Cougar or Sundance..opinions

We're in the process of trying to find our next fiver. This will be our third in 5 years...each previous unit was going to be "the last one we'll need" hehehe...so here we are. I think we're really focusing on the Cougar 322QBS and the Sundance 3300FB. Both are front bunk models and very similar in floor plan and appearance. My question is I wonder what folks think are the functional differences between these two manufacturers? I have looked at the Sundance and am awaiting the Cougar model to come in so we can go view it. I realize this is a Heartland biased forum, but I'm sure some here have compared these two manufacturers.

So...what do you think?

thanks in advance.

z

Well I can tell you that my son has a cougar and I have a heartland Bighorn. I had a Keystone outback before the big horn and only had it for a year or so. It was falling apart daily as we owned it and always had problems getting it repaired. We then went to the forums and also RV.net and started asking questions and all of the good answers came up with the Heartland products. We then started shopping around at the dealers and ended up with the Bighorn. That was a years and a half ago and still think we made the best buy. Everytime we had a problem it was addressed and fixed without a hitch. My wife and I went to the Heartland rally in Goshen and toured the plant and met most of the people that build and repair the units and that alone sold us on the Bighorn and the service we get. I will never buy another 5th wheel that isn't a Heartland. My son couldn't get his cougar fixed right half of the time and then the warrenty was out. Thank goodness he is handy and has been able to fix all of his problems himself. He will be buying a new fiver in the near future and he is already talking about Heartland products. Hope this helps you make your mind up and I know you would be happy with the Heartland unit you buy. Also on this forum people are always helping with problems that arise and they have helped me several times with things I just didn't know. Good luck with you purchase and welcome to the family of Heartland owners. Also the rally next year is going to be in Nashville TN and it would be nice to meet you there.

We bought our Eagle Ridge this summer and compared it closely to the Cougar. My wife liked the interior details (decorating) a bit better in the Cougar, but when you get down to the structural details, the Heartland has 1st place...hands down! Start by looking at the wheels on the Cougar...6 bolt 15" wheels which are typical of 3500 to 4000 lb axles. The ERidge has 8 bolt 16" wheels with 10 ply tires, exceeding 6000 lb per axle. The ER has bigger brakes. Check out the wall construction, the ER is a full 2" with solid foam fill. I think the Cougar was 1.5" thick. The ER has a better constructed roof with solid foam insulation. Check many RV websites, many complaints about the Cougar tire failures...they are underdesigned and almost immediately overloaded with just normal weekender camping stuff.

The more carefully you look, the more you see that the Heartland product is really a better product (although mine has not been perfect either). But I don't have to take travel time to change tires by the side of the road with cars whizzing by at 70 mph.

Check the improved suspension on the ER, gives a smoother ride for the coach.

Check the storage (bsmt) area on the ER vs the Cougar.

Check out the resources the dealer has. Our Heartland dealer has 8 service bays and gets work done. The Cougar dealer had no service dept, but contracted out to a single bay shop.

I am glad I made a careful comparison. The Cougar was a nice looking coach, but the Heartland was a better overall 5er.

Look carefully (I carried a creeper with me to inspect the bottom too) and make up your own mind.

Happy RVing!!

Paul_in_MN

Like you we were looking at Cougars and Sundances 2 years ago. Both were nice units and in the same price category. After looking at both we decided that the Sundance was a better choice. It has a better fit and finish and comes with larger tanks and several other things that just made it a much better choice. Nothing against the Cougar but the Sundance is a better unit. We have not been sorry we chose the Sundance.

We too almost bought a Cougar but it was a lot heaver and cost $10k more for basically the same unit. The tanks are larger on the Sundance also better wheels, insulation, frame and turning radius.

We had a Cougar bunk house prior to our Heartland. It was about 2.5 years old when we traded it for the Cyclone. It was falling apart! Prior to that, we had a Zepplin (by Keystone). We traded it after 6 months for a number of reasons but one was certainly quality related. Yes, we've had a few issues with the Cyclone, but not nearly as many as with the Keystone products. Heartland appears to be far superior!

westxsrt10 said:

We too almost bought a Cougar but it was a lot heaver and cost $10k more for basically the same unit. The tanks are larger on the Sundance also better wheels, insulation, frame and turning radius.

Click to expand...

Huh...the comparable Cougar, 322QBS is longer, has a third slide and is actually lighter than the Sundance in this case. I do like quite a few things about the Sundance 3300FB better, but the wife and kids like the things about the Cougar better (slide in front bunkhouse, dinette and couch are reversed and TV is on kitchen wall in main living space so you can sit on the couch and not have to look to one end of the rig to see it)

I can't remember, but...do the Sundance models have hydraulic slides? I remember the salesman showing me at least one model that had hydraulic slides vs electric rack and pinion type.

I've also read a bit and found some folks discussing the fully laminated wall construction. Some have said that while it is a very strong construction method, if there is water intrusion or even high heat the wall can delaminate which would be near to impossible to repair. While I'm sure this is a remote possibility I'm curious what you folks may have to say about this.

Thanks for the warm welcome and all the information.

beasleyrl said:

We had a Cougar bunk house prior to our Heartland. It was about 2.5 years old when we traded it for the Cyclone. It was falling apart! Prior to that, we had a Zepplin (by Keystone). We traded it after 6 months for a number of reasons but one was certainly quality related. Yes, we've had a few issues with the Cyclone, but not nearly as many as with the Keystone products. Heartland appears to be far superior!

Click to expand...

We currently have a Keystone Springdale..their low-line fiver. In 4 years it has been completely trouble free. It's no showpiece, but has proven to be very well made. We've put about 15,000 miles on it including a trip from NY to SD, CO, etc and back and I really can't say anything bad about it other than it's just too small for us now. I suppose like anything else, you can get a bad unit.

I'm hoping this new unit will be one we keep for more than 4-5 years (that's what they all say!!) so I'm trying hard to find the best value we can.

Biggziff,

We have the unit below in my sig. While we've had several issues and problems with it ... i.e.: the shock mounts were welded to the frame in the wrong place, the shower leaks, tank sensors failing, someone in the factory went "staple gun happy" on the kitchen cabinets (and their aim wasn't very good either), etc, etc. But, Heartland always came through for us and what they couldn't fix to my satisfaction, I did myself (but Heartland did try to fix the problem).

We also LOVE the holding tank size. We can camp for a week and not have to worry about the tank capacity. We do take "Navy" showers, but that's about the extent of our water saving (Me, wife and 2 young boys).

Another item that sold us on the Sundance was the REAL RESIDENTIAL sized queen bed. I'm 6 feet tall and my feet always hung over the end of the bed on the other units we've had. Also, when we upgraded our house's queen to a king ... we put the that one inplace of the rv's bed. We sleep really nice in the rv now.

The last item is that we liked the standards and options on the Sundance better than other manufactures. A couple of them are: the ability to ungrade the axles/wheels from 15" to 16"; "up size" the fridge to a 10 (?) cubic foot, from an 8 (?) and it came with a 10 gallon water heater standard.

Regards,

Thanks, JohnM...The details on the Sundance are very nice I'll admit. I've been reading on here and elsewhere and do find the commonality of the types and amount of issues somewhat troubling. Water leaks (plumbing and structure) seem to be pervasive and have been talked about for several years. I'd think there would be a point in time where you stop hearing about the same issues indicating that the factory has addressed the problem at the assembly point, but it doesn't seem to be happening. I'm not sure what to make of that.

I'll keep researching and looking at the Heartland products for now.

Johnm said:

Biggziff,

We have the unit below in my sig. While we've had several issues and problems with it ... i.e.: the shock mounts were welded to the frame in the wrong place, the shower leaks, tank sensors failing, someone in the factory went "staple gun happy" on the kitchen cabinets (and their aim wasn't very good either), etc, etc. But, Heartland always came through for us and what they couldn't fix to my satisfaction, I did myself (but Heartland did try to fix the problem).

We also LOVE the holding tank size. We can camp for a week and not have to worry about the tank capacity. We do take "Navy" showers, but that's about the extent of our water saving (Me, wife and 2 young boys).

Another item that sold us on the Sundance was the REAL RESIDENTIAL sized queen bed. I'm 6 feet tall and my feet always hung over the end of the bed on the other units we've had. Also, when we upgraded our house's queen to a king ... we put the that one inplace of the rv's bed. We sleep really nice in the rv now.

The last item is that we liked the standards and options on the Sundance better than other manufactures. A couple of them are: the ability to ungrade the axles/wheels from 15" to 16"; "up size" the fridge to a 10 (?) cubic foot, from an 8 (?) and it came with a 10 gallon water heater standard.

Regards,

Click to expand...

Here is a link to the keystone owners forum. There are only 2 pages of fifth wheel posts but you will see that all manufactures have good units and bad.
Good luck with shopping. That is half the fun of buying a new trailer.

http://www.keystonerv.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=23&order=desc

Yianni said:

Here is a link to the keystone owners forum. There are only 2 pages of fifth wheel posts but you will see that all manufactures have good units and bad.
Good luck with shopping. That is half the fun of buying a new trailer.

http://www.keystonerv.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=23&order=desc

Click to expand...

Thanks...I've ben there, but the amount of data there is so small that it is statistically irrelevant. I find RV.net to be a much better source of general data as there are thousands of users posting there.

thanks again