First Trip was Disappointing

T

Tfitz

Guest
Well we picked up our new NT 28BRS last Thursday and spent all night loading it so that Friday we could take it out for the first. I must say I am a little disappointed in both the dealers PDI and Heartland to some degree. First our slide starts to leak when the rain start then my wife turns on the furnace and the smoke and CO2 detector go off with a harsh odor from the furnace so i open the doors thinking the furnace just needs to burn off the oils the manufacturer puts on it for transportation. After awhile the detectors stop but odor remains so i pull the vent off that covers the furnace to ensure ther is nothing plastic touching the furnace but what i find is that and none of the duct lines are connected to the furnace. i get all but one connected because it is to tight to the dinnette wall to see the holes it needs to go in. Oh its not over we get ready to go to bed and i go to lock the doors and can not budge the deadbolts but it is late so will deal with that in the morning or so i think get key stuck in door multiple times then give up and say dealer can fix this. Wife is using sink and faucets are flopping around so i reach under and tighten the bolts. oh did i mention the bathroom door will not close with out putting uncomfortable force on it. Is it unreasonable to think that most of these items should have been repaired during the PDI or for that matter Heartland would have had quality controls that caught most of these before the trailer got to the dealer. We still love the trailer its floor plan and space just hope they can fix the slide leak as i know they should be able to fix the other items.
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
Tfitz, Sorry to hear of these problems on your first trip out. I'm confident that they will all be resolved but your right, these things should not be happening.
 

Marge

All who wander are not lost.
What a maiden voyage! The locks will loosen up with use. And sounds like everything else is quite fixable.

Stay on top of that leak with your Dealer. The slides do tend to leak from our experience and we aren't the only ones, just do a search on the forum for "slide leaks"

We took delivery on our 24RBS March 28 and it has been back at the Dealers 4 times for a total of 53 days, trying to fix a leak, it is almost fixed. My husband and I have recaulked the entire slide and a few other places that didn't look good and also just found a little gap in the caulking above a window of the slide. (we hope this will finally, totally cure our leak) We have also put on a slide awning.
But there was initially some piece that wasn't installed on the top of the slide, some seal and we also have had all the seals replaced.

I agree these things should not be happening, but even so we like this trailer.

This forum is a good place to get advice and help with problems.
 
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fjm039

Member
This sounds eerily similar to our experience thus far. Love the trailer itself, but am completely baffled by what appears to be a lack of QC by Heartland. I had a number of the same issues you did (loose sinks, deadbolt, etc..). Hope to get the trailer back in a day or so and with any luck all items will be fixed.

Stay with it, especially that leak.

Jeff
 

Marge

All who wander are not lost.
Other than the leak and some shoddy workmanship, crooked things and gaps here and there and bad caulking, they must have been running low that day and tried to stretch the last tube as far as they could.

Oh and blowing out the value in the fresh water hook-up, which has been fixed, but we haven't been hooked up to city water since then either. So let's hope that doesn't happen again.

But when we picked up the trailer, the service man had everything going/working/running, the furnace, the fridge, the sink..We tried everything.

I am not glad to hear other bad experiences, but it does make us feel a bit better, because we aren't the only ones having problems. Like we just happened to buy the only trailer that seems to have been over-looked by the QC Department.

But I have to say, we, my husband and I sure missed loads of things, you know how it is after you get something home and start loking around..Crikey. It's our own fault for not being on the ball.

If we ever buy another new trailer we sure are going to have our eyes wide open.
 

dbylinski

NE Reg Dir Retired
Marge,

Nice signature! We just watched Long, Long Trailer last weekend with some friends who never saw it! Funny stuff for sure!
 

Marge

All who wander are not lost.
Marge,

Nice signature! We just watched Long, Long Trailer last weekend with some friends who never saw it! Funny stuff for sure!
Thank you! We LOVE this movie, since we were kids even, when it first came out.

We are always quoting it. I remember when the trailer brake control had to be applied manually..."Trailer brakes first..Trailer brakes first!! back when my Dad was hauling our first Nomad!

It is a must see for any trailerites, it ought to be included with every trailer or 5th wheel sold.
 
T

Tfitz

Guest
Thanks for the reply Marge. I don't know about the locks loosening up most of the time the key will not even turn and the latch would likely break before the deadbolt came out. Funny thing about the side leak is all my seals look good I could not see any holes, tears or gaps along the seals nor did the exterior caulking look bad. The water appeared to be coming in along the cable system. When I stuck my hand under the interior wood pilar that hides the cables I could feel a steady drip. Sure hope this is something the dealer has seen before and has a quick easy fix for. I certainly do not want to have to return to the dealer too many times. The old Komfort was bullet proof they sure do not build them like that anymore.
 

caissiel

Senior Member
our dead bolt got so bad that the inside lever could not lock the door anymore. I took the lock apart and noticed that the outside plate hole did not lineup with the dead bolt. I filed the plate the best that I could but its not perfect yet as I have a bit of sticking when locking with the key. I feel its a badly build lock and more filling on the hole is only going to weaken the plate.
I am still looking for a better lock.

I was at a Trailer Repair shop owned by a high school friend and we had a chance to discuse trailer quality, his comment was that the parts are not like they use to be, he has been repairing units for the past 30 years and he commented that things are not the same and made of inferior quality and there are more equipment to fail.
Our previuos trailer we owned for 12 years was 15 years old and noting, that is nothing other than tires and spring failed. I think its mostly a quality problem of the OEM industry and not necessarly the dealers and manufactuers.

I had the chance to rebuild our son's bathroom and realy was asshame to install the fittings he had purchased. The quality looked so inferior to what I was used to, and the ones I removed looked great for being close to 40 years old. I have a 2 story house with 2 baths and 2 kitchens and the taps and fittings are original after 37 years. I payed big money when I installed them but today I realy would not like to replace them with what is available.
When I worked in the maintenance at the mill we had a reduction unit 32 years old that never needed attention, and the newer units needed to be rebuild at least every 5 years due to temperature/design problems.
 

Marge

All who wander are not lost.
Thanks for the reply Marge. I don't know about the locks loosening up most of the time the key will not even turn and the latch would likely break before the deadbolt came out. Funny thing about the side leak is all my seals look good I could not see any holes, tears or gaps along the seals nor did the exterior caulking look bad. The water appeared to be coming in along the cable system. When I stuck my hand under the interior wood pilar that hides the cables I could feel a steady drip. Sure hope this is something the dealer has seen before and has a quick easy fix for. I certainly do not want to have to return to the dealer too many times. The old Komfort was bullet proof they sure do not build them like that anymore.
Here is a thread that shows our leak, it is on the bottom of the slide the corner by the foot of the bed, we did finally discover it was actually coming in behind the couch that folds down into a bed and then drips from there. It is not dripping there anymore, but we did still have a bit of seepage behind the couch on the last trip, but we have since recaulked the entire outside of the slide and found that hole in the caulk above the slide window. But now it is bone dry no matter how hard it rains when the slide is in or driving in a monsoon, so this is progress.

//heartlandowners.org/showthread.php/showthread.php?p=171894#poststop

Anyway I agree guys, things are not like they used to be, we had a 1977 Winnebago Minnie Winnie and our last rig was a 1989 Holiday Rambler Aluma Lite motorhome, that thing was built like a tank. We never encountered anything like we are experiencing now with a new trailer.
 
T

Tfitz

Guest
Thanks once again Marge the links were informative. Is your leak now resolved? Or do you continue to have water infiltration. I had a personal email from a Heartland rep the other day after my original post indicating to call him and they would assist with the repairs of our unit. I must say I was pleasantly surprised to hear from Heartland it seems they are genuinely concerned about their products. I have not yet spoken to him. I guess I am concerned that any dialogue I have with him will upset the dealer and I have not really given the dealer a chance to make the repairs as we do not pick the unit back up until the 22nd. I do have to have my warranty work performed at this dealer and really do like the group of people we have dealt with thus far but fear i will be the customer that Tattles to the manufacturer before allowing the dealer to make good on my requests. Guess I will call the Heartland Rep and see what he has to say.
 

Marge

All who wander are not lost.
Thanks once again Marge the links were informative. Is your leak now resolved? Or do you continue to have water infiltration. I had a personal email from a Heartland rep the other day after my original post indicating to call him and they would assist with the repairs of our unit. I must say I was pleasantly surprised to hear from Heartland it seems they are genuinely concerned about their products. I have not yet spoken to him. I guess I am concerned that any dialogue I have with him will upset the dealer and I have not really given the dealer a chance to make the repairs as we do not pick the unit back up until the 22nd. I do have to have my warranty work performed at this dealer and really do like the group of people we have dealt with thus far but fear i will be the customer that Tattles to the manufacturer before allowing the dealer to make good on my requests. Guess I will call the Heartland Rep and see what he has to say.
We think it is fixed, but we went camping over the 4th and there were some branches right over our window on the slide, right up from the leak area. We had a bit of water seep in behind the couch. But then I got on a ladder and could see a little gap in the caulking over this window, so water could have got in there from the branch. We caulked it. Because before that when it was at the dealers the last time, it was sitting outside and raining quite a bit and the slide was out and it was dry inside.
It never leaks at all anymore with the slide in, so it is something simple like that we think.

Wow Heartland e-mailed you. I did e-mail customer service a few months ago for advice about our leak, they recommended to have the dealer put new seals on the slide. It didn't help.

My husband and I are to the point now, that since it doesn't leak at all when the slide is in, if we are in heavy rains and have problems we will just bring the slide in. We are so tired of dragging the trailer back and forth to the dealers and have them keeping it for weeks on end, 25 days in a row this last time. Also our big concern was it will eventually rot out the floor, well atleast the water doesn't reach the floor, just the back side of the couch area in the slide out.

This is where the water has been coming in, it is exactly 19 " down from the window and in line with the top piece of the bottom trim/cap of the slide. Which we have re-caulked. This piece of wood has since been replaced.
Leak011.jpg

Leak010.jpg
 
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