Today’s RV review is of the 2023 Dutchmen Yukon 400RL fifth wheel. I was recently talking RV reviews on Facebook and someone asked if I had seen one of these. Frankly, I hadn’t. That means I had to satisfy my curiosity about this brand and floor plan.

Dutchmen

Dutchmen is part of the Keystone RV group which is owned by Thor industries. Keystone has been an absolute leader in democratizing solar among their brands…except for Dutchmen. I’m not sure how or why Dutchmen gets the cold shoulder, but they do. In fact there are a lot of things that don’t come over to the Dutchmen world that are part of the other Keystone nameplates, which is weird to me.

When I was selling RVs one of the brands we carried was Dutchmen’s Kodiak line. Since I had mentioned that Dutchmen was part of Keystone I should also share that we carried Keystone’s Springdale line as well. I would say that the Kodiak and Springdale products were pretty similar in a lot of ways, but different in others.

For example, the Dutchmen products had higher ceilings and were a bit taller, and that’s one of the reasons we liked them a lot. Somehow our customer base seemed to be taller as well so the Dutchmen line was popular with them.

This holds true of the Yukon line in the Dutchmen family as well. The slide boxes are a full seven feet in interior height which means you can easily dodge the ceiling, nice if you’re a taller individual. In fact, even those who aren’t taller might appreciate the more open feel afforded by this greater ceiling height in the slide rooms.

There are a few other things I saw specifically in the Yukon family that caught my attention, including their use of the Hyperdeck flooring. This was something that Keystone featured and it’s essentially one big sheet of plywood that extends the entire length of the floor. That means there are no seams in the sub floor of these which is a good thing.

Any place an RV can find to rattle apart, it’s going to, so eliminating joints is a minor thing that could play out well over time.

But the thing that most jumped out at me on these is the fact that all of the production goes through the company’s PDI process.

PDI processes

One of the things many people don’t realize is that part of your taking ownership of your RV includes what is referred to as a PDI, or Pre-Delivery Inspection.

Typically the responsibility for this falls on the dealership who look through an RV and, hopefully, fix any issues that may have popped up before you take delivery of that RV.

The way the dealership that I worked for did things is to have a technician literally test and operate every single item on the RV. This included the water heater, water system, climate control and even the TV and radio. Everything. Then that same technician would be the one who explained these systems to a customer when they were picking the unit up.

Essentially that technician understood the systems since he had just operated them all so he was more likely to be able to explain those systems to the customer. It really worked well.

Dutchmen’s website reads, We inspect every travel trailer, fifth wheel, and toy hauler that leaves our facility. Each and every one undergoes a thorough 253-point check to ensure accurate measurements, fully-functional electronics and components, and an assurance that the unit reflects the quality standards Dutchmen owners have come to expect. In addition, we utilize a state-of-the-art rain bay where hundreds of gallons of water are poured over the unit to ensure our RVs withstand what Mother Nature throws at them.

While we did spray the RVs with a hose, we didn’t own a rain bay.

Having the manufacturer test all the systems before the RV even leaves the factory is brilliant simply because you have a team on hand who can fix things quickly if there is a problem.

I don’t know if this is how things work there, but I can assume that a technician who finds a problem can simply walk over to wherever Dutchmen has the parts and can replace a part that has an issue with one that doesn’t.

I like this.

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What’s inside

Looking at the layout of these, I have often stated that there is one floor plan that every fifth wheel manufacturer seems to have to make. This is a derivation of that floor plan with the couch along the back, theater seats and dining area along the camp side in a slide room and then an island in the middle with the kitchen on the road side.

I think this is a floor plan where a builder can show what they do differently from others and the Yukon does just this.

To the typical features you’d expect in this floor plan there’s a front almost bar area with additional cabinets and counter space. I could see this serving as a place to do more entertaining or even just as a coffee station for in the morning.

Some of the things I saw that I liked in the kitchen included a large oven and four-burner stove top along with a large microwave. This is a kitchen that someone who likes to cook would likely be satisfied with.

The model I saw; however, had a residential fridge and a Samsung one at that. Bleh. I am no fan of Samsung appliances nor am I a fan of residential refrigerators in RVs. So, since you can get this with an RV-specific 18 cubic foot gas-electric fridge that’s the way I would go.

Why don’t I like residential refrigerators in RVs? Because most appliance people won’t work on them and RV repair people don’t usually have the tools to do so either. Also, if there is a problem with this fridge the only way to get it out the door is removing a slide room or a large window. Period. It will not fit through the door.

Another thing I thought was interesting was the upstairs bathroom, which completely bisects the floor plan. I like this as it gives you the largest bathroom possible.

There is a sliding door to separate the bathroom from the main living space in the RV. Then there’s another on the front of the bathroom to create privacy from the bedroom.

Further, the toilet gets its own little room complete with a small, but mostly worthless, four inch fart fan.

But the shower in here is huge. There is also a large vanity with two bowl-style sinks. This is a great bathroom.

Further, the washer-dryer prep is here in the bathroom rather than in the closets in the front so, should you choose to get a washer and dryer, I think this is a great place for them.

Other pluses

There are a few other things I noticed as well. For example, this has a MorRyde CRE 3,000 suspension which is a decent component. I’ve seen a lot of fifth wheels with corner-cutting suspensions.

I also like that the wheel housings on this are steel, not something you see very often.

But the best feature on the exterior is the big MorRyde sliding tray in one of the two, yes two, front storage bays. That’s pretty slick.

My thoughts

I often wonder why one company would make so, so, so many different minor derivations of a product. For example, consider that Keystone is owned by Thor. They make these Yukons, Cougar, Montana, and Arcadia fifth wheels. And then there’s all the other things Thor makes.

In my mind it would seem so much more efficient to just build a few different models and automate the heck out of the manufacturing process. But what do I know?

Anyhow, I was pleasantly surprised by this fifth wheel offering. There are some really good design features here that I haven’t seen on other even Keystone products. That bathroom, particularly, is something I really like.

Overall a really nice package that’s not as obvious a choice as something this nice should be.

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