Big Horn Withdrawal Symptoms

nemo45

Well-known member
First off, I received my Heartland caps by priority mail today. Quality stuff. I'm very pleased. Will make a darn good fishin' cap.

Now for the reason I'm having withdrawal symptoms. I wanted a Big Horn so bad I could taste it. Now that its April and with the fact that its taking almost 2 months to get a Big Horn, I decided I better try and get some kind of final deal done. Since my dealer hasn't sold my Wildcat on consignment I called him and told him I wanted to trade my Wildcat on the 3400 RL Big Horn. This dealer also sells Open Road and Keystone products Everest and Challenger. In order to get leverage to bargain with I made a tentative deal with another dealer on an Open Road 357RLDS which is just about the same floor plan as the 3500RL. At first he didn't even want to make a trade deal. Then when he found out I made this other deal he said he would beat it by $500 on the same unit, but he wanted $3500 more for the Big Horn than the Open Road. Now the Open Road compares very favorably with the Big Horn and the MSRP on the Big Horn was $1320 more than the Open Road equipped the same. You see he had the Open Road in stock and would have had to order the Big Horn. He made the Big Horn so high so he could unload what he already had (since Oct. by the way). :mad: I would have gladly given him $1000 more for the Big Horn, no dice. Ok, $1320 I said, no dice. Take it or leave it. So I went back to the other Open Road dealer and bought the 357RLDS for $1000 dollars less than the other deal today and he's going over and get my Wildcat so I don't have to deal with the Big Horn dealer. Bottom line is while we loved the Big Horn we will be very happy with the Open Road. The Big Horn did have a few things I really liked, like the Front Cap design, the docking center, and the huge front closet. But the Open Road has a few things the Big Horn doesn't like; four step entry, solid oak cabinetry, the 80" long King size bed doesn't have to be lifted over the set of drawers at the end and stainless fixtures in the kitchen and shower. Besides heated underbelly the Open Road also has 12V heating pads on the holding tanks. Also Dexter torsion axles and never lube hubs. Both have corian counter tops, china toilet, fiberglass shower, TV and surround sound and 10 gal. water heater and 8 cu. ft. refer. Construction is vertually the same.

I sure would have loved to be the first guy on the block with a Big Horn 3400RL, alas not to be.:( I'll still monitor this forum cause you are a great bunch of guys with tons of useful information. And, I'll keep you posted on the Open Road and how it actually pans out.:)
 

lynda7

Member
Big Horn and Open Road

Happy I saw your thread! We are considering the Big Horn (3055RL) but as with my previous thread, I am concerned about the TOTAL weight issue with our 3/4 T Dodge Diesel,4:10 rear end/auto. Would the open road be any lighter? Thanks
 

sharmulst

member
We have a BH 3500RL which we pull with a '97 Dodge Ram 2500, diesel, 4 wheel drive. It has a 5 speed manual transmission and a 3.54 rear end. We pull in 4th gear all the time at around 58 to 60 mph and 2100 to 2200 rpm's. Our fuel mileage is from 11 to 13 mpg depending on the amount of hills and wind. We have been very happy with it. However, in the near future we would like to upgrade to a 3500 with an automatic just for the simple reason that Sharon would be happier and more comfortable driving an automatic. We would not get a dually.
 
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