Recliner chairs;

I can't speak for your specific issue with the chairs, but I can tell you that there are a lot of people on this and other RV forums who change their chairs after a time to a type that suits the individuals. We removed our chairs and sofa in favor of two LazyBoy chairs and two high back, padded chairs. Changing out furniture is fairly common.

Sorry to hear you are having issues with your recliners - if there is truly an issue with the normal operation of the recliner I strongly beleive HL will stand behind the manufacturers defect (my opinion). The issue will arrise as to if the recliners are operating as designed and it is just difficult for you personally to make them operate. As mentioned people have made the choice to replace out the recliners if their specific circumstances warrant a different chair.

Can other people who are a bit taller/heavier and have normal arm strength make the foot rest work, and recline back and make it hold? That will be the comparitive issue, unfortunately.

A RV/furniture tech should be able investigate the normal operation of the mechanism; unfortunately the spring tension for the reclining position may be too hard for a lighter person to affect the recliner to stay in the reclined position - my kids always had this problem in our house recliners.

I did have one of my original recliners have the issue of the footrest not extending - I was able to flip the two chairs upside down and found the bad one having a bent piece on the mechanism. I can only figure it got bent over the course of time and I was able to correct the issue.



Brian

Thanks Brian for the reply.
John is a big guy and he has as much trouble with them as I do.
It's so frustrating because we've had many recliners over the years but nothing like this...maybe the odd one was a bit stiff at first but they all worked.
This is our first trip with the new trailer and we are trying to work out all the little bugs. The trailer is pretty amazing and comfy but the chair thing is a big issue and not comfy at all...in fact it hurts to sit in them & they are almost impossible to operate without a struggle!!!
This is our 4th trailer and each time we have traded up so we are aware of how things should be. I guess I will just keep trying to make contact with someone at Heartland who can give us some advise or help....however after saying that...the number I called today was the one given to me by the sales rep at the big RV show in Florida last month.
Also..because the trailer is only a few months old we are really reluctant to purchase new chairs.
Again thank you...regards Ange.

Your chairs are probably working correctly, they just are not the quality of a Lazyboy. They do look nice but if you use the recliners much, go get a Lazyboy or similar recliner and save the originals to put back in when you trade the unit off. You will be much more comfortable.

Hi again Ange,

It is unfortunate your first contact in HL customer service did not get this resolved to your satisfaction; possibly the chairs are not working correctly - it is hard to troubleshoot from afar.... You may have the correct phone # from your contact at the RV show but if not, Here is a link to HL Customer Serive Contact Information thread. Have your VIN handy when you call Customer Service.

Here is a link to the forum on HLO for Flair Industries - they are the manufacturers for most of the furniture HL has installed in previous coaches - I do not know if HL has recently switched suppliers.

Sorry I cannot be more help.
Brian

Hi Brian...& thanks for taking the time to send the links.

Now at least I have a starting point. This is the first time we have purchased a heartland & I wasn't quite sure who or where to turn to for help.

We are a long way from home and our Heartland dealer...(right now we are in Crystal River, Florida). Because of our weather back home it will be several months before we return and therefore it would be great to resolve a few of our growing pains.

Again..thank you...I will do as you suggest.

Regards Ange.

Ange, go into the Key Largo thread and read, in several of them, all of the same problems you describe. And we are just as angry/disturbed as you, rightfully so. You will see our tale of woe in there. I wish I could tell you we've resolved it but after two months of working on this issue, have not been successful. We have a new 2013 Key Largo. Right now is my r & r time and how I wish I could push back for a little nap. We sold our Alpenlite to upgrade with a Key Largo and had wonderful recliners in it (Lane, I think). We speak fondly of them nearly every day/night. I wish us both luck in resolving this. We are asking them to replace dysfunctional "recliners" to theater seating. Several folks have told me they do recline and stay reclined. I'm sure you and I agree that going out to spend at least $1,000 on new chairs just isn't right. We are also a long ways from home, Mexico in fact. But even if we were close to our dealer, it is not a "fixable" chair.

Thanks Willie.

It's almost good to know we are not alone. Not sure what the answer will be but it certainly is not to replace them....that would mean living with these for another 3 months....and if we were to replace them what would I do with these..I have no where to store them in the park?? Also it is probably going to be hard to get a match....these are dark brown leather same as the sofa. Come on...this is a new trailer!!!!!!!!!
Like you our old recliners in the Montana were great...in fact we never had a problem with any of the furnature. It amazes me this is a problem that Hartland doesn't want to (or will not) address....you have been working on this for some time!!
The evenings are not as comfortable as they use to be.
My computer was down today but I am going to try to do something tomorrow. I sure wasn't expecting this as we traded up to get rid of problems and improve on the things we wanted... there are more issues which I am sure can be fixed... but this for me is the biggest one!! I am really not a complainer but this is wrong.
If I hear anything (good or bad) I will let you know.
Regards Ange.

We are asking them to replace dysfunctional "recliners" to theater seating. Several folks have told me they do recline and stay reclined.

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Guys, I hope my comments don't put you off.

I've had back problems intermittently for almost 50 years and throughout my life I've found it very difficult to find comfortable chairs and sofas. So when I try to put myself into your situation, my first thought is that for me, the theater seating might not be much better, and could even be worse. In fact, I've sat in some theater seats in other people's Landmarks and don't find them comfortable at all. Obviously that's a very personal judgement based on the way they feel to me.

Based on my prior experience, I wouldn't be assuming that any alternative chair was comfortable unless I tried sitting in for at least 30 minutes.

Put another way, if Heartland or Flair gave you the theater seats you're asking for, what would you do if you didn't like them? Or if they gave you similar recliners that met your expectations on reclining, but felt uncomfortable for other reasons, what would you do? Wouldn't you still be dissatisfied?

I think maybe that's why some people on this thread have suggested you find chairs that feel good to you rather than assuming that the next chair from Heartland/Flair is going to be the one you want.

I hear you, Dan, we are taking a risk. I am basing our solution on several others who say they are great and I have not seen one complaint about them. This fact contrasts to an almost uncountable number of complaints about the recliners (I use that word loosely). At least it's worth a try before we shell out another big amount for our own seating pleasure. If the theater seating does not give us better quality, we'll do just that. We are also concerned about matching the leather. Thanks for your thoughts. I am like Ange and starting to feel like the "b" word on this issue. It just is so wrong. I know with other items, like tv, we would go to the manufacturer for resolution. But in this instance, Heartland set the specs and selected a vendor to meet those specs so I believe they should participate in a solution. I am so tired of dealing with the issue. Maybe that's the strategy, I will just give up and go away. Not ready to throw in the towel yet. I'm amazed that with all the complaints, Heartland isn't all over this because it's been going on for a long time. All the marketing and advertising they do is certainly compromised by an inferior product causing so many complaints. Whew, sorry, that was my long answer.

I had commented on the other recliner thread as well, to say that we sold the recliners that came with our Landmark and bought Lazy Boy recliners that we loved. We are new fulltimers, and have been doing research for several years in preparation. I have read tons of blogs and participated in other forums, and so many people talk about switching out the recliners that come with the rig that it didn't come as a huge surprise to us that we didn't find the recliners to be comfortable. Now we are very comfortable in ones of our choosing.

We are half-timers, six months in Mx and six in Idaho. We sold our Alpenlite to buy our Key Largo. It had fantastic recliners, Lane I think, so I guess we had high expectations that these would be as good or better. We frequently speak fondly of our "old" ones which after 5 years, were as good as new. So always learning when RV living, I guess.

Hi Ange: All of the complaints you speak about with regard to the "recliner chairs" are the same as I am experiencing; Hard to raise footrest, won't stay reclined, etc. I have pretty much learned to live with it, but I don't suffer from a bad back and have the strength and weight to force it to recline. I really would consider shopping for something you really like because it's going to be difficult to find some RV chairs that fit and feel good. I have never had an RV that came with chairs I liked. You might consider selling your chairs to an RV furniture dealer, which there are probably plenty of in Florida. My friend just sold the little end table that came with his new RV to an RV furniture store here in AZ. for three times what I would have given him for it and twice what he expected to get. So your slightly used chairs might go a long way towards the purchase of some new ones.

Willie....spoke with Elaine at Flain yesterday.
They are not prepared to do anything...she explained that the chairs were what Heartland ordered for their trailers. I told her we had great ones in our last trailer and assumed we would have a better quality when we traded up...she said they do make many other models and probably made the good ones that we had in our trade-in Montana however it all comes down to cost..(as everything does). Elaine did give me one helpful piece of advise..she said maybe removing one of the heavy springs would help them stay back and take some of the stifness away....we are going to try this. She said they were made heavy on purpose because many people do not secure their chairs while travelling and they can move around or fall over and do damage.

Wilson said:

Willie....spoke with Elaine at Flain yesterday.
They are not prepared to do anything...she explained that the chairs were what Heartland ordered for their trailers. I told her we had great ones in our last trailer and assumed we would have a better quality when we traded up...she said they do make many other models and probably made the good ones that we had in our trade-in Montana however it all comes down to cost..(as everything does). Elaine did give me one helpful piece of advise..she said maybe removing one of the heavy springs would help them stay back and take some of the stifness away....we are going to try this. She said they were made heavy on purpose because many people do not secure their chairs while travelling and they can move around or fall over and do damage.

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Did she provide any guidance on removing the spring? Just curious. Mine are very stiff as well, but messing with springs can be dangerous.

When we removed our stock sofa and swivel recliners, I sat them outside with a For Sale sign on them and they sold the same day - Got $400 for the lot. Probably worth more, but I was anxious to get them out of the way.

Wilson, thanks for info. Heartland referred us to someone at Flair who has not returned our call, will try again. "Removing heavy springs" does not compute with us so will appreciate follow up from you. On a high end Key Largo, Heartland should have changed their specs to provide a better chair in their high end 5ers. That is why we believe they should participate in the solution.

MTPockets said:

When we removed our stock sofa and swivel recliners, I sat them outside with a For Sale sign on them and they sold the same day - Got $400 for the lot. Probably worth more, but I was anxious to get them out of the way.

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You were lucky, MT, recliners not worth two bucks if they are the same as our Key Largo dysfunctional chairs! Just saying....

No...but we have someone coming to take care of other problems and we will see what he can do...besides I doubt if we have the tools to do the job properly. Will let you know how we make out and if it solves the problem.