Bighorn Spring Thing

[rvskipper]

Hello folks. I joined the forum yesterday so I could learn more about the Bighorn. I am considering the 3585RL and have been looking at it for a year. The misses and me love the floorplan. The coach has tons of storage, and places for hanging clothes.The finish of the coach is very good for the price range, and the extras are great. However, the spring problem I have been reading about scares me. I have been living in a Carriage Cameo (14000 GVRW) for the last 5 years with about 90000 miles on her. I have been to Alaska, Baja Mexico, Copper Canyon ( on the roads), and Maine. It has the Mor Ride suspension with shocks, and to date, I have not had any problems other than tires. I moved from "D" rated to "E" rated tires, and the problems went away.
Since I have never had suspension problems, I do not know where to start. I believe that Heartland makes a great product that I would like to own, but I am highly skeptical about the Lippert suspension. I do not care whose fault it is, nor the fact that they will treat you right if you have problems. I do not want any problems in the first place. So here is what I need from you.What can be done before purchase or at purchase to remedy the spring problems I read about. Who can I contact to gather info and cost of going around this problem.In return, I hope that I can help someone in the future with their RV questions.
I am currently parked next to an Elite Suites with a Lippert suspension, so I crawled under the coach , then mine and the difference is like night and day. The hangers for the mor ryde aqe 4 to 6 times larger on each end of the spring than the Lippert. What puzzles me though, is Doubletree has a great reputation for quality, and you see lots of them every where. Man am I confused!!!!!

 

[jimtoo]

Hi rvskipper,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and hopefully to the family. We have a great bunch of people here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge if needed.

You will get lots of views on the springs. I have not had a problem with breaking myself. I'm sure being a fulltimer and towing as many miles as you have, you will be an asset to the forum with lots of information.

Enjoy the forum.

Jim M

 

[musicman]

We have the 3185RL which is the shorter version of the 3585RL. We just love it. We have had not issues with the springs at all. All I can say is that Heartland has been VERY good to us so far. Go Big Horn!

 

[Tankie]

rvskipper, HL does make a good product for the price, I have no complaints with them.
We ordered our unit from the factory. If I had it to do all over again I would upgraded to 8k springs and axles at the least. If you could afford it then I would have the Mor-RYDE IS installed.
If you wanted to purchase one off the lot, I am sure the price of 8k axles and springs upgrade could be worked out at the dealer if they really wanted your business. If the unit you are looking at has 6K then I would upgrade to the 7k system, just my opinion
Good luck and happy hunting

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

I can't say the problems are widespread with Lippert's suspension. Heartland has thousands of rigs on the road and while you see multiple problems on our forum, it's minimal compared to the total number of rigs sold. Our forum is a place to discuss problems and find the best path to resolve them. I agree with your concern though. That said, if you get a great deal on a Bighorn, it wouldn't add that much more to the cost to add full Independent from Mor-ryde. Our 2007 was not showing any signs of failure but because of the problems others were having, we had the I.S. installed last year. I still inspect the suspension and tires religiously.

 

[ralphpam]

We have a 2010 3670 rl and we are going to have the mor-ryde is system installed plus disk brakes and the never lube bearings. We have the trailsaver pinbox and plan to get the triglide portion installed at the same time. This will solve all the potential problems and we will still have less money in the trailer than other comparable trailers we were looking at.

 

[kakampers]

The biggest suspension problem I've seen on this forum has been bent and busted springs. Our unit came with 7K axles and springs. We had one busted spring and several that went flat....we had the springs switched out to 8K and there has been no more problem.

I also think some of the issues have come from loose U bolts. One thing that every owner should do regularly is check the torque on the U bolts at least several times until they seat properly.

Other than that, EVERYONE needs to be aware of their ACTUAL weight and make sure that it stays within the weight rating of their axles...we've put almost 50,000 miles on our Bighorn and the suspension is just fine...JMHO.

 

[azbound]

I don't know if this has anything to do with the issue you are concerned with but; when I ordered my 09 Bighorn 3400 I ordered it with the upgrade to 7,000# axles and G Rated tires. I have about 7,000 miles on the trailer and have had no problems with the suspension or tires. I keep my tires inflated to the Max (110 #'s). I don't think we are supposed to discuss prices but the price of the upgrade from the factory was very reasonable.

 

[Recovered from 25-May-2010]

How much does ur 3400 weigh?

 

[JohnDar]

We've had our 3670 for two seasons, now. Granted, it probably has less than 2000 miles on it, but our springs do not show any signs of failure. The Freestar tires also look good. I tightened up the bolts on the spring mounts and keep the tires at 110 psi.

 

[Recovered from 25-May-2010]

We have 7000# axels and G rated tires, they did not help when the springs were 3000#, as installed by Lippert at manufacture. We now have 3500# springs and I can say that everything inside rides much better. We keep our tires at 110 as well.

 

[Wharton]

We ordered our 3670 with G tires and easy lube axels. Plan to change to the Morryde 8000# IS suspension in the fall when we are in Elkhart. We have had the Morryde on our last trailer for 8 years and just consider it a required option. I will say the BH is nicely outfitted compared with our last rig the suspension, the solar that the dealer installed and a rear hitch were our only major add ons. Our dealer was great and did a lot of our fussy little items. We absolutely love the hydraulic front landing gears...........

We can't wait to get on the road in the fall with our new rig. We have moved in, not sure we can find anything but everything is in the general vicinity of where it belongs. Still have a long list of "to do" items, none are really required. We will get to them as we go down the road.