Considering a 2008 Bighorn 3055RL

I am considering a new 2008 Bighorn 3055RL.
My wife and I are gonna live in it fulltime.
I am looking for opinions and suggestions.

thanks charlie...

I think as far as options go...get the dual pane windows ,slide topper awnings , gel coat and second air conditioner. I got the aluminum wheels ,like the looks and doesn't rust after a few years like some steel wheels......Ken

My wife and I have had 4 other RVs and this is the 2nd fifth wheel. We have had the Doubletree Mobile Suite that was, at the time we bought it, the only RV in our price range that had a King bed. Now, almost everybody has a King Bed, or at least as an option. We chose the 3005RL because of the floor plan, size, and partly because of this forum. We looked over 6 months for a mid-priced, under 34 feet unit, that had all of the items we had in our other fifth wheel. This was it. When we started seriously pricing them, we found a LOT of difficulty in pinning down similar prices. Having said that, this is not unusual to this industry. It has been this way for as long as we've been RVing. We found 3 dealers, and 1 internet dealer that we felt were truly wanting to earn our business. We chose Explore USA in Kyle Texas. The salesman (Josh Nichols) took the time to listen to our wants and dislikes. The sale was done by UPS and e-mail, and the walk through was the most comprehensive I've ever been through. I spent most of a day with the service team going over it. While we are pleased with the unit, the dealer has made it more satisfying. From the receptionist, salesman, service and manger, they have the right attitude. Some dealers don't. This company has 9 locations in Texas.
We understand that we'll have a few glitches down the line, but in my experience, many of the problems are easily fixed and not always the manufacturer's failure, but a failure of a component that was used. And, you can' build a house and haul it down the road at 65 MPH and not have a few minor issues.
My suggestions, for what it's worth, is, read the forums on all units you're interested in buying. See what forums have a sour undertone from their members and filter their gripes as sometimes legit issues, or just gripes. Weigh the options available. Are they items that are available come standard on some units? Many of the items are great for some and not needed for others. Get the gel-coat, thermal windows and fireplace (if within your budget). Change the tires immediately (lots of forums on tire issues). Since you're considering full-timing, how much storage capacity do you need and have. A neat trick I learned from a very seasoned full-timer is to empty the unit of everything once a year. Go through it and see how much "stuff" you have been carrying that you don't use, or really need. That takes a day or so.
Most of all, have fun finding the dealer and your unit. You will have to invest some time and aggravation in doing this, but you'll feel much better about your dealer and the company if you don't have "Buyer's remorse" 6 weeks after your purchase. Welcome to the group and good luck.

See you are from Colo. so are we so we just ordered the wiring for the second air but waited to see if we needed one. So far we haven't. With the TimK "tent in the vent" we get plenty of air in the bedroom. If it comes to needing a second air I think a small Coleman 9000 would make more sense plus they are a LOT quieter.

We have a 3055RL and love it! Have has a couple of problems but all we're fixed by our dealer or myself. Check ALL water lines very closely! I have kept the original tires with no problems. BTW, hidef TV off the antenna is great!

We have had our BH 3055RL since April and we love it. We are not fulltiming as yet but we have put about 6,000 miles on it in my travels for work. One reason we upgraded to the BH from our Crossroads Cruiser was I needed an office area to work from and the 3055RL has worked really great for that. I have sat here for up to 14 hour days working on my drawings and have never felt cramped or closed in on we feel this is a very roomy coach. We plan to be fulltiming next year sometime as soon as our farm sells. Hope you enjoy yours as much as we enjoy ours.

katkens said:

I think as far as options go...get the dual pane windows ,slide topper awnings , gel coat and second air conditioner. I got the aluminum wheels ,like the looks and doesn't rust after a few years like some steel wheels......Ken

Click to expand...

We did not get the slide toppers, but may add them later on.

We also purchased ours from an ExploreUSA dealer, Seguin, TX location and cannot say anything but good words about their service and sales.

Jim

CGunn, I did forget one thing from our internet conversation. As Katkens above stated you may really want to get the dual pane windows and extra A/C. I didn't and here in Arkansas in July my single unit never cuts off/cycles during the daytime. And congratulations again, I know you can't wait until 5 Jan.

I have to add to the previous post that we got the 2nd A/C (Texas and mostly southern travel), aluminum rims (several posts and industry problems with Chinese steel rims), generator prep (we've got an installed Onan), Auto awning (loved the ease of first one, don't know about this one, yet), Trailair hitch and trailair ride (we'll see how this works on the first trip in January. Not excited about it, yet), and the fireplace, and Gel-coat.
We had a very satisfactory experience in making a modification with the factory. We deleted the oven since we never have used one yet, except for storing the toaster. The factory added 2 nice deep drawers in its place. I had been told "no-way" by 2 other manufacturers, but Heartland never balked. If you have as good an experience with the dealer and the factory as many have, you'll be sold on them.

Just one quick comment besides that we love ours. It's big enough the you can get away from each other and small enough that you can snuggle. Enjoy!