Dutchmen Kodiak Lite reviews

We bought this at the Seattle RV show in 2020. We liked the floor plan and storage. Upon getting the trailer home and working on it I started to discover the total lack of pride of workmanship. The drawers next to door would not stay closed and the faces were damaged when they hit the steps. The drawer under the frig was not properly installed and the slide rails pulled loose from the cabinet framing and it would not stay closed. The bath fan fell apart on the way home. Handles on the closets pulled loose due to thread stripping in the handles. Holes for outlets were made with a hammer rather than a saw; holes were just ragged openings. When looking behind the drawers and power panel the wiring was just thrown in, no attempt to organize or put in wire bundles. No access to the by-pass valves for the water heater resulting in not being able to winterize the trailer without wasting gallons of antifreeze. TV, Panasonic 42 inch, was a home unit, not one designed to be in a trailer. The Furrion radio face was just blank, could not see what was on it. No manual with the trailer except for a generic one that applied to all Keystone/Dutchmen trailer; there were manufacturer manuals for specific items such as the microwave but not one for this model of trailer. When I asked specific questions of Dutchmen Support they could not answer them and just referred me to the dealer; as an example one question I asked concerned a switch on one panel that was labeled "Electric". Only after asking the question on the Dutchmen forum could I get an answer; customer support is a joke. It has taken over two months to get parts under warranty so the trailer has just been sitting there waiting. Our previous trailers, Forrest River, were much better made and their support was excellent.

We purchased this TT to replace a smaller one. The workmanship is pathetic, drawers will not stay closed because the glides were not installed correctly, cabinet handles were stripped (not the screws but the handle itself) and come loose every time they are pulled on, vent handle in bath falls off due to thread stripping. The fresh water tank leaks, luckily under the floor and drains outside. The cold water plumbing under the sink has a "T" connection in the line with the branch going to an off/on valve the output of which is an open tube, not connected to anything. When looking inside the cabinets it looks like the installers used a hammer to create opening in walls to pass wires and plumbing through. The wiring is like spaghetti, just thrown in with no thought to organization. There is construction debri everywhere which should have been cleaned up. The water heater is supposed to have a bypass but there is no way to access it without tearing the cabinet apart or creating an opening in the exterior wall. There are no covers over the vents on the roof like quality trailers have. The thermostat is a really cheap one that costs less than $10 at WalMart, the kind that is spring loaded and would spring back to off after being set and it only operates the heater, not the A/C. The factory specifications indicate that a DVD player is standard but there is not one. The factory specifications state that the tires are 205/75R15 but the tires on the trailer are 205/75R14 and are an off brand that should not be driven over 50 MPH per their speed rating. The 12Vdc wiring is all 6 gauge whereas for the amp load in the trailer it should be 2 gauge. The shore power is 30 amp; the minimum wire size for 30 amp is 8 gauge which the factory used, however, because the A/C, microwave, refrigerator all require a higher amperage the wiring should be a larger gauge if multiple devices are running at the same time, at least 6 gauge in my opinion. Circuit breakers in the power panel were double taped when there are open circuit breaker locations on the bus. I weight 205 lbs and when I lay on the mattress it bottoms out so it is like laying directly on the plywood base. My impression is that the factory line workers did not give a (bleep) about quality nor pride of workmanship. Just crank the trailer out as fast as you can, just make it pretty on the surface. I contacted Keystone support with several questions; their only response was to contact the dealer we had bought from; seemed to me they did not know the answer and were not willing to ask anyone else. My recommendation after owning several trailers is to look at other manufacturers/brands. Our last trailer was a Forest River which I had no complaints about; it's quality was far superior to Keystone.