Whathaveidone
Member
My family and I went on our first trip with our new 31QBS. We picked up the trailer a couple weeks ago and went to a campground about 90 miles away this past weekend. We pulled the trailer with an 04 suburban 1500. I have an equal-i-zer hitch and a prodigy brake control. The trailer was pulled just fine by the suburban and there were no issues. I was pretty nervous about pulling this trailer as I have never pulled anything near this big much less any kind of travel trailer.
We got to the campsite and started to set up pretty quickly. The campsite had pull through spaces and since this was the first trip, it was really nice not having to back in. This campground also had water and electric hook ups.
We got everything set up and I got the BBQ going. It worked pretty well and I made some hamburgers. My wife used the stove to make some mac and cheese to go with. The next night she made corn bread muffins in the half time over and that worked really well too. The beer was kept really cold in the fridge so that was excellent.
After dinner it was time to wash dishes. We had not started the hot water heater yet so I pressed the button to start it. During my PDI, the salesmen started it but I guess we never really checked for hot water. We got into other things and I never checked it. That was my fault as well as his.
All we could get was some warm water. It was not hot water. She decided just to boil some water and I told her I would try and see what I could do in the morning.
A little info about my camping/RV experience. I have none at all. This is the first trailer I have ever had. Actually, its only the 3rd camping trip I have been on and the first one since "beer camping" in college. My wife has been RVing and camping with her parents off and on since she was a kid but that was about it. My limited knowledge of trailers has come from what I have read from the internet and other written sources. I did not have any real world experience.
Late the next morning I called the dealer. I was lucky to have even a weak cell phone connection. I talked to a person in the service department. She went through a trouble shooting guide with me. We decided that the problem was the water bypass valve that was still set to a winterized mode. It was never turned on correctly for camping. She handed the phone to a tech. This is where the problem was. He told me that the valve should be under the sink. I looked and told him I did not see it. He said that the owners manual would be able to tell me where it was if it was not there. He told me to look for it more and call back if I could not find it. He did not offer to go and look at the other two 31QBSs on the lot there and see if he could find it on those.
The owners manuals for this trailer is way too generic and it is not even specific for travel trailers, much less for my specific trailer. It says its for travel trailers and 5th wheels. I found something about the water heater bypass valve and a picture of what it should look like when it was winterized but it did not tell me where to find it. All it said is that it should be near the water heater. Wow, that really helps me.( not really)
I called Heartland and was connected to the Voicemail of a customer service person. I left a message and continued my search for the valve. I did include the exact model of my trailer in the message I left.
So I was looking inside and outside of the trailer trying to find a panel to pull off to look for this valve. Another camper saw that I was outside looking for something around the water heater and asked me if I was having a problem with it. I explained the situation and he said he would help me. He said it has taken four years with his trailer to figure everything out.
We looked inside and out of the trailer and he was finally able to find the valve. It was inside the front passthrough storage area through a hole cut in a panel. The problem was that to see the hole, you had to stick you head and upper body into the storage area and look to the right. We turned the appropriate valves and a few minutes later I had hot water! The hot water heater switch light on the control panel never went out unless we turned it off though. I though I had heard that it was supposed to go out when the water was hot but I could be wrong about that. I will have to look into it more.
The only other thing we found that was a little dissapointing was that the front bunk area got very cold with the door shut. The two kids sleeping up there closed the door. During the night it got pretty cold inside the trailer so we turned on the heat. The rest of the trailer got warm quickly but the bunk area was still cold. I found some info on this forum that said that there is no heat duct into that area so I guess this is normal.
Overall the trip went very well. I expected to find at least an issue or two that would have to be taken to the dealer for repair when we got home. Everything in the trailer worked well and it was a pleasure. We are very pleased with the trailer and would recommend it to others.
The one area that I think needs to be improved is the owners manual. It is way to generic and generalized. I video taped the PDI with my dealer but its a shame to have to rely on that to learn how to work all the features in the trailer. He never talked about the water heater bypass valve or where it was. I guess it's because nobody at the dealership knows where it is. Also, it took them two weeks to call me and tell me how to manually retract the slide should the power extender/retractor fail. I asked them at the PDI but again nobody at the dealership knew and it was not in the owners manual.
The customer service rep at Heartland called me back within about 20 minutes of my call. I thought that was really good. I had sporadic cell phone service so I missed his call and it went to VM. He left a message for me and was extremely nice and sounded very helpful except he did not know the exact location of the valve either. I had found it by that time so I did not call him back but it was nice to know he returned my phone call so quickly and was trying to help.
We got to the campsite and started to set up pretty quickly. The campsite had pull through spaces and since this was the first trip, it was really nice not having to back in. This campground also had water and electric hook ups.
We got everything set up and I got the BBQ going. It worked pretty well and I made some hamburgers. My wife used the stove to make some mac and cheese to go with. The next night she made corn bread muffins in the half time over and that worked really well too. The beer was kept really cold in the fridge so that was excellent.
After dinner it was time to wash dishes. We had not started the hot water heater yet so I pressed the button to start it. During my PDI, the salesmen started it but I guess we never really checked for hot water. We got into other things and I never checked it. That was my fault as well as his.
All we could get was some warm water. It was not hot water. She decided just to boil some water and I told her I would try and see what I could do in the morning.
A little info about my camping/RV experience. I have none at all. This is the first trailer I have ever had. Actually, its only the 3rd camping trip I have been on and the first one since "beer camping" in college. My wife has been RVing and camping with her parents off and on since she was a kid but that was about it. My limited knowledge of trailers has come from what I have read from the internet and other written sources. I did not have any real world experience.
Late the next morning I called the dealer. I was lucky to have even a weak cell phone connection. I talked to a person in the service department. She went through a trouble shooting guide with me. We decided that the problem was the water bypass valve that was still set to a winterized mode. It was never turned on correctly for camping. She handed the phone to a tech. This is where the problem was. He told me that the valve should be under the sink. I looked and told him I did not see it. He said that the owners manual would be able to tell me where it was if it was not there. He told me to look for it more and call back if I could not find it. He did not offer to go and look at the other two 31QBSs on the lot there and see if he could find it on those.
The owners manuals for this trailer is way too generic and it is not even specific for travel trailers, much less for my specific trailer. It says its for travel trailers and 5th wheels. I found something about the water heater bypass valve and a picture of what it should look like when it was winterized but it did not tell me where to find it. All it said is that it should be near the water heater. Wow, that really helps me.( not really)
I called Heartland and was connected to the Voicemail of a customer service person. I left a message and continued my search for the valve. I did include the exact model of my trailer in the message I left.
So I was looking inside and outside of the trailer trying to find a panel to pull off to look for this valve. Another camper saw that I was outside looking for something around the water heater and asked me if I was having a problem with it. I explained the situation and he said he would help me. He said it has taken four years with his trailer to figure everything out.
We looked inside and out of the trailer and he was finally able to find the valve. It was inside the front passthrough storage area through a hole cut in a panel. The problem was that to see the hole, you had to stick you head and upper body into the storage area and look to the right. We turned the appropriate valves and a few minutes later I had hot water! The hot water heater switch light on the control panel never went out unless we turned it off though. I though I had heard that it was supposed to go out when the water was hot but I could be wrong about that. I will have to look into it more.
The only other thing we found that was a little dissapointing was that the front bunk area got very cold with the door shut. The two kids sleeping up there closed the door. During the night it got pretty cold inside the trailer so we turned on the heat. The rest of the trailer got warm quickly but the bunk area was still cold. I found some info on this forum that said that there is no heat duct into that area so I guess this is normal.
Overall the trip went very well. I expected to find at least an issue or two that would have to be taken to the dealer for repair when we got home. Everything in the trailer worked well and it was a pleasure. We are very pleased with the trailer and would recommend it to others.
The one area that I think needs to be improved is the owners manual. It is way to generic and generalized. I video taped the PDI with my dealer but its a shame to have to rely on that to learn how to work all the features in the trailer. He never talked about the water heater bypass valve or where it was. I guess it's because nobody at the dealership knows where it is. Also, it took them two weeks to call me and tell me how to manually retract the slide should the power extender/retractor fail. I asked them at the PDI but again nobody at the dealership knew and it was not in the owners manual.
The customer service rep at Heartland called me back within about 20 minutes of my call. I thought that was really good. I had sporadic cell phone service so I missed his call and it went to VM. He left a message for me and was extremely nice and sounded very helpful except he did not know the exact location of the valve either. I had found it by that time so I did not call him back but it was nice to know he returned my phone call so quickly and was trying to help.
