Cyclone exterior crack

So I developed a crack in the exterior above the living room slide out. This happened 6months after purchase. Rvoutlet in Danville repaired it 4 times. The crack has returned every time. Sometimes before I made the 50mile trip back home to Lynchburg. So Rvoutlet blames it on a design flaw with the frame and Heartland doesn’t want to help me with it because they already paid Rvoutlet to fix it. So basically the buck is getting passed by both companies.Was hoping someone here has been through the same thing and can give me some guidance. ... I have little ... options since it’s a recreational vehicle and all the loopholes in the warranty and sales contract.

Hi latemodel68,

This has happened to a few people and it's sometimes caused by a broken weld in the upper sidewall frame around the slide. Many dealers are unable to fix a problem like this and yours apparently has not found the root cause.

This may need to be fixed in Elkhart, either at the factory service center, or at a nearby dealer experienced in this type of repair.

I'd suggest you again call Heartland Customer Service at (574) 262-8030 or (877) 262-8032. Have your VIN # ready. Ask them if the repeat problem could be due to a broken weld in the sidewall frame. Ask who is qualified to make such repairs. Then ask if Heartland is willing to take care of it in Elkhart.

Be patient as a deeper discussion is likely to get you some help.

latemodel68 said:

So I developed a crack in the exterior above the living room slide out.
Was hoping someone here has been through the same thing and can give me some guidance. ... I have little ... options since it’s a recreational vehicle and all the loopholes in the warranty and sales contract.

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Yes we have been thru it, this past summer actually. But we did not have the same issue as to the number of times it was repaired. We contacted Heartland and requested we would go to Affinity RV Group in Goshen, Ind. They cut a section of the wall out, repaired the broken weld issue, repaired the broken fiberglass. Our crack went from the upper left hand corner at a 45 degree run to the gutter.
Right now make sure you cover the crack to keep water intrusion out, we used Gorilla tape. By doing this it saved how much damage was caused by water.
The information for Affinity RV Group is:
Affinity RV Group
2380 Kercher Road
Goshen, Ind. 46526
574-971-5543
574-536-8147

They repaired our unit June 22 and we were there until July 3rd sitting in their parking lot, they allowed us to hook up to 50amp, FHU.

latemodel68 said:

So I developed a crack in the exterior above the living room slide out. This happened 6months after purchase. Rvoutlet in Danville repaired it 4 times. The crack has returned every time. Sometimes before I made the 50mile trip back home to Lynchburg. So Rvoutlet blames it on a design flaw with the frame and Heartland doesn’t want to help me with it because they already paid Rvoutlet to fix it. So basically the buck is getting passed by both companies.Was hoping someone here has been through the same thing and can give me some guidance. ... I have little ... options since it’s a recreational vehicle and all the loopholes in the warranty and sales contract.

Click to expand...

If you haven't been in contact with Heartland directly yet, kindly email me (link) your name, VIN, phone number and I will try to get Customer Service to reach out to you directly so you can explain to them what you've experienced and what you feel is right for them to do for you. I work for Heartland.

We had a sidewalk crack in our 2017 CY3800, discovered January 2020, 2 years and 10 months out of warranty, I called Heartland Customer Service, had to send them all kinds of pictures, once they received what they requested, Heartland stepped up and agreed to do the repair, we had to take it to Elkhart.

see post #49

https://heartlandowners.org/showthr...9-Cyclone-3800?p=645564&highlight=#post645564

Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply to me. I really appreciate how so many have reached out. My biggest problem was taking it to an unqualified repair shop first, but that’s where I bought it. Should have done my research and contacted Heartland before I had any repairs done.

All: Thank you for the info with regards to a wall crack. We have a 2013 Bighorn 3010RE. In 2016 the door side wall near the pin box separated from the frame. I addressed this issue with Heartland and after numerous pictures and measurements with the couch unhooked and hooked to tow vehicle Heartland agreed to fix the problem at their facility. Now that the wall is securely attached to the frame, an exterior crack has slowly formed at the forward exterior speaker and the wall below the speaker is visually "wavy". I feel this is caused by the frame flexing now that the wall is securely attached to the frame. I've tried to contact Heartland via the consumer website with no response. I then sent an e-mail to Mr. Darrel Turner. He was my customer service rep when the side wall was reattached to the frame. It has been several working days and I still have not received a response to my email. I will call customer service tomorrow.
see below e-mails sent to Heartland with no response.


Mr. Turner: I'm reaching out to you for help to identify a point of contact (POC) at Heartland for an issue on my Bighorn 3010RE. In DEC 2016 you were my customer service representative when Heartland repaired the wall separation from the frame on this unit. I sent the below request 4/11/2021, for an exterior wall crack at the forward exterior speaker, and as of today I have not received a response or recommendation for repair. The attached PDF file provides pictures identifying the problem. Can you provide a POC to help with this problem?

Thank you in advance for your support
Jeffery Brickhouse

Customer request sent 4/11/2021 below.
"Reaching out for advice/help with a problem on my 2013 Bighorn 3010RE (VIN #5SFBG3423DE257340) that I bought new in November 2012. In December 2016 Heartland repaired the wall separation from the frame. Mr. Darrell Turner was my customer service representative during this repair. Mr. Turner kept me well informed during the repairs and I have seen no further wall separation with regards to this issue. The problem I have now is that the wall that was securely attached to the frame is now visually wavy/distorted and a 3 inch long surface crack has developed over the last year at the external speaker. It appears the wall is securely attached to the frame, but now the frame flexing is causing the wall damage. This frame flex was identified in 2016 as a problem via a (.pdf) picture file that I can provide. Can/will Heartland provide advice/service and a course of action to correct this issue?
I have pictures available for review of the wall crack.
Thank you in advance for your support
Jeff"

Jeffery said:

All: Thank you for the info with regards to a wall crack. We have a 2013 Bighorn 3010RE. In 2016 the door side wall near the pin box separated from the frame. I addressed this issue with Heartland and after numerous pictures and measurements with the couch unhooked and hooked to tow vehicle Heartland agreed to fix the problem at their facility. Now that the wall is securely attached to the frame, an exterior crack has slowly formed at the forward exterior speaker and the wall below the speaker is visually "wavy". I feel this is caused by the frame flexing now that the wall is securely attached to the frame. I've tried to contact Heartland via the consumer website with no response. I then sent an e-mail to Mr. Darrel Turner. He was my customer service rep when the side wall was reattached to the frame. It has been several working days and I still have not received a response to my email. I will call customer service tomorrow.
see below e-mails sent to Heartland with no response.

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Hi Jeffrey,

People change jobs and there's a fair amount of movement between companies in Elkhart. So it's possible your prior contact is no longer in a position to respond. I'd suggest you call Heartland Customer Service at 877-262-8032 / 574-262-8030. Have your VIN # ready.

Also, if you do get a response, please do not paste the response to the forum. Heartland regards those as private communications not intended for publication.

Howdy!

I would second and highly recommend going the Affinity RV Repair listed below. It was well worth the drive to Elkhart to their repair facility for them to do the work on our slide and delamition repair. If I had any serious problems I would use them even if I had to pay for it.

“Happy Trails”
Chiefneon

jbeletti said:

If you haven't been in contact with Heartland directly yet, kindly email me (link) your name, VIN, phone number and I will try to get Customer Service to reach out to you directly so you can explain to them what you've experienced and what you feel is right for them to do for you. I work for Heartland.

Click to expand...

Do you still work there? I have a few questions..

JBeletti no longer works for Heartland.
You can post your questions here.

Peace
Dave