Bighorn problems. ELECTRICAL PROB. FOUND!

I would like to know if anyone else is having quality problems as we are. Have been in our bighorn for 3 months and it is one thing after another, especially plumbing leaks. We also have an electrical problem with 87 volts going to the ground. I have to ground from the frame to a screwdriver to stop from being shocked when opening compartments. I have a list of 20 problems to which the dealer will not even respond to e mails or phone calls. The factory contact has been very attentive to our problems. I have had 4 other rv,s that I never had to take back to a dealer. Last year we bought another brand which was so bad it could not be repaired. The dealer was very good about helping get us into the 2013 Bighorn 3010 RE. From the first day with the Bighorn it went down the road sideways. The dealer and a frame shop could not repair. We then took it to Lippert who moved the shackles on one side forward 1 inch. It is better. I guess or streak of good luck with rv,s has run out. Any input would be appreciated.Thank you.

Re: Bighorn problems.

Hi wareagle,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum, although I'm sorry to have to welcome you under these circumstances.

If your dealer is not willing to do warranty repair work on your trailer, I'd suggest you call Heartland Customer Service at 877-262-8032 / 574-262-8030. Have your VIN # ready. Ask for other service locations. It's also possible to have warranty work authorized for non-Heartland dealers and for independent servicers. Just have the work authorized in advance.

The problem with getting shocks ("Hot Skin") is extremely serious and needs to be corrected before you use the trailer any more. Grounding the frame to a screwdriver is not a fix. You need a qualified service tech or licensed electrician to figure out the cause and take corrective action before someone is seriously injured.

A Hot Skin condition usually involves a problem with the power pedestal or the power cord, or an extension cord having a damaged or open ground. There may also be a malfunctioning component in the RV that is leaking current, which in the absence of a working ground circuit, finds the next best ground, which is you when you touch the exterior of the RV.

I would suggest you turn off the circuit breaker at the pedestal and unplug the trailer until you get this fixed.

Re: Bighorn problems.

I finally received a call back from the dealership and have to bring it in Tuesday the 29nth.Thank you for the input.The gentleman next to me had me drive a longer rod into the ground. I have a surge protector which says the pedestal power is ok. We are living in it at this time so I will just have to be careful.


We spent 10 days living in the bay of our dealer repair facility and Heartland finally approved some of the repair requests.The dealer did the repairs that they could do with materials on hand. Sent us on our way until Heartland ships the items that still need to be replaced. Estimated arrival time 1-2 weeks. The tech did a great job on the repairs he did happy with that. I have requested that he completes the work on the Bighorn when the parts arrive. I guess the request for warranty work was problematic as the dealer no longer carries heartland products. That's a guess.

Re: Bighorn problems.

Wareagle, let us know what the dealer finds. Could be good info for future reference.

Thanks, Andy

Re: Bighorn problems.

QC on the my Landmark was poor. I had similar problems. I wished the Honda and Toyota and others would start producing RV to shape up the American RV industry like they did the auto industry.

Re: Bighorn problems.

Andy.I will definitely let people know the prognosis of the electrical problem. Yesterday I shut off all the breakers on the panel. I then removed my cable to the ground. I then had my wife flick on one breaker at a time and the voltage to my rod in the ground rose as each breaker was turned back on and the voltage climbed to 83 volts. I would imagine ground moisture caused the 4 volt differential from the reading I took the other day. All in all I do not know what the readings are telling me. I am sure one of my fellow rv,ers has that technical expertise. Thanks,Rich

Re: Bighorn problems.

Rich,

You should have the pedestal investigated even though your surge protector isn't complaining. Here's a link to in-depth info on "hot skin".

Re: Bighorn problems.

I had the same thing happen to me this spring and it could have been tragic as I have a pacemaker. It ended up being the pedestal. My surgeguard said the power was clean so do NOT rely on that. I took the good advice I got here and bought a tester and it will not happen to me again.

Rick

Re: Bighorn problems.

Hey wareagle. We just got our 2014 Bighorn 3010 and although we do not have your electrical or frame problems. There is a long list of deficiencies right from the factory, flush mount windows poorly installed (bent and cracked frames inside) and a bunch that do not close properly, countertops defective (someone with a coarse buffer tried to remove defects and left big unfinished circles on the counter and island), mated cabinet door knobs are off by an inch (how do you install something like that and not notice one knob is an inch higher than the other), shower cracked in 2 places, dining chair rails not glued, TV antenna would not rotate because it was completely 3/4 sealed on top (to make matters worse our dealer when doing the PDI added more sealer to the antenna base).... and the list goes on. I can't help but feel that they do not even have any QC before the units are shipped out. Such a shame as the ideas and floor plans are well thought out but the quality has much to be desired. I love how our dealer responds to the issues... its warranty work. Its not warranty work when it wasn't built properly in the first place. This is our third RV and like you we never had a single issue or problem with the 2 other RV's that we owned. We cant say anything good about the dealer that did the PDI either. We are pretty disappointed... good luck getting your unit repaired. We haven't bought an RV for the past 7 years but this is ridiculous.

Have you contacted Heartland directly? Our BH was built a year ago & the items we found during our PDI were very few & easily corrected.

Re: Bighorn problems.

Just be sure you get everything in writing from Heartland about your water leaks cause when the floor rot's out in a year or so and they tell you to bad should of had it fixed in the first year under warranty. That is what happened to us on our Landmark

Re: Bighorn problems.

Quality control is definitely done during the coach's build. We saw that when we walked the production line during a live tour when our BC was built. Any item found along the way is tagged with red tape. The coaches would go out of the door with multiple areas red taped and then I assume that these are addressed after the coach is pushed off the line.

The coach has it's build tag hanging from the pin box and as an item is completed it's initialed.

At the very end, they actually wash and wax the coach while it is being cleaned inside. The tanks are filled at the start with water so that leaks can be checked along the way. They are then dumped right before the coach is weighed.

It appears it's the after-production "fixing" of the red taped items that isn't being done well?????

Another thought we have about this is that it depends on how well the dealers inspect and prep the coaches. Our 2010 BH was purchased from General RV and it was thoroughly inspected and prepped - we had just a couple of very minor issues to deal with afterward. We bought our 2014 BC elsewhere and it had a very poor inspection done by the dealer (and no prep). We ended up doing a lot of fixes that we assume that General RV would have done for us if we had bought it through them. General RV even covered all the staples, etc. (We bought our TT from them as well and had the same good experience then too.)

Both of our 2014 BC ACs were defective from the start - we feel that would have been caught as well........

An example of how the 2014 BC was poorly inspected by the dealer is that the toilet was broken - porcelain was broken. We told them that after our pre-view of the coach. They still missed it - had to replace the toilet while we were there. And when they did they forgot to put in a seal........ Will never take the coach into this dealer for service.

Re: Bighorn problems.

Hi there. I did contact Heartland and my rep has been very good. No problems there. I just hope the upcoming repairs go ok. We had a real bad 2012 fifth wheel, unrepairable, {different brand} for a few months last year and the manager of sales and our sales person went to bat and took good care of us getting into the Bighorn. Again none of our previous rv,s ever had to go back to a dealer so this is new to me. I took care of the few things that went wrong which were minor. Thanks for responding.

Re: Bighorn problems.

Dan and Ann, The hot skin issue has been on at least 10 different pedestals. Initially I thought it was a 12 volt leak because it was not a strong rap. I have been on 2 different ones since the big rap so I do not think that is the problem. Thanks Rich

Re: Bighorn problems.

I agree completely with the concers about QC at the factory. The list of defects on my 2014 Landmark was 28 items long. They ranged from the standard tv antenna that won't turn because of too much sealant to an anti siphon valve that was sawed off to a terrible job filling nail holes to closet rods put in the wrong place to multiple problems with the carpet to a roof access ladder that was not properly attached to... Well, the list just goes on. My thought is that my coach just slipped through the QC process because if all Heartland products were delivered the way mine was Heartland would be out of business. But since Heartlands business is doing very well I must assume that the problems with my coach are the exception, not the rule. I suggest you keep the pressure on both the dealer and heartland and don't stop until everything is fully repaired to your complete satisfaction.

Re: Bighorn problems.

it sounds to me like a broken or loose neutral. i would start with the cord ends and work my way back thru the system looking for wires not stripped to the proper length , all joints and terminations are tight, and proper polarity....and signs of discoloration (arcing) at termination points ... give a tug at all the joints, sometimes a screw seem tight but its not really because of bad threads. i think you will find it between the panel and the cord end ....broken neutrals can be tuff to find

I had the exact same symptoms with sob fiver three years ago. Everything pointed to an open ground. When I opened the female adapter on the 50 amp power cord I was shocked (no pun intended) that someone would assemble such an important item so poorly. In addition to strands of wire everywhere the green ground was not installed into the lug at all (green grounds the frame). Rewired the adapter and problem gone.

Re: Bighorn problems.

Dear Rod S, I will check out that cord when we stop tomorrow. Sounds like a good place to start. Thanks for the input.

Re: Bighorn problems.

Dear Mslater, Will go that route tomorrow when we stop. Thanks for the information. I rather do things myself then know it is done right. If I don,t find it the dealership can search on Tuesday.

Re: Bighorn problems.

rod_s said:

I had the exact same symptoms with sob fiver three years ago. Everything pointed to an open ground. When I opened the female adapter on the 50 amp power cord I was shocked (no pun intended) that someone would assemble such an important item so poorly. In addition to strands of wire everywhere the green ground was not installed into the lug at all (green grounds the frame). Rewired the adapter and problem gone.

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If you have a hot-skin situation, the first place to check is always any adapters or extension cords plugged onto the shore power cord. While there are many quality "dog-bone" adapters available, some of the single-piece power adapters are very poorly made and can result in a broken safety ground connection. I think this is one instance where you get what you pay for, so don't go cheap on any adapters or extension cords. And make sure you size any extension cords properly so as not to overload them or create too much of a voltage drop. Please read my NoShockZone article about selecting proper extension cords at http://www.noshockzone.org/rv-electrical-safety-part-v-–-amperage/