My wife and I booked this RV for our trip to Detroit in July to catch a
wedding. It was our first RV experience and was a wonderful one. We brought
our two cats with us and they were having the time of their lives. We are
sold on the RV life and will be buying our own soon.I wanted to give this experience a five-star review so bad but
unfortunately, we had too many bumps in the road from the RV itself. The
owners are a super sweet couple and were very responsive when things went
wrong. They are new RV owners and have a limited understanding of their
Dutchmen Express. As a first-time user of an RV, I was hoping that they
could take me through the RV and show me what I needed to know before my
trip. I have always been a learn-on-the-job kinda person and I watched many
YT videos before the trip to try to learn as much as possible and I am glad
I did. The introduction was very brief and we couldn't get the generator to
start initially. We needed to boondock at the wedding reception since we
wouldn't be near any hookups, so this was a bit troubling. They got it
started but I wasn't sure if it was going to work when we got there.Much to my dismay, the generator wouldn't start when we got to the wedding
reception and it was HOT! We tried everything from priming the pump to
checking the air filter to draining some of the oil (it looked overfilled).
Nothing worked so we called Outdoorsy's Roadside Assistance. They wouldn't
be able to get someone out in time before the wedding. Dirty, covered in
oil, and 30 mins before the reception, I nearly gave up hope until I saw a
video suggesting that the battery wasn't supplying enough voltage. I
cranked the engine and turned on the generator and it immediately came to
life! Whew... problem solved and the air is cold again.One of the issues we noticed at our first stop was that the rear roof hatch
above the bed opened up on the road. The knob for opening and closing the
hatch was missing and we couldn't figure out how to close it. We got lucky
the first couple of days as it only rained slightly. We knew it would only
be time before a significant amount of rain would come our way and so this
issue was always in the back of our minds. Plus, the ladder on the back of
the RV was missing, so we couldn't just climb up and close it. One day,
while trucking through Ohio, we saw some pretty heavy dark clouds in the
distance. Fear turned to panic as we tried to figure out what to do. My
wife grabbed a couple of grocery bags and a towel and made a few
adjustments to the hole to keep us dry. This worked until one day, in
Detroit, it started raining cats and dogs. We had some duct tape on board
to try to seal the hatch but the rain proved too heavy and punched a hole
in our seal. The bed was soaked and we had to do something quickly or there
was going to be a lot of water in the rig. In the pouring rain, we noticed
a ladder on the side of the road. I pulled over and the wife grabbed the
ladder. Both of us drenched in rain, we hoisted the ladder against the RV
and she started to climb while I secured the ladder. However, the ground
and the RV were both too slick to keep the ladder secured, and as my wife
got to the top of the RV, the ladder slipped and she came down hard on her
leg. She broke her ankle/tibia in the fall and I had to take her to the ER.
While she was getting Xray-ed, I worked on a solution for the hatch. I was
finally able to get it closed, taping the small hole closed and the hatch
shut. No more water would enter the vehicle again.Heading back down to Georgia, we were bruised and broken but no worse for
the wear. We remained in high spirits and focused on the good things. We
were alive and our cats were well. Our trip would not be soured by small
things.The evening before our last day on the road, I wanted to make sure
everything was okay before heading out that next morning. The engine light
was on so I checked all of the engine parts and made sure that the liquids
were level. I figured it was just something wrong with the gas cap (it
was), so then I moved to the tires. I wanted to check the tire pressure but
didn't have a gauge. That is when I noticed the back right tire seemed a
bit worn out. The side rubber had cracked and it didn't seem very safe to
drive on. Since we were already close to home, I just decided that I would
keep the MPHs below 60 to not risk anything. While crossing the border of
Kentucky into Tennessee, the tire blew. There had been a pothole in the
highway an hour earlier that I tried to avoid but could only slightly
avoid. It caught that tire and could have been the catalyst for what
happened an hour later. The tire exploded randomly on I-75 S and
immediately the RV began to stink. I pulled over right away to check the
damage. Before even getting out of the RV, I knew something bad happened to
the sewage. I went outside to look at the tire and sure enough, it had
popped. Not only that, but the explosion blew a hole into the black water
tank behind it! Oh man, lady luck where are you these days? We immediately
called Outdoorsy Roadside Assistance and had them send for someone to
change the tire to the spare. We waited there on the side of the busy
highway from 3:15 pm until 8:15 pm before we got going again. The service
repairmen kept getting the wrong tools and couldn't take the hubcap off to
change the tires. Looks like we weren't getting back to Atlanta that night.
We stayed the night at a beautiful park in Tennessee before hitting the
road (gently) the following morning. We made it back home safely and my
wife made it to her follow-up medical exams on time. She won't need surgery
and we are very fortunate.Overall, I'd say we had quite the experience. It really was an incredible
trip even though we had a few bumps in the road. However, perspective is
important here and I think we were able to avoid tragedy. The fall could
have been much worse and we are lucky to only come out of it without a very
serious injury. Nothing money and time cannot fix; with time, we will look
back at this adventure as an eventful and overall pleasant story - life
goes on.3.5 stars is probably what I would give the RV review but decided to round
up. The RV needs some work. The owners probably need to give it more
attention and give future renters a full tour of the vehicle before giving
them the keys. Much of what we learned was through the experience itself
and the internet. We did book the trip last minute, so we are very happy
that they accepted us on such short notice. I hope they are able to get the
rig patched up and good to go because we really did like the RV. Thank you
again for letting us call it our home on the road for 9 nights!
