Howdy fine Heartland community folks. As you can see I’m new to posting here, but I’ve been lurking around for some time now, about a year equaling the ownership of our first Heartland product. As was requested by some folks who took some level of interest in my “venting” on another thread, they asked to know more about what had happened to us.
So in all of it’s wordy details, here is the chronicle of our Heartland ownership experience to date. I’d like to also preface this with, one of the reasons we purchased a Heartland product was largely due to our research of this community site, and the mostly good ownership stories and helpful community support we saw here prior to our purchase; you can say it is what pushed us over the edge in making our purchase decision.
We purchased our new 2014 Big Horn 3610RE from Camping World in Oakwood, GA the week of June 22, 2014. Our sales associate worked with us through our deal and navigated the requested accessory add-ons we had made with ease. Not being new to RV ownership (this is our 6th unit - coming from an American Coach product), we know what we want. Upon delivery and through PDI, 5 issues were discovered as needing warranty correction:
Lighting in utility bay inoperable
Dinette window broken (chip in glass, windows were colliding with one another)
Large Living Room slide out alignment problem, window nearest door scrubbing wall causing gasket tearing and wall stress
Various MCD shades will not roll-up, no tension
Living room TV soundbar has no sound from TV
With these initial issues noted, I figured the list wasn’t too bad, we decided knowing there could be more since we’re not new to this rodeo that we’d still take delivery of the 5th wheel for an inaugural 4th of July 2014 quick shake down trip to Chattanooga. On that trip up from our home base in Atlanta the following was discovered and as such an emergency fix had to be made, and some more minor issues were found:
Residential side-by-side refrigerator was improperly installed and it slid partially out of it’s place while going down the road..
We had to remove the fridge ourselves on the trip for two reasons:
It was not secured and the factory installation was so poor the upper brackets that were supposed to attach to the fridge itself; one was laying on the floor behind the fridge (they completely missed attaching it) the other was installed cocked and two of 4 screws were in the top of the fridge, the 2 of 4 screws that were also supposed to attach to the wall had pulled out of the wall.
We failed to test water to the fridge during PDI, I hooked up and turned on water on that first trip, discovered the ice maker line was off to the fridge - turned it on. Heard a hissing, I thought was the fridge and icemaker filling up. About 10 minutes later water is pouring out of the exterior of that slide out. When we pulled out the fridge, we also discovered that the icemaker line was crushed when they allowed the fridge to roll over it during installation.
Had to goto home depot and do an on the spot fix for the icemaker line, secure it to the back wall. Also had to implement a way to secure the fridge itself, and I came up with a strap system to ensure this baby wasn’t going anywhere when going down the road.
Hydraulic pump/motor issue
It wasn’t immediately clear yet, but when we would operate the 6 point Lippert level-up system, the pump would only run for about 20 seconds then stop for about 20 seconds. I first thought this was a systematic process of the levelers themselves, but wasn’t sure until we went to return home. The same stall was then occurring when trying to bring the slide outs in.
LED in-ceiling light over kitchen pantry become inoperable
6 cabinet door hinges separated from doors, doors falling off
Bathroom sink will not drain
Black tank valve doesn’t close/seal all the way
All compartment door locks - keys inoperable/seized up
Upon return from our trip we decide to engage a different dealership since the CW location we purchased from had very poor service reviews and take it to another, very reputable dealership to begin working through all of the issues to date, minus the fridge problems. 2 months goes by and a few of the minor issues are resolved. We had a trip planned for late September. On that trip the major issues such as the slide out alignment and the hydraulic pump issues continued and worsened as the list grew some more:
Kitchen slide out looks like it’s sagging in the center
4 More cabinet doors fall off their hinges, beyond the 6 that were fixed
Bathroom sink drain is now draining, but the sink stopper is inoperable (disconnected)
Black tank valve now closes, but black tank is now very difficult to get completely drained (not opening fully?)
Slide outs and jack system stall every 10 seconds
Slide out misalignment problem still present
MCD shades were fixed, but all “spun-out” and lost tension again over the 2 week trip
Kitchen sink is leaking from various fittings
Bedroom door will not close
All rear furnace floor vents inoperable (no air flow)
We return from this trip, give 5th wheel back to dealer for a month which they were only able to look at the slide out hydraulic problem and cannot determine what is wrong with it,plus the door issues; take it back out for a quick Thanksgiving trip to Biltmore, and some more:
Electric fireplace has internal meltdown, burns out
12v converter/charger inoperable - replaced on site
2 more cabinet doors…
Trim over entry door falling off
Why? Because whoever installed it couldn’t be bothered to peel the backing off the wall facing side off 2 of the 3 double-sided tape strips that were supposed to attach it to the walls - this is the second sign of fairly shoddy installation handy work
Bedroom door will not close again (was fixed/checked at dealer before leaving), frame is shifting
Left side LP tank stops working
After the Thanksgiving trip, I invited Heartland to allow me to bring our 5th wheel to their location/factory as I’ve seen some manufacturers do when there’s growing concerns, and give them an opportunity to comb through the entire unit and fix everything as I was especially concerned about the slide out sagging. Heartland declined.
We leave the 5th wheel with the dealer until March 2015. We had another small trip planned for February. Almost everything is corrected, except three significant conditions, and while I won’t point a finger directly at the dealer being at fault, Heartland and their various reps did not help the matter and this is where I found Heartland to be less than helpful.
I had to demand (after several failed requests to be heard by Heartland reps who I have seen named here) to be escalated. They were denying claims and it was almost as if they were ignoring details and mine & my dealer's escalation requests. They were not taking the seriousness of the issues and the on going time to resolve them into account. Their escalation matrix has serious issues is still unsuitable to this day. Our issues ultimately were brought to the Director of Southeast Warranty claims (had to request him to give me his title) attention to finally deal with the broken window, but I had to fight to get there, and the customer service remains generally deplorable.
To add to the comedy of errors and problems, Heartland at some point tried to tell our dealer that our warranty was up in April 2015?! We clearly didn’t buy the 5th wheel in April of 2014.
The window finally got authorized for replacement at that level, then Heartland sent the dealer the wrong window. The hydraulic issues remain, and the slideout alignment problem continues and Heartland has refused again to deal with it. I had to pay the dealer to correct the slideout issue in the way they were recommending. At least this fixed the wall and gasket scrubbing.
We are out on a trip now, this was one of our longest drives up to the DC area, and basically the warranty is expiring and our trailer is continuing to fall apart:
Both opposing slideouts in the living room area have now started to dig into the carpeting when brought in
The carpet is getting bunched up going down the center of our living room area. I have to trample it back down so it will lay flat.
Kitchen slide out now has a full-bubble of structural sag (measured with level) inward to center - you can visually see it as well
Found a 3” crack starting to form in the fiberglass shower surround up high on the wall - this thing is huge and I’m sure is not replaceable since it won’t fit through the door, I’m sure this was a built-in place type unit due to its size and being one-piece.
Floor in bedroom developed an un-even spot clearly present under carpet, feels like a joint between two pieces of plywood has lifted or become uneven with one another?
LED strip lighting under awning now has dead and flickering segments
The last 3 unrepaired cabinet doors - guess what?
Convection microwave making a horrible buzzing noise, has an electrical burning smell
3 of the MCD night shades lost tension again on their second use
A dining chair seat bottom broke out (cheap stapled construction and it let go)
Two kitchen drawers missing their ‘catches’ and now opening going down road, handles rubbed opposing kitchen cabinet and damaged finish
120v water heater switch has gotten spongy on turn-on
Rust (?) coming out of both roof A/C units, causing nasty orange/brown streaking across roof, down side walls
Kitchen pendant light broke two welds on inner shade, was hanging loose over sink, upper stem is stress cracked and it swings freely - I expect to find this laying on the counter when we get home from DC
Kitchen sink drains are leaking again - had to fix myself
Two BlowMax tire failures on Father’s Day on drive up to DC
One catastrophic, ripped out fender well, caused sidewall damage, rear hydraulic jack line broken - while this isn’t Heartland’s fault directly, they did put under-rated garbage tires on this trailer - insurance claim
Second tire on opposite side was caught a mile after first and started to exhibit full belt separation when I stopped to check air pressures at next exit after first failure and spare swap on roadside.
Replaced all tires with appropriately rated G-load range Goodyear G614’s via emergency service call
We are worn out from our terrible ownership experience to date. We’ve used our 5th wheel 6 times now, and while we are very experienced owners, we try to say with every positive bone in our bodies we love our 5th wheel. It looked great until recently with the rust staining. We are not loving Heartland and our experience to date. About 9 of the almost 12 months of ownership has been spent at the dealer instead of in our fully covered, partially enclosed storage unit.
This is why we have not joined the owners club, not sure I see any point if we exit ownership unless Heartland magically comes through and our story makes it to the most senior levels of management in the company. We are trying to protect our asset and fix everything but Heartland has shown zero empathy and has been complacent in listening to us so far.
At one time we even had aspirations of upgrading within Heartland’s line in a couple years as we see our travel increasing, but we are now live in fear of what will go wrong next. We were led to believe that Heartland offered a premium product lauding the Big Horn as a Luxury 5th Wheel at this price point, and a best in class ownership experience.
Perhaps we got a lemon in more ways than one. I’m not sure what can be done beyond replace the trailer at this point considering what could be major structural issues developing. I keep asking to speak with executive management and they refuse to give me contact information.
Have a great 4th!