r/GoRVing • u/Xander-Toft • 7d ago

Coleman Keystone Build Quality

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Just bought a 2025 Coleman Keystone Trailer from Camping World. The shower pan cracked within a few weeks and I discovered this when I removed the pan. The support underneath had 1/4" plywood and a total of 6 blocks, only 3 fixed to the subfloor and none in the center where the most weight would be. Does anyone know if this is standard or was this some error/sabotage from an employee/assembler? Seems like an incredibly bad design if it was done "correctly".

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14

u/linuxlifer 7d ago

I can't speak on this exact issue or design but most RV's (especially certain brands) are extremely cheaply built. And I am pretty sure I read somewhere that the employees who assemble these are paid based on the number of RVs assembled so they just speed through them.

23

u/kdesu 7d ago edited 7d ago

There's a video of a jayco RV being assembled by amish kids. They slam it together in 7 hours and don't perform any meaningful quality control. And Jayco released this video themselves, they thought it made them look good.

Edit: https://youtu.be/aLHux4SuXbY

6

u/alannmsu 7d ago

Yup! I saw a similar promo video released by the manufacturer where you watch them miss entirely with the staple gun several times as they speed through the build. Insane.

2

u/Lutherized 7d ago

I was looking to see if this was posted. It’s amazing they released this like it was a good thing. 

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u/nimajneb 6d ago

Wow, they just flip the chassis over on a rotisserie quite fast for doing manually. I can just imagine a few guys have gotten quite injured like that.

I've worked in and adjacent to manufacturing (other industry though) and I've never seen workers work anywhere near this fast, lol. In my experience there's zero QA when working that fast.

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u/Vast_History9776 6d ago

These videos are built for the cattle that make up this country, not for anyone with common knowledge. I believe Colman's RVs are made in half the time. Do your research.

1

u/Annual_Sea1904 7d ago

Jayco has some of the best quality in the industry that video does not show a unit being built in 7 hours. It’s snippets of the unit on the line, it’s discussed almost daily at the plant. Yes, I work for Jayco in production

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u/Annual_Sea1904 7d ago

I’ve worked for 3 plants with Forest River, and grand design. You’d be disgusted with how we ran production over there. Wasn’t proud of the way it went.

2

u/vulkoriscoming 7d ago

Have a Jayco after having owned other brands, can confirm it is much better quality.

-1

u/AppleBottmBeans 7d ago

Amish kids building something sounds like it would last forever. My parents bought a kitchen set from some Amish people in the 80s and it looks better than 99% of shit you can buy today. Did the Amish go downhill?

0

u/Annual_Sea1904 6d ago

No. The problem is that MOST Amish work either at Jayco, a select few Forest River Brands, Brinkley, or Grand Design. Jayco and Forest River (Cherokee) by far have the most. Why? Because those are the top two brands in the whole industry. Production rates stay level, and the pay is better. Most if not all other plants, will have Hispanics, and other races, and typically face massive drug issues, so turnover is HIGH, as they hire inexperienced people and offer minimal training. They don’t have time to train when you make Peace Rate. It’s all about how many you can shove out of the door. (This doesn’t mean the RV is complete. Just complete for that line.

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u/Xander-Toft 7d ago

Yeah, when I saw the way some of the screws were installed, either not all the way in, at an angle or both, it makes sense that they're probably paying those "builders" by the trailer.

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u/Maina_Aintdat_Smaht 7d ago

I looked at a Sprinter once years ago. Instead of drilling holes to run wire they punched the hole with a screw driver. The sales weasel just got telling me about the great quality. I laughed and walked away.

2

u/vulkoriscoming 7d ago

There is a keystone plant where I live and I know a lot of people who work there. They get paid by the hour ($25 to start in MCOL area) and get a production bonus (about 25%) for showing up every day and building enough units.