NHTSA Recall Data
RV recalls by manufacturer
See how many safety recalls every RV maker has filed since 2016, and how many of them involved a fire, crash or injury risk. Every figure comes straight from the federal recall database.
RV recalls on file · 2016–2026
1,811
Filed by 87 RV makers. 624 name a fire risk. Newest on file: October 28, 2026.
The ranking
In plain terms: Forest River, Inc. has filed the most RV recalls since 2016 — 460 of them. The five biggest filers account for 54% of all 1,811. A company that builds more RVs files more recalls, and no one publishes how many RVs each company builds. So this shows who filed what. It cannot show whose RVs are more likely to be recalled.
Tap a column heading to re-rank the list, or a maker to see every recall it filed.
Ranked by how many separate recalls each maker has filed. One recall can cover a single model or a dozen.
Informational only, not professional advice. A recall count is not a safety rating, and this page does not tell you whether a particular RV has an open recall.
Methodology
Source. NHTSA Recalls Data on the U.S. Department of Transportation open-data portal — the complete federal recall table, published by NHTSA and free to download. We take every record with recall type “Vehicle” received by NHTSA from January 1, 2016 onward: 9,646 campaigns across all vehicle makers. The window is ten full calendar years plus the current one; older summaries are often too brief to classify reliably.
Which filers count as RV makers. The dataset has no “RV” field and no make or model columns — only the filing manufacturer and free text. A filer counts as an RV maker when at least 50% of its campaigns in the window name an RV product in their subject or defect summary. The split is wide in practice: nearly every RV builder is above 75%, while companies that supply motorhome chassis but do not build RVs — Ford, Daimler Trucks, Shyft Group — are under 30% and are left out. One maker, Storyteller Overland, is included by hand because its summaries name the van rather than calling it a motorhome. The exact pattern matched:
MOTOR ?HOME|TRAVEL TRAILER|FIFTH[- ]WHEEL|RECREATIONAL (VEHICLE|TRAILER)|TOY ?HAULER|CAMPER|CAMPING TRAILER|PARK MODEL|\bRVS?\b
Which of their campaigns count. Some RV makers also build other things under the same corporate name — Forest River files for its buses, cargo trailers and work trucks too. A campaign is dropped when the sentence naming the recalled product matches the pattern below and the record never mentions an RV anywhere. That removed 63 campaigns, leaving 1,811 from 87 makers.
\bBUS(ES)?\b|\bTRUCKS?\b|CARGO TRAILER|HORSE|LIVESTOCK|AMBULANCE|SHUTTLE|UTILITY TRAILER|DUMP|FLATBED|DELIVERY|LIMOUSINE|BOX VAN|SERVICE BOD|ROCKPORT
Fire, crash and injury. NHTSA’s own severity flags (“do not drive”, “park outside”) are set on fewer than 1% of RV campaigns, so they cannot rank anything. Instead each campaign is tagged from NHTSA’s consequence summary — the sentence describing what could happen if the defect is not fixed. A campaign can carry more than one tag, so the three columns can add up to more than the recall count. A handful of labelling campaigns name no hazard and carry none.
fire: \bFIRE|BURN crash: CRASH|LOSS OF CONTROL|COLLISION injury: INJUR|DEATH|FATAL|CARBON MONOXIDE|SHOCK|ELECTROCUT
RVs affected. The sum of NHTSA’s “potentially affected” figure across a maker’s campaigns. It is the maker’s own estimate of how many units could have the defect, and one RV covered by two recalls is counted twice. A single filing can dominate it: Keystone RV Company’s campaign 17V755000 (fire extinguisher may be clogged or inoperable) covers 1,205,997 RVs on its own.
What this ranking cannot tell you
- Not adjusted for sales. No public source reports how many RVs each maker builds, so recalls per RV built cannot be calculated. Raw counts favor small builders.
- Filers, not brands. Counts follow the company that filed with NHTSA. Brands filed under a parent (Coachmen under Forest River, Dutchmen under Keystone) are not broken out, and filers that share a parent company are not combined, because NHTSA does not combine them.
- Chassis and appliance recalls are missing. A recall on a motorhome’s Ford or Freightliner chassis is filed by the chassis maker. A recall on a refrigerator, furnace or axle is usually filed by its supplier as an equipment recall. Neither appears in the RV builder’s count here, even though the owner of the RV is affected.
- Keyword rules make mistakes. A small maker whose filings never use an RV term is missed, and an occasional non-RV campaign slips through. The rules are printed above so anyone can check them.
- A snapshot, not a live feed. Data pulled November 2, 2026.
Last reviewed: September 2026
Frequently asked questions
Which RV manufacturer has the most recalls?
Forest River, Inc. has filed the most: 460 recall campaigns between 2016 and October 28, 2026, covering 818,087 RVs. Jayco, Inc. is second with 181 and Keystone RV Company third with 146. These are raw counts from NHTSA's recall database and are not adjusted for how many RVs each company builds.
Does more recalls mean a worse RV?
Not by itself. A company that builds ten times as many RVs will file far more recalls even if each RV is just as well made, and no one publishes how many RVs each manufacturer builds, so recalls per RV built cannot be calculated. A recall also means a defect was reported and a fix was ordered, normally at no cost to the owner, which is the system working. Use the counts to see what kinds of problems a maker has had, not to declare a winner.
Why isn't my RV's brand on the list?
NHTSA records the company that filed the recall, not the brand on the badge. Brands owned by a larger builder are filed under that builder: Forest River's filings cover Coachmen, Palomino and Prime Time models, and Keystone's cover Dutchmen and CrossRoads models. A brand is also missing if its maker filed no RV recalls in the period, or if too few of its filings describe the product as an RV for our rule to pick it up.
How current is this ranking?
It is a snapshot of NHTSA's recall database taken on November 2, 2026. The newest recall in it was received by NHTSA on October 28, 2026. NHTSA adds RV recalls most weeks, so check nhtsa.gov/recalls for anything filed since.
Guides
- RV Recalls 2016–2026: What Ten Years of the Federal Record ShowsHalf of every RV covered by a recall in the last ten years traces to a single fire extinguisher. An analysis of 1,789 NHTSA recall campaigns, 87 RV makers and 4,994 owner complaints.
- What an RV Maker's Recall Count Tells You (and What It Can't)More recalls does not mean a worse RV. What a recall is under federal law, why big builders file more, and the three things a recall record is actually good for.
Related tools
Every RV maker ranked by the safety complaints owners have filed with NHTSA since 2016 — with fire, crash and injury reports, and recall counts alongside.
Open tool →RV Complaints by ModelThe RV models owners have complained about most to NHTSA since 2016, with fire, crash and injury reports and the part owners name most for each.
Open tool →RV Recall LookupLook up the NHTSA recalls and owner complaints on file for a specific RV make, model and year — live from the federal database.
Open tool →