diff --git a/cluster/mesos/docker/config-default.sh b/cluster/mesos/docker/config-default.sh
index ebee2f1cbe..7d732e4ba8 100755
--- a/cluster/mesos/docker/config-default.sh
+++ b/cluster/mesos/docker/config-default.sh
@@ -62,3 +62,7 @@ MESOS_DOCKER_WORK_DIR="${MESOS_DOCKER_WORK_DIR:-${HOME}/tmp/kubernetes}"
 
 # Arguments to pass to docker-engine running on the mesos-slave-dind containers.
 DOCKER_DAEMON_ARGS="${DOCKER_DAEMON_ARGS:---log-level=error}"
+
+# Force a dump of the logs into ${MESOS_DOCKER_WORK_DIR}/log on kube-down.sh. By
+# default this only happens when kube-up.sh fails.
+MESOS_DOCKER_DUMP_LOGS="${MESOS_DOCKER_DUMP_LOGS:-false}"
diff --git a/cluster/mesos/docker/util.sh b/cluster/mesos/docker/util.sh
index ec39a290e1..d6d5de68f9 100644
--- a/cluster/mesos/docker/util.sh
+++ b/cluster/mesos/docker/util.sh
@@ -317,7 +317,7 @@ function validate-cluster {
 
 # Delete a kubernetes cluster
 function kube-down {
-  if [ "${MESOS_DOCKER_DUMP_LOGS:-false}" == "true" ]; then
+  if [ "${MESOS_DOCKER_DUMP_LOGS}" == "true" ]; then
     cluster::mesos::docker::dump_logs "${MESOS_DOCKER_WORK_DIR}/log"
   fi
   echo "Stopping ${KUBERNETES_PROVIDER} cluster" 1>&2