upgraded to Coachmen Apex !!!

I have a 2011 Freedom Express 300BHS that I bought brand new 3 yrs ago. The Coachmen dealer is only 30 minutes from my house so I went with them. Love the model and have traveled several thousand miles with it. Biggest issue was one day my rear left brake assembly locked up when we tried to pull out of the driveway. Dealer came to house and rebuilt it under warranty. On our first few trips we would have a water line fitting loosen up and start to drip under the sink. Those are only hand tight and having a camper bounce down the road things like that tend to happen but after I went through and tightened them all up I have never had them come loose again. I wash it regularly and wax it twice a year and she looks and performs just like the day I brought her home. Leaving tommorow on our 14th trip of the year. I hope you enjoy yours.

Looks like a nice floorplan for a family outing. On those wet days the kids can play in their own area.
Have fun- enjoy- make a lot of good memories.
happy trails,

I looked at the Apex last winter at Tampa and liked them a lot. Ended up buying a Catalina, which is my second Coachmen. Like both of them. Have had no troubles.

I'm sitting in our Apex 189 FBS we've had for 2 years now. We LOVE it. Only had 2 minor problems. 1st was the shore power cord that quit working after a month. The dealer swapped it out with anothet and have not had a problem since. The other small problem was the shower stall wall buckling away from the wall in one spot between screws. This happened while it was parked in the back yard and it got hot inside. Once on the road and camping, with the a/c running, it would snug right up to the wall again. I just put a screw in the spot of the buckle, and that fixed that.

Only reason we did not go up one size, to get the walk around queen, was limited parking space in the yard. But we love our 189. The little slide makes a huge difference, and for the two of us, it's roomy. We've had up to three adults in it for a couple weekends with no problem. Never had any mechanical or workmanship problems in 2 yrs, other than those I mentioned. Did add a fold up stove top cover due to limited (non) counterspace. It works great.

We are new to the RV world and just got an APEX 288BHS we did a short trip about 100 miles from the house and we love it. Great layout for a family with kids. We are going camping again for Christmas. Will keep you post it how is going. So far no complains. But we have done only one trip for 4 days only.
I tow with a Toyota sequoia with no problem. I going to install a sway bar and a brake controller this week.
Any suggestion are always welcome.
Thanks and Merry Christmas

I am on my second coachmen. Bought both used. However my Mom and Dad had 4 or 5 new ones. Never had a bad one in the bunch. You might want to check on the Forest River forums as they have a Coachmen forum. Happy camping, John

An Apex made our short list last year. Seemed to be a little more upscale on the interior than some others. Also looked to be pretty well put together. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

TBucket,

I see you have the 288BHS with a Sequoia. We are looking at buying that model as well and have an Avalanche 1500.

I was hoping that you could share some of the specs on your Sequoia so we could compare. What is your towing capacity, wheel base, engine size, CGWR, etc?

What is your overall experience with towing that trailer? Do you ever feel underpowered, unstable, or have issues with braking, sway, hills, etc.

Any advice or additional comments on your overall experience would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Mike

Mike sorry for the late reply. I love the apex 288 BHS and he Sequoia have no problem pulling the trailer at all. I have the 5.7 with the towing package with a CGWR of about 10000 but do t know about the wheel base I have not measure it. I know it is shorter than my previous Tundra. I don't think your are going to have any problem pulling with the AVALANCHE. The trailer is very light only 5000 lbs and handles well. I do use a break controller and weight distribution getting a sway bar this week.