Hi chris11427,
Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum.
Life would be a lot easier if there were a place to go where you could go to find the number of trailers built, by model #, and how many warranty claims there were. Then you could empirically evaluate quality. But, there's no such place. So we look online and find anecdotal information.
Online anecdotal posts can produce a picture that's heavily weighted toward problems, because people who have no problems usually don't bother posting. They just enjoy their trailers.
The big differences come down to how the manufacturer provides warranty coverage, and customer support, and the dealer with whom you choose to do business.
Heartland is more flexible than most manufacturers in that with prior approval, you can use independent repair shops, or mobile servicers rather than be tied down to the selling dealer to get service. Many RV dealers have very poor turnaround time on repairs. Having other choices can make a huge difference to you. In some cases, with simple repairs that you can do yourself, Heartland often will ship you the parts, rather than force you to haul your trailer to the selling dealer and wait, and wait.
When it comes to choosing dealers, it can be difficult to assess dealer quality unless you get opinions from others using that dealership, before you buy.
One thing you might be aware of is that the Mallard line is built by Heartland to Camping World specifications and is only available from Camping World locations. However, if you shop other dealers in your area that sell Heartland trailers, you may find a very similar trailer with a different Heartland brand name, from which the Mallard is derived. Any time you can get essentially the same product from 2 dealers, you'll probably have a bit of an advantage compared to having a single choice.
This forum is also a great resource with thousands of Heartland owners participating and quick to help. We also have a great collection of
owner-written user guides that explain things and help new and long-time owners answer questions about their rigs.
Anyway, that's the long answer to your question.
