New Bighorn. First trip!

ChopperBill

Well-known member
On our first Bighorn outing we went on a week long dry camp to the cool mountains. Before departure I did all the pre trip deals. On one of my posts I told of the fresh water tank popping out of its moorings. A great concern as we departed and kept a look out in my mirrors for a water tank flying down the road. All was good, Bighorn with water tank intact reached its final destination with no ill results.
Every thing all set up. What a great experience sitting in our new Bighorn in our great surroundings! Renee never did get attached to the Bighorn because she fell in love with our Snowriver truck camper. The TC has some competition for her affections now! Our friends arrived with their Sunnybrook and NEW Jayco Designer. They were in awe over our floor plan and colors. Said we did good! Our friend with the Jayco is the sales manager for one of the top selling Jayco dealerships and said more than once how neat the floor plan was. He loved the decor and the wood work!
All settled in I tried out our new dealer installed Xantrex 3000 inverter. Worked once and never worked again! Kept shutting off and on. The new Kipor 3500 generator saved the trip. Worked flawlessly and even ran the 15,000 BTU A/C at over 9000 feet!
First day and the black tank was at a third. Now come on! I know I am a healthy guy but a third full! After 4 days it said it was full! Laying awake one night I thought "Heartland didn't decide to plumb the shower into the black tank"! Not unheard of in my RV experiences. So the next morning I decided to check it out. Took the panel off the docking station access and found that the bath sink and shower have there own tank! Wife heard my YAHOO inside the coach! Figured the sensors, as usually on most RV's, arnt worth the powder to blow 'em up. However the fresh and grey tanks seems pretty realistic. While in the compartment I came to one conclusion. Heartland need to kick some butt on their plumbing and electrical installers. Who ever laid out the wires and pipes has absolutely no care in their profession! Worse hodge podge mess I have ever seen. Wires and pipes criss crossing each other without any intent of neatness. I found two seeping fittings on the water heater and a drain pipe going to the grey tanks that was leaking because it was not glued at a coupling. I posted earlier about the un connected sani-flush fitting! All of this lack of quality control and lack of worker ethics in one compartment! I realize this is one of the "busiest" areas of the RV and only hope that the rest of the un seen is worry free. Quality control is A+ in the outside and the living areas of the Bighorn. I give it a D to the hidden, but none the less important parts, of the coach. If I hadnt found the un secured black tank flush hose in a timely matter I don't know what I would have scored the unseen side!
Did we make the right choice. Absolutely! We were the proudest couple at the camp site! The Bighorn is laid out great and is a pleasure to reside in. As Renee said this is a life time investment and we will deal with some of the new problems. I have seen shoddy workmanship on the OUTSIDE on a heck of a lot of RV's, who is to knows what THEY are like on the inside.
Going to take ours back to the dealer for some "adjustments" and cant wait for our next trip!
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
Great post Chopper. We drove by our dealer here in Wisconsin Wednesday on the way to work and saw that our 3400 came in. Needless to say we did a U turn and spent some time walking around the outside. The only thing we noticed was the left side storage compartment door is out of square. We stopped on the way home yesterday and got a quick peek at the inside. Looked fantastic. We're scheduled to pick it up Thursday next week. What a birthday present. We've had tow-ables and a Class C and what you say is pretty much true about most manufacturers. The stuff you don't see behind the panels is pretty scary. Fortunately we have a couple months to find the bugs before we hit the road full time. Our last day in the working world is August 11th. I'm also lucky to be able to repair most of the sloppy work myself. Anything major will go back to the dealer. When we pick up our new home I'll look deeper so thanks for the heads up.
 

Uncle Rog

Well-known member
Chopperbill I have to hand it to you, you are on darn near every page I have looked on in this site, good for you. I concur with your sentiments in regards to the B/H's. I just can't wait to get the bugs sorted out with mine. We almost exclusively dry camp, so any loss of water is a pain. See ya !!
 

dieselengineer

Charter Member
Hey Bill
Have you tried the tape measure trick for unhitching? I know you had problems the first time out and reading this I just thought you may have had time to test this trick out.
 

ChopperBill

Well-known member
DE: Haven't tried the tape measure deal. Made a Frisbee out of the lube plate and NOW I can tell when its ready to unhitch. That dog gone B&W hitch just doesn't have much clearance to see any gap with it. Guess that is a good thing as for their tolerances. I will just get out the ole grease bucket! ;)
 

driver311

Well-known member
some B&W hitches will hook with the lube plate and some wont.........experence is the best teacher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

driver311None None
 

ChopperBill

Well-known member
Yep, cut one out and went to put it on. I cut the darn center out to big! Wont stay on! Will try again. If you check out the bucket material it sure looks like it will hold up.
 
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