Keystone Carbon water tank leak - OMG poor quality!!!

[CObroker]

Have to vent.

Bought a new Keystone Carbon 364 Toyhauler last August, used a couple times last year. Used a couple times this year so far.

When we picked it up we noticed a sharp looking bulge underneath in the coroplast underlayer. But since you can't just access that, we let it go and drove home. After traveling about 2500 miles on the few trips (Moab, CO mtns, etc) we noticed the bulge getting lower and it looked like something was about to pierce the underbelly since the bolts holding it were tearing thru the coroplast.

I cut the coroplast, insulation, and unbolted the sides. That literally SAVED MY FAMIMLIES LIFE!!!

Two of the water tank support bars (the frame supports) were never attached on one end from the factory so they were just being supported by the coroplast. It was the forward end not attached so that if they would have fallen, they would have spiked into the road when traveling, which would have levered the water tank, dropped the electrical wires, propane lines, and other loose hoses being only held up by the underbelly onto the highway. Probably would have been a spectacular wreck attributed to driver error, of course.

Also, the tank is apparently missing one entire support bar nearest the tank drain, intake, sensors. This has distorted the entire tank, and towing with only two bars on bent the bars that were installed about 4 inches! So the tank distortion has now caused a water leak at the main drain.

I took pics that clearly showed the bars never being attached on one side and sent them to Keystone. The response I got was 'bring it to a dealer, that's what you agreed to'.

Sadly, in the Denver area, the Keystone RV dealers have a two month wait now along with a you didn't buy it here, so we will not service your unit policy.

So supposed to have a big trip to Moab with 6 other families and units over Memorial day, and my new Keystone Carbon Toyhauler leaks and can't be fixed!
Keystone and your lack of quality control and warranty service! It's like they built this on a Friday and everyone decided to quit early to go drinking.

I'm going to try to contact the factory tomorrow and see if I can tow it back to IN from CO and see if maybe they aren't too busy pushing new units to fix this one. I'm not optimistic.

Any suggestion on fixing this are welcome.

thanks for reading the rant. $60k for nothing.

Raptor, Carbon, Fusion, Impact, Outback all built by Keystone

[CHV_FRK]

For us pay $15k more to "buy it locally" just didn't make any sense. I would rather fix it myself than to deal with paying more just to be bent over again at every opportunity. You still end up with a crappy repair.

[WhitehouseLV]

If you haven't gotten it fixed contact a local welding shop. They will be able to fix it and probably better than any mobile RV or dealership mechanic could. You should have several in your area to choose from. I feel your pain!

[nayther]

CObroker wrote:
Update:

Well efforts to work with Keystone factory (I offered to drive it there myself in IN to have it fixed) went nowhere.

Century RV said if I didn't buy it there they couldn't work on it.

Called Windish RV and they said they might be able to look at it around October.

But on the positive side, everyone I spoke with was really nice and understanding.

I'm trying to work with a local mobile/custom shop now. They've seen a lot of these before. I asked them if they could fix it properly (the way I would like to; plate steel bottom supported by new stronger angle iron brackets, hell I'll buy a new semi rigid tank if needed as well.)

I'm not quite ready to tackle it myself, but if all else fails, will do that.

This story supports the "buy locally" mantra.

[CObroker]

Update:

Well efforts to work with Keystone factory (I offered to drive it there myself in IN to have it fixed) went nowhere.

Century RV said if I didn't buy it there they couldn't work on it.

Called Windish RV and they said they might be able to look at it around October.

But on the positive side, everyone I spoke with was really nice and understanding.

I'm trying to work with a local mobile/custom shop now. They've seen a lot of these before. I asked them if they could fix it properly (the way I would like to; plate steel bottom supported by new stronger angle iron brackets, hell I'll buy a new semi rigid tank if needed as well.)

I'm not quite ready to tackle it myself, but if all else fails, will do that.

[Bob_E_]

For what it's worth, I have been told by a car dealer (I didn't buy there) that they take care of "their customers" first when my truck broke down and they had like a week of lead time before they would even be able to look at it to see what was wrong.

[JAC1982]

laknox wrote:

JAC1982 wrote:
I just think it's ridiculous to yell at a dealer's service department when you didn't buy your trailer there, and they are just following the manufacturer's policies. But then again, treating other people with respect seems to be a lost art these days.

There =is= no mfr policy regarding this. It's a free-for-all and the mfrs allow it to go on. You think this would go over if your truck needed warranty repairs on the road and you pulled into a dealership and were told "you didn't buy it here, back of the line for you". You know you'd be on the phone to that brand's HQ f'n =now=! If the mfrs sent it down line that they were instituting a FIFO service policy for anyone who wants to sell their products, quality likely wouldn't improve, but customer satisfaction sure would. I'm in agreement that the OP needs to find a good local RV tech to do the repair, keep all the bills, then submit them to Keystone for reimbursement, just as a dealer would.

Lyle

But still, that's a problem with the RV industry and the manufacturers as a whole. Comparing to the auto industry is like apples and oranges. They don't work the same. I'm not saying it's RIGHT that the RV industry works this way, but it is what it is. Yelling and "raising hell" at a random service manager at the dealer isn't going to fix anything (especially the trailer).

[Ralph_Cramden]

soren wrote:


Fifteen years later, and things are actually much worse, for the OP and many other victims of the RV industry. Since most of what I see at RV shows, is nothing but gaudy decorations, and cheaply Chinese bells and whistles, attached to horrifically built, absolute scrap RVs. Doesn't matter if it's a $5K pop-up or a $200K motorhome.

And there you have it........a 100% spot on description of the RV Industry circa 2018.

[soren]

Sadly this is nothing new, or limited to one brand. I had a new 2003 Fleetwood trailer, and one day discovered that the fresh water tank had fallen out of it's support cradle, and the only reason it was not laying on the road was it was being supported by the rear axle. The failure was a result of undersized bolts used to assemble the tank support subframe. They sheared and allowed the tank to fall. The dealer quickly replaced it with a new tank, that leaked like like a screen door. After a few more trips to the dealer, it was determined that the new OEM supplied replacement tank was now so extremely thin, that it was essentially unusable. It would "balloon" out, when filled, and end up holding a lot more water than it's rated capacity, as it expanded. While traveling, the excess pressure of this water blew the fittings off the top of the tank, and created streams of water flowing out of the belly fabric. After a third tank was fitted, the dealer advised that I only travel with a partially filled tank...................seriously.

Fifteen years later, and things are actually much worse, for the OP and many other victims of the RV industry. I currently own a reliable, well built eleven year old motorhome. I don't have a clue as to what I would do it I had to replace it any time soon. Since most of what I see at RV shows, is nothing but gaudy decorations, and disposable Chinese bells and whistles, attached to horrifically built, absolute scrap RVs. Doesn't matter if it's a $5K pop-up or a $200K motorhome.

[Ralph_Cramden]

laknox wrote:
I'm in agreement that the OP needs to find a good local RV tech to do the repair, keep all the bills, then submit them to Keystone for reimbursement, just as a dealer would.

Lyle

Give that a try without getting Keystone to agree to it first, and you'll most likely end up having Keystone tell you to take a hike.

I've heard of other manufacturers authorizing owners to have mobile techs do warranty service, such as some Forest River divisions, however In 10 years of hanging around RV and camping forums I can not remember one time I have heard of Keystone authorizing it. My experience with Keystone has been if you call them about any warranty issue, and if you happen to get lucky and get through to a person, the canned response is always the same. "You have to take it to an authorized dealer".

[eDUBz]

Your better off tackling the issue your self so you don’t miss your trip. My water tank on our Pacific coachworks completely fell out in our drive way before our Texas trip a couple years. My welder buddy came over and added support brackets. Was quick and easy.

[laknox]

JAC1982 wrote:
I just think it's ridiculous to yell at a dealer's service department when you didn't buy your trailer there, and they are just following the manufacturer's policies. But then again, treating other people with respect seems to be a lost art these days.

There =is= no mfr policy regarding this. It's a free-for-all and the mfrs allow it to go on. You think this would go over if your truck needed warranty repairs on the road and you pulled into a dealership and were told "you didn't buy it here, back of the line for you". You know you'd be on the phone to that brand's HQ f'n =now=! If the mfrs sent it down line that they were instituting a FIFO service policy for anyone who wants to sell their products, quality likely wouldn't improve, but customer satisfaction sure would. I'm in agreement that the OP needs to find a good local RV tech to do the repair, keep all the bills, then submit them to Keystone for reimbursement, just as a dealer would.

Lyle

[JAC1982]

I just think it's ridiculous to yell at a dealer's service department when you didn't buy your trailer there, and they are just following the manufacturer's policies. But then again, treating other people with respect seems to be a lost art these days.

[Dirtclods]

As a consumer it is that job of the service department to take care of all warranty work. As stated ~ (Keystone Carbon water tank leak - OMG poor quality) The sales department is quick to take your cash when you buy their product they should be a fast to take care of something that should of been done before it left the factory. If you don't apply pressure to all departments it well take weeks to get this handled and it shouldn't!! Go up the chain of command demand to get it done! As I said you can bury these companies that don't take care of you Yelp is a good start.

[JAC1982]

As someone who works in customer service for a living, a customer who starts throwing tantrums and gets "F'n pissed" usually doesn't get as quick of a response from me than someone who calls in and can calmly explain their situation and act like a reasonable adult. It's my job to help them, but it's not my job to be abused over policies or product defects that aren't my fault.

Think about it, if you're a busy dealer, you have no control over the policies that Keystone sets, and you have tons of customers already. So if you get some person calling in yelling and screaming at you over something you have no control over (especially if they didn't even buy the product from you), what do you think you're going to do? Jump through hoops to help them? Probably not, they're probably going to move onto the next customer, who is probably going to treat them with respect. Here in CO, the dealers don't need the business, everywhere is busy, especially this time of year, so no reason to deal with the jerks if they don't have to.