New Oregon Big Country Owner

My wife and I have joined the ranks of Heartland Big Country Owners. We will take delivery of our first 5th Wheel with our purchase of the 3355RL Big Country. We have owned 2 Travel Trailers in the past and have made the big step to a better towing experience. We went from a 29' Arctic Fox to this 36' 3355RL.

We will be increasing the total weight being towed from 9000# to 11,500#. My question is this, what kind of impact will this have a fuel economy. We have a 2008 Chevy 2500HD w/ Duramax & Allison 6spd AT. The truck is totally stock. Another question, should I have Air Bags installed on the rear suspension?

Thanks in advance for your responses. We live in Eugene, Oregon and also want to know how many members are from the Pacific NW?

Thanks,

Rick & Linda

Hello from WA State!

We currently have about 10 members in the WA State Chapter of the Heartland Owners Club. OR has a very active chapter and I encourage you to join. We also have a rally in WA in August and your are more than welcome to attend!

The 3355 is a nice floor plan. It is actually what I wanted but DW saw the island kitchen in the 3450 and "end of story". I will send you a PM with some information about your truck and weights since we have such similar rigs!

Best Wishes!

Hi Razduck,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and Family. We have a great bunch of people here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge if needed.

I'm sure you will enjoy your new toy and if you have questions, just ask and someone will be able to help you with an answer.

Enjoy the forum.

Jim M

Welcome to Heartland. There are quire a few of us in Oregon. Check out the Rallys and campouts. They are a blast and a good way to meet fellow owners. Oregon and Northern California are having a campout in Yreka (just over the border) in June. The regional rally is in Sparks Nevada over the 4th of July and Oregon is having a campout in September right in your backyard.

I have the 3500RL and the fuel mileage while towing it is suprisingly better then the shorter RV we had before. Compared to your TT i am ready to bet it will be better on fuel if you have the 7000Lbs axles.

Welcome!
Oregon does have a pretty active core of members with lots of others who come to events when they can. Like PJ (Gaffer) was saying there are several events fairly close to us this year. It would be great if you could join us in Yreka, Sparks, and/or Westfir this year.

Kristy

Thanks everyone for all the great welcoming posts, and important info that you have shared, especially you SJH.

Gaffer,
Where in September will there be a Rally in my Backyard? I would love to have some details so my wife and I can join in on the fun too.

Rick & Linda

On the Portal page of the Forum, scroll down the right hand column. You will see lists of Rallys, Campouts, Owner Meet & Greets and some Dealer Open Houses and RV Shows. Under Campouts cllick on 2011/9/23-Or, Westfir. That link will send you to the posting for the Oregon Campout at Casey's Riverside RV Park. The locatiion is along HY 58 just west of Oakridge. Hope to see you there or at one of the other events. The "State of Jefferson" campout in June at Yreka Ca. shoould be a lot of fun. It is being held at a new park during Yreka's annual Gold Rush Days. Lots of things going on around the town that weekend. Also take a look at the benifits of joining the Owners Cub as you look around this wonderful forum.
PJ

Thanks for the heads up. I certainly hope Casey's RV Park will have recovered and rebuilt by then. They had some very severe Flood Damage back in late January as they sit along the shores of the Middle Fork of the Willamette River. It was a nice RV Park, I hope they are able to rebuild.

It looks like we may be taking Delivery of our new Big Country 3355RL this Saturday. I sure hope that this comes to pass, I'm getting tired of tripping over all the stuff in the garage that needs to be loaded into the new 5th wheel.

Welcome to the Heartand group, and congratulations on your new rig. How about a break-in trip to Florence? We live quite close to Harbor Vista county park. It would be a great spot for a for a first trip. Let us know if you are in the neighborhood. Sorry to hear about the damage to Casey's. We are really looking forward to the September trip.

Good luck on your delivery. Taking photos and/or video during the PDI would have been helpful to us if I had remembered the camera in all of our excitement. Just something to think about.....
Kristy

shelsay said:

Welcome to the Heartand group, and congratulations on your new rig. How about a break-in trip to Florence? We live quite close to Harbor Vista county park. It would be a great spot for a for a first trip. Let us know if you are in the neighborhood. Sorry to hear about the damage to Casey's. We are really looking forward to the September trip.

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That would be a good Shake-Down Park, but we like the other site off of Rhododendron Ave a little better than Harbor Vista. If we get down there this Spring I'll send you a PM for heads-up about our trip. Would be fun to meet another Forum member so close to home.

ziggy said:

Good luck on your delivery. Taking photos and/or video during the PDI would have been helpful to us if I had remembered the camera in all of our excitement. Just something to think about.....
Kristy

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Kristy,

We actually did a pre-delivery walk-through about a week ago. We took our camera and documented some issues that needed attention and some repairs. We left the RV there and had hoped to get the repairs done by now, but there were some issues about who was going to pay for the damage to an interior wall in the Living Area. As it turned out, the damage was caused during shipment to Oregon, and Heartland has agreed to pay for the repairs. The parts won't be in for about 3-4 weeks, so we are going to go take delivery on Saturday. When the parts come in, we will return the RV to the Dealer to complete the repairs.
We can't wait to get this fantastic 5'r all loaded and ready to go for the first of many happy and fun trips in our new Big Country 3355RL.

Glad you though ahead... I thought ahead, but then I forgot everything I thought! LOL

Kristy

Hi Razduck - just going back to your question about airbags. I installed the Firestone set and what a difference they made in the ride. IMO they are well worth the money and a must have.

Hi mpuppy,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and Family. We have a great bunch of people here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge if needed.

If you have questions, just ask and someone will be able to help you with an answer.

Enjoy the forum.

Jim M

Thanks for the welcome!

Hello Razduck,

Good to see more Oregon members, we are from Monmouth and look forward to meeting you at one of the rally's. I agree with the airbags I pull a 3055RL and used to have a 2500HD gas rig. The airbags were great and allowed me to set the height for a perfectly level trailer and a good ride. Can't tell you about milage though as we just traded up to a 2011 3500 dually which is not broken in yet but I have averaged 10 mpg so far and am hoping for more as the we get more miles on the truck.

Well, we have to wait longer to be able to bring our new Big Country home. We went to the Dealer today, did all the learning about how to hitch-up properly, and took it for a 5-10 mile test drive. We really Loved the way it towed, and it looks like we won't need air-bags for the truck, great news!!

Now for the Bad news. We brought the Big Country home w/ a person from the dealer to ensure we could get the RV across our somewhat steep driveway, and into the area along side the garage. We backed it into the driveway, and could only make it about half way across. The RV's ladder was 1/2" from hitting the driveway. We tried 2-3 other approaches at it, and all with the same result. On one of these attempts we also discovered that the belly mount spare tire, and rear jacks will also hit the driveway. We pulled the RV out into the street, and talked things over. We discussed cutting off the ladder and make it removable, but that does not solve the issue of the spare tire or rear jacks. We returned the RV to the Dealer and spoke with the Service Dept Rep. He said our only option was to flip the axles, and that would provide an additional 3"-4" of height and should give the clearance we will need. He said that since the Big Country has shocks, it wil require additional time, which means more $$$. Bottom line; It will cost us about $800 for the axle flip, on top of the $400 for raising the electrical wires coming into the house, to give us ample height/clearance to back the RV under them. So, it will cost us about $1200 just to bring our new Big Country home.

We will keep you all informed as the Saga continues.