Bob Vaughn
Well-known member
Has anyone had their front cap painted on their grey Big Country due to fading? Heartland would take no responsibility when I contacted them. What is this task going to cost me?? 
Cost to paint front cap..
- Thread starter Bob Vaughn
- Start date
TravelTiger
Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired
Bob, sorry to hear you are having fading. Seems like some folks discovered this fairly quickly in their ownership, and HL did cover some repairs. Others, later, did not get coverage from HL. I have seen many other brands with similar issues which their grey front caps, as well, so it's not just a HL issue. If you do a search, there may be existing threads where folks have mentioned what they paid. I seem to recall a variety of quotes, but not sure about what people ended up paying.
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coram8
Active Member
That's funny you posted a picture of a Sunset Trail Reserve. That was what we had prior to our current gateway. Front cap on our Sunset looked just like the one in the picture. I will say that Crossroads was awesome handling ours. It came with a two year warranty and we were about 9 months past that and they still painted it under warranty. The dealer did tell me if they hadn't covered it, that it would cost a little over $2,000 with stickers.
Any recommendation on what to use on the front cap of our Gateway to ensure I don't have the same a
issue?
GOTTOYS
Well-known member
My front cap was painted when my trailer was about 2 years old. They used a base coat/clear coat automotive finish. The cost was $1500.00 plus decals. Last Summer my rear cap was painted at a different shop. Same process, smoother finish. $1050 plus decals.
I'm not very happy about having to do this and will never buy another trailer without painted caps. It's very difficult to find a shop with a large enough paint booth. Had my best luck at body shops that painted trucks and buses. Hauling it around for estimates during business hours in a large city isn't much fun. I had bids as high as $8000 for just my front cap. Rip off!
I tried the Zep finish thing that everyone was bragging about on the internet. It was a lot of prep work. It looked good for 6 months then it started to flake off. Tried to touch it up without much luck. It was very hard to get the junk off to prepare it for paint. The paint seems to be holding up well and while expensive it was the only real cure. Good luck...Don
I'm not very happy about having to do this and will never buy another trailer without painted caps. It's very difficult to find a shop with a large enough paint booth. Had my best luck at body shops that painted trucks and buses. Hauling it around for estimates during business hours in a large city isn't much fun. I had bids as high as $8000 for just my front cap. Rip off!
I tried the Zep finish thing that everyone was bragging about on the internet. It was a lot of prep work. It looked good for 6 months then it started to flake off. Tried to touch it up without much luck. It was very hard to get the junk off to prepare it for paint. The paint seems to be holding up well and while expensive it was the only real cure. Good luck...Don
ram_1955
Well-known member
Here is a picture half way through the fix.
I used Gelcoat Rejuvenator
Prep was a good wash. Then work in a 1 foot square at a time about 2 minutes per square. Has to be done out of direct sun as the product cures by UV which means the more sun the stronger.
Bob Vaughn
Well-known member
Can you imagine the uproar if One of the Big 3 auto makers put out a vehicle that after 30-60 days in the sunshine the paint faded like rv's have....What make me mad is the year I bought mine March 2011 mine was inside an enclosed rv barn 11 months because of a hip replacement. Then in 2012 camping less than 20 days....so in my situation my gel coat was defective from the day it was installed ......
