
Weight
The dry weight of the Wolf Pup is 3400 pounds. That means the weight of the trailer before you put anything in it. The dry weight of the Jay Feather Micro is around 4,000 pounds. Both of those trailers have a fully loaded weight of 5,000 pounds. So that means, the Wolf Pup has about 600 pounds extra of cargo carrying capacity since the dry weight is lower but the fully loaded weight is the same. So for this category, the Wolf Pup wins.
Propane
The Jay Feather Micro comes with two 20 pound propane tanks. The Wolf Pup comes with one 20 pound propane tank. So for this category, the Jay Feather Micro wins.
Fridge
The Wolf Pup comes with a 12 volt fridge. The Jay Feather Micro can come with a 12 volt fridge or it can come with a gas electric fridge. Now I know a lot of people love the 12 volt fridges. I’ve heard so many good things about them and with the solar system that we have now, we would be fine with the 12 volt fridge. But with the solar system that we had originally with the trailer and the fact that we like to camp in shade, we didn’t want to have a 12 volt fridge and have to rely on solar. We liked the idea of having the dual, the two-way, gas electric fridge so that we can use our propane for the refrigerator and know that we have a way to power our fridge even if we aren’t getting good solar. Again, I know everyone loves the 12 volt fridges, but we really like this gas electric fridge we have, and we like that it’s an option. So for this category, I’m going to give the win to the Jay Feather Micro.
Solar
Both of the trailers have solar as an option. The Wolf Pup option is to have a 100 Watt Solar panel up top. The Jay Feather Micro option gives you 190 watt solar panel up top. It’s a similar setup, but the Jay Feather Micro is slightly improved because it gives you more wattage to bring solar into the trailer. And on the Wolf Pup, since they only have that 12 volt fridge, solar is more important. So 100 watts isn’t going to be enough. You’re definitely going to want to upgrade that, but honestly, you’ll probably want to upgrade either of these packages if you’re really going to rely on solar. But since the Jay Feather Micro gives that little bit extra, I am going to give the win to the Jay Feather Micro for this one.
Bathroom Sink
The bathroom sink is a huge reason why we went with the Jay Feather Micro. Now this sounds silly, but it is really difficult to find a trailer with this basic floor plan that includes a sink in the bathroom. The Wolf Pup has actually added a corner sink in the shower, so that is definitely better than no sink at all, but it is still just a sink in the shower. It’s not like you’re going to put toothbrushes next to it. There’s really only so much that you could do with that and it’s just not as convenient. The Jay Feather Micro has a sink in the bathroom. It even has some counter space. It has a vanity cabinet above it. It is really an awesome layout. So for the bathroom sink, the Jay Feather Micro definitely wins this category.
Kitchen Counter
The Wolf pup is about a foot longer. We talked about that earlier. But in addition to that, the Wolf Pup only has a two burner stove. The Jay Feather Micro has a three burner stove. It’d be great just to have the two burner option. I primarily use the stove inside to boil water for coffee in the morning. We’ve only cooked inside once when it was too windy outside to do any cooking, but we normally cook outside, so having three burners inside seems silly. Anyways, the Wolf Pup with being a foot longer and having a two burner stove, they have a lot more counter space than in the Jay Feather Micro. So the winner for this category goes to the Wolf Pup.
Dinette
The overall width of the Jay Feather Micro trailer is six inches wider than the Wolf Pup. So even though the layouts are the same, the dinette is about six inches wider. So six inches might not sound like that much, but with the dinette in the Jay Feather Micro, all four of us can sit at the table and either eat together or play a card game. There’s been multiple times where it’s raining outside and we all come in and play a card game. And we don’t have any problems with the four of us sitting there. Of course, two of us are kids and two of us are adults. And maybe as the kids get bigger, it could be more of a problem. But it hasn’t been an issue in the last couple of years. We’ve sat there no problem. I haven’t tried sitting in the Wolf Pup with all four of us, but I don’t think we’d be as comfortable because the dinette is not as wide. So the winner of this category goes to the Jay Feather Micro.
Cabinets
In our trailer, we use the cabinets above the dinette like a pantry. We keep all of our dry goods up there. And in the Jay Feather Micro, in the trailer that we have, our cabinets open to the side. So I can open up the door, grab out whatever food I want, and then shut the door. No problem. But in the Wolf Pup, those cabinets open up and they don’t have any way to keep themselves up. So you lift the cabinet up and as you’re holding it, you grab out whatever you want and then you could drop it back down. To me, that seems awkward and unnecessary. I think I’d get tired of doing that really fast. So the winner of this category goes to the Jay Feather Micro.
Bunk Windows
Bunk windows were important to us. We wanted to make sure that each kid had a window in the bunk. Because it is such a small area we thought the window might help them feel more comfortable. So in the Jay Feather Micro, there’s a window up top, and then there’s a storage door down below on the bottom bunk. But in that storage door, there’s a window. So both bunks have a window. The Wolf Pup has a really similar layout with the storage door and everything. They have the window up top in the top bunk, but in the bottom bunk, they have that storage door, but their door does not have a window in it. So there’s no window on the bottom bunk. So for this category, the Jay Feather Micro wins.
Bunk Walls
In our trailer, in the Jay Feather Micro, there’s a wall in between the dinette and the bunks. It goes from the floor to the ceiling, and it’s a solid wall. So what that does is make the bunks have their own private space. In the Wolf Pup, that wall only goes up to the mattress of the top bunk. So the top bunk is pretty exposed. For us having younger kids, especially when we first got the trailer, having that top bunk open would’ve been a problem. Our son would’ve rolled right out of that thing. But if your kids are older, having it open could be nice cause you could even hang your feet off of it. But it also doesn’t give you as much privacy. I’m going to call this one a tie because depending on your needs for the bunks, depending on your family, one of these could be better than the other, but they both have their pros and cons. I think the better one is going to just vary depending on your needs.
Curtains
Curtains are one of those things that when we were looking at trailers, we were like, that’s cool, a curtain, but whatever. Who cares? It turns out I totally care. Curtains make a really big difference, especially when you’re in such a small space. They really help to separate out the space and give a little bit more privacy. So for us, we camp pretty often, and a lot of the time we will let the kids stay up late, but sometimes we want them to go to bed at their regular bedtime. Either we have something going on the next morning or they’re just overly tired and need their sleep, and we don’t see the need to let them stay up late every night. Having the curtains allows us to put them into bed, and as soon as we shut their curtain, they just know that it’s their time to go to bed. They have their own space and they’re no longer involved with what’s going on in the rest of the trailer.
So if we’re staying up and playing a card game or watching the TV, they are still in their bunks going to sleep. And as silly as it sounds, I don’t think that that would work out so well without the curtains, especially if we’re going to watch some TV. We could pull our curtain and use it to block the TV, so even if they poke their heads out, they’re not going to see anything and they’ll just go back to bed.
Basically, that was a really long story to say that the Jay Feather Micro does come with curtains. The bunks each have a curtain, and the front bed has a curtain, and the Wolf Pup has no curtains. And so for this category, the Jay Feather Micro wins.
TV
The Jay Feather Micro not only comes with a TV, but it’s a 12 volt TV. So what that means is it could run off of the battery, so you can use it when you’re dry camping. You can also use it when you’re stopped for lunch. You don’t have to be plugged in to use the TV, so that’s pretty cool. And in the Wolf Pup, the TV is optional. So this category is going to go to the Jay Feather Micro.
Storage Under Bed
In the Wolf Pup the whole front bed can lift up. It’s on gas struts. So you can lift it up and you can store stuff underneath the bed and that is the same area that you can access through the pass through area up front. So you can put stuff in your pass through and you can access it through the outside of the trailer or under the bed. Now in this trailer, in the Jay Feather Micro, that’s not an option. So instead, there is a pass through under the bed that you can access from both sides of the trailer outside. And then in the front part of the bed, the storage has these cubes. There’s two large storage cubes that go underneath the bed. Now, I know a lot of people don’t like the storage cubes. I’ve really gotten use to them and I like them. We keep our clothes in one and then the other one has some miscellaneous stuff. The cubes are really nice and you can pull them out and they’re actually strong enough that you can sit on them. So we’ve used them before to pull them out and had another person sit at the end of the dinette while we had the benches all filled up. So the storage cubes are nice, having the gas struts to lift up the bed and have all of that storage underneath is also nice. So, this is another one that I’m just going to mark as a tie because I think it depends on how you want to use the trailer. I think they are both good options that are totally different from each other but I don’t think either one is bad.
Outside Kitchen
Having an outside kitchen was another feature that was really important to us when we were looking for a trailer. We really wanted to do all of our cooking outside. Our goal for the trailer was to get outside more, so we didn’t want to have to be stuck inside doing the cooking.
The Jay Feather Micro has a system that they call the Jay Port where you can put in a mount to the side of the trailer and then you can put a Blackstone griddle on the mount. When we bought our trailer, they actually were coming with Blackstone Griddles. So we got our 17 inch Blackstone with the trailer, and we’ve since upgraded to a 22 inch Blackstone. Both have been amazing. Now the trailers unfortunately aren’t coming with a Blackstone anymore. They’re coming with a really cheap griddle, and I’ve heard nothing but bad things about those. I would honestly recommend just getting a Blackstone and not even using that other thing. But anyways, the outdoor kitchen setup that comes with this trailer isn’t what I had in mind. I thought it would be more like a slide out, something that’s already there. But the system that they have has actually worked out great for us, and I don’t have any complaints about it.
On the Wolf Pup, they have an outdoor fridge, which does seem cool, but not necessary. And the refrigerator is going to run on 110 power. So that means you have to be plugged in or have an inverter for that fridge to even work. So for us, having a griddle out there is much more important than having the fridge. So the winner of this category is going to be the Jay Feather Micro.
Underbelly
On the Jay Feather Micro, they actually have what’s called an enclosed underbelly. There’s a panel on the bottom of the trailer that insulates the bottom a bit and also makes it so none of the hoses or tanks are exposed. And when we use the heater inside the trailer, that air does also help to keep those tanks and hoses heated up. It’s not good enough that you could camp in freezing cold weather, but it does do a little bit to help. It’s better than nothing. The Wolf Pup, on the other hand, has a fully exposed underbelly. Nothing is enclosed. The tanks and everything are completely exposed to the elements. So the winner of this one goes to the Jay Feather Micro.
Tank Size
The fresh water tank on the Jay Feather Micro is 55 gallons. On the Wolf Pup, the fresh water tank is 26 gallons. And then on the Jay Feather Micro, the black and gray tanks are 30 gallons. Whereas on the Wolf Pup, the black and the gray are 23 gallons. So the fresh water, black, and gray tanks are all larger on the Jay Feather Micro. So the Jay Feather Micro wins this category as well.
Price
Okay, now let’s talk about the price. Of course, these are just going to be estimates because the price is going to vary depending on where you are in the country, what time of year it is, what dealer you go to, and the options. There’s tons of different variables that can affect the price. But in general, you can typically find a Wolf Pup 16BHS for somewhere between $20,000 and $25,000. And you can normally find a Jay Feather Micro 171BH for somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000. So the Jay Feather Micro does cost more, but when you look at all of the extra features that you get for that additional cost, to us, it felt well worth it.
Conclusion
I don’t think there’s a bad option here. I think the right choice just depends on your needs and how you camp and what makes the most sense for your family. For us, the Jay Feather Micro made the most sense and it was the option that we were the most excited about.