2017 Cyclone 425

Cane.MBA

Member
We purchased our first RV last Sunday, and get to pick her up this coming Thursday. Totally psyched and can't wait, we have already booked a campground for next weekend.
 

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U2fletch

Member
The longest week of your life..... Waiting!
Am sure you have scoured the Cyclone forums looking for ideas and pitfalls. On our first outing to Lake Bastrop (the same day we did our PDI) we could have made a checklist of things we got to experience. Converter plug falling out of socket during drive, endless rounds of " what does this switch do?", and a few others.

One oddity was our rear jacks were only about 6-7" above the ground when retracted. That seemed low to me, but nobody else was concerned. Sure enough, we drug on every parking lot we left. First mod was raise the aft jacks one bolt hole.... And installed new bath faucet!

Have fun!

We can't wait to attend our first rally in Canton in Sept, hope to see you down the road.

Jeff and Lisa
 

alwaysbusy

Well-known member
Cane,
Congrats. You will love it and I assure you, you will turn heads with your paint job as it's gorgeous...but that's in my biased opinion. LOL
 

Cane.MBA

Member
Thanks everyone! The full body paint sealed the deal for us and made the Cyclone a much easier choice over the Momentum. We pick her up Thursday, and Friday we are heading out to Cooper Lake State Park for the initial outage. Do we christen RV's on their maiden voyage with a bottle of champagne over the front cap, or just pop open a bottle and enjoy it th first night?
 

Jv75353

Well-known member
Congrats on the new Cyclone! It's going to be a long week. Your rig looks great and good luck with your PDI.
 

TravelTiger

Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired
Welcome to the Heartland Family! Check out the upcoming North Texas Chapter Rally in Canton 9-9 to 9-11!! We'd love to see that rig in person!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Cane.MBA

Member
Well we had an awesome weekend camping, at least until we packed up to leave. I managed to pull out from the concrete pad, and make it about 50' down the road. All of the sudden my Pro Series 20K hitch decided it was tired and let go of my Cyclone. Well after feeling a huge jerk, a loud boom, and then a large crushing lurch I slammed on my brakes. The brakes were immediately followed by another boom, although not so loud, jarring, or crushing. I was able to use the front hydraulics to lift the trailer off the bed so I could pull forward and free the king pin from under the hitch. Then using auto level (in the middle of the campground road) I was able to lift the camper enough to re-hitch it and idle over to the next site and clear the roadway.

I of course immediately assumed I had screwed up, but after walking a park ranger through what happened, and showing him the damage he reassured me it was a hitch failure, not my failure. I don't think it was a manufacturing issue, but an installation issue. I noticed a large amount of "chucking" on the way home from the dealer and in route to the park. However, being my first 5th wheel I wasn't sure if this was normal. Since doing some research after the fact, I realize it was a warning sign. So the issue is that the arm that locks the sliding mechanism in place sheared off and allowed the hitch to slide and dislodged the camper. Luckily I had my tailgate up, and with quick cat like reflexes applying the brakes, the king pin stayed inside the bed. Unfortunately dropping 5,000 pounds on my truck bed flattened out my bed, and destroyed my tailgate. The camper is no worse for the wear, just some scratches, and two spots where the gel coat is gouged out. My (unopened) bottle of Rum didn't even fall over, and amazingly enough after getting home last night it is still unopened....

Unfortunately, with the slider arm sheared off I had to leave the camper. Now I am dealing with insurance, truck with one company, trailer with another.

I ordered a new hitch today and it'll be installed tomorrow afternoon. After doing some quick but intense research I selected a Demco Hijacker 21K Autoslide. There are a couple of features that really sold me on it, after what had just happened. First, the jaws wrap completely around the pin, second the hitch has guides that align the pin with the locking jaws, but most importantly, once locked there is a very large steel rod that sits behind the jaws to secure them and act as a catch if something horrible were to happen again. Additionally, once the jaws lock there is a cotter pin that locks the control arm into place helping keep the jaws locked.

Hopefully, I will be able to retrieve my camper Wednesday and get an insurance adjuster to take a look at it, and my truck into the shop to be repaired. I am amazed that I am not more ****** about this, but no one was hurt, and the damage is repairable. I feel very lucky that I was only going 2-3 mph when this happened and not 60mph on a busy freeway...
 

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Bob&Patty

Founders of SoCal Chapter
Sorry that happened on your first trip. Glad no one was hurt except your pride. I hope that every time you hook up you do the tug test before you lift the landing gear. The hitch breaking is a whole nutter story. Never have seen that before.
 

OEFVET

Well-known member
Sorry to hear about your troubles. Hope it all works out without too much stress! You may want to consider addressing this with the installer and see what they say. Good Luck!
 

Bob&Patty

Founders of SoCal Chapter
Mike, read the thread "Demco 21K hitch noisy when turning" by sarge. His hitch is destroying itself in 50 miles. Not the same problem as your's....BUT.
 

alwaysbusy

Well-known member
Sorry to hear about. Something like that is a sure way to stick a damper on your maiden trip. But your right, all can be fixed, and both you and your family are safe which is most important. Recently I been through my own snafu needing some paint work on the coach. A lot of dealers sublet paint work as many paint shops cannot paint large units/rv's. I believe you said you only have clear coat damage but just in case; like mine, your coach was probably painted by Mike's Custom Painting in Bremen, IN. They use Sikkens brand Akzonolan paint[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]. Both Heartland and Mike's will have the paint codes. If you call Mike's, they will need the Heartland unit number for your coach in order to look up. If you need paint work done, ensure whoever is doing it has a cross reference match to the Akzonolan paint codes if their not using the Sikkens brand. I was concerned about having an exact match and wanted no guess work.[/FONT]
 

Cane.MBA

Member
Sorry to hear about. Something like that is a sure way to stick a damper on your maiden trip. But your right, all can be fixed, and both you and your family are safe which is most important. Recently I been through my own snafu needing some paint work on the coach. A lot of dealers sublet paint work as many paint shops cannot paint large units/rv's. I believe you said you only have clear coat damage but just in case; like mine, your coach was probably painted by Mike's Custom Painting in Bremen, IN. They use Sikkens brand Akzonolan paint. Both Heartland and Mike's will have the paint codes. If you call Mike's, they will need the Heartland unit number for your coach in order to look up. If you need paint work done, ensure whoever is doing it has a cross reference match to the Akzonolan paint codes if their not using the Sikkens brand. I was concerned about having an exact match and wanted no guess work.


You ou are Awesome! Thank you for sharing this with me! It's not just clear coat, but the gel coat was taken out down to the metal underneath. Granted it was only a couple of small places, and the coroplast (?) has a one very nice impression that matches my truck bed rails. But the paint info will be very helpful as we have full body paint, and the damage is all on the front end cap.
 
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