You Guys are Making It Hard - Open Range vs. Big Country

Howdy, Howdy,

We have been looking to buy a new RV for about 5 or 6 months. It looks to be between Open Range 349 rls and keep coming back to the Big Country 3251ts. The new lighter wood has really brought this unit back into the running, VERY NICE! Columbus was on the short list, but we do not like the 1.5 inch walls and just not sure about the construction.

My question: Knowing heaviness and disadvantage to OSB, how much OSB is used to build the BC?

Those full timing in this unit how do you feel it held up to the elements this year?

Safe Travels!

Curtis and Donna
 

jassson007

Founding Louisiana Chapter Leaders-Retired
Re: You Guys are Making It Hard

I don't have a 3251ts I have the 3450ts and we have been in it almost 10 months now down in s Louisiana and we have had a cold winter. I have gone through some propane but we have kept it at 62-65 degrees inside along with two space heaters. We love our BC and I think you would be very happy with the 3251.


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Greengas

Well-known member
Howdy, Howdy,

We have been looking to buy a new RV for about 5 or 6 months. It looks to be between Open Range 349 rls and keep coming back to the Big Country 3251ts. The new lighter wood has really brought this unit back into the running, VERY NICE! Columbus was on the short list, but we do not like the 1.5 inch walls and just not sure about the construction.

My question: Knowing heaviness and disadvantage to OSB, how much OSB is used to build the BC?

Those full timing in this unit how do you feel it held up to the elements this year?

Safe Travels!

Curtis and Donna

I've owned an Open Range and now a Landmark. The landmark is without a doubt above an OR. But a big country is more in line with OR. The ORs are well made and light but not too light if you know what I mean. We had no problem keeping warm in our OR in temps below zero. OR is also not owned by a conglomerate like Thor. They are an independent which can be an advantage. Their customer service is very responsive and supportive. At last check they had a two year warranty on all products. So why did we move to a landmark? Well, we were ready to step up in size and overall quality and OR does not make a rig of the Landmark class nor do they claim to. Honestly, and I'm probably going to upset some folks here, but if we were not looking to step up and comparing An OR to a BC I would stay with OR.

Just my opinion. Take it for what it's worth. If you want more info from me about OR just send a PM.
 
B

bwwalczak

Guest
What great questions. To answer your OSB question, we use just enough. The primary OSB is laminated into the floor. This insures the Big Country to have the most solid floor in the industry. No toungue and groove with seams that could squeak and come apart (which are generally plywood and heavier). OSB is designed to retain strength when moisture is present, even though we prevent moisture contact. Please keep in mind that the OSB is part of the laminated floor. The OSB is laminated directly to the framing and block foam insulation.

Big Country offers industry leading construction and insulation. Big Country and Landmark are built on the same production line. Both products offer laminated roof (huge insulation & usage story), and laminated floor (which we have mentioned). Both Big Country and Landmark offer the 6-layer 2" thick sidewalls. Both Big Country and Landmark offer the full end wall insulation (under the caps), along with slide room floor insulation. With regard to the primary construction "bones", both products are very similar. Big Country continues the solid laminated floor under the bath and bedroom deck. OR just used luan floor. There should be no question, which is better here, especially for extended use/full timing.

There are a plethora of reasons to own a Big Country over the OR. Color - the all new Big Country PEARL edition features high gloss sidewalls, and award winning graphics. Big Country gives the look of full body paint, without the cost. You will find a Big Country offers everything OR has to offer, PLUS Big Country offers hydraulic front jacks and a full 6 point hydro leveling. OR specializes in the 12v slow jacks that you will always have to crawl under and adjust, even if equipted with the JT strong arms (advertised as one touch, but you have to pull the pins from each jack - at least 6 touches). Big Country is solid. Big Country offers the wireless convience remote, controls the slides, jacks, awning, and exterior lights from the remote. So many more items to list.

Then there are the reasons to not consider an OR. Biggest of which is the cable slides. Cable slides are not bad (we do use on a few models), unless they are run over 24" slide depth. OR runs the slides 38" - 40" deep on most slides. We used to go to out in the OR and jump in the end of the slides. Trampoline effect - I would not reccomend if you own one. Big Country is solid.

To another comment on the post - Heartland started 10 years ago as an independent mfg. One of the biggest reasons Heartland was purchased by Thor was because of Heartland's product value. It was getting tougher and tougher for the other Thor companies to compete with Heartland's products! None of this has been lost today. Heartland is stronger than it has ever been, with increased emphasis on service to dealers/customers, more audit testing then ever before, and more product testing than any other RV manufacturer. Thor has brought better people to Heartland, while improving the exisiting employees.

There should be no question that the Big Country product leads the 5th wheel segment in product innovation, eye appeal, and most importantly - value. If you would ever want to discuss, please feel free to contact me personally on my cell: 574-532-1491. We love 5th wheels, and the people that use them. I will probably see you at a campground soon (after this silly weather leaves Indiana).

Happy travels - do it better in a Big Country!
 

caissiel

Senior Member
No it's easy.

Been FT in BC for 5 years.
Left it for one month in Louisiana in the coldest days this winter. Just set furnace at 40f and solars backed it up. Came back everything was good.
Seen some ORs. Seam cheap and no axles or frame to hold them. If need cheap buy OR and pay later.
Nothing like hydraulics for solid slides.
The manufacturing process of using waterproof apoxy of OSB makes it best then exposed unprotected wood of plywood.

PS
Right now we stayed at FJ at NM boarder and it got down to 37f and in great comfort here. Just started furnace 10 minutes ago and its 70deg inside already.

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oldmannj

Well-known member
I can give you 1 more reason to choose Heartland. Heartland is the ONLY company who supports their owners club monetarily. Join the club....have fun at the rallies. Whether you go to 1 or 100 rallies it's free to you other than camping fees and a covered dish for the pot luck. With Heartland's quality, customer service and FREE STUFF, why bother looking elsewhere???? ED. :angel:
 

Greengas

Well-known member
Well, now I know how to get someone from Heartland to respond to a post in the forum :) Having owned both units, I can tell you that their management will put out an e-mail just as glowing about OR, and I would not expect less. To me, what it comes down to is not what the company says it is what the customer says. For that I recommend join both owners forums and get the word direct from them. Then after putting eyeballs on both units, make a decision.
 

sengli

Well-known member
DW and I were at an extended stay camprground late last fall. The manager of the property had a newer open range toy hauler. It sure looked nice from the outside. He told me that they have had there 1 year old coach back to the factory for major repairs 7 times. The floors were falling out of the slides. Plus he had a wall replaced for de-lamination. Granted they fixed the issue apparently, but after he told me that, well I wasnt impressed. Something to do with the fact that open range cheaped out by not using aluminum re-enforcements on the bottom corners of their slides, I believe something they fixed now. I am just saying.
 

Greengas

Well-known member
DW and I were at an extended stay camprground late last fall. The manager of the property had a newer open range toy hauler. It sure looked nice from the outside. He told me that they have had there 1 year old coach back to the factory for major repairs 7 times. The floors were falling out of the slides. Plus he had a wall replaced for de-lamination. Granted they fixed the issue apparently, but after he told me that, well I wasnt impressed. Something to do with the fact that open range cheaped out by not using aluminum re-enforcements on the bottom corners of their slides, I believe something they fixed now. I am just saying.

And stuff like that never happens to anyone who owns a Heartland :) Every brand has some units that turn out to have problems, I'll use my own HL for example as well as many others that are on this forum. I guess, buying an rv is a crap shoot sometimes.
 

Snow

Well-known member
I've owned an Open Range and now a Landmark. The landmark is without a doubt above an OR. But a big country is more in line with OR. The ORs are well made and light but not too light if you know what I mean. We had no problem keeping warm in our OR in temps below zero. OR is also not owned by a conglomerate like Thor. They are an independent which can be an advantage. Their customer service is very responsive and supportive. At last check they had a two year warranty on all products. So why did we move to a landmark? Well, we were ready to step up in size and overall quality and OR does not make a rig of the Landmark class nor do they claim to. Honestly, and I'm probably going to upset some folks here, but if we were not looking to step up and comparing An OR to a BC I would stay with OR.

Just my opinion. Take it for what it's worth. If you want more info from me about OR just send a PM.

Not not upset but was wondering why a OR over an BC
 

Greengas

Well-known member
Not not upset but was wondering why a OR over an BC

Why not, at our last Rally here in Colorado there was a HL member who now owns and OR and joined us at our Rally. At the AF Academy, there is a family of four living full time in their OR (and believe me, it gets a bit colder here in Colorado than in Louisiana) They could have purchased a BC but they chose OR, why you ask, it had what they wanted at the price they wanted to pay. There are also a few BC's at the Academy as well as other HL brands. The bottom line as I see it is, to be one of the top makers of RVs you have to be doing something right. That goes for OR as well as HL. Read any owner forum and you will see plenty of posts from folks who are fed up with their rig and the folks who make them. There are also plenty of folks that glow warmly about how much they love their rig. To me when it comes to paying as much as we do for our rigs, brand loyalty means very little. What means the most is where you get the most for you money, not only in the unit, but in service (which more often than not depends on the deal not the manufacturer), etc. In the future, when we go to trade in our Landmark, I will be starting the search all over again, all cards on the table.

Oh, and I do so love to read about and participate in (at times) the "My rig is better than your rig" battles.
 

Snow

Well-known member
I don't participate in them but like to read them really like the mods the do also I think it's about time for a good my truck is better then your truck battle but we all know the 6.7 power stroke is tops ⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️
 

Greengas

Well-known member
I don't participate in them but like to read them really like the mods the do also I think it's about time for a good my truck is better then your truck battle but we all know the 6.7 power stroke is tops ⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️

Love it! Go Power Stroke! Go Ford! Go UConn!
 

TedS

Well-known member
Hey, Ron and Sarah. I'm the person at the CO rally that traded my Big Horn for the OR Roamer. Not that I was dissatisfied with the Big Horn, wanted something that was a little smaller. After getting the OR, I was impressed with the assembly quality. With the HL I submitted 40-some item list of things that needed dealer after-sale attention. With the OR I had no items that needed after-sale attention. I do miss the speed of the hydraulic landing legs and the convenience of the powered shore power cord reel. I do like the auto level on the OR. Base structure of the OR is Lippert. Axles are Dexter, braking is so much better that I could reduce my trailer brake gain from 9 to 5. I thought frameless windows and full-window door were a step up. Now I see HL is using frameless windows. The Attwood water heater in th OR has no anode; I thought the Suburban with the anode in the HL was an additional maintainance item that a higher end trailer would want to reduce maintainance items to increase customer convenience. In the OR, strung wires and plumbing tube runs are anchored at intervals along the runs to resist bouncing around during travel and reduce stress on connections. In the HL, the wires and tubing were just strung suspended only anchored by the terminal fittings increasing their stress.
Both now use LEDs for most lights. My OR has less basement storage than the Big Horn. My OR is 3000 lbs lighter and 4 feet shorter.

FWIW
 

Greengas

Well-known member
Hey, Ron and Sarah. I'm the person at the CO rally that traded my Big Horn for the OR Roamer. Not that I was dissatisfied with the Big Horn, wanted something that was a little smaller. After getting the OR, I was impressed with the assembly quality. With the HL I submitted 40-some item list of things that needed dealer after-sale attention. With the OR I had no items that needed after-sale attention. I do miss the speed of the hydraulic landing legs and the convenience of the powered shore power cord reel. I do like the auto level on the OR. Base structure of the OR is Lippert. Axles are Dexter, braking is so much better that I could reduce my trailer brake gain from 9 to 5. I thought frameless windows and full-window door were a step up. Now I see HL is using frameless windows. The Attwood water heater in th OR has no anode; I thought the Suburban with the anode in the HL was an additional maintainance item that a higher end trailer would want to reduce maintainance items to increase customer convenience. In the OR, strung wires and plumbing tube runs are anchored at intervals along the runs to resist bouncing around during travel and reduce stress on connections. In the HL, the wires and tubing were just strung suspended only anchored by the terminal fittings increasing their stress.
Both now use LEDs for most lights. My OR has less basement storage than the Big Horn. My OR is 3000 lbs lighter and 4 feet shorter.

FWI

It looks like we were going in the opposite directions. You wanted smaller and we wanted larger. But your experience shows that in any brand you can get a good unit or a bad unit. Are you a member of their forum?
 
Hi Ron and Sarah!
Oh boy, you hit a sore spot for us with that opening line! We researched for about 4 years before buying our first RV. We really wanted an Open Range - still do for the layout. But we ended up having $2000 less than what the OR we wanted was selling for. Since we're on a fixed income, financing was not an option. So we got a Big Country which was considerably less. It's a great quality RV and we're really enjoying full timing! Good luck with your decision!
 

iawoody2

Well-known member
They all have their problems. Sitting here in Flordia RV Resort enjoying our Sundance, people across from us with a 8 month old OR have been waiting for 7 days and counting for parts to be delivered to a local repair facility. The OR has a cable system of some sort for the slide operation, and the curb side slide has broken cables. This system is one of the main reasons OR has less weight. They are quite frustrated as they say they have not operated or used the slides that much since they bought it.
 

WD53

Member
New Member WD53
Wanting to buy my first fifth wheel. Cannot dicide if I should buy the Open Range 349RLS or the BC 3251TS. Hoping to get some input about the problems that individuals have with there BC fifth wheels. Open Range does seem to have had some real issues with their slides breaking and water damage. Do not want to make a 60K mistake in retirement. Thanks for any feed bac
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Hi WD53,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum. There's lots of useful information here along with a great bunch of friendly and helpful people.

It's not unusual for new RVs to have shakedown problems. Forum members often recommend that when taking delivery, you stay at or near the dealer for a couple of days. That way, if you have questions or find things that need to be corrected, you won't have a long drive. It's also helpful to reach agreement with the dealer in advance that they'll handle those shakedown issues without making you drop of the trailer and wait.

One of the things that the vast majority of Heartland owners agree on is that if you do have a problem, Heartland Customer Service is excellent. If it's not convenient to return to the selling dealership for service, Heartland will help you find another authorized service location. They will also authorize warranty service at dealers who don't sell Heartland products. Many of us have had Heartland ship parts directly to us for self-install (depends on the circumstances of course).

Btw, I met some folks this week and visited them in their brand new Big Country yesterday. I don't know the model, but I have to say it's beautiful and they're delighted with it.

Hope to have you join the Heartland family.
 
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