Few More 3055RL Questions

Hi: After doing some more reading and glancing thru some online pics of the BH 3055RL, I had a few more questions:

1) I hear 2009 models are now being built. Does anybody know if the online factory brochures are for the 2008 or 2009 (I didn't see any date on them)? Does anybody know what changes have been made for the 2009 model year? I read a thread from October asking this question, but Coley declined to state the 2009 changes since production on the 2009s hadn't yet started back then.

2) Does a privacy screen exist to partition the bed from the shower/vanity area?

3) In an EBay photo of 3055RL, there's two small shelves near the head of the bed that seem to overhang the mattress. Is this true? If so, won't people would bump their head (ouch!) on those shelves when they get close to the edge of the bed.

4) By the way, roughly how much space is there between the front closet and side of bed? Looks to be less than 1 foot in a photo. Unfortunately I have no Big Horn dealer near me to look myself. (I will take a trip to look at one before I actually place my order)

Thanks!
Gary

Gary,

I know nothing about changes for '09, however to your other questions:

2) Yes there is a privacy screen.

3) We have the king bed and there are shelves that over hang, but I have never hit my head on it, and I cover a lot of territory during the night.

4) The space between the bed and front closet is tight with the king (not less than one foot), but it hasn't bothered us. We do not full time so it may be different in that situation.

The 3055 is a great rig and have have really enjoyed it.

Good luck!!

Ours is one of the first '09 models to roll off the line. The changes are minimal. The most noticeable is the bedroom TV cabinet. Previously, the cabinet was a true cabinet and located next to the closet mirrors. The change is the TV space is now in the center of the overhead cabinets, and is a slightly larger open shelf area. This gives you cabinets with doors on both sides of the shelf. It's easier to access the antenna and cable areas, as well. We installed a 20" Samsung LCD and have about 4" room around the TV. It does require some close work behind the TV, but with the right tools, it's easy to get behind the set. I highly recommend putting gluing and screwing a 1X3 board to the center of the wall before screwing the LCD TV bracket to the wall. This will give you more stability and something for the bracket screws to bite into.

The screen is the typical pull screen that separates the shower and toilet area from the lavatory sink and bed area. It splits the two.

We removed the shelves because they are not big enough to do any good, and we replaced the bed with a sleep number bed. There is a shelf in the closet cabinet next to the bed where you can put glasses and alarm clocks. Also, there are electrical outlets on both sides of the bed at the head, close to the floor, for adding sleep number beds, alarm clocks, or sound machines for noise masking. We took one of the shelves and placed it on the right side of the closet wall, about 1' under the cabinets, for small shelf to hold things like my ring, wallet, and change.

There's about 18" or so of room for the area between the bed and closet. This was one of the things that we miss from a previous unit. The other was a 36' unit and we had about 2 1/2' of room. One of our dogs slept there in his bed. Now, he sleeps inside the closet cabinet in the cubby hole under the open shelf, next to the bed. You have to sacrifice some things to get the length down. We haven't had any difficulties moving around the bed.

The biggest thing we have trouble with is making the bed. We usually pull the mattress down toward the foot to get around the head with sheets. Because of the style of bed we have, and the OSB board that is used for the base, you can't pull it down very far. We decided to try and rig something to make it easier. We went to Wal-mart and bought 2 plastic tablecloths that have a thin cotton backing. Take the mattress off and place them on the OSB with the plastic "slick" side up. Staple them down all around the edges and several places in the middle. Trim the tablecloths to the edges of the OSB, and replace the mattress. It makes the mattress easier to slide around when making the bed.

There's a few things you can do to really make you're life easy. Add an electrical box on the living room side of the bar. One of the small gripes I have is that the electrical boxes are under the overhead cabinets in the kitchen area. So, to plug in telephone chargers, or such, the cords hang from the cabinets. The other electrical addition is a 12 volt "cigarette lighter style" outlet for charging 12 volt stuff. We have a 12 volt "Fantastic" fan that we leave running when we leave the dogs in the unit for the day. In the event of a electrical outage, they have a fan. We also leave the windows open a bit to provide for fresh air.

You'll find lots of ways to customize your unit. Read lots of the forums, here, and other areas, and you'll get tons of ideas. Get out to a dealer or show, and make a list of what you want and don't need. You'll find Heartland has a top slot on your list. We've had 4 other units, from pricey to not, and Bighorn is a great unit.

5erWonk and Caddojay - Thank you for the information! This is a great forum for getting info, advice and help.

Caddojay - I do have two followup questions:

1) You mentioned there's 18 inches of clearance between the bed and front closet. That's better than I thought. Since you replaced the standard mattress with the SleepNumber, would I still have the same clearance with the standard mattress in place? BTW - how comfortable is the standard mattress? Does it have that same "hard" feel that most RV mattresses do?

2) I have the same concern you do about power outages since we have a small dog. You mentioned you leave the Fantastik fan running in case power goes out. Do you leave the A/C on at the same time? If not, will the F-Fan alone keep the inside temp tolerable on a 90-95 degree day? I assume the D/C outlet you suggest (for charging) is not required to run the F-Fan in this way?

Thanks again!
Gary

If you replace the mattress from the factory, you wil have to buy a 72"X80" mattress. Camping World sells them and you can't use the less expensive Sleep Number, unless you down-size to the Queen. The 3000 series is less in the stores, but won't fit the size for the bed due to the slide out walls. It's very exact. I slept on the factory 6" mattress for only a couple of nights. It's OK, but not as comfortable as the other. There is a small struggle to change sheets, but we like the Sleep Number. That's what we have at the other house, as well.

The Fantastic Fan that we have is separate from the Fantastic Fan that's mounted in the roof. This fan is a 12 volt small box fan. It will circulate the air very well on medium speed. We always left the A/C on, but had the fan running in case of power otages. IF the weather was nice and not extremely hot, we'd open the windows and leave the A/C off. Other wise, we'd leave the A/C on and hope the power stayed on. Power outages only happened to us a couple of times. We had a power surge hard-wired on the other unit and would "clamp-on" when the voltage had a spike, or too low. We were amazed at how many older RV spots had bad wiring, reversed polarity problems, power surges and such. But...that's a whole different topic.

GaryB...there is another bed option. You can have a dual-chambered airbed constructed to the exact size of the bed platform at several online distributors. One is I think Bearbeds, and the one we used was Airbed Discounters. They are considerably less expensive than Sleepnumber and come in difference "levels of comfort", i.e., the padding, topper, etc. We also kept the little side tables beside the bed and velcroed (sic) the controllers to them so that we can easily adjust our side of the bed whenever necessary. All you need to do is measure the platform and give it to the companies and they will quote a price. In most cases shipping is free also.

Options

Thanks for the advice!

As Kakampers said, I will just measure the platform and have a mattress custom fabricated to that width x length dimension, if I don't like the regular mattress.

Caddojay - as I understand, the standard mattress is 70x80. You said I would need to replace it with a 72x80. Is that because of lack of availability of 70x80 mattresses (unless ordered custom)?

BTW - has anyone seen a complete list of options for the Big Horn? On the Heartland website, the options listed in Big Horn brochure don't match the "Standards and Options" page. And neither of these documents has the security camera option, which I have seen offered in other places. Not sure what to believe.

Thanks again
Gary

Thanks
Gary

Gary,

Best bet to get the most current/accurate LM/BH information would be to call the factory and ask the the Product Manager, Coley Brady. Ask for Coley from the main number at 574-262-5992.

Jim

The size of the mattress is what Camping World sells. The regular sleep stores don't seel an RV size, unless you get a queen. We purchased an internet mattress several years ago for our lake house, and it was not a great buy. The padding over the air mattress got lumpy in about a year. I don't remember the name of the company, and it also leaked air in a seam and we couldn't get it to hold with the supplied patch. I remember that it was about half of a Sleep Comfort 3000. I'm sure the other companies have improved.

Jim, the new website design sure is nice. Good job!

Options

Thanks again to all who responded! Two last things:

1) Does Big Horn have a battery cutoff switch? I didn't see it listed under standard features and was wondering if it needs to be added aftermarket.

2) I read on RV.net about problems with the water pump not sucking water from the freshwater tank when it's under 1/3 full. Is this still a problem on the new units, or has it been corrected?

Thanks!