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I wanted to share my Keystone buying experience with those considering a new RV purchase. My wife and I live in Northern Indiana, and after an especially hot, humid Labor Day weekend of 2012, we made the decision to buy a travel trailer.

Next we had to decide what to buy and how much to spend. We spent nearly an entire day at an RV show that came to our city that following year, I believe in February of 2013. After looking at every design and type, we made the decision on a Keystone Bullet 298BHS. We took delivery sometime in April of 2013, and at first, it seemed like a well-built unit sporting awesome graphics, and what appeared to be solid interior furnishings.

We were really excited with the back bedroom and the number of people it would sleep, the prospect of bringing others (in addition to our two children) with us camping. We were pleased with what we saw, however it is what we could not that would have us regretting our decision to buy Keystone. Later that year, in the fall, my then 9 year old daughter decided one night that she wanted to sleep in one of the top bunks. Off to bed we went, only to hear a loud THUD in the middle of the night, followed briefly by a silence, then a terrifying scream from our daughter.

Rushing towards to back, Im turning on lights along the way. When I reached the rear of the unit, I found my daughter lying on the floor, mouth bleeding and crying her eyes out. As her mother and me tended to her bleeding mouth and trying to calm her, I couldnt help but notice that the upper bunk had completely collapsed. I was astonished that this bunk had collapsed under the weight of this 50lb girl.

The bunk had collapsed because the screws holding the supports onto the walls had the wrong screws in them. So when it failed, it caused huge deep gouges in the wall. We were fortunate of two things, our daughter was not seriously hurt, and the unit was under warranty. I promptly took it to the dealer and they replaced the back wall due to the gouges, and new wallpaper.

It was then that the tech told me that he found the screws holding in the supports were the wrong ones, and were probably only into the wall. He also stated that he went ahead and checked the other bunk to be safe and found those screws to be the wrong shorter ones as well. Next problem we had was the front hatch doors constantly leaking. We fought this problem for almost a year.

We complained 14 months into our ownership and were told by our dealer that the unit is out of warranty, and nothing could be done. I replaced both front hatch door seals at the tune of $100 to stop the leaks. Pretty lousy I thought considering this to be a brand new unit just over a year old. We had other smaller issues with the unit over the past few years, more than I want to write or reminisce about.

However the final straw was this summer, when we took our unit out to South Dakota. On the way there, we noticed that the lights kept going out. Apparently there was a broken wire inside the 7-way trailer cord, which made it a priority to replace that. Also on the way there, the drivers side plastic skirting that mounts directly over the wheels had become broken and flying around.

I had to pull over to investigate, and found that the cheap thin metal supports had all broken which caused excessive vibration and caused the paper thin plastic skirting to break like glass. That was another $150 to replace that, as well as fashion new supports. When I looked at the other side, it was the same situation, all 3 supports were broken, and the skirt was broken as well, just not as bad and I was able to salvage it. While we were in S.

Dakota, it became apparent that the HVAC system did not want to operate properly. The A/C would turn on, but when it stopped, it would not start back up until you physically turned it off and then back on. I had to buy a new control unit and thermostat on the recommendation of the dealer to fix that problem. Also on this trip we had to replace both the shower hose which had a cracked end and the head because the switch that is supposed to stop the water quit working.

Needless to say, I could not be a more miserable Keystone buyer. I will admit that this was my first RV, but I guess my ignorance rested solely in the fact that I didnt realize (or didnt want to believe) that RV companies sold products that were this prone to repair. Reckless workmanship as well as cheap materials is what I received for my roughly $25 purchase.

After our trip this summer, my wife and I have decided that we need to trade this unit in before things get any worse, and never ever again look twice at a Keystone product. They love to post some very pleasant reviews about their products on their website, lets see if they will post this one.

Reason of review: Bad quality.

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