Heartland 3596RE advice

[CityFire1017]

Hi folks! Brand newbie here. Hopefully in a week or so (+/-), my wife and I are going to pull the trigger on a newly used 2013, 3596RE 5'er. She fell in love almost immediately with the unit and we have been back to look at it, together, a second time. ( I have actually looked at it 3 times). The salesman's story was that the couple had purchased it new, some place else, and then decided they wanted a Class A unit instead and traded the 5'er in on a Class A there.

This rig's only blemishes are that the mattress is stained, which we would replace anyway regardless, and the coroblast lining underneath needs to be resealed in several areas. Other than that, it looks brand spanking new.

We haven't gotten the dealer to actually demonstrate the unit's functionality yet, but my question is, and I hope this is not out of line with the forum's standards, are there any particular problems of special concern that we should be aware of and look for in this particular unit? I can not remember which brand of refrigerator that it has in it, as far as the reputed fire/recall situation goes. If it has a Norcold in it, should I use that as a bartering tool!?

After looking for years at campers, I never found anything that has excited me like the Heartland line does. Thank you in advance for any help!!

Jim

 

[cookie]

Hello Jim and welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and hopefully a Heartland owner.
I guess that when looking at a used rig there will be several things anyone would want to look at.

Tires seem to be an important item. If there are Towmax tires on it I would recommend new tires. They do not have a good track record.
Inflation is very important. Inflate to max pressure indicated on the sidewall. It might be a good idea to take a tire gauge along and see what kind of pressure is in them right now. If they are under inflated the previous owner may have shortened their life no matter what brand is on it.

Once you find out what brand of refer is in there you can to an internet search for recalls or contact the manufacturer with the model number.

And you are correct about having the dealer demonstrate the unit's functionality.
Ask a lot of questions and keep in mind that a lot of sales people and dealer demonstrators have less information about these rigs than the people here on the forum.

If you are going to replace the mattress I would recommend a memory foam RV mattress from Lasting Impressions.

Others will chime in with their thoughts.

If you have any more questions we are here for you.

Peace
Dave

 

[danemayer]

Hi CityFire1017,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum. There's lots of great information here along with a bunch of friendly and helpful people.

I'm not aware of any recent recalls on refrigerators, so I'd be surprised if you have anything to worry about there. When you get a look at the unit, get the model # and you can doublecheck the Norcold or Dometic websites.

Depending on what you mean by needing to reseal the coroplast lining, you might want to investigate further. If you mean it's not perfectly sealed, that's probably nothing to be concerned about. If it's been cut open and taped, you might want to look further to find out what was repaired.

 

[Garypowell]

I always suggest to get the vin number and contact heartland. With the number you might here what was fixed under warranty. But dan's advice is golden if someone had to break into the underbelly you need to know why. Once you know there may be no reason for concern or discussion about an extra warranty for what was done.

 

[CityFire1017]

Thanks for the advice, folks! The coroplast situation that I mentioned is only where it actually seals around the metal framing, it has not been cut and resealed. It is just "wavy" along the bolts attaching it. I assume some expanding foam sealant should do the trick for that?

We had originally planned on taking possession of the unit early next week but that changed due to the dealer not taking the unit off the lot when we put our deposit down and locking it up. I found it still sitting in the lot, wide open and FOR SALE last Sunday, to which a very one sided butt chewing took place in a showroom full of other customers, especially after I noticed that, NOW, the front end cap had been scraped pretty badly and damaged. The unit now sits awaiting the bodyshop for repairs. The damage is only cosmetic but it griped us pretty bad that it hadn't been taken off the lot in the first place, much less getting damaged somehow. And she's now also getting 4 new slide toppers installed for my troubles!

So now we are looking at delivery next Saturday, Lord willing..