My last Heartland rv---

As some of you might know I posted a question / gripe about the decals cracking and coming off my 3year 4month old cyclone. So I sent Heartland customer support a note about it and behold they gave me a call back about it. I told them about the issue and that I had previously owned a 10year rv that I parked in the same way and it never had issues with the decals. All the while I knew the trailer was out of warrentee but hoping that since I wasn't the only one with these issues they might at the minumum make me an offer of selling me some new decals at cost or a discount even. All the nice guy said was "I've never heard of such and issue and have a good day", I'll make note of it. (Paraphrasing).
So with that I say so long Heartland, my next RV won't by made by yours. Of course expecting that any other manufacture is not going to be any different. I sure was hoping Heartland would have stepped up some since I for the most part enjoy my trailer. So good, bad or indifferent, that is my feeling on Heartland and won't buy another. I guess its a good thing for manufactures we don't buy these every day.
Doug

hoping that since I wasn't the only one with these issues they might at the minumum make me an offer of selling me some new decals at cost or a discount even.

Click to expand...

Did you happen to ask how much a set of decals would cost?

Twice I called parts. They said I had to order each area separatly. Both times the girls said they could email me over a pdf of the trailer w part numbers and I could choose which decals I wanted. Both times, the pdf's didn't arrive. Yes, I used 2 different email address just in case. I haven't pursued it any further. I have been looking into get the stripes painted on.

Doug

<p>
blank</p>

I know that if a person waxes his camper with a product that has petroleum as part of an ingredient, that petroleum will cause decals to crack, peal or have the edges roll up. Not saying that is what you did but I did on SOB camper early in our camping days and just about all the decals were ruined. We learned a real hard lesson and never used wax on the decals. We are now on our 5th camper and haven't had the problem since.

Nabo said:

I know that if a person waxes his camper with a product that has petroleum as part of an ingredient, that petroleum will cause decals to crack, peal or have the edges roll up. Not saying that is what you did but I did on SOB camper early in our camping days and just about all the decals were ruined. We learned a real hard lesson and never used wax on the decals. We are now on our 5th camper and haven't had the problem since.

Click to expand...

Never wax decals..........very poor design..........are you suppose to wax around them ......no one does this!

I have been waxing decals for years and have never had a problem with them cracking. Believe me it is not the wax that is doing it.

I have to agree.....I waxed my last SOB decals for 10 years and they never peeled or cracked. The sun did fade them slightly but after 10 years exposed to the elements they looked extremely good. Not sure why some decals don't hold up as well as others.

I know that if a person waxes his camper with a product that has petroleum as part of an ingredient, that petroleum will cause decals to crack, peal or have the edges roll up.

Click to expand...

I believe the comment had to do with petroleum content and wasn't trying to say that waxing causes damage.

Here's what the maker of 303 Aerospace has to say.

Do a google search: petroleum distillates on vinyl decals

I am a firm believer in the 303 Protectant. I have been using it on my now three year old trailer and no cracking or fading at all. Even a lot easier to wash--our rain washes the bugs off the front. I used it on the grey, once black plastic on my 2003 Suburban and it has gone back to black. Done that twice-might do it again this year.

If you have not already, you might call the person you talked with about the decals and double check what they have for an e-mail address. I would ask them if the could snail mail the info just in case. I ordered decals when I had the front cap painted and had no issues with receiving the info or the decals.

Dougw, you didn't mention whether your experience with your Cyclone has been positive, other than the vinyl decals. As mentioned above, they are vinyl and may/may not respond well to automotive wax. It would be a shame to see someone discard something they otherwise like over something as superficial as vinyl graphics. I think I would consider them as a trivial matter in the big picture and I would probably expect the same result over warranty after 3+ years. I am not being a heartland defender, I am just being truthful about the way I see it. I DO understand your frustration of CS personnel if they were so abrupt or if they failed to follow through with responding to you, but that has not been my experience in my dealings with them.

danemayer said:

I believe the comment had to do with petroleum content and wasn't trying to say that waxing causes damage.

Here's what the maker of 303 Aerospace has to say.

Do a google search: petroleum distillates on vinyl decals

Click to expand...

I find 303 the most ineffective protector I ever used and makes a mess around the application area.I use Armour All on all my vinyl RV decals and all vehicle vinyl surfaces .

Mine is also peeling on a 2010 Bighorn, I have a few friends that have RV's by other manufactures and they are having the same problem, Keystone, Forest River and other manufactures, so its not just a Heartland issue. If I'm not mistaken our friends called Keystone and they offered to send them new decals but they would have to pay to have them installed. Maybe another call to Heartland using a nice voice maybe you could ask for some good faith help and come up with a exceptable resolution. JMHO

Well, the original post was more about my experience with "Heartland" then the decals themselfs. The lack of appreciation and concern for there product baffles me. But on that note, now they are
saying it will be $1800 for the decals on both sides and that they might not even be the same but smaller in size. That would leave a white gap about them as well. Really nice.
Thanks Heartland....Thanks...$50k+ on a trailer and it looks and embarrassing.

Doug,

I looked into this a bit to better understand the charge you were quoted, just to put more context around this for other readers.

I was told the quote was for a complete 44 element decal set. One of the decals in that set alone was $236. While you may require all 44 elements - here again, for other readers, I just wanted to add a bit more info on how you could have been quoted $1800.

Wow. Just adding my two cents. Dougs concern is that he purchased an expensive and luxurious fifth wheel toy hauler and noticed a defective item regardless if under warranty or not. I have never had a company not be concerned in the past and present with issues I may have. They would always meet me halfway.

My current company I work for and also an officer, have had to deal with the vinyl wrapping for all vehicles such as vans and trucks. When we first started with having a local vendor apply the custom vinyl, it only lasted a few years due to the quality of the vinyl he was using. This was dated back in 2000. The vinyl craked and the edges started to roll up. Since I am in the service field, I was able to ask for second opinions about my issues. They were also vinyl sign companies. From there experiences, a handful of companies mention a few things that cause my vinyl to behave that way. First is the quality. If it is not a quality issue then it can be the element (environment). But if the environment may take place, in my case yes, as long as the adhesive and vinyl film is high performance such as 3M and oracal manufacturers. Well I found out from second opinions that my first vendor doing the vinyl for the company vehicle used the lower end vinyl film which only last between 1 to 3 years. We had to re-pay and re-hire another vendor which used nothing but high performance vinyl. Since then, we do not have any vinyl issues for all the company vehicles.

I wanted to add this to the current thread is because something like this should not happen especially if we know that this is a luxurious trailer. I would imagine that HL is using all quality products in and out of their manufactured trailers they build. I would findout what vinyl film they use and have them fix it. As far as I know with our vendor, he guarentees 8 to 10 years for his vinyl product which his vinyl manufacturer 3M will give the same warranty for him to keep his client base from leaving.

Give a few vendor a call about what they may have to say about your issues if HL can't assist. There is a warranty for vinyl films and if it is the cheap vinyl then HL should fix this for you. Our trailers are not cheap are they?

<p>

jbeletti said:

Doug, I looked into this a bit to better understand the charge you were quoted, just to put more context around this for other readers. I was told the quote was for a complete 44 element decal set. One of the decals in that set alone was $236. While you may require all 44 elements - here again, for other readers, I just wanted to add a bit more info on how you could have been quoted $1800.

Click to expand...

Just to be fair, I did say "decal(S) on both sides". But yes, all of them but not including front or back or any text. But to find out that the new ones "might not fit" is really unacceptable. Who's going to pay that kind of money to find out that they don't fit and since the decals have to be special ordered, I'm sure they won't take them back if they don't. That leaves 3 options. Paint them, leave them, or try to get custom ones made". Again though, this whole post was more about being dissapointed in H.L. not the decals per say.</p>

<p>
double post...sorry</p>

Dougw I know you are frustrated but please try this.....

Type "RV peeling decals out of warranty" into your search engine. I came up with 17 pages of related articles and the end result, after reading for about an hour, was manufacturers denied out of warranty replacement for this issue. As a side note, although there were some, not many of these were related to Heartland products.

Point is, for you it is difficult to swallow but wherever you go from here may be no different and possibly even worse. Good luck to you.