Heartland vs Keystone

[olcoon]

I'll echo some of the comments made by previous posters. We've been to 3 national rallys. Two in Goshen, IN, and 1 in Gillette, WY. The service teams that are there are over & above! Heartland provides these people at the rally to work on our rigs, plus the work they do is at no charge, nothing for parts or labor! I feel it says a lot for a company that charters a bus & sends a crew, plus a parts trailer from Elkhart, IN to Gillette, WY just to take care of its customers, and still not charge anything for it. Not to mention the friends we've made along the way that are all over the US & Canada! We went from tent camping to a 5th wheel, and knew nothing about RV's, just stumbled into a Heartland product. At the time we thought we'd be in it maybe a month at a time. As it's turned out we love it so much we are spending at least 6 months in our 5er. We feel we need more room and are seriously thinking about upgrading. We aren't even looking at SOB's Heartland will be our choice for the new coach. The customer service, quality, and other Heartland owners we've met are the main reasons! We can't imagine buying an SOB and leaving the Heartland family!

 

[Lou_and_Bette]

Roy we agree with you. Heartland is for us

 

[kakampers]

Here's the thing...over on RV.net we've been labeled as a brand loyalist. However, what most don't realize when we decided to upgrade from our six year old Bighorn we did some SERIOUS research and shopping on other brands!! We had some major issues with our '08 Bighorn, some due to construction, but most due to a medium duty truck made for commercial applications...bad idea!! However, through it all Heartland stood behind their product and made us "happy campers".

When deciding to order our "Dream Coach" which we knew would be in the $100K range, we needed to be absolutely sure we were making the right decision. We seriously looked at and spec'd out Mobile Suites and Excel along with the Landmark. I know they are not in the same "dollar" class...and that's true. We could not get the MS or the Excel to withing $30K of a comparably equipped Landmark...AND I loved the new decor and dark wood in the Landmark MUCH better! But the first selling point was that we could NOT, hard as we tried, find $30K worth of difference between Landmark and the others. Sure the frames are different, but we never had a frame issue in 80K miles on the Bighorn, so why do we need to spend that much more on a different frame??

The final selling point however, and this is the pertinent part to this tread, was the COMPANY...Heartland! Over the last seven years the experience of owning a Heartland product and dealing with a company that, in our opinion, is head and shoulders above the rest is the reason we stayed with our "Heartland Family"! Would DRV, Excel and even Keystone be good companies to work with?? Probably...but why take the risk...we KNOW what we have here and plan on a permanent relationship!!

The final decision for us was a no brainer...

 

[For20hunter]

Very well put kakampers!

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[JohnDar]

Just a note in the service teams at Goshen. When I filed my service request, I was told that I had three items, not two (the two wheel skirts and a broken Flexguard strip) and had to drop one. So I took off the Flexguard, which I had band aided with a rubber patch. I came back to the rig after being gone awhile, and I find two brand new wheel skirt assemblies installed. Once back at our seasonal site, I found that the Flexguard had also been replaced.

Point: Heartland

 

[JanAndBill]

"It would be weird to have 1 propane tank on each side of the unit with more lines running all over the place even though they are tucked away...which would make it more difficult to troubleshoot than a Heart Land". Uh, maybe we're the exception but our Bighorn has 1 propane tank on each side.

We were in a dead heat between the Bighorn and the Montana. To us there were not a lot of differences one way or the other. The thing that swayed us to the Bighorn was floorplan in the 3260EL. We've owned several RV's over the years both Motorhomes and trailers, and to us layout is a major factor. As long as you stay away from the low end models, you're going to find most perform equally well.

Our Bighorn has performed well with no serious issues to date. One thing I've found on the Bighorn that we didn't have on the other units was the lack of attention to the little things. I suspect that this is probably something that is supposed to be caught by the dealer, but as we all know not all dealers are equal. I've only made two calls to customer service and both times they were very responsive. However the second time the young man I talked to gave me incorrect information on the A/C's. I had to call the A/C manufacturer direct to clear up the problem.

When it comes time to trade again, Heartland would definately be on the short list, but so would the Montanna.

 

[Mizmary]

Ours has the two propane canisters - one on each side.

 

[Bob&Patty]

Mine does also. Sometimes its a room issue....you might lose some space that you like inside.

 

[Mavlar]

Hi There,
I Guess i can answer this question because I have had and have both. I had a 2012 bighorn needless to say this thing was a nightmare both with service and quality. I am not knocking anyone here just stating my experience. We are fulltimers and have been for many years, and I use to be a RV Tech along with a service writer. when we bought the bighorn or any RV you expect problems, but not a downhill spiral. just to name a few these things are suppose to be so called 4 seasons it froze up at 32 , no duct to the underneath was attached. the Refer fixed 4 times, black tank water valves leaking even after being replaced, furnace problems ( that one never got fixed) oh yeah when the tech opened the furnace it was not even mounted. slide rubbed a hole in the roof , side delamination, ac not tight and almost fell off, and the list goes on and on. when the dealer called Heartland all they got was it was no there problem, ans there stilling waiting on getting paid for things from a year ago from Heartland. And now on Montana part We just bought a 2014 3850Fl last week and I have been all through it and yes it has some Problems but as a Former Tech it is built by far better then that bighorn was. So the moral of the story is nothing is perfect and get what you like. P.S maybe invest in a good extended warranty.

Tom

 

[AJJONES]

We were looking at Cyclone toy haulers at La Mesa RV in Tucson are were disturbed at the lack of quality, especially the poor workmanship installing cabinet door hinges. The wall joint seam tape Cyclone uses comes unglued in the Tucson heat and the tape falls to the floor. I can only guess at what lies below the surface. We have a five year old Keystone Everest and just completed a 7,000 mile, 18 state trip with no breakages or problems. I will stick to my trailer as I don't feel that anyone is currently making a quality trailer.

I am sorry to hear that you had a bad experience, because I can assure you that it is not normal Cyclone quality. No one is ever perfect but I can tell you that we take a lot of pride in everything we do. We did have a bad batch of seam tape from the supplier for a brief moment and I’m sure that is one of those units, however the good news is that is a very simple issue to repair. As far as the cabinet doors, my best idea is that unit was probably used in a retail show (La Mesa does a lot of them) and some times during the process of shows the unit can get beat up or damaged. I can assure you that both issues would be very easy to repair, and you would never know that they were there if taken care of properly. Most of the time dealerships fix and repair any damage before retail customers have a chance to look at on lot, but with being in busy season they often get put behind, trying to take care of retail customers and getting them back on the road. I truly hope that when you are looking to trade in you give us another opportunity to earn your buisness.

Thanks,

AJ Jones

 

[scottyb]

We were looking at Cyclone toy haulers at La Mesa RV in Tucson are were disturbed at the lack of quality, especially the poor workmanship installing cabinet door hinges. The wall joint seam tape Cyclone uses comes unglued in the Tucson heat and the tape falls to the floor. I can only guess at what lies below the surface. We have a five year old Keystone Everest and just completed a 7,000 mile, 18 state trip with no breakages or problems. I will stick to my trailer as I don't feel that anyone is currently making a quality trailer.

Well, I looked at both a Raptor and a Fuzion and found exactly the oposite.

 

[JanAndBill]

I am sorry to hear that you had a bad experience, because I can assure you that it is not normal Cyclone quality. No one is ever perfect but I can tell you that we take a lot of pride in everything we do. We did have a bad batch of seam tape from the supplier for a brief moment and I’m sure that is one of those units, however the good news is that is a very simple issue to repair. As far as the cabinet doors, my best idea is that unit was probably used in a retail show (La Mesa does a lot of them) and some times during the process of shows the unit can get beat up or damaged. I can assure you that both issues would be very easy to repair, and you would never know that they were there if taken care of properly. Most of the time dealerships fix and repair any damage before retail customers have a chance to look at on lot, but with being in busy season they often get put behind, trying to take care of retail customers and getting them back on the road. I truly hope that when you are looking to trade in you give us another opportunity to earn your buisness.

Thanks,a

AJ Jones

Not to be critical, but if you knew you had a problem shouldn't this have been a priority issue for repair? Rather than lay it off on the dealer being to busy to repair, Heartland should have taken it on themselves to see that it was corrected promptly.

 

[GOTTOYS]

Hi There,
I Guess i can answer this question because I have had and have both. I had a 2012 bighorn needless to say this thing was a nightmare both with service and quality. I am not knocking anyone here just stating my experience. We are fulltimers and have been for many years, and I use to be a RV Tech along with a service writer. when we bought the bighorn or any RV you expect problems, but not a downhill spiral. just to name a few these things are suppose to be so called 4 seasons it froze up at 32 , no duct to the underneath was attached. the Refer fixed 4 times, black tank water valves leaking even after being replaced, furnace problems ( that one never got fixed) oh yeah when the tech opened the furnace it was not even mounted. slide rubbed a hole in the roof , side delamination, ac not tight and almost fell off, and the list goes on and on. when the dealer called Heartland all they got was it was no there problem, ans there stilling waiting on getting paid for things from a year ago from Heartland. And now on Montana part We just bought a 2014 3850Fl last week and I have been all through it and yes it has some Problems but as a Former Tech it is built by far better then that bighorn was. So the moral of the story is nothing is perfect and get what you like. P.S maybe invest in a good extended warranty.

Tom

As a former tech and service writer....you should realize that Heartland didn't build the refer, the tank valves or the furnace...How can it be their fault if they don't work?? If you REALLY were a tech..why wasn't the furnace working properly and why did it take four attempts to fix the refer? Why didn't you just fix it??? I'm not a tech but I haven't found anything I can't fix yet...I especially like the part about buying a "Good" extended warranty...Where would one find something like that? I have yet to see one that covers much....Don

 

[JohnDar]

As a former tech and service writer....you should realize that Heartland didn't build the refer, the tank valves or the furnace...How can it be their fault if they don't work?? If you REALLY were a tech..why wasn't the furnace working properly and why did it take four attempts to fix the refer? Why didn't you just fix it??? I'm not a tech but I haven't found anything I can't fix yet...I especially like the part about buying a "Good" extended warranty...Where would one find something like that? I have yet to see one that covers much....Don

Good points, Don. I haven't had any major or minor problems that I couldn't fix or that took more than one dealer visit to rectify. We've looked at Montana's...not impressed. I can recall the show where we committed to the BH where a Montana owner was in the demo rig we "bought" and was lamenting about his bent axles. When you look beyond the "pretty" and what materials are used and how things are constructed, HL still comes out ahead, warts and all.

 

[mattpopp]

I was looking at Heartland Cyclone and Dutchmen Voltage. My deciding factor was the experience my Dad has seen in 8 years of sell ing those two brands along with other brands. From customer satisfaction, customer service, and trailer issues. His opinion was that Heartland had a better QA at the factory and their customer service dealt with customer issues much better with fewer rejections.


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[mattpopp]

I am sorry to hear that you had a bad experience, because I can assure you that it is not normal Cyclone quality. No one is ever perfect but I can tell you that we take a lot of pride in everything we do. We did have a bad batch of seam tape from the supplier for a brief moment and I’m sure that is one of those units, however the good news is that is a very simple issue to repair. As far as the cabinet doors, my best idea is that unit was probably used in a retail show (La Mesa does a lot of them) and some times during the process of shows the unit can get beat up or damaged. I can assure you that both issues would be very easy to repair, and you would never know that they were there if taken care of properly. Most of the time dealerships fix and repair any damage before retail customers have a chance to look at on lot, but with being in busy season they often get put behind, trying to take care of retail customers and getting them back on the road. I truly hope that when you are looking to trade in you give us another opportunity to earn your buisness.

Thanks,

AJ Jones

All of those issues are found on all brands. Nobody should ever expect home grade quality. There can be a lot of quality improvements on everything I have ever seen. But quality adds weight. We can't really expect you to build our cabinets out of 3/4" birch and poplar faceplates.

But cabinet doors should be able to handle a few weekends of RV show traffic. That's not a good sign if they are showing signs of fatigue after a few hundred people browse through them.

But if a person really wants top quality. They should have Bloomer Trailers build them $200k full timer gooseneck.


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[whp4262]

I had a friend of mine who was a college instructor in the aviation department say to me once that students were the only people he knew that could smash a steel anvil with a glass hammer, think this probably applies to a lot of people and their kids at RV shows too so it doesn't surprise me that coaches can suffer a lot of damage when on display at these shows. I spent about 5 years looking at new and used toy haulers and reading reviews and forums before deciding that what I liked the most was the Cyclone 3914 and that's what we ended up buying. As stated in some of the other threads none of the RVs are completely trouble free and I have found a few things on my Cyclone that could have had a little more attention to detail and a few things that are a bit cheesy but overall it seems to be constructed pretty well. Most of the things I have fixed hasn't cost me more than a couple hours of my time. I did have one possible issue that I called Heartland customer service about, I really wasn't looking for them to fix the problem just offer thier opinion. Even though I was the second owner, the couch was out of waranty and Heartland was not obligated to do anything at all they took the time to promptly correspond with me, look at pictures and offer thier opinion. From some of the stuff I have read I'm not sure that I would have got the same customer service response from some of the other manufacturers.

 

[JohnDar]

All of those issues are found on all brands. Nobody should ever expect home grade quality. There can be a lot of quality improvements on everything I have ever seen. But quality adds weight. We can't really expect you to build our cabinets out of 3/4" birch and poplar faceplates.

But cabinet doors should be able to handle a few weekends of RV show traffic. That's not a good sign if they are showing signs of fatigue after a few hundred people browse through them.

But if a person really wants top quality. They should have Bloomer Trailers build them $200k full timer gooseneck.


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Ever watch some of the people and their kids in the show models? You'd think they already bought the thing. Some people use the doors like leaning posts and canes. Even in our rig, I'm on the wife about leaning on the open door while she's looking for something inside the cabinet. Most simple hinge hardware is not made for that kind of repeated stress, especially the small wood screws.

 

[mattpopp]

I've been to the big show here in Houston a couple times. Never really notice people mistreating anything but that means nothing.


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[kakampers]

I am sorry to hear that you had a bad experience, because I can assure you that it is not normal Cyclone quality. No one is ever perfect but I can tell you that we take a lot of pride in everything we do. We did have a bad batch of seam tape from the supplier for a brief moment and I’m sure that is one of those units, however the good news is that is a very simple issue to repair. As far as the cabinet doors, my best idea is that unit was probably used in a retail show (La Mesa does a lot of them) and some times during the process of shows the unit can get beat up or damaged. I can assure you that both issues would be very easy to repair, and you would never know that they were there if taken care of properly. Most of the time dealerships fix and repair any damage before retail customers have a chance to look at on lot, but with being in busy season they often get put behind, trying to take care of retail customers and getting them back on the road. I truly hope that when you are looking to trade in you give us another opportunity to earn your buisness.

Thanks,

AJ Jones

Actually walked into a TT we bought at a show years ago to find a couple in there and the women standing on the dinette seat looking at the overhead cabinets....needless to say, had the dealer lock it up!