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Old 07-27-2013, 05:00 AM   #1
warvalleywoodman
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Unhappy Poor quality construction- Bullet Premier 19ft

Just another in the long list of problems with our NEW 19ft. Bullet Premier.
Bath storage closet floor caved in on our trip to SC beach. Found out that the floor was stapled to the bottom of the supports so that any significant weight would guarantee a collapse of the entire sheet of very thin plywood.

Now the unit is 4 months old and the cabinet doors are beginning to literally
fall apart where the rails and stiles are joined. The frame members have only one thin crown staple at each joint and no glue what so ever.

If building cheap and selling high is a winner then the Keystone Bullet Premier is the trailer for you.

Keystones only answer (when they do bother to reply) is to return it to the dealer. The problem is that it is 4 hrs. round trip for every service appointment.

Too bad there is no "lemon law" in Tennessee !
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Old 07-27-2013, 08:24 PM   #2
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Welcome to the forum. It's unfortunate that you're having issues with your RV and that it's 4 hours to the dealer's service department. Hopefully you'll get your RV repaired and start to enjoy travelling in it before too much longer. As for Keystone referring you to your dealer for service, do you have any alternative solutions as to where to get it repaired?
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Old 07-28-2013, 02:53 PM   #3
warvalleywoodman
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I guess that the best answer I can give is that Keystone should pay more attention to the construction and inspection and stop trying to cut so many corners.
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Old 07-28-2013, 04:24 PM   #4
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Sorry that you are having issues and hope that your dealer can fix them. 4 hour drive must be shorter than a trip to the factory. The dealer needs to make look and order the parts. Good luck
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Old 07-29-2013, 04:16 AM   #5
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My neighbor used to deliver new campers to dealers around. Don't know which brand, I believe multiple manufacturers. You would not believe the state of construction/diss assembly they arrive in. unfinished work laying all around. One dealer told him that he was about to quite accepting them anymore in that state of construction.
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Old 07-29-2013, 07:29 AM   #6
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Our Cougar was delivered to the dealer straight from the factory. We were on the lot when it came in. Immediately, we unlocked the door to check, then went through it with a "fine toothed comb" looking for issues. The mattress was still in the box, rolled up and laying on the bed platform, plastic on eveyr piece of furniture. all the cabinets were closed, drawers closed, refrigerator locked shut, inside it was the TV stand (TV is mounted to a swing mount on the wall) There are nails used to attach the floor decking to the frame, one of them had been "mis-shot" and was partially out of the frame. That is the ONLY thing I could find wrong with our RV as it was delivered from Keystone. Everything else appeared to be in "ready for delivery" condition.

I keep hearing "horror stories" about how terrible RV's are built, how cheap they are in equipment and how expensive they are to buy. I really wonder, sometimes, if there are two Keystone companies, one that I deal with and one that the rest of the country has to live with..... I just simply don't see all the issues (in my personal experience) with the two Keystone RV's that I've had in the past 4 years.

You can be sure that I went through every Cougar on the dealership lots around the northern half of Michigan before we decided to buy. We looked at every floorplan that is available locally, poured over, in and through every model on every lot and I never saw any of the "impossible to live with" issues that keep being documented here.

While I really believe that an occasional RV gets off the assembly line with problems, I find it hard to believe that with the thousands and thousands of Keystone RV's that are produced annually, that so many of them just happen to be delivered to customers that live over 500 miles from a dealer and the phone lines to those cities won't connect to the Keystone factory customer service department. Something is not quite right here. Whether it's expectations from customers or a "personal vendetta" against people who expect more from their dealer, it just seems so difficult to believe that only people who live so far away and who expect so much seem to be delivered trailers that fall apart in the first months of ownership.

As I said, mine, while still hooked up to the transport truck was clean, in great shape, looked good, had all the windows and doors functional, and essentially was ready for delivery after a verification check that the plumbing and appliances worked properly.

What am I missing here?????
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Old 07-29-2013, 08:06 AM   #7
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This is what my neighbor telling me as he delivered them for several years. Not all were that way, but many were. Now, I'm not bashing Keystone or any company, just telling what I was told.
Now personal issues with my Passport is that I've had both rear stabilizer jacks replace due to rust and over torqued bolts (lost one on the way home, and the other's screw heads popped off. also, I have had several self tapping screws pop off of the underbelly cover. All over torqued and twisted head. funny part is, it came from the factory that was as the twisted off portion is all rusty and I know mine was delivered early March or late April.
Still, I am happy with my camper, and I've fixed some of these issues myself as a 2 hour drive to the dealer isn't worth it. They did send me new jacks that I installed myself, so I cannot say anything bad about the dealer.
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Old 07-29-2013, 08:12 AM   #8
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Survey?

Many people will post here when they have a problem.

Not many post to say they have no problems.

If you want to know how many Keystones are delivered with defects, why not start a survey here? Ask everyone how many defects they had on their new Keystone with answer categories such as, "None", "1 or 2", "3 to 5", "5 to 10" (which would be my answer), and "More than 10".

That should give you a better feel for how many people really do have issues.
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Old 07-29-2013, 08:20 AM   #9
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Years ago my step dad called me over to look a something in his brand new Bounder MH. There was a raised "channel" on the bedroom floor that was wet. We pulled the carpet back and then the 1/8" plywood covering the channel. There were water lines in the channel and when the factory had stapled the plywood and carpet in place they just ran the staple gun down the channel without regards to the water lines. Needless to say when we turned the water on there were countless little fountains .

ALL RV's are built as, shall we say, "efficiently" as possible. It is rather sad. But most of the time is works. If all RV's had extreme attention to detail and fit and finish and top quality material they would be much more expensive .
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Old 07-29-2013, 12:05 PM   #10
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Sorry to hear of your difficulties.
Considering the thousands of units they produce each year, it seems a pretty small number have defects, at least to me.
We are pleased as punch considering ours is the lowest on the Keystone totem pole. I guess each unit depends on who made it that day, just like houses.
Best of luck!
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Old 07-29-2013, 12:59 PM   #11
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When I took the Fuzion factory tour last week, the host showed us where the inspectors had been checking the assembly. They use different types of tape placed on the defects to denote issues and the unit doesn't get moved to the next station until the issues are resolved. They also told me that once a week the head guy of Fuzion & the head of quality assurance pick a unit at random & nit-pick it looking for issues.
I don't know if the other Keystone brands follow the same procedure or not.
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Old 07-29-2013, 05:04 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by audio1der View Post
Sorry to hear of your difficulties.
Considering the thousands of units they produce each year, it seems a pretty small number have defects, at least to me.
We are pleased as punch considering ours is the lowest on the Keystone totem pole. I guess each unit depends on who made it that day, just like houses.
Best of luck!
It's the same with my experience. Our Springdale is the lowest priced fifth wheel Keystone produces. The only problem we had with it was the cooling unit on the refrigerator. The is NOT a Keystone issue, rather a Dometic issue. My dealer and Dometic resolved the problem by overnighting a new cooling unit which was installed the next day. They kept it one more day to make sure it worked properly. We were camping again that weekend. The only other issues were "self induced" We towed it down some pretty rough roads, had cabinet doors loosen, cushions not stay in place, etc. All of those problems I fixed myself. After all, I caused them.

I read so many issues that members have on here and I have to ask myself if I am too "easy" on Keystone or if they are expecting too much? After all, I don't know anyone who would call their builder to tighten a cabinet handle, but I hear people on here complaining how terrible Keystone is because they have to drive hundreds of miles to "make" their dealer fix the loose knob.... Is that really a problem with the RV or with the owner?
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Old 07-29-2013, 05:06 PM   #13
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Originally Posted by 08quadram View Post
This is what my neighbor telling me as he delivered them for several years. Not all were that way, but many were. .
So what you're saying here is that you know someone who said he saw a problem years ago....... ???
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Old 08-01-2013, 01:41 PM   #14
haffcke
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Smile me happy too

2011 bullet picked up oct. 2010 very few problems and keystone addressed all of them promptly under warranty, had to have ref. removed and serviced and they paid my local rv dealership to fix it, i had bought my unit from a different company 116 miles away, had a leak around the slide and 3 different dealers did repairs due to me traveling. can't complain about warrenty service and so far so good with after warranty use. use mine about 6 months a year.
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