Hello everyone,
I wanted to follow up after our first trip in our 2018 Coachman Leprechaun 32 ft former El Monte RV rental. We ended up taking a 16 day shake down cruise with 5 people on board though 7 western states. We did not originally plan to go out like that but with all the problems of getting items needed for the RV that how it needed to happen. I would suggest to anyone to take a short trip for a shake down to get to know your systems before cramming people and gear in a small space for that long.
So a lot of things on this trip did not break and held up great. After hearing some people complain about the power in the V-10, I have to disagree. Yes it did slow down on steep grades but i was still passing some small cars going up the hills. I was impressed how mechanically things held up. There may be some suspension upgrades in the future, but when I figured out where to have the ride rite inflated to it helped a ton with ride and passing big rigs.
Also all the main systems worked as expected with no problems. The only system we did not use was the heater. The only odd thing is the level sensors for the black and grey always reading 1/3 full(worked when purchased). They do seem to work right other wise.
Now the things that broke, We had two tires go. One complete blow out (boom sound) and one starting to come apart. Both were inner rear tires. I looked too quickly when buying and thought everything looked good.I noticed that the inner tires were a different tread pattern but looked new. Found out after the second tire they were over 5 years old by the date code.
Next thing that broke was the CO2 and LP alarm failed (low voltage ) in the middle of the night. Fun was had by everyone that night. Researching the problem found this was common with this and got a replacement at Wal-Mart.
We had a water leak coming from under the shower. Caused by bad caulking and a loose drain connection.
Then the last thing is the drawer catches. This is going to be a on going issue as they are plastic and i am going to be changing them as they break. Unfortunately my father in law didn't see one of the slider drawers open that are under the bench of the dinette and kicked it breaking the drawer.
One thing we are definitely changing are the faucets. They work but are way too close to the sink basin causing water to splash everywhere. We did change the shower head before leaving to a oxegenetics one and everyone did like that.
So we are still glad we got our former rental but would definitely recommend looking at all the tires to make sure they are all new and matched. And maybe see if you can get them to replace all the latches to metal to save headaches in the future. Also buy a TPMS trust me I am now a believer in these. I think it would have warned me on the first tire blow out. I feel better now seeing the pressures and temperatures of the tires now.
