Shortly after we got our Rushmore, at a rest stop, I found the left-hand refrigerator door open. I latched the door and made a sign to remind myself to latch the door. Then later I found the door open again and I was sure I latched it. I inspected the mechanism and found the latch was not a very tight fit and figured it must be vibrating into the unlatched position during travel. I put a piece of cardboard in the latch to provide additional friction. That worked, but one of those times the door had come unlatched, it had hit the counter leaving a large crease in the door panel. The wife was unhappy.
The next time at the dealer, hoping to get rid of the cardboard workaround, I asked about whether the latch could be tightened so it didn't vibrate to the unlatched position. The tech called Dometic and they said the latch is supposed to stay latched because it's electrically activated. The tech traced it back and found out it had not been wired correctly at installation. Heartland covered getting the wiring corrected and door panel replaced, because they had set up the failure through their installation error.
Our first 11 months with the Rushmore we had problems with flushing the black tank. I developed several techniques to workaround this situation. Last August I realized the root cause was a leaky gate valve. Got it fixed and now it works as it's supposed to. Turns out the workarounds were just covering up the real problem.
My point is that workarounds can make up for manufacturing defects and errors, but fixing the real problem is the better answer. When manufacturing gives you a 1/4 - 1/2" overlap between basement door and bedroom slide, you can post signs, look for warnings in the manual, blame yourself for forgetting, etc. But isn't the better solution to get rid of the slight overlap instead of using a workaround?
Is there anyone who thinks the slight overlap is intentional and that there's a reason for it? If you were able to ask the engineer responsible for that door design change if he intended it that way, do you really think he would say yes? If the Heartland President asked him why it's this way, do you think he would have a good reason?
Jim Beletti, I think you may have one of these 2012 Landmarks. Does yours have an overlap? Have you posted warning signs for yourself or are you hoping you'll always remember to close the hatch before bringing the slide in? I'm guessing that if your basement door got crunched, you might have a word with that engineer.