Second New 3055

shovelguy

Well-known member
Hi there, just thought we would introduce ourselves. We ordered our first 3055 in August from Hartland RV in Elkhart, IN. We have been so excited about the prospect. We have been researching fivers for three years and are convinced we have really made a good decision. The planned delivery date (we live over 2000 miles away from IN) was last Tuesday evening. Well, the evening came and went and no RV appeared. After 36 hours of frantic calling and e-mailing we finally got the news that the driver had made it to Iowa, where he misjudged the height of an overpass and our original 3055 was now minus the AC and portions of the roof!!! The dealer has been great and our SECOND NEW 3055 is on line as we speak. So, the delivery date is now scheduled for October 12. In the meantime we stare at our brochure (we spent three hours sitting in one at the Portland, OR RV show a week ago) and dreaming of the arrival. We had a pull behind previously and continue to be actively involved with the website family for that brand. We do hope this site proves to be as congenial. Dean & Jodi
 

DaleR

Member
"Hi" Shovelguy, welcome to the forum, I think you will like it.
Sorry you had the bad luck, and have to wait a little longer for your new 5er.

If you know where in Iowa this happened, could you post it, so all of us can avoid this location.

Better luck on the 2nd 5er,
Packer.
 

katkens

Founding Illinios Chapter Leader-retired
Welcome to the forum and many great adventures with your 3055, we love ours. We moved up from a TT and would never go back , had to learn to backup again but just about got that corrected. :) Now is the time to add those options you missed on the first order. Happy Trails--Ken & Kathy
 

jpmorgan37

Well-known member
Shovelguy,

Welcome to the forum. I'm sure you'll enjoy the folks on here because they are a great bunch of friendly people. Sorry about your first 3055, but let's hope the next one arrives in perfect shape. Those things happen sometimes and we don't understand why.

Packer;

Here is a web site that gives a lot of useful information on low clearances by state: http://www.aitaonline.com/Low%20Clearances.html

John
 

wfwilson

Founding Canadian Region Director - Retired
Welcome to the form. There is a lot of good info here and your are going to love you Bighorn when you get it. They are great.
welcome.
Wayne & Gayle
 

kakampers

Past Heartland Ambassador
Welcome!! You will love all the helpful and kind people on this forum!

Sorry for you misfortune, however, with OUR kind of luck that would have happened to us AFTER we'd taken delivery...there's always a bright side!!
 

tweber

Founding Wisconsin Chapter Leader-Retired
Sheovelguy, Did your unit become topless in the Daveport, IA, US 61, area? Checking the low underpass listings in my Atlas, IA does not have a lot of underpasses your BH could not get under, but I was talking to a dealer in Elkhart, IN and he mentioned a BH tried to raise an underpass in Davenport. If it had to happen aren't you glad you were not driving? I do not go under any underpass that is not at least 13'6'' with my BH 3600. I have been told 13' is high enough, but not every underpass is measured correctly or posted correctly. Happy camping to you.
 

vangoes

Well-known member
Tom
Your guideline of never going through an underpass less than 13'6" is good. I was heading into Kentucky Dam Village (I had been there before in my Class A with no problem) and the sign said clearance was 13'1". I immediatly came to a stop......had my wife creap the unit forward as I eyeballed the clearance from top of the latter on the back. 13'1" my foot!.............backing the unit 3 - 4 hundred yards down the road with oncoming traffic is not a lot of fun!!!!! Morale to this story is approach anything less that 13'6" with extreme caution. I crunched my AC unit on my Class A in Cleveland Tn once and that is no fun at all!!!!!!
 

shovelguy

Well-known member
Tom Weber said:
Sheovelguy, Did your unit become topless in the Davenport, IA, US 61, area? Checking the low underpass listings in my Atlas, IA does not have a lot of underpasses your BH could not get under, but I was talking to a dealer in Elkhart, IN and he mentioned a BH tried to raise an underpass in Davenport. If it had to happen aren't you glad you were not driving? I do not go under any underpass that is not at least 13'6'' with my BH 3600. I have been told 13' is high enough, but not every underpass is measured correctly or posted correctly. Happy camping to you.

Yes it happened in Davenport, Iowa. Still haven't figured out what it was doing on that particular road, as from looking at a Davenport street map, it does not appear to be a logical route either through or around the city. And as the driver as has more or less disappeared, I guess we'll never know.

The good news is that our dealer told us to expect the new 3055RL on the 12th of October.

Dean
 
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christianson

Active Member
I had to redo my storage shed door to get our 2007 Bighorn in that opening measured 13 ft. the Bighorn is 13ft. 2 inches high I cut the header out of garage door and moved it up 4 inches to get it in . So if you go under underpass that is 13ft. 6inches better hope ther isnt a bump in the road .
 

jbeletti

Well-known member
Dean,

Sounds like it will remain a mystery. Great to hear that your dealer and Heartland stepped up to grab a dealer stock unit from the production schedule and turn it into your unit.

Best of luck,

Jim
 

sidney dreyfus

Well-known member
Height of the Big Horn

We just got our 3670Rl a few weeks ago. I have measured the height and it appears to match the factory specs of 12' 11 1/2 inches to the air conditioner. We added the Kingdome and a second a/c unit up front which increases our height 3" making it 13' 2 1/2". I havn't had a chance to measure the height after hitching up to our truck because I'm having our B & W hitch installed today, but I figure the height will be reduced a couple of inches once I hitch up to our truck. I think your rule of thumb of not going under anything lower than 13' 6" is a good one, and I will approach anything lower than 13' 6" very cautiously. And once again the value of this web site has been demonstrated. Thank's for the information on the low clearance web site.

Sid Dreyfus
o8 3670RL
05 Dodge dually
 

fhollan

Well-known member
Iowa I-80

This misfortune, if it happened in Iowa, I don't believe it occurred on I-80, since I was on that interstate a couple of days ago heading east. There were numerous large fivers, including transports, heading west and they still had their tops on. That driver had to be on another road. I didn't have my BH since it was business. That would make me sick.:eek:
 

shovelguy

Well-known member
fhollan said:
This misfortune, if it happened in Iowa, I don't believe it occurred on I-80, since I was on that interstate a couple of days ago heading east. There were numerous large fivers, including transports, heading west and they still had their tops on. That driver had to be on another road. I didn't have my BH since it was business. That would make me sick.:eek:

From what we have been able to learn, we think the accident occurred in Davenport, Iowa, on northbound US highway 61, near 4th street. From the
Link site it seems that the overpass at that location is only 12' 2". The listed height of the Bighorn is 12' 11 1/2". If thats correct, and I have seen posts from other owners giving their heights as high as 13' 3". In any case the over pass was at least 9" to low for the Bighorn to pass under. I would have to assume that there was some sort of signage prior to the overpass and that the driver just wasn't paying attention.

Having developed a sudden interest in overpass heights, I was able to find out that the standard for federal interstate highways is 16'. Each state sets their own standard for state highways, here in Oregon it's 14', while in Iowa it's 13' 6". One must b e aware however, that there are exceptions to ever rule and standard.

The web site shown above, and linked in and earlier post by jpmorgan37, is a good source of information, we will certainly be taking a look at it before heading off into unfamiliar territory. And one of the first things I will be doing when the Bighorn shows up is get it hooked to my truck and get a true measurement of the height.

Dean


Admin: Link repaired
 
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tweber

Founding Wisconsin Chapter Leader-Retired
Shovelguy, if you stay in Oregon you don't have to worry about dealing with any low clearances. The Road Atlas shows Oregon with no low clearances. I become concerned about low trees and branches in campgrounds. They can do a lot of damage, too. Happy camping.
 

shovelguy

Well-known member
Delivery

Well we just got an e-mail form Gary Davis telling us that the 2nd Bighorn is getting ready to be delivered to us and will be here in Oregon on the 12th, just as promised. :) It's been hard waiting to extra month, but better to have a whole roof than a sun roof you can't close on a new 5ver. Guess I'll be taking the 12th off work to learn all the ins and outs of the new 3055rl, and to start loading it with all of the stuff that came out of our old trailer, thats been stacked up all over my garage. How come the stuff that came out of a 25 ft trailer completely fills a two car garage?:confused:

Dean
 

kakampers

Past Heartland Ambassador
Yeah it's scary how much stuff you "hide" in an RV.

As for the low clearance issue...the second thing you should do after verifying your height is purchase a Professional Trucker's Atlas. It will list low clearances all over the county, and to our knowledge, is quite accurate...so far. We still watch very carefully, especially when we're off the interstates! Good luck with new unit...have fun!
 

shovelguy

Well-known member
Just a quick update. The second new fiver left Elkhart, In at 4:15 their time this afternoon. Expected delivery, Monday. Specific instructions to the driver to avoid low overpasses at all costs. Can't wait!!! Dean and Jodi
 

shovelguy

Well-known member
Hallelujah!! It finally arrived. As of 10:30 AM, Tuesday the 16th, of October 2007 A.D., we finally have our Bighorn 3055RL. We both took the morning off work to accept delivery and do the PDI. Ended up taking the whole day off to start packing it with the stuff stored in garage from the old trailer. That stuff overflowed the old trailer, and seemed to fill the garage, but didn't even make a dent in the Bighorns various storage areas.

And I made my first mod by cutting and gluing narrow strips of wood to the inside of the top kitchen drawer to hold a plastic silverware tray. And I'm thinking of eliminating the little night stands at the head of the queen bed we ordered. They appear to be pretty useless for anything and by not being there would make it a whole lot easier for the bride to make the bed.

Dean
 
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