pioneer 185

ktexpress

Member
Thinking about buying a pioneer 185, but have seen some bad reviews on it. Trouble with the awning, slideout leaking, wall trouble.
Any advice?
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Hi ktexpress,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum.

The first thing to understand is that people are more active on the internet when they experience a problem than when everything is going right. So it's pretty easy to find reports of problems on every manufacturer, every brand, and every model.

Second, doing a thorough inspection prior to taking delivery will give you a very good shot at getting an RV that needs less attention after you take delivery. Dealers are highly motivated to get your signature on the paperwork, so if you identify problems during your inspection, they will be highly motivated to fix them right away so they can close the deal. Sadly, many dealers are much less motivated after the sale and may just tell you to drop the trailer off for an indefinite period for even the most minor repair. One of our owners has put together a comprehensive Pre-Delivery Inspection Checklist to help you make sure everything is right. It's about 1/2 way down in this folder of our owner-written user guides.

Third, manufacturers don't all handle warranty issues the same. Heartland is more flexible than most and with prior approval, will let non-Heartland dealers, independent servicers, or mobile servicers do your warranty work. With mobile service, you'll have to pay the travel charge, which is usually less than the cost of hauling the trailer to your dealer. And, on some repairs, Heartland may agree to ship you parts directly for self-install.

Fourth, if you need help, we have a great group of friendly and helpful people who are quick to share what they've learned. Post a question on this forum and you're likely to get help within a very short time; often just minutes. And as mentioned, we have a large collection of owner-written user guides that will help to de-mystify many aspects of RV'ing.

So my advice would be to take a look at the broad picture and do a good inspection prior to signing the paperwork.
 
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