Take as much time as you feel comfortable with. make sure they address (or write down) any of your concerns so they will fix them immediately or in the very near future. The Pre Delivery checklists that MJCARTE posted are VERY NICE TO HAVE.
I ordered my 299BHSL about a month ago and drove 400 miles to a dealer that I felt comfortable with. Looking forward to picking it up when its ready.
Hope you have better luck than we did - the Dealer shafted us royally and I am stuck with a POS that the slides won't extend to the seals because the motors are mounted wrong and the dealer says it was factory so they won't touch it and the factor won't answer As soon as we pay this off we are buying an Airplane and will stay in motels both sides are the same about 2 inches from the seal gaskets the only thing keeping out moisture or air is the one rubber strip like on the bottom of a door
Hope you have better luck than we did - the Dealer shafted us royally and I am stuck with a POS that the slides won't extend to the seals because the motors are mounted wrong and the dealer says it was factory so they won't touch it and the factor won't answer As soon as we pay this off we are buying an Airplane and will stay in motels both sides are the same about 2 inches from the seal gaskets the only thing keeping out moisture or air is the one rubber strip like on the bottom of a door
No - the slide extends until it hits the motor case then grinds... No one will do a D$#N thing - We have lived with this for three years... And it gets worse - this is the second trailer we have owned by Dutchman... the first one had a scratch in the linoleum so we waited patiently (while making payments) for three months until the linoleum came in to repair it. Got to take it out one time... Then after the repair (3 weeks in the shop) we went to pick up the trailer and the tech extends the slide.... RIIP! - Service Manager is standing right there and cringed... She said they would have to ship the trailer back to factory as it was a defect and as a first model year they (Dutchman) would need to take it apart and figure it out....
I walked into the dealership and demanded my money (all of it, including interest) back. The countered by saying they would find something for us and do a straight trade for our inconvenience... - 10 hours later I was home and had signed for this camper... actually ended up paying 10K more for it as they just rolled the old payment into the new one... Do not buy a trailer form the Dutchman Dealer in Tulsa OK.
No - the slide extends until it hits the motor case then grinds... No one will do a D$#N thing - We have lived with this for three years... And it gets worse - this is the second trailer we have owned by Dutchman... the first one had a scratch in the linoleum so we waited patiently (while making payments) for three months until the linoleum came in to repair it. Got to take it out one time... Then after the repair (3 weeks in the shop) we went to pick up the trailer and the tech extends the slide.... RIIP! - Service Manager is standing right there and cringed... She said they would have to ship the trailer back to factory as it was a defect and as a first model year they (Dutchman) would need to take it apart and figure it out....
I walked into the dealership and demanded my money (all of it, including interest) back. The countered by saying they would find something for us and do a straight trade for our inconvenience... - 10 hours later I was home and had signed for this camper... actually ended up paying 10K more for it as they just rolled the old payment into the new one... Do not buy a trailer form the Dutchman Dealer in Tulsa OK.
HOLY SH#T! Sorry, I don't trust sales people (no offense to any of you out there). I usually check everything they say and NEVER buy anything on impulse.
Hey Red, I recently purchased Kodiak 233 RBSL and I have the same gap. Is your unit leaking? As far as I can tell the rubber seal you can see from the outside (when open) is the only weather seal. Do you have a gap on the outside when closed. That would be a big problem. I have been wrong before but that gap is not a deal breaker if your not leaking. There are no seals on the inside of the trailer. Mine anyway not sure about yours. Good luck.
Hey Red, I recently purchased Kodiak 233 RBSL and I have the same gap. Is your unit leaking? As far as I can tell the rubber seal you can see from the outside (when open) is the only weather seal. Do you have a gap on the outside when closed. That would be a big problem. I have been wrong before but that gap is not a deal breaker if your not leaking. There are no seals on the inside of the trailer. Mine anyway not sure about yours. Good luck.
No mine is not leaking moisture inside yet, but we live in Oklahoma and I got curious and ran a thermal image (fire department owned) over the camper and the seals were very RED indicating major heat loss, also you can feel the wind seeping around those seals at 5mph or better winds.... We are not happy and have learned a very valuable lesson.
No - the slide extends until it hits the motor case then grinds... No one will do a D$#N thing - We have lived with this for three years... And it gets worse - this is the second trailer we have owned by Dutchman... the first one had a scratch in the linoleum so we waited patiently (while making payments) for three months until the linoleum came in to repair it. Got to take it out one time... Then after the repair (3 weeks in the shop) we went to pick up the trailer and the tech extends the slide.... RIIP! - Service Manager is standing right there and cringed... She said they would have to ship the trailer back to factory as it was a defect and as a first model year they (Dutchman) would need to take it apart and figure it out....
I walked into the dealership and demanded my money (all of it, including interest) back. The countered by saying they would find something for us and do a straight trade for our inconvenience... - 10 hours later I was home and had signed for this camper... actually ended up paying 10K more for it as they just rolled the old payment into the new one... Do not buy a trailer form the Dutchman Dealer in Tulsa OK.
RED, I'm from Tulsa as well, I just purchased a 2017 Dutchmen Kodiak Ultimate from Bob Hurley RV. I'm just curious which dealership you went through?
I had an absolute horrible experience purchasing from them, starting with negotiating the deal, once we came to a price we both agreed on they ran our credit, then the salesman noticed that he had wrote down the incorrect VIN. So we wasted that time negotiating a price on a trailer that we hadn't even seen.
We finally negotiated a new price for the actual trailer we were shown, it ended up being about $1000 more.
We get there to do the walk through and pick up the trailer, it's 39 degrees and pouring down rain, and yes you guessed it they had us do everything outside.
Heater didn't work because they loaded 2 empty propane bottles.
Vent hood did not work during walk through.
This particular trailer has auto leveling that was installed by the dealer, we pointed out to the tech that the rear leveling jacks looked like they were hanging low when fully raised. He assured us that they just appeared to be hanging low because the camper was parked in a dip in the parking lot, so we assumed he knows more than us right??? WRONG, hooked up to the trailer and drove about 20ft and the rear jacks were scraping the parking lot. They called some other techs out who said no those are too low we can't send it out like that.
They called me up the next week and said we can't find the same rear leveling jacks in the proper length, so we are ordering rear stabilizer jacks and they will not be able to level. At that point I had enough, I was able to get a hold of the general manager, it was about his 15th day on the job there. After I spoke with him our experience started to get better. He made sure they got the correct jacks, he went out of his way to make things right. Even compensated us after it was all said and done.
So although it was a horrendous experience initially, I have hopes that the new GM can turn things around for them. Only time will tell.
We've only had the trailer for 1 week, but so far so good.
I had an absolute horrible experience purchasing from them, starting with negotiating the deal, once we came to a price we both agreed on they ran our credit, then the salesman noticed that he had wrote down the incorrect VIN. So we wasted that time negotiating a price on a trailer that we hadn't even seen.
We finally negotiated a new price for the actual trailer we were shown, it ended up being about $1000 more.
We get there to do the walk through and pick up the trailer, it's 39 degrees and pouring down rain, and yes you guessed it they had us do everything outside.
Heater didn't work because they loaded 2 empty propane bottles.
Vent hood did not work during walk through.
This particular trailer has auto leveling that was installed by the dealer, we pointed out to the tech that the rear leveling jacks looked like they were hanging low when fully raised. He assured us that they just appeared to be hanging low because the camper was parked in a dip in the parking lot, so we assumed he knows more than us right??? WRONG, hooked up to the trailer and drove about 20ft and the rear jacks were scraping the parking lot. They called some other techs out who said no those are too low we can't send it out like that.
They called me up the next week and said we can't find the same rear leveling jacks in the proper length, so we are ordering rear stabilizer jacks and they will not be able to level. At that point I had enough, I was able to get a hold of the general manager, it was about his 15th day on the job there. After I spoke with him our experience started to get better. He made sure they got the correct jacks, he went out of his way to make things right. Even compensated us after it was all said and done.
So although it was a horrendous experience initially, I have hopes that the new GM can turn things around for them. Only time will tell.
We've only had the trailer for 1 week, but so far so good.
Sounds like a great resolution after a really lousy start. Despite all the BS I would consider yourself lucky. I can’t even get a call back from the owner/dealer or GM at the dealership where I purchased mine and I have been either lied to or been given incorrect information on my rig a few times by their service department and they could care less at the top levels of the dealership.
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