keystone carbon 357 the good and the bad
Hi I may be purchasing a keystone carbon 357 toy hauler and wanted to hear any good or bad reviews on it, Thanks in advance
Forum Discussion
I'm probably too late to the party to be much help on this thread but I have a 2016 357 and have been really happy with it. Great layout, lots of storage, really attractive design (inside especially). Lots of LED lights. Tons of room and great to camp in.
Honestly, I still haven't been able to find any trailer that seems to be comparable in the value you get with the cost of this model. (other than the Torque line which I mention below)
Before buying mine, many forum members told me that all Camp trailers are generally not built with a super high level of care so I should expect to use my first year addressing a lot of (hopefully minor) issues under warranty. It was good advice and I have had some quality problems and issues, but nothing that seems out of ordinary compared to what I've read about others experiences (both with Carbon and with other brands of trailers).
My toilet in the rear bathroom had to be replaced, I had a bunch of staples that I had to have sunk, a couple lights started to fail intermittently, some screws on a panel weren't secured tightly, and an outside light wasn't sealed correctly, and I had it re-sealed. I may just have been lucky with the unit I got but I'm very happy with the quality on this. Seems great.
My only negative and potentially serious maintenance concern is that there are a couple staples on the roof that aren't completely sunk. This creates a really sharp stress point where the rubber roof is stretched over the raised staple. As the temperature changes and the trailer moves I expect that the rubber roof is rubbing back and forth over those staples and will eventually wear through. Keystone wouldn't fix this under warranty as they said that something has to actually fail before they will fix it under warranty. Not great.....
My original dealer had very poor service but my local camping world has been great. It takes a LONG time to get any service done, but I don't mind generally as I have things done in winter and just never call them to see if the repair is done until I think I'm going to use the trailer. They usually don't contact me proactively so I basically let them store the trailer for months at a time. Seems to be an odd business model but works for me....
If I could change anything I would want an extra foot of length in the garage.That's probably my biggest complaint.
Would also have been nice if they offered the option to choose hydraulic stabilizers as well, (but honestly, it would probably have been so expensive I would have skipped it anyway)
A more minor complaint (that is really just a choice of priorities in what we value in a trailer layout) is that the hall access back and forth in the camper is effectvely stopped when someone reclines one of the couch recliners. The entire walkway is covered by the foot rest of the recliners. And only the recliner closest to the garage really has enough leg room for someone my size (6 foot male).
But The leg room issue isn't that big of a deal, I can recline in the other seats comfortably but my feet are up against the counter wall and I can't quite lay all the way out.
Ultimately this is kind of a necessary evil in order to allow for all of the excellent counter space that the "island" in the 357 gives you.
We were deciding between this and a Torque toy hauler and I really like the counter space and layout this one gives us vs more leg room but less counter space in the Torque. (and also, after crawling all around the Torque and the Carbon, the carbon seemed to be much better built and appointed).
FYI, I bought mine with both AC units, Onan generator, winter package, etc. etc.
Chevy Duramax
Wife, three young kids and a dog.
bring 2 Can AM "two up" ATV's (8 foot long each) and a pit bike when we camp.
Use the Anderson Ultimate hitch system (can't recommend this enough! Super convenient and works like a charm.)
Honestly, I still haven't been able to find any trailer that seems to be comparable in the value you get with the cost of this model. (other than the Torque line which I mention below)
Before buying mine, many forum members told me that all Camp trailers are generally not built with a super high level of care so I should expect to use my first year addressing a lot of (hopefully minor) issues under warranty. It was good advice and I have had some quality problems and issues, but nothing that seems out of ordinary compared to what I've read about others experiences (both with Carbon and with other brands of trailers).
My toilet in the rear bathroom had to be replaced, I had a bunch of staples that I had to have sunk, a couple lights started to fail intermittently, some screws on a panel weren't secured tightly, and an outside light wasn't sealed correctly, and I had it re-sealed. I may just have been lucky with the unit I got but I'm very happy with the quality on this. Seems great.
My only negative and potentially serious maintenance concern is that there are a couple staples on the roof that aren't completely sunk. This creates a really sharp stress point where the rubber roof is stretched over the raised staple. As the temperature changes and the trailer moves I expect that the rubber roof is rubbing back and forth over those staples and will eventually wear through. Keystone wouldn't fix this under warranty as they said that something has to actually fail before they will fix it under warranty. Not great.....
My original dealer had very poor service but my local camping world has been great. It takes a LONG time to get any service done, but I don't mind generally as I have things done in winter and just never call them to see if the repair is done until I think I'm going to use the trailer. They usually don't contact me proactively so I basically let them store the trailer for months at a time. Seems to be an odd business model but works for me....
If I could change anything I would want an extra foot of length in the garage.That's probably my biggest complaint.
Would also have been nice if they offered the option to choose hydraulic stabilizers as well, (but honestly, it would probably have been so expensive I would have skipped it anyway)
A more minor complaint (that is really just a choice of priorities in what we value in a trailer layout) is that the hall access back and forth in the camper is effectvely stopped when someone reclines one of the couch recliners. The entire walkway is covered by the foot rest of the recliners. And only the recliner closest to the garage really has enough leg room for someone my size (6 foot male).
But The leg room issue isn't that big of a deal, I can recline in the other seats comfortably but my feet are up against the counter wall and I can't quite lay all the way out.
Ultimately this is kind of a necessary evil in order to allow for all of the excellent counter space that the "island" in the 357 gives you.
We were deciding between this and a Torque toy hauler and I really like the counter space and layout this one gives us vs more leg room but less counter space in the Torque. (and also, after crawling all around the Torque and the Carbon, the carbon seemed to be much better built and appointed).
FYI, I bought mine with both AC units, Onan generator, winter package, etc. etc.
Chevy Duramax
Wife, three young kids and a dog.
bring 2 Can AM "two up" ATV's (8 foot long each) and a pit bike when we camp.
Use the Anderson Ultimate hitch system (can't recommend this enough! Super convenient and works like a charm.)
