Question:
I purchased a 2000 Coleman Niagara this spring.
After a very hectic summer my wife and I decided
to take the camper on her maiden trip. We decided
to go from Columbus Ohio to Cape Cod Ma. We went
as far as buying a new dodge Durango for the trip
to make sure we had no problems on the trip. The
trip out was great we arrived in Cape Cod and
camped the week. The problems started when we set
out to come back to Ohio.
In the manual it tells you to check the lug nuts
on the camper for the first 5, 15, 50 miles then
periodically after that. I did with the supplied
wrench. I noticed no problems with them. Well,
about 300 miles into the trip back I notice a
sound coming from the trailer. I assumed I had a
flat tire. No such luck. The lugs had backed off
and it had eaten the rim and posts. Being 6:30 on
a Saturday over a holiday weekend I called a
towing service and had them take the trailer to a
mechanics shop. Arriving there we found out that
the parts to fix the problem were not going to be
available until Tuesday after Labor Day. The
mechanic suggested that we allow him to weld the
rim to the hub to get us home. After sleeping on
it we decided to allow him to do it so we could
get home. Well, he did and we started out on the
road again. About 300 miles later the weld broke.
We called another towing service and had them
take it back to Columbus for us. All told we
spent about $1000.00 on towing and hotel rooms
because of the problem.
Part II:
We had the tow truck drop the camper off at the
dealership we bought it from. They were amazed at
the damage and told us they would contact
Fleetwood the next day and see what they said.
Fleetwood had them send the hub to them and they
said that it was my fault for not checking the
lug nuts. They refused to pay to repair the
camper or reimburse us for the tows. I was told
that for all they knew someone snuck into the
campground and loosened the lug nuts. What a
line. Well, After that conversation I am going to
be contacting my Better Business Bureau, State
and Federal Attorneys General, Local TV stations,
NTSB, and any other groups I can think of to tell
them about this problem. The impression I got was
that they just did not care that they are selling
a product that was defective. I could have killed
myself or someone else if the wheel had come all
the way off.
A side note. I am extremely disappointed in the
quality of the product I purchased. For over
$12,000 I expect to get a camper that did not
have as many small problems as this camper had. I
won't bother to list them here but it was a list
of about 15 items that the dealer is fixing free
of charge under the warranty.
Has anyone else had a problem like this? Do any
of you have a suggestion on what else I should
do? I will be updating this thread with any
contact/news I receive from them.
Answer:
-Last year we actually had a wheel come off on our brand new Mesa. We
had only towed it about 600 miles and unfortunately didn't check the
lug nuts like we should have. We wound up with a totaled camper that
luckily our insurance covered. Coleman claimed that it was due to us
not checking the lug nuts and didn't cover anything. On our replacement
camper I check them regularly and have found that at first they were
continually loose but after the first few trips they no longer are. We
ran into a family this summer who also had a Coleman that the wheel
came off of and their story was just like ours. I think Coleman must
realize there is a problem because they plaster over everything now to
check lug nuts regularly.
-This is outrageous! You spend over $10,000 for a new pop-up and you cannot
fully enjoy it unless you check the lug nuts every three blocks until they
are finally seated?! Coleman knows there is an issue with the lug nuts and
they're "fix" is to plaster your trailer with stickers reminding YOU to go
behind their 2nd rate design and continually make corrections? Now I
realize there are maintenance issues vehicles but you don't expect the
wheels to fall off towing it home from the dealer and then it be YOUR fault.
Could you imagine buying a car/truck and have to stop every 300 miles to
adjust the bands in the automatic transmission for 1500 miles or so? How
about needing to continually adjust the brakes because the automatic
adjusters don't kick in until 3000 miles?
Wonder if this tactic would have worked for Firestone and Ford?
We were looking at Colemans this spring and almost bought one. I liked
Coleman's exterior styling. A relatively minor issue but they just look
nice sitting there. There were a few other points I liked too. However,
I've read too many negative issues relating to Coleman pop-ups and now I'm
real glad I purchased something else.
For those of you who own a Coleman I wish you nothing but joyous, positive
experiences.
Here's a questions to ponder, and no, I don't know the answer. What's the
usage ratio of Coleman brand pop-ups to all other brands? If there is a
high offset in favor of Coleman then that could be why there appears to be a
disproportionate number of Coleman problems. Just giving Coleman the
benefit of the doubt here.
