Jayco’s 31-foot Granite Ridge is as imposing as E-chassis-based Class C’s get — long, wide
and blunt as a monolith.
From its big cabover to its potential people load, this Class C deserves the moniker wide body. With more than eight feet of interior width to work with, Jayco’s designers could include a full queen-size bed without adding a second slideout. That’s important for several reasons, including the costs associated with the extra hardware, loss of exterior storage and the weight of the slideout mechanism — big Class C’s sometimes tend to be a bit tight on payload capacity.
For the veteran traveler who knows how to pack a motorhome, however, the Granite Ridge offers ample storage for extended vacations. Within exterior compartments alone, there is more than 70 cubic feet of storage, split primarily among small areas below the slide, a rear pass-through and campside. The cargo doors below the slide must be held open by hand, but that minimizes any chance of fouling them on a moving slide.
Piloting the Granite Ridge is also class-typical. You need space for maneuvering and have to keep the rear pivot overhang in mind, but it goes almost anywhere it’s legal. With almost 8 feet from floor to ceiling at the driver’s seat, there’s room for your 10-gallon hat and then some, but like others, the big cabover makes it hard to see some mid-intersection traffic lights. A backup monitor is part of a $2,229 option package, a group of items we’d put in every unit and just raise the base price accordingly.
Apart from its block-like dimensions, the Granite Ridge does not attract undue attention —
yet its features and layout may make you more popular than you ever imagined. For details
and full test impressions on the Granite Ridge 3100, pick up the September 2005 issue of
MotorHome magazine on the newsstand — then subscribe to MotorHome so you can
stay informed on the latest motorhome tests, previews, technical information, products,
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