Adding Central Vacuum

We picked up our new 2016 3280RES yesterday it did not come with central vac and wife says we will have one. So looking for information on installing one. I will be adding a receiver hitch to the rear. And appreciate the information I have already gleaned from this forum. I have also seen many other great ideas that will be added to ours. thanks in advance

Hi GreggHaas,

Congratulations on the new Sundance and welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum. There's a lot of useful information here along with a great bunch of friendly and helpful people.

It's very likely that someone has already done this modification and will jump in with advice.

Based on a few years of posts about vacuum cleaners, I wouldn't be surprised if you also get alternative recommendations to share with your wife.

Do you have any pets that shed? How well any given vacuum does with pet hair may factor into your decision.

We have central vacuum and it's the one thing we can do without (storage of hose and head; changing collection bag). We don't use it any longer. Save the hassle and get a good Dyson.

We use our a lot...but mainly for me to clean the basement. I would not buy a kit....simply buy the parts you need. I would simply get a good wet/dry vac (small of course to fit behind the wall) and pipe the outlet to some place you can reach from the basement. Get a switch hooked to a relay to energize the vacuum when needed....and enjoy.

I would think you could buy head, hose and other parts at a used vacuum store.

GreggHaas said:

We picked up our new 2016 3280RES yesterday it did not come with central vac and wife says we will have one. So looking for information on installing one. I will be adding a receiver hitch to the rear. And appreciate the information I have already gleaned from this forum. I have also seen many other great ideas that will be added to ours. thanks in advance

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If you think you really want to get a central vac - do it. You may or may not like it, but if you spend the next 5 years wondering .......

We have, don't use it a lot, but I do use and the next trailer will have one as well.

Yeah the Dyson's work fairly good, but they are pricey and the dyson supplied by Heartland is the lowest model available. Lowes by us had them on a discount rack a couple years ago for about $120. I bought 2, sold them on evilbay and bought the pet model.

It does a good job, battery had to be replaced under warranty. Personally I do not think they are worth the price. With 2 goldens and a cat as well as the daily camping debris that gets inside the dyson has to be dumped almost every other use. The beater bar gets pulled after every camp trip to un clog.

My central gets the bag changed maybe once a year. I added an exterior exhaust to mine, that cuts down on the noise a little, but also keeps vacuum bag stink outside the trailer. Thats an improvement when the bag starts to get some dog fur in it - or somebody vacuums up a stink bug (bad idea).

Here is the external exhaust I added.

https://heartlandowners.org/showthread.php/11365-And-so-it-begins?p=273968&viewfull=1#post273968

If starting from scratch, try and keep straight runs as much as possible and limit the use of the flex hose. Flex hose make sit easy for installing, but not efficient.
And central vac pipe is not standard PVC. It is a thinner wall and has polished interior walls.

Our 2012 Bighorn came with central vac, Eureka Yellow jacket, we like other owners of this unit are having trouble with it either not shutting off or starting and we are using the circuit breaker to turn it on and off we are lucky that is on it's own circuit. It appears a electrical board is malfunctioning but I'm leery of replacing it with another board with the same problem, I'm going to have to look into it further.
In our other RV we had a Shark stick vac that we used for 9 years without a problem, it didn't use bags and my wife was able to clean it out when she wanted. The central vac on our FW is installed midway into the storage bay and it ain't easy to change unless your a minimum of 6 ft tall with long arms, I'm only 5' 8" with short arms. LOL
As you know a happy wife is a happy life - so you know what you need to do.

I just got a new relay off eBay. Will try it out when the weather warms up a little. Has worked for others.


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We had the central vac dw never used it. Ordered our new one without.

We had a Dirt Devil central vac installed when we bought the trailer and use it. Does a decent job picking up the sand that gets tracked in, along with the dust, cat litter and their fur. Our kit came with a Rug Rat attachment and works for cleaning the fur off the furniture.Changing the bag is about as easy as it gets since the dealer installed a small door in the basement wall to access it. The connection for the vac is in the base of the bedroom steps and the hose/attachments get stored in the "laundry bin" under the bedroom landing, along with our small cooler for the pontoon. One less thing to take up valuable closet space.

For stubborn fur deposits on fabric furniture, I've found using a small vegetable brush picks a lot of it up.

Thanks everyone for the information we don't have pets so fur is not an issue, but my wife has me and we have 2 sons (grown) and 5 grandsons 2 1/2 - 7 So lots of STUFF gets track in at least in our other unit it did. She was just thinking the central syst. would be best I will present your thoughts to her. thanks all

Spend the money on a good vacuum.

jnbhobe said:

Spend the money on a good vacuum.

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X2. Ours came with the dirt devil central vac. Hose and accessories laying in the garage. We carry a Dyson!!


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Hello, We have a 2014 Big Horn that we ordered with central vac. I used it several times, but never was happy with the job it did...and the hose was a pain. We ended up buying a Shark Navigator Freestyle....cordless, with a power beater bar and no bags to have to change. The dirt cup is easy to dump and wash as needed. The charging unit sits on the floor of the "washer/dryer" closet and plugs into the wall there. Lightweight and easy to use. Think it was less than $125 or so. It does a MUCH better job of cleaning than the central vac ever did. Wish we had not ordered the central vac in the first place - although I could see where it would come in handy in vacuuming the garage.

Just my 2 cents

Enjoy your new rig...happy travels!!!

Doris

Everyone missed that the OP was looking for information on installing a central vac?

That would be a mistake.

porthole said:

Everyone missed that the OP was looking for information on installing a central vac?

Click to expand...

It is no more a mistake then if someone wants 2 pane windows or a combo washer dryer.

Gaffer said:

That would be a mistake.

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We love our central vac. Use it all the time. Do need to replace the relay that's cuts it off, but that's a small fix after 5 1/2 years of use.


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I love mine too have never had any trouble with it . We did buy a air driven beater for it because I have dogs and it works great I will have it in another trailer if I get a new one some day mine will be 10 years old in September .

I have one. Replaced it once. Will have another. Just install it behind the bulkhead wall with a cutout for it in the basement. Easy access for changing the bag. Put one of the hose connection / dustpan connections in the steps and a hose connection in the basement wall for use outside.

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Howdy!

We have the central vacuum in our 2014 Cyclone 4000 and it's not worth two dead flys. Finally gave up on it and bought a Shark Rocket, and it works great.

"Happy Trails"
Chiefneon