building a better heartland

yellowamc · Aug 6, 2019

hello my name is mike whitman

2 months ago my wife and I decided to make the move to full time rv life. we purchased a 2019 bighorn traveler 39fl. floorplan is great. on our first trip as posted here before my cylinder for main slides fell off getting absolutely no help from heartland even tho we were 2 blocks away in elkhart. I fortunately had enough tools to do repair myself. of course now seeing the complexity of bad design and poor quality control along with the lack of support. I have decided to make all repairs and improvements myself. I started with alignment of kitchen slide. to my surprise found screws loose on slide rollers mounted to floor. so with the help of friends I managed to reattach center roller that had flipped itself upside down and replace screws on other roller that were lose. after this was complete upon further inspection noticed from the inside you can see sunlight through the seal on bottom of slide. I will add pictures as project progresses. I am currently looking for a better seal system for this area.

i know this is a forum and place to be all happy. so I will try to not allow my anger and total discouragement with quality and lack of customer care heartland has displayed

has anyone tried some kind of door sweep material for the bottom slide seal. we all know how the seals work in the infinite wisdom of heartland engineers the thought that when seal flips inward its gets wedged between roller and slide bottom this tearing material

my thoughts are some kind of brush door sweep that would prevent your feet from freezing when air blows across kitchen floor.

I have dialed in depth and distance from wall when open seeing as how one side was 3 inches out. now i will be working on night and side to side seal on left side will not pop out due to slide clearance. seal on right side does not touch slide due to gap from alignment

again i will try to control the negativity and stick to just the improvements. This will be a very hard task. but I will do my best. once I figure out how to add photos I will share all the wonderful thing I have found.

some things after hearing well when u travel things come loos lol i understand but working in industrial maintenance for 30 yrs they make thses really cool bolts called nylocks as well as a product called lock tight.

however best of all will be poting picture of square hole cut for round window on one corner and install window and ship anyway my bad for not noticing at delivery but how do u fix that. I realize at some point I will be blocked but there are many forums .....

however my main concern is fixing my house

DRBrown · Aug 6, 2019

yellowamc said:
hello my name is mike whitman

2 months ago my wife and I decided to make the move to full time rv life. we purchased a 2019 bighorn traveler 39fl. floorplan is great. on our first trip as posted here before my cylinder for main slides fell off getting absolutely no help from heartland even tho we were 2 blocks away in elkhart. I fortunately had enough tools to do repair myself. of course now seeing the complexity of bad design and poor quality control along with the lack of support. I have decided to make all repairs and improvements myself. I started with alignment of kitchen slide. to my surprise found screws loose on slide rollers mounted to floor. so with the help of friends I managed to reattach center roller that had flipped itself upside down and replace screws on other roller that were lose. after this was complete upon further inspection noticed from the inside you can see sunlight through the seal on bottom of slide. I will add pictures as project progresses. I am currently looking for a better seal system for this area.

i know this is a forum and place to be all happy. so I will try to not allow my anger and total discouragement with quality and lack of customer care heartland has displayed

has anyone tried some kind of door sweep material for the bottom slide seal. we all know how the seals work in the infinite wisdom of heartland engineers the thought that when seal flips inward its gets wedged between roller and slide bottom this tearing material

my thoughts are some kind of brush door sweep that would prevent your feet from freezing when air blows across kitchen floor.

I have dialed in depth and distance from wall when open seeing as how one side was 3 inches out. now i will be working on night and side to side seal on left side will not pop out due to slide clearance. seal on right side does not touch slide due to gap from alignment

again i will try to control the negativity and stick to just the improvements. This will be a very hard task. but I will do my best. once I figure out how to add photos I will share all the wonderful thing I have found.

some things after hearing well when u travel things come loos lol i understand but working in industrial maintenance for 30 yrs they make thses really cool bolts called nylocks as well as a product called lock tight.

however best of all will be poting picture of square hole cut for round window on one corner and install window and ship anyway my bad for not noticing at delivery but how do u fix that. I realize at some point I will be blocked but there are many forums .....

however my main concern is fixing my house

There is a ton of useful information in this buildup.
https://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/expedition-vehicles/933305-f-700-4x4-camper-11.html?amp=1

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Virgil · Aug 6, 2019

Hi Mike, unfortunately we, as consumers, have allowed this industry to profit with selling inferior products. Good luck with you projects and I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures..

wdk450 · Aug 6, 2019

Yellow AMC:
I noticed sunlight streaming into the trailer under my kitchen slide a few years ago. The normal kitchen under slide seals seemed very useless at holding out cold/hot weather leaks (they are designed to keep rain/road water out only), and tore very easily. I thought about the problem, went to Walmart and looked in the weatherstripping section in home improvements. I found some 2-1/4 inch square by 42 inches shaped foam rubber kits designed for insulating off window air conditioners in a house. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Duck-Window-Air-Conditioner-2-25-x-2-25-x-42-Insulating-Seal/17133817 . I think I got 2 of these as I used rubber glue for a but joint in the center of the seal. I cut this to the length of the kitchen slide footing minus 2 inches, then cut and glued 2 short pieces at right angles to the ends of the long strip for the ends of the slide footing. Now when I arrive at a site, I get down and tuck this foam rubber seal in between the kitchen slide footing lip and the floor. Before departing a site, I pull out this seal for travel.

mlpeloquin · Aug 6, 2019

First be polite. Many of us have had out share of minor to major problems. Heartland, like most builders of RV's use products that are designed and produced by other than Heartland. Fasteners and products are chosen by their manufactures. So yes it can be frustrating. When major things such as what has happened to you is a Heartland manufacturing problem.

That being said, Heartland will work with almost any mobile (you pay the service call part) or stick and brick RV repair service so long as you get prior approval for the work. Heartland is a manufacture and does not fix RV's on a quick call because you are down the road. Car manufactures never will at the manufacturing plant nor any manufacture I can think of. Heartland does have a facility to service their products and not all are accepted. There is a waiting list that can run for weeks to months into the future.

I had a major problem a few months past warranty. I got into an independent RV repair business and we contacted Heartland. Pictures and a movie. Not enough. I gave permission to open it up to expose the structure. More pictures and movies and back an fourth between Heartland and Lippert. Not a problem with the Lippert frames. After four weeks I told my RV repair service to fix it. We had a major trip paid for coming up quickly. One week later Heartland informed me and the RV repair service that they would give a one time good faith payment towards the repair. It covered just over 50% of the cost. They are a good company that tries and does go the extra mile to make their customers happy. You do have to have patience with time. Mine took so long do to a major holiday and vacations.

So you can fix it yourself and Heartland will provide you the parts at no cost, you can get a good independent RV repair service and provide a list of things to be repaired, with prior approval from Heartland, let your dealer do the service, or get a mobile service to do the work again with prior approval. To get parts from Heartland, call and ask for the parts department and have your VIN number. If the parts are in, you will have them in two days. I know, because I have done so.

RickL · Aug 6, 2019

It’s easy to be critical of the finished product most RV Manufacturers (I’d prefer to call them assemblers) put out. Generally due to their business model of paying piece work to assemble we pay the price for the speed and lack of detail during the assembly of the units. Having been through one of Heartlands facilities for a tour I can tell you first hand it’s all about speed of assembly for the workers. This may not be the intent of the top executives, but the reality is this is direct result of their compensation program for the assemblers.

I felt the facility was was lacking in cleanliness and organization which based on what I was told that they are experiencing a definite slow down in demand. Having management experience in manufacturing and being through readying plants for ISO 9001 certification I could write a short novel for Heartland on the immediate improvements that need to be addressed.

Now unto the end user and what we have to shoulder owning (and living fulltime in one of their units). First patience and flexibility is absolutely tantamount if one is going retain their sanity. It took me almost a year from my first inquiry to the time I was able to get my rig in for repairs. Once there in Elkhart I have to say that my experience was very good. Did all go the way I wanted, no, but in the end I really don’t have any complaints about the workmanship or interaction with the service personnel. I was treated with respect and they actually in some repairs went way above my expectations. I drove away last Friday feeling any issues that come up now are going to be a result of “home on a fault line” as we pull it down the road. Those things that happen as we pull our rigs I have a difficult time pointing back to the “assembler” once the original shake down period is completed.

Could we we all stand back and question many of the designs and workmanship issues - absolutely. However, at the end of the day, it’s somewht incumbent on ourselves to research and make purchase decisions based on our research and what problems we are willing to stand for.

danemayer · Aug 6, 2019

It took me almost a year from my first inquiry to the time I was able to get my rig in for repairs.

Would it be fair to assume you waited a year so you could take it to the factory repair facility instead of a dealer?

yellowamc · Aug 6, 2019

not really sure what was edited do to rules ?

danemayer · Aug 6, 2019

yellowamc said:
not really sure what was edited do to rules ?

sending you a PM.

yellowamc · Aug 6, 2019

danemayer said:
Would it be fair to assume you waited a year so you could take it to the factory repair facility instead of a dealer?[/COLOR]

I understand however were you on vacation half way to your destination and could not access your bathroom or bedroom. as stated got it working on my own just needed 10 minutes to make sure nothing else was going to be damaged. all of the small item I will fix myself. however let's remember it's a brand 2019 unit. but yes I would be upset if I had to wait a year but my dealer was over 1200 miles away

- - - Updated - - -

danemayer said:
sending you a PM.

I did notice u have the independent suspension how does that work I would like to add that on mine

danemayer · Aug 6, 2019

yellowamc said:
I understand however were you on vacation half way to your destination and could not access your bathroom or bedroom. as stated got it working on my own just needed 10 minutes to make sure nothing else was going to be damaged. all of the small item I will fix myself. however let's remember it's a brand 2019 unit. but yes I would be upset if I had to wait a year but my dealer was over 1200 miles away

- - - Updated - - -

I did notice u have the independent suspension how does that work I would like to add that on mine

The question about waiting a year for service was to RICKL.

I highly recommend independent suspension and disc brakes. After multiple axle and brake issues, I'm much happier with both than with the standard equipment.

yellowamc · Aug 6, 2019

mlpeloquin said:
First be polite. Many of us have had out share of minor to major problems. Heartland, like most builders of RV's use products that are designed and produced by other than Heartland. Fasteners and products are chosen by their manufactures. So yes it can be frustrating. When major things such as what has happened to you is a Heartland manufacturing problem.

That being said, Heartland will work with almost any mobile (you pay the service call part) or stick and brick RV repair service so long as you get prior approval for the work. Heartland is a manufacture and does not fix RV's on a quick call because you are down the road. Car manufactures never will at the manufacturing plant nor any manufacture I can think of. Heartland does have a facility to service their products and not all are accepted. There is a waiting list that can run for weeks to months into the future.

I had a major problem a few months past warranty. I got into an independent RV repair business and we contacted Heartland. Pictures and a movie. Not enough. I gave permission to open it up to expose the structure. More pictures and movies and back an fourth between Heartland and Lippert. Not a problem with the Lippert frames. After four weeks I told my RV repair service to fix it. We had a major trip paid for coming up quickly. One week later Heartland informed me and the RV repair service that they would give a one time good faith payment towards the repair. It covered just over 50% of the cost. They are a good company that tries and does go the extra mile to make their customers happy. You do have to have patience with time. Mine took so long do to a major holiday and vacations.

So you can fix it yourself and Heartland will provide you the parts at no cost, you can get a good independent RV repair service and provide a list of things to be repaired, with prior approval from Heartland, let your dealer do the service, or get a mobile service to do the work again with prior approval. To get parts from Heartland, call and ask for the parts department and have your VIN number. If the parts are in, you will have them in two days. I know, because I have done so.

I am sorry I did not realise I was not being polite

yellowamc · Aug 6, 2019

RickL said:
It’s easy to be critical of the finished product most RV Manufacturers (I’d prefer to call them assemblers) put out. Generally due to their business model of paying piece work to assemble we pay the price for the speed and lack of detail during the assembly of the units. Having been through one of Heartlands facilities for a tour I can tell you first hand it’s all about speed of assembly for the workers. This may not be the intent of the top executives, but the reality is this is direct result of their compensation program for the assemblers.

I felt the facility was was lacking in cleanliness and organization which based on what I was told that they are experiencing a definite slow down in demand. Having management experience in manufacturing and being through readying plants for ISO 9001 certification I could write a short novel for Heartland on the immediate improvements that need to be addressed.

Now unto the end user and what we have to shoulder owning (and living fulltime in one of their units). First patience and flexibility is absolutely tantamount if one is going retain their sanity. It took me almost a year from my first inquiry to the time I was able to get my rig in for repairs. Once there in Elkhart I have to say that my experience was very good. Did all go the way I wanted, no, but in the end I really don’t have any complaints about the workmanship or interaction with the service personnel. I was treated with respect and they actually in some repairs went way above my expectations. I drove away last Friday feeling any issues that come up now are going to be a result of “home on a fault line” as we pull it down the road. Those things that happen as we pull our rigs I have a difficult time pointing back to the “assembler” once the original shake down period is completed.

Could we we all stand back and question many of the designs and workmanship issues - absolutely. However, at the end of the day, it’s somewht incumbent on ourselves to research and make purchase decisions based on our research and what problems we are willing to stand for.

I will agree with that on the end game. While in Elkhart we toured the luxe facility wow we were impressed. They do come with a heavy price tag but u get what u pay for. I work at a factory that builds jet engines in facilities maintenance. I do understand manufacturing can have its problems.

yellowamc · Aug 6, 2019

wdk450 said:
Yellow AMC:
I noticed sunlight streaming into the trailer under my kitchen slide a few years ago. The normal kitchen under slide seals seemed very useless at holding out cold/hot weather leaks (they are designed to keep rain/road water out only), and tore very easily. I thought about the problem, went to Walmart and looked in the weatherstripping section in home improvements. I found some 2-1/4 inch square by 42 inches shaped foam rubber kits designed for insulating off window air conditioners in a house. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Duck-Window-Air-Conditioner-2-25-x-2-25-x-42-Insulating-Seal/17133817 . I think I got 2 of these as I used rubber glue for a but joint in the center of the seal. I cut this to the length of the kitchen slide footing minus 2 inches, then cut and glued 2 short pieces at right angles to the ends of the long strip for the ends of the slide footing. Now when I arrive at a site, I get down and tuck this foam rubber seal in between the kitchen slide footing lip and the floor. Before departing a site, I pull out this seal for travel.

that's a good idea

RickL · Aug 7, 2019

danemayer said:
Would it be fair to assume you waited a year so you could take it to the factory repair facility instead of a dealer?[/COLOR]

That would be fair. As the slideout floor needed to be replaced and the sidewall was cracked I was more inclined to take to the factory service facility as one thing I learned quickly is the dealer is always waiting on parts.

building a better heartland

yellowamc

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