I'm on several brand-specific forums as we research for our full-time coach. On one of them, someone mentioned that he had just purchased another brand, and someone asked whether the frank and open discussion of problems had turned him against that brand. His reply was that it did not.
We're going to be buying a used coach no matter what brand or class of RV we choose. Having some idea of where the trouble spots have been will help us to do a better job of checking our new-to-us coach. These issues aren't going to make us decide against a Heartland product. In fact, we bought our mpg because we were impressed with a Big Horn, and thought that having a Heartland trailer to trade in might help the deal should we decide on a Big Horn later on.
Our mpg is a good example of what happens when a factory makes running changes. Depending on when it was built, a 2-011 mpg 181 can have a front window but no back window, a front window and a back window, a street-side window in the dinette, no street-side window in the dinette, a dinette table with two folding legs that can be taken outside, a dinette table that attaches to the wall and has only one let and therefore can't be taken outside. No, these variations weren't options. This are running changes that were made during the year.
As for changes to improve quality, last year I was on the tour that saw how a Big Country went together. At one point in the tour, one of the men commented that some of the electrical outlets seemed as solid as the ones in his house, while others seemed "loose" in the wall. I pointed out the problem (the outlet was mounted only to the plywood between two wall studs, rather than attached to a stud) and pointed out how that particular wall could be framed to allow the outlet to stay where it was but still be attached to a stud. Obviously I have no idea whether that change was ever made. A change like that, though, shouldn't take more than a week or so to implement.
One thing that I'd like to see done, industry-wide, is to build each coach to a specific plan and then give a copy of that plan to the first purchaser. Some brands that are almost semi-custom coaches anyway almost have to do this. Heartland isn't in that business, so all 2011 BH 3585's (to pick on Don and Gena) ought to be pretty much the same as far as wire runs, water line runs, etc. Are they? Or does it depend on who was doing what that day?