Coachmen RV Reviews

Original Review: April 9, 2023

I purchased a Northern Spirit by Coachmen/Forest River in August, 2022. I have had to take it into the shop at least 3 times to have items repaired. First, the outlet under the table did not work, and the service department at my RV center had to move wiring under the trailer to get it to work. Next, the closet door latch was broken and had to be fixed. The trim on the sides of the bed peeled off and I had to tape them together. The latch for the sliding doors to the bedroom no longer works (it's a snap latch and the snap does not hold). Most recently, when I entered the bathroom after the trailer had sat for six months, the center shower panel had shattered into a thousand pieces. Coachmen refuses to replace it because they don't know the cause. Neither do I! It was fine when I parked it for the winter. The stall doors were always locked when not in use, so I believe it was simply defective. Never, never will I purchase from them again. I had two Keystone products before and never had a problem.

I spoke to the Forest River emergency service and the operator named Sharon called me a and my husband liars because I forgot to let her our one slide was out so the RV couldn’t be towed. She hang up on us and there was no record we spoke to her. I called back a total of six times and could not get any resolution to get someone to come out to repair the problem.

Almost a week later of cold (40 degree) and hot day weather since we are near the mountains and desert we finally got a an RV dealer to make a mobile trip. Another week to wait for part to arrive and pay out of pocket almost 900.00. We got that repaired. Along with first waking up in the cold the first time we settled in we notice the black tank had been leaking. I put a small clear trash can under it and I completed a table treatment and all of it leaked out.

So many other issues that I am sick we traded our Trusted Mini Springdale for this badly constructed RV. We are out so much money/ my husband and I have both become ill from the contaminated tanks and I had a headache every day until we dropped it off for repairs. The RV mechanics had to be rotated out when they were working on the black tank because the poop/pee had leaked all under the bottom belly creating a bulge. Some mechanics got sick and had to be sent home. David ** the general manager at Ron Hoover in Donna stated it must have been something we did to cause all the issues. They sold us a defective product and they don’t want to take any responsibility for it. Do not purchase any RV’s at any Ron Hoover dealership since they have several locations in Texas. Most of all do not purchase any Forest River products.

I will say that the Coachmen Warranty department has been for the most part terrific in dealing with these issues, as has the dealer I purchased it from. The bad news is that they have had to be. I didn't buy this unit so it would not be of use to me 33% of the time, and if ever there was a "lemon" in the RV world, this unit would have to be it. If you're looking to purchase a toyhauler, the Adrenaline is I think a decent choice. I'd be very careful though.

The top of the cabinet had an 1/8" of water standing in it. I went up on the roof and the caulk at the seam was split. I had to buy 2 tubes of caulk and repair it myself. We had another heavy rain and I went in the RV to make sure my repair worked and it did. But while inside during the rainstorm, I noticed water dripping inside my living room window. After it quit raining, I took a step ladder and checked out where it could be leaking from. Again, nobody at the factory bothered to caulk the top of the window. I had to do that. I have to say that I most likely will never buy another Coachmen product again. I had a Jayco and it was made a lot better. If you buy one of these Coachmen's, go around to every window and check all seams. You will most likely find that you are missing caulk.

We have zero other options so we trade this only 3 month old RV in for another one. This time we get one with zero slides but it does have this neat Euro Bed that comes down from the ceiling - Neat so we think! Well with shelling out way more money that we ever wanted to we bought another BRAND NEW RV. We load up the new RV at the dealership transferring all the items we had already loaded for our trip into the new RV which has ¼ of the storage space the first one did.

We leave Arizona and Head New Mexico Way. When I arrived in NM we discovered our 12 volt power was not working. We had no idea because the generator was running the entire time we were looking at the RV and LET ME ADD we paid the dealership an additional $500 to make sure this RV was completely road ready and they gave us the thumbs up all was good. Well after finding out our 12 volt power wasn't working I called back to the dealership. They instructed us to come back with the RV for repairs they could make at a later date. I was enraged, still am, we ended up taking our BRAND NEW RV to Camping world where they did indeed help us out at our own expense (WHICH WAS NEVER REIMBURSED TO US).

Camping World found that the cut off switch for the battery was Never hooked up by the manufacturer, the connection cables still were wrapped from the factory. So good thing we paid $500 for a thumbs up your are good to go wall through..right!! Well during our 8 week trip I swear to ** we had to stop every so many miles and put cabinet doors back on, molding started to fall off, The drawers on the sink side and the fridge side all fell in because the framework holding the drawer slides fell apart and could no longer hold he drawers.

We got to Fargo ND for a few days to visit family and while there I had to make all kinds of structural repairs to get the camper put back together again and this included needed a new toilet which broke off at the floor mount. (AGAIN WE WERE NEVER CREDITED FOR THESE REPAIRS) When we got home from our 8 week trip the RV was looking pretty sad, just about everything with a screw got new screws because they used such short screws they vibrated right out and would no longer hold tight.

We noticed that the Euro bed seemed to be coming off the wall mounting brackets, we tried tightening them and then the bed completely fell off the wall and pinned me under it to the floor of the RV, Thank goodness my neighbor was home and heard the commotion and help me free myself. The bed was then bent and wedged in the RV. There was no way of getting the bed back on the track so we had to take it out piece by piece. THIS LEFT US WITH A NEW RV WITH NO BED.

After talking to Coachmen and they insisting we drive this RV to Indian so they could do all the repairs there we just did not have anymore available time to make this trip. Coachmen wasn't willing at all to give other options, so for weeks I heard nothing from them. Finally I got in touch with a guy who considered sending us another jack life sofa to add to the RV which meant taking out the 2 chairs and table to fit this second sofa in which would then open up with the jack knife sofa that came with the RV. SO NOW WE HAVE A MAKE SHIFT VERY UNCOMFORTABLE BED AND NO TABLE TO EAT FROM.

We use our new RV very minimal for a year because it is just not user friendly anymore as when the 2 jack knife sofas are opened up it takes up more than half of the RV. So this year we decided to just get a different RV one that works for us...after looking at what we would have to spend again to just get an RV with a bed we decided that it was our only and best option's just to completely rebuild the Rv we have.

In the process to rebuild we have been introduced first hand to the poor and horrible workmanship Coachmen provides. The pantry cabinet bottom had broken out because they used the thinnest sheathing they could find and the canned food items book through YES WITH ONLY A FEW CANS SITTING IN IT, so we took out all the crap materials in the RV. I put 2 twin beds in the RV which are designed to also work as a sofa, we had to have the mattresses custom made (2 of them $450 each) the building materials were ordered from Lowes ($1485) and a list of items from amazon ($2150). We decided after seeing the poor workmanship we would just replace everything..and we have. We paid close attention to not adding anymore weight to the Rv that we took out.

The best part of the rebuild is the wall in the rear where are the controls are for the mechanical part of the RV was not even attached to the outer wall. IT was loose and moving around as we drove with caused all these control devices to pop out of the wall. Once I got all the CHEAPO wall board off the wall to my SURPRISE I found in a 33" area they used a 1x1 down the center only. This was not even enough support bracing to hold the sheathing up not to mention the heavy control units. And then we noticed that there was a 1.5 inch gap from the framing to the wall where the wall should have been attached. And inside this wall once the CHEAPO wall board came down EVERY SINGLE SCREW that was used to install the bathroom cabinets was only driven into that CHEAPO wall sheathing nothing else...so we looked at the bathroom cabinet and SURE ENOUGH,,,that too was FALLING OFF THE WALL....

It has taken me almost 2 months of working on our RV but I am done to a point we can use it again and enjoy it. We added a great deal of things in our rebuild that Coachmen would never add to this model but our thoughts were its at this time we should do all the upgrades, Solar, RO water system, new flooring so on and so on. The money and time that has gone into this rebuild is painful for us. Because at the end of the day Coachmen sold us a HUGE PIECE OF JUNK! We love the size of this RV it travels so well but the interior build from Coachmen is disgusting.

So buyers beware, I have had many RVs and they are all build in this fashion some a bit better than others but all way below anything you can call quality. Our Rv is perfect now, I am lucky I am fluent in construction because the time and detail it took to configure each area of this RV was crazy. SHAME ON YOU COACHMEN for being such ** to us. You took our money LOTS OF IT and gave us not one but 2 ** for RVS.

For all you first time RV buyers out there. Hands down the best Travel trailer you can buy is an Airstream, yes they are expensive but they last forever because they were actually made by people who weren't out to screw you over, and if you're going to buy a motorhome buy a PREVOST. If you can afford to buy an RV you will certainly be buying another one in a year or best 2 years because all your interior will have fallen off. When you buy an RV KICK THE TIRES so to speak. Don't get caught up in the what you think are beautiful interior finishings...That ** is gonna fall off REAL SOON...Maybe even on your way home with it...YEAH THAT HAPPENED TO US AS WELL.

Our 2018 Coachmen Orion is now BUILT LIKE IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN and I do not think I will ever entertain the idea of buying another one because I know that Zero of them new or used are built as well as our is now. I wrote the BBB about Coachmen and never heard a PEEP back, so typical! The RV dealership we bought from was Scottsdale RV which Ironically went out of business before we even returned back home from our 8 week trip. No one returns our calls or anything. NICE RIGHT!

You are really better off just buying a used RV and if your able fix it up. The older ones are heavier and way more sturdy. LIVE AND LEARN for us but we are just said this lesson with Coachmen didn't come at a cost of $89,000 for the RV, Over $6000 invested in repair materials. THANKS COACHMEN FOR MAKING SUCH A GREAT PRODUCT!! I would love to see the person working in the manufacturing plant who operated the nail gun...my advice to him would be.....EVEN IF YOU SHOOT 6000 nails in one spot it you are not connecting with a framing material it will fall off.

I have had many of my neighbors get involved with watching the rebuild process of our RV many want to buy it now...GO FIGURE! I will tell people about this for the rest of my life because I feel for what Coachmen provides for a product paired with the stimulated energy they put you in with camping and hitting the open road speech I believe it is one of the LARGEST RACITS that has not been held accountable. The Rv manufacturers rely on things falling apart...SO YOU BUY A NEW ONE! But after a while you will go broke... it's like hanging out in Vegas too long after you have won a handful of cash...you'll go home poor. Your best bet is to build your own RV...honestly!

My husband and I purchased our BRAND NEW 2019 Coachmen Chaparral 391 QSMB on January 26, 2020, from our local RV dealer, Northgate RV in Ringgold, Georgia. Since the first week of purchase, we have taken it back for repairs seven times. This doesn't include the current issues that still need to be addressed.

The following is a list of repairs made by our local dealer (I have a copy of the service repairs from them): 1. Master bedroom AC did not cool. 2. Sliding door over the washer, insert panels were constructed poorly with nails that stick out and scratched the finished wood every time it passes. 3. On our first camping trip, our FIRST stove caught fire while cooking due to the front burner pipe coming apart and it melted the gasket and wires. 4. We had sewage leaking due to a faulty closing door on the black tank. 5. The radio was faulty and the knob fell off. 6. We had a bent bracket on the main slide in the living area.

7. The freestanding residential refrigerator was not properly installed and fell forward into the counter during transit causing damage to refrigerator doors (they added a bracket but the fridge is still dented). 8. The main slide in the living room had a severe bow in the roof due to a bad seal and bad decking resulting in water damage inside our cabinets. They had to replace the roof and decking on this slide. 9. The kitchen faucet is a terrible design and the button gets stuck every time you bump it and it sprays you. (The second one still does the same thing. It is a terrible design.) 10. We had water leaking around shower and kitchen sink (water poured into our cabinet under our sink because the caulking was missing). Neither the factory nor the dealership caught that it was missing caulking.

We recently just had our third stove installed because the first one caught fire on our first trip. Then the second had a propane leak. This occurred on 4/25/20 and was reported to the dealership of 4/27/20. The stove did not arrive until 9/10. We have not had a working stove since April and were only able to use it a few days. The C02 censors malfunctioned and did not detect the leak. Our bunkroom would fill up with the smell of propane. We could even smell it back in our master bedroom. We were staying at a park and they had a water leak, so we needed to use our water pump and fill our freshwater tank. We found out that it didn’t work. We just had it replaced 9/1 and it still doesn’t work. The valves are wrong and just sucks air.

The wall paneling over the couch will not stay attached to the cabinet and falls during transport. EVERY TIME. Warranty said they would send a new piece of paneling but it never came. The dealership shot 15 nails into it to “fix” it. When we got home from the dealership having it repaired again the paneling had already fallen back out. The shower is pulling away from the wall in the bathroom. Warranty said they were sending a new shower surround too, but they didn’t. The dealership put rivets in to hold the shower in place. But it is still not fixed. And the rivets look terrible. If I wanted a camper with a tacky shower, I would have bought a used one that already had them.

The bunk wardrobe doors were not properly installed, it was missing screws in the hinges (holes were not even drilled for them) resulting in it falling during transit denting the floor. Water pipes in the basement were not properly sealed and leaked causing water in the basement. Our black and grey tank sensors do not work and haven’t since the first trip they consistently read 3/4 full.

When my husband did his 6-month check on seals and caulking, he noticed the decking on top of our mid-bunk was soft, and when it was replaced by the dealership, we were told it was completely rotted. Why on earth would the decking be rotted on 2 slides????? On a new camper? We have rotted wood in our outdoor kitchen. The dealership replaced the ceiling piece but not the bottom piece. We were later told it was because of the type of seal that is used on this style of camper and water pools at the screw and goes in underneath the seal, every time it rains. The back window leaked water in.

We made contact with Kristi **, Customer Service Manager at Coachman, and she was very kind and helpful at our first conversation. She was going to overnight us the stove and the water pump if they were in stock, and have a mobile unit install the parts. After a few days and no response, she informed me she had a family member pass away and was out of the office. I gave her a week and contacted her again asking about the progress, and she said would check. I contacted her again the next day with no response, again the next day, no response. I have left voicemail and text messages on her work and personal number.

I finally spoke with Tim, CSR, and he said he would check on the status and call me back before the end of business today, and I received no response. I have been more than kind and allowed time for a solution from a business that says they care about customer satisfaction. WE ARE NOT SATISFIED. These are not all normal "breaking in a new camper" problems you expect to encounter. This is a DEFECTIVE camper, a lemon, and we do not feel safe in it or that we have been taken seriously.

There are too many issues to overlook, especially when we are always finding new problems. This has become a safety issue. I have small children. With all the water damage in the slide deckings, how do we know it didn’t make it down in the walls? Don’t waste your time or money on a Forest River or Coachman product. It will be a nightmare. We still are waiting for an acceptable solution. We have owned this camper 7 ½ months and this is what we have dealt with. We can’t even use it….