Travel Trailer Brands to Avoid (Worst RV Brands Ever)
Purchasing a recreational vehicle (or simply an RV) is an investment that shouldn’t be taken lightly. In fact, it might be one of the most expensive things someone could buy. Therefore, it’s imperative to know and understand the product in its entirety in order to prevent any potential future inconveniences. People are often intimidated by the sheer number of RVs that oversaturate the market at the moment. Most people completely avoid making an informed decision by rushing and purchasing whatever is visually appealing. As a result, they often make a disastrous mistake by purchasing a trailer brand that seems trustworthy but really isn’t. Later on, that often leads to disappointment when they find out that the RV isn’t working properly, or is missing some key features.
Our primary objective is to help you avoid certain brands and provide all the necessary details that showcase a faulty RV. We took into consideration various complaints and have gathered the feedback of the users from numerous forums. Therefore, we’ve come up with a list of RV brands to stay away from. In addition to that, we’ll discuss several noteworthy steps and precautions that should be taken into account when purchasing a trailer or an RV. That being said, let’s get right into it.
Worst RV Brands 101
Worst Travel Trailer Brands
Every now or then, trailer manufacturers release a product that’s either a complete hit or miss. We’ve selected four travel trailers that have been marked as the worst camper trailers ever, and here’s why.
Coachmen Travel Trailer
Coachmen is a brand that’s known for producing various RVs and travel trailers since the 60s. Over the years, the quality of their trailers shifted back and forth, only to hit the rock bottom quite recently. The main problem is in the interior design because everything is so fragile and loose. For example, the drawers can’t hold too much weight as the bottom breaks even at the slightest pressure. Moreover, the screws haven’t been tightened properly in some places which causes some parts to fall down. But that’s not all. There’s also a major problem regarding leaking that can easily destroy the whole floor and make it unusable. The whole point of a travel trailer is to make your trip as pleasant as possible. Coachmen travel trailer simply fails to meet even those minimal requirements. Therefore, it should be avoided.
Winnebago Travel Trailer
Another travel trailer brand to stay away from is definitely Winnebago. What’s interesting about this manufacturer is that their other products have decent quality to them. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with their trailer. So what’s that bad about it? Well, for starters, the entire frame of the trailer lacks structure. What that means is that everything feels sort of rushed, as there are multiple bent walls and panels. Moreover, certain parts weren’t bolted properly and might come off at any point. Not only does that violate the safety regulations, but it also tells us how unprofessional the company is. In addition to these structural drawbacks, there are rumors that the company refuses to provide customer support for their products. That just puts them in a bad spot.
Gulf Stream Travel Trailer
Gulf Stream is no different when it comes to visual drawbacks and faulty materials. It used to be one of the better brands in the past. However, the quality of their products has dropped over the years and fails to meet the modern standards. The entire trailer has a lot of leakage problems that cause the materials to rust. We’ve read some user feedback and numerous complaints where people state claim this is one of the worst camper trailers out there. Moreover, people state that they couldn’t feel comfortable in their trailers knowing that there’s so much rust everywhere. In addition to all of this, some parts appear to have been installed improperly.
Unlike the previous trailer, the customer service is willing to help for this one. However, they charge extra for their services, and we think that it’s not worth the hassle. Why? Because everything should have been installed correctly in the first place.
Keystone Travel Trailer
The last product to make it into our list of worst camper trailers is Keystone travel trailer. Of all the reviews that we’ve read online, we’ve only found 2 that were in favor of this product. Other favorable reviews were, unfortunately, from the Keystone’s website. We’re not entirely sure what happened to the entire Keystone travel trailer line, but all of their trailers seem to be bad. There are a lot of problems when it comes to the design and the overall structure of this trailer. First of all, the finishing looks and feels cheap. Second of all, the walls aren’t durable at all and are susceptible to bents and indentations.
The company is fairly new, and it received a lot of clients in the shortest amount of time. That might be the reason why the quality of their products is so low. They are producing these trailers quite fast. Therefore, that tells us that they didn’t dedicate enough time to fixing the occurring issues.
Worst RV Brands
The previous section featured a list of some of the worst camper trailers currently available on the market. However, these same manufacturers also produce RVs which don’t really stand out that much from their counterparts, in terms of quality. Now, we’ll take a look at the worst motorhome brands that roam the marketplace down below. So let’s start.
Coachmen RV
Following in the footsteps of their camper trailer, Coachmen fails to deliver an optimal level of quality yet again! There are so many complaints online regarding their recreational vehicles that it’s even hard to count. Coachmen overlooked the fact that each RV should have a valve on the fresh water drain. That’s an integral part of almost every RV, or at least it should be!
In addition to that, there are instances where the screws become loose enough to fall out along with the parts that they’re meant to hold. In some cases, the furniture and the panels break, since Coachmen used low-quality materials. Besides the overall visual design of this RV, there’s nothing that really stands out and attempts to justify its price.
Gulfstream RV
Gulfstream used to be a popular brand before, and people generally didn’t have any complaints about their products. Their RVs share a few similarities with their camper trailers, and that’s not good. Just like with the trailers, people experienced frequent leaks inside their recreational vehicles. These leaks are difficult to deal with and it takes time for the water to come out. As a result, the rust takes over and makes everything even worse. The main problem is that the company doesn’t want to invest in better materials. They essentially use whatever they can find, as long as it can hold the RV together. That’s definitely a sign that their professionalism degraded and that their products are not worth the investment.
Forest River RV
We know that Coachmen is a subsidiary of Forest River, so we expected at least some quality issues with their products. What we didn’t expect is that Forest River RVs share the same quality properties. There are numerous complaints online from the users who bought their RVs. The majority of the claims are that the RVs are facing technical difficulties when running, which limits the user’s comfort and hurts the driving experience. One of the user reports even stated that the whole floor had sunk. It’s really unfortunate to witness these flaws, as we know that Forest River is one of the more influential brands. However, in this case, they failed to deliver a good product.
Winnebago RV
People often have mixed feelings about Winnebago. On one end of the spectrum, we have people who are content with the product that they got. On the other, there are those who make complaints and ask for refunds. So what encourages this reaction? Well, the main issue lies with the front and the side panels of the RV. The interior could use stronger and more durable materials because everything seems so frail and light to the touch. The interior finishings are not of the best quality as well.
Fleetwood RV
We haven’t mentioned Fleetwood so far because their camper trailers don’t receive many complaints. In fact, the majority of people who buy their campers like the product. So why are they on this list? Simply, their RVs lack in quality.
We’re trying to figure out why Fleetwood refuses to transfer the quality of their trailers to their RVs. Their RVs have been around for decades and have even earned the respect of the customers. However, we think that their quality dropped over time, which makes the brand compete with other poor quality RV manufacturers.
The Hurricane RV
Hurricane is probably the least known brand of all that are on this list, which is a reason of its own to stay away from it. However, those who had purchased this RV reported that it's extremely liable to indentations. Some even claimed that the manufacturer recycles the materials from their other products to create these RVs. The materials feel cheap, and people refer to them as ‘’scrap’’. To top all of that, the RV faces problems with improper installations, and even faulty parking brakes. It easily earns its spot on the list of the worst motorhome brands of all time.
What to Avoid When Purchasing an RV?
We did our best to select the brands that really stand out in terms of bad quality. However, we think that there’s more that we can do. That’s why we’ll write a short guide which will help the readers distinguish good RVs from the bad ones. Here are some things to pay attention to.
Do Not Rush
Making an informed decision and purchasing the right product is always the key factor. People who avoid researching the product often end up with a faulty trailer or an RV. Consider the fact that purchasing and RV/trailer is a large investment. Therefore, it requires more time to go through all available options on the market and find the best deal for your budget. In most cases, salespersons are the ones who push people into buying a low-quality vehicle.
Inspect the Products Personally
Another important step is to inspect the product in person. Most manufacturers focus on presenting their product in the best possible light. The pictures of the product on their websites often feature it from the best possible angles. They try to hide all the imperfections that would have been obvious during a personal inspection.
Pay Attention to the Tow Weight Limitations
Ignoring the tow weight limitations often produces disastrous outcomes. People then proceed to complain how the RV broke down because it’s faulty. In reality, it’s them who did not pay attention to the specifications and were entirely responsible. So try not to make the same mistake.
Wrap Up
All in all, we really hope that we were able to open the eyes of the readers to some of the worst camper brands by listing them here. If that wasn’t enough, our brief guide might be of some help. The important thing to remember is that most manufacturers try to build and produce their products as fast as possible. That limits their quality and often results in them being bad. Always do a thorough research before you buy anything.
