It's here!!Mixed feelings...

Our new 3250 is here.
Looks nice on the outside...

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But a mess on the inside...

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already tracking down problems...

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This is the reason the water heater did not work on gas.
Still a beautiful trailer. I am not sure how well the dealer checked it out or the quality control at Heartland, but all these things can be fixed.

wow!! I hope the 3950 we are looking to buy doesnt look like that behind the walls. thats shameful, looks like the heat wont flow through those ducts.

I was very surprised when we opened the basement door. The plywood partition that hides this was not even screwed in place. I think the tech prepping the trailer was trying to fix the water heater and ran out of time. Water heater is now fixed.
Anyway, I expected something different from Heartland. In another post, someone said quality suffers from increased production speed. Those lines at Heartland must be wide open.

I will clean it up but I am worried that might effect the warranty.

Other than a few little things, the interior is beautiful. By far the nicest trailer we have ever owned.

Empty Pockets said:

wow!! I hope the 3950 we are looking to buy doesnt look like that behind the walls. thats shameful, looks like the heat wont flow through those ducts.

Click to expand...

Expect it to be that way... my Big Horn is the same way.

With the MANY problems I've encountered on my unit (less than 2 years old) I doubt if Heartland understands quality!

Eh!

We bought our BH 3055 early last year and frankly I haven't taken any panels off to get this view of the interior. Maybe I should. What is the quickest way to gain access to the compartment where you can see the hot water heater, water pump ducting etc?

Thanks,

Pete

Looks like I need to check out our 3250.

Same Same

I don't know if they are ALL this way, but our 3055RL is. It is such a tangled up mess of wires, plumbing, ducts and other miscellaneous stuff that I don't know where to begin to make sence of it all. It looks like many different things would have to be cut and spliced to untangle the mess, and I am affraid to do that. There appears to be too many splices in the water lines already. Don't need to add more points for trouble. It is a bit disheartening to see the lack of quality in the hidden places.

IMHO, we need to all step back and take deep breath. Yes I have seen behind the walls and was kinda shocked. But maybe we are not seeing the whole picture. Remember that all the wiring, plumbling that is in the walls has to have enough length the be connected to the same wires, water lines and such in the floor. The walls are not like building a car or truck where all the pieces are put on seperately, the walls are 1 piece. Have you ever tried to splice a wire together that only has an inch of play between the 2 pieces?? I would bet that any coach you buy would be about the same. I left mine alone, because, "if it isn't broken, don't fix it". Now, I do agree that a little more quality control should be taken in assembly. But I think HL is as good as most. Im also sure of one more thing. HL is not trying to waste any material and cost themselves money. BTW, if you think the things behind the walls are scary, then never take out the "cluster carrier" (dash) in your 50K car or truck. That is real scary, and I know that for a fact. Thanks for listening. Bob

Two items will clean up the spaghetti---junction blocks for the wires and manifolds for the plumbing. I never expected to see picture postcard wiring in the trailer-but then I never expected this.
This mess is partly responsible for my water heater not working. It gets its 12 volt power from a gray 16 guage wire off the monitor inside the kitchen cabinet. It is inturn wire nutted to a blue wire which is then wire nutted to the red wire on the heater-wire nut on gray wire fell off
The picture I posted is about 10 grounds all tied together with a wire nut. I knocked that off trying to pull wires out of the cabinet.

Bob&Patty, If I sounded over critical to you , I apologize-didn't mean it that way. Just totally surprised- I have been accused of being a little picky though.

Larry, no offence taken. I just was trying to make point as to why somethings are the way they are. And yes there should be more quality control in lots of things. Every screw should be tight, all the wire nuts should be in place and checked for tightness. Then all systems should be checked for proper operation before leaving the factory. Also a small part of the responsibilty to make sure systems are operating properly falls on the delivering dealer. Just as in the auto industry with a pre-deliver inspection and detailing, I believe that all dealers are paid to do this. Maybe some take the money and run or some really do it like they are suppost to. There is never an excuse for poor workman ship in any industry. But as you can see by many posts, the people that have had the least amount of problems where the ones that did the 3-4 hour PDI's and made the dealer fix things right then and there. Pat and I have had many RV's of all kinds. Some with lots of problems and some with very few. Yes we pay alot of money for these units and should expect better workmanship. But as been said before, if they were perfect could we afford them? What we have going for us is that HL does stand in front, beside and rear of their product to help with repairs as needed. This I have never seen with an RV company before. Larry and others, I have always been open for discussions on any subject about this unless it is mean spirited. I hope this is taken the way it was intended. BTW Larry, I hope you and your family have the good luck and great camping times with your BC as we have had with our BH. Bob

To make those area's look like all of us would like them to look would cost us bunches of more money. I'm talking LOT'S of hours, that means LOT'S more money. When you guy's start cleaning up the "behind the scenes area's" put yourself on the clock and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Don't get me wrong, I don't like it either but then again I didn't pay for some body to lay in there for hours upon hours to make things "just right'. Think about it!
People look at me like I have 3 eyes when they ask me to rewire their boats. Well, I could do it in couple of hours but it WOULD look like our trailers. 4x's that price and it will look like it should look. By the way, I don't do the couple hour trick, the right way or the highway!!

Holy moly!! I've been so busy packing our new 3250 ts that I hadn't taken that panel off to check things out. We had a small issue with our stereo speakers not working but thats it so far. I guess I will take that panel off and check ours out........

I agree with Bob's comment on the time spent on your PDI. This is my first RV ever and I knew I would start fulltiming in it immediately - so I wanted it as near 'perfect' as I could get! I spent 8 1/2 hours doing my PDI. The dealer had a couple of guys on top of each and every issue I discovered. When I started the PDI, it was freezing outside. (They were washing off the outside of the Cyclone and it was turning to ice!) When it warmed up, they finished with the wash job and I was able to check all my water systems. I definitely believe it was due to the thorough PDI, that I have experienced very minimal "issues" with my 5er. I purchased this 05-08-08 and been in it since 05-09-08! I LOVE MY CYCLONE!!

Gary, how well I know exactly what you are talking about with rewiring cars and/or boats. I have assembled many a hot rods, boats and repaired wiring in normal cars. As for boats and custom type cars. It's $30.00 per hour. I keep a log as to when I started and when it was finished. There was an extra charge if you stood in my hip pocket or tried to help. Also parts where extra. Most vehicles take about 30-40 hours to complete. Running a wire to each componet, times 50-60 wires, plus all the redundant grounds and then putting it in a neat bundle, using split tube and finding places to secure all this organized spagetti is very time consuming. The people that really cracked me up where the guys with fiberglass 32 Ford roadsters that did not have a hood. "I want the engine to run and have the guages work but I dont want any wires to show" HUH Sorry, but I was never able to find invisable wire or terminals and boy did I try. Bob

Bob and Gary,
Thank you so much for bringing this to light. We see this same complaint/comment so many times here but few realize how it translates to dollars. The same dollars most of us are watching so closely these days. If people want neat-and-tidey wiring and plumbing then they better be ready to pay for it.

Thank you,

Mark

Mark, I dont think myself or anybody here is making light of Larry's dismay or the problems he found. I just think like some have said, its all about dollars and what these things would cost if custom built. I also think that the guys on the assembly line should take a little more pride in themselves and their work. If they cant cut it, then im sure there plenty of people out of work in Elkhart that would like a job. I also think that HL try's to build the best bang for the buck out there. My 2cts. Bob

I completely agree with you Bob.

I wasn't trying to stir the pot.

maybe you got a "friday" trailer when everybody was in a hurry to get to the weekend. I took our acess panel off this afternoon and was pleasantly surprised to find our wiring all bundled together and secured to the framework, the plumbing was busy but there were not excessive connections and splices. The only thing I really could complain about was the panel that has the plug,cable outlet and vent for the inverter was a bit flimsy. I put a couple of 1x1's in behind to give a bit of support. Otherwise, so far so good. This will be our shake down weekend so we will see how it goes.

I have not looked under ours, but we love our 3250TS, hope you enjoy yours.
We hope to be camping soon, waiting for repair from massive hail storm damage.

Southern Nights: This is poor workmanship and it really brings to question if I want to continue waithing for my unite which should be coming within the next couple of weeks. I seen something like this on a model at the dealership that had a microwave oven out of it space and the poor workmanship was noted there too. I am really starting to get some second thoughts with or without any long PDI's. This is not what I am looking for in a unit. A lot of these things are now becoming concerns which enclude springs, air ducting, hot water heaters, shower leaks and the like. This is just not good quility control. Floyd