Hey everyone, When we opened up our PUP at the start of the season we noticed that we had a soft spot near the front of the trailer. I called our dealer and asked to have it checked out. They let me know that they've seen this in some of the 2014 Clippers and that Coachmen wants me to send the trailer to them for repair at no cost to me, despite warranty being expired as this is apparently a known issue with these PUP's. They apparently trialled a fully sealed floor, and I guess what happens is any moisture trapped in the floor simply rots it out over time. I will say, top notch service by Coachmen in this regard. We recently picked the trailer up from the dealer and opened it up to prepare for our Canada Day week long trip. I noticed the floor is even softer now, and that the floor towards the back is soft and we can actually hear the wood crunching under foot in one spot. We've had a number of problems with this from the start, so we are quite frustrated at this point. I have to ask, has anyone else seen this problem in their Clipper or similar Viking? I read another thread from a Viking owner who was to return the trailer for repair, but didn't see any follow up. Does anyone else have any experience with doing this?
Hello, Yes.... I currently have our 2014/15 125st at the factory for them to put new floor in. It was just a week out of warranty but had record of dealership looking at problem prior Warranty expiration. I had to pay for transportation which was a bit pricey but the camper is in perfect shape except for the floor. Coachmen has been great so far with the process and should have it sometime this spring. Floor was soft by the door to the point I had was concerned of putting my foot through it. I will keep you posted
Apologies for reopening an old thread, but I want to post the follow up on this. First off, tip of the hat to the dealer and Coachmen for taking care of the problem. We were very fortunate and the dealer had a few new units to be returned and was able to get our 106ST sent to Coachmen under the same freight. By the end of the season the rear of the trailer was so soft that I simply stayed away from the area when we were inside. We received the trailer 2 weeks ago, popped it up and WOW what a difference. Rather than the bottom of the trailer looking like it was wrapped in saran or something, it is simply painted black now. They did a phenomenal job and went above and beyond in how they reassembled the trailer. To note the 'extra' repairs/replacements; 1) First and most noticeable when we picked it up was the new front storage lid as the original tan was replaced with a black lid with a different seal design. Original design was the cause of a severe water leak when driving in a heavy rainstorm which I suspect was the main origin of the rotted floor. Very unfortunately the replaced lid has a tighter hinge on it and because of this, the screws pulled out of the wood so this will need to be repaired - this was apparently noticed by the dealer but only a bandaid solution was used and it broke completely when we opened it up. We were told further repair would be on our dime... kind of dumb, but here we are... 2) Updated flooring! Our 2014 trailer now has the same flooring used in the 2018 models, which looks very sharp. 3) Bed support cables were replaced with brand new as the originals had been chewed up a little bit over the years when they would sometimes get caught around the bed rails. 4) A couple pieces of more heavily worn (worn stain) trim pieces inside the trailer were replaced with new. 5) The hitch and forward frame of the trailer were quite rusty, they cleaned it up and repainted it. 6) The amber porch light was replaced with what appears to be an LED which shines a nice cool white. I am pleased with the quality of the repair... EXCEPT... The sub floor is getting wet!!! At first I thought it was a poorly sealed section, however I discovered that water is reaching the sub floor by running down the front and rear of the trailer, where it slips underneath a piece of trim, which has no sealant on it, and has left watermarks at both the front and rear of the trailer. I am looking at installing a drainage system at both ends of the trailer. With that said though, the bottom of the trailer is obviously going to get wet with rain water when driving in the rain or through puddles, so how severe of an issue could this be? Without the sealed floor, this wood can breathe and dry out, can it not? Up until now, I have never really thought of this - but typically PUP's will just have an exposed wood floor, so how do they survive? How did you make out with your 125, JMUNZ?
Timely thread, we also have a 2014 Coachman clipper and last year (summer 2017) noticed the floor was getting soft in 3 spots, 1 by the door and 2 others by both beds. Now 2018 it's so bad .... I'll be contacting General RV here in Wixom Michigan later today.
Im really curious as to what happened as I have similar issues going on and I live in Lansing, MI. My camper came from the General RV by Wixom too. Thanks.
Well .... long story short .. General RV looked at my pop-up, contacted the manuf , not covered by them, for general RV to fix is huge $$$'s, labor mostly. Like $3k to fix it locally and $6-7k to totally replace the floor! Wow, wow, wow. THe pop-up is not worth that real fix, so I will attempt to do this myself and document it all.
I have a buddy with a 2014 Viking (same as the Clipper) who had the same rotten floor issue. I know he did the fix himself so I'll try and track down some photos to show the repair process.
Here's the info from my buddy: Only the front part of my tent trailer floor needed replacement. I took pictures as I was taking everything apart so I would know how to put it all back and kept all the screws organized. Removing the cabinets was the hard part. Lots of staples to pull out. Once that was done I had to cut out all the rotten wood all the way up to the centreline of the nearest frame member (so that I would have something for the new plywood to sit on). An oscillating multi-tool came in handy for cutting out the wood (OSB). Prying out the old wood from underneath the walls was a pain. I'm not sure if there is any easier way without having to disassemble the whole trailer but I just kept prying it out a piece at a time. You have to get it all out so you can get the new wood in there to be sitting on the frame. I tried to keep the underlying tarp material in tact while cutting and just patched any holes with tarp tape later on. I also went nuts with Proflex RV caulking everywhere, especially around the walls. I treated the plywood with water sealant before installing it. To attach new plywood, I used a metal drill bit to predrill the holes in wood and frame and then attached the plywood to the frame with stainless steel metal screws. You need to have every edge of your plywood sitting on a frame (obviously). Once I had fixed the floor and installed linoleum I put everything back together. I used a brad nailer with some staples to redo areas that had previously been stapled by the manufacturer. I also had to replace a section of the front wall that I had to rip out for access. I used some really thin plywood for that. My mistake was not covering it over the winter. Also, the way the trim was installed front of the trailer made it possible for water to get in past the tarp material. I made sure to seal that up. Should be good now. Total repair cost was only around $200 since I only had to buy a few materials and did it myself.
Sorry you are having a really hard time. I hope it eventually all turns around for you. Keep us updated as you work on it. Thanks.
Thx for posting the pictures ... when your friend fixed it was he able to find the water path that made the floor rot?
Well he was foolish and didn't cover the pup at all over the Winter and we get a lot of rain on the west coast in the Winter. Given the worst of the rot was at the front of the trailer, he thinks water got in at the bottom at the front of the trailer, where it meets the frame. There's a trim piece that runs along the front of the trailer that wasn't sealed.
I have a 2017 i hope this is no something i will have to deal with. Though it is garage kept during the off season.
Well I guess I should make my own floor rebuild thread, as I’ve totally taken everything out of the box now , and soon will embark on floor replacement . Any rationale reason why Forrest River , manuf for coachman, uses OSB not marine treated plywood for the floor? (Beyond the $50-60 cost difference ... I can’t comprehend why they use untreated osb)
I think it is a cost cutting measure, which is frustrating! I've found the build quality on our clipper isn't as good as some of the other brands like Fleetwood and Rockwood. I hope the floor replacement goes smoothly.
Its sad manufacturers use subflooring that fails if you miss a leak. The boat industry started putting in composite floors decades ago. The same should go in RVs. My 1974 Apache had marine plywood flooring and also had it in the bunk ends. I feel certain it got wet many times over the first 30 years prior to me owning it. The wood in it was rock solid.
We borrowed a friends 1980’s Coleman popup for our Sumer 2014 trip, before I bought mine, and same, rock solid floor.
I am the friend he is referring to. Mine does not have the front storage compartment like some models and the front outside black trim piece which sits at floor level was stapled all the way along it’s length. The staples perforated through the underlay tarp material and went right into the flooring. Any water coming down the front of the trailer would pool inside the trim (no caulking here either) and could go through the holes and saturate the OSB floor. That’s my theory anyways. Whose idea at the factory it was to staple the trim I’m not sure but it seems like a poor design choice! I removed the staples and caulked along the trim. Have kept the trailer covered as well. So far no further water damage has occurred.
We are knee deep in replacing our floor in our 1999 Coleman Utah and are completely winging it I knew it would be expensive to take it too the dealership repair but had no idea it would cost that much were in Downriver Michigan and would love having someone else to bounce ideas and successes and the ever popular don’t make the same mistake we did “heads up”. We’re also rebuilding the bottom of the galley and cassette potty cabinet due to water and opossum damages.
