I am a potential Heartland RV owner and would you believe it, I have a question or two.

[jdftwrth]

Hi,

I am a potential Heartland RV owner, I have never owned a 5th wheel RV or any RV as far as that goes, used to go camping when I was first married but that was a long, long time ago.

My wife and I have started to get real serious about buying a 5th wheel over the past couple of months and have joined the owner forums of most of the major 5th wheel manufactures. One thing that I noticed about other forums is the fact that most of the owners seem shall we say "unhappy" about the RV they own and or the manufacturers customer service or lack of.

So far I have not seen that in this forum, but then I a very new member....

Anyway for all you fine folks that own a Heartland RV, are you happy with your RV and would you buy another Heartland RV? If your not happy and/or would never buy another Heartland RV I would be real interested in knowing why.

Next, has anyone come up what the cost of ownership on their RV is? Not just the initial cost of buying it, but what it costs to maintain, store and operate it every year. Has anyone calculated what it costs to take the RV out on a trip?

If you don't feel comfortable responding to this message inline then just PM me if you would.

Thanks y'all have a great day and I look forward to hearing from you.

JD

 

[danemayer]

Hi jdftwrth,

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

No manufacturer turns out perfect RVs. They're pretty much built by hand and human beings make mistakes. So how the manufacturer treats you when you have warranty issues becomes pretty important.

I would say that the vast majority of Heartland owners are happy with their coaches and with the way Heartland has treated them. There are many owners on this forum who are on their 2nd or 3rd Heartland RV. Of course there's a small number who are unhappy and for whatever reason ended up unsatisfied. So you'll likely hear a bunch of positive comments and perhaps some negatives.

When you look at any forum, you're naturally going to see a lot of posts from people who are asking for help. One thing you'll see here is that Heartland owners are quick to help out and share what they've learned.

We also have a very active Owners Club with local, regional and national rallies. Check out the EVENTS tab at the top of the page to see what I mean. And if you ever get to a Heartland rally and have a problem with your coach, just walk around for 5 minutes with a screw driver in hand and you'll get a half dozen people offering to help. Heartland supports these rallies and even has a full-time Director of Customer Interests who runs around the country attending rallies and paying attention to owner feedback.

The Heartland management team interacts with owners in a number of ways, including on this forum. They sometimes poll owners to find out what we think on specific questions and they listen to feedback from individuals.

My wife and I started out with a Landmark almost 6 years ago. We used it about 150-180 days per year except for 16 months full-timing in it while between houses. We love it, as do many others here.

As for costs, I loosely plan on spending an average of $1000 per year on maintenance, repairs, and upgrades. Some people pay someone to do all their maintenance and repair work. Others do it all themselves. I do a lot myself, but not everything. You'll have to have bearings packed every year or so and will probably buy a new set of tires every 4 years. If I don't spend money on repairs, I might do an upgrade.

I figure diesel at about 9 mpg. That's mostly in the mountains. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

Campground costs vary a lot depending on what you like. State Parks and Corps of Engineer Parks are less expensive and often have more natural settings, but you may have to book way ahead. If you have kids/grandkids and want a place that had amenities for them, you might end up at a KOA that's a bit more expensive. Resorts can be very nice but also can be pricey. So you might find campgrounds running from $25 - 60 /night. Electric is generally included in daily rates. If you stay for a week or longer, most campgrounds will give you a discount, but some will charge separately for electric, offsetting part of the discount.

Food expenses will depend on whether you eat out or cook everything yourself. Pretty much the same as at home.

 

[jdftwrth]

Dan,

Thanks for the honest response to my question, its greatly appreciated!

Your estimates on operating costs pretty much line up with what I came up with.

I know that there are some upgrades that I am going to do before we can even go camping. The entry stairs are right at the top of my list, I am not physically challenged but steep stairs and ladders are on my list of things that I really need to avoid, but that's another story.

I guess one of the other questions is what do folks do with their rv's when they are not using them? I see your in CO so you have the cold to deal with, here in Texas we have the heat, hail storms and did i mention the heat? I am curious how well the rubber roof's on an rv will stand up to the heat and hail.

Unfortunately I don't have the option of storing an rv on my property, so it will be off to one of them offsite places. Heck I can't even put a truck in my garage, I had a Ram 1500 short bed and I could get it into the garage barely, my wife managed to close the garage door once and it did a real number on the rear bumper of that truck.

Before I can to any RV I will need to buy a tow vehicle, the little gmc acadia i am driving now is not gonna cut it, right now its looking like the acadia is gonna get replaced with a ram 3500 dually drw longbed so I would think that it should be able to handle most of the Heartland rv's, please correct me if you disagree.

Thanks again and y'all take care now.

JD

 

[NHCelt]

Hi JD. We are new Heartland owners, having picked up our factory ordered 3270RS in mid March. We have been on the shakedown cruise since then. This is not our first fifth wheel, but is our first Heartland... we spend about 6 months a year traveling with our rv's... So they get lots of miles.
We've had lots of issues with the Bighorn... collectively irritating but individually minor. They have virtually all been caused by a lack of quality assembly at the factory.... Loose wire nuts, loose cable connections, ac ducting, gaskets etc. The issue is always one of troubleshooting and inconvenience when you are living or traveling extensively in an rv. Not happy with that, but customer service has been standout. Essentially, it seems like a well spec'ed and engineered unit. We have had quality units in the past, and I am not disappointed in the quality of this one... Really think they hit the sweet spot on quality for price on the Bighorn. Don't expect perfection and don't buy an rv if you are not handy. We do love our 3270RS Bighorn. I think it is the best of all options in the price range and I have never had better customer service from an rv manufacturer... And that is critical. Feel free to pm us with any specific questions, but we are happy with our Bighorn and very happy with the company cs.
Celt

Sent from my XT1096 using Tapatalk

 

[danemayer]

A RAM 3500 dually longbed will handle just about any RV you can buy, BUT, don't go by the marketing literature that says you can "tow up to xx,xxx lbs". You need to check the specs on the exact truck you're thinking about buying. Also, you may want the AISIN transmission. And also check the payload spec. Between the RV pin weight and stuff in the truck, we're probably well over 4,000 lbs. If I remember correctly, our truck is rated for 5,400.

We moved to Colorado last Fall after many years in Austin, TX. That meant keeping the RV at a storage site. Fortunately, we had one very close by. Even better, it was a concrete surface, and the owner allowed me to work on the RV while on the lot. And he had good security. The Texas sun was never a problem except for accelerated wear on the bathroom fan cover. Our winter usage didn't help that. Not sure which was worse. We've got full body paint, which I think may do better in intense sun.

The RV roof will survive light hail. But hail damage isn't confined to the storage lot. Lots of people have run into hail while camping. Make sure you have good insurance on the RV. Geico is expensive, but if you have serious hail or any other damage, they'll take care of you. And if your RV is totaled, they pay replacement cost for a number of years, and after that, they'll pay your original purchase price.

 

[olcoon]

We were like you a few years ago. My wife & I had tent camped for numerous years, and had never thought about buying an RV. As we were nearing retirement we started looking. Bad for us is that we were still in "vacation mode", and not thinking long term, and really didn't know anything about camping in an RV. Lucky for us we decided on a Heartland product, and fell in love with the RVing lifestyle. So far we've been in 25 states in our Elk Ridge. Our only regret is that we wish we had bought a bigger one as we sometimes live in it 6 months of the year. Heartland is a GREAT company, and Jim Beletti the Director of Owner Interest is a super guy! The rallies are OUTSTANDING, we just got home from our 2nd rally since the end of April, and in about a week we'll be leaving for the 3rd, be home for a week & heading out for the 4th! If you choose Heartland, no doubt you'll have some issues, like Dan said "they are built by hand by humans". Some people have numerous issues, & others have none. We had several minor issues but they were all taken care of under warranty. Good luck with your decision. Hope to see you down the road in a new Heartland, maybe at a rally!

 

[jdftwrth]

NHCelt, Thanks for the feedback, your input was what I was looking for when I posted my question.

 

[jdftwrth]

olcoon, dang son you have been busy in your travels!

I still work full time but I work from home, as long as I have connectivity to the internet I am all set to going away for a couple of weeks is not a problem. You also hit one one the issues I am trying to address, how big of an RV should I get. I know that if my wife ever got anywhere near the ocean it would be real difficult to get her to agree to go back to our home location and an extended stay might be a reason to get a larger rv.

I can handle "issues" as long as I have a solid support organization that I can rely on. That being said it seems to me that a company selling products would recognize when their QC process is not up to snuff and address the situation, in the long run letting products that have issues out the door is not a real great way to gain new customers or keep the ones they have, just saying...

Thanks...

JD

 

[JohnD]

I don't know if this helps . . .

But we've calculated that our 5th-wheeler cost us less per year than a one-week Disney vacation for two.

And we get to spend more than one week per year using it!

 

[Nabo]

Let me give a little history of our 5 campers we have bought over the last 13 years as far as length. We started out in a 24' 5th wheel (KZ product) pulled with a 1/2 ton truck. Learned real quick that the camper was too small, what we didn't like as far as a floor plan, and the truck too light. Then went to a HL product, a 32' Sundance. Pulled great with our then 3/4 ton truck and could get into many state and National parks. Then we got a 35' Big Country which we keep for 5 years. Loved the floor plan but saw something we liked better so welcome to the 40' Big Country. DH job took him out of state so we lived in this Big Country for 2 years before moving up to the 42' Landmark which is our current camper (and still living in). Now having this big of a camper does limits where we can go and what state or National parks we can go into so that might be something to think about in your upcoming travels. A good size that's comfortable and still get into a lot of these areas would be a camper up to around 38'. In our travels, we have found that there are a lot of commercial campgrounds around these National parks which cost a little more and we might have to drive into the parks but we are fine with that.
Dan has given you some good advise and things to think about.

 

[mlpeloquin]

No matter what you purchase, things will loosen up. Get some re-workable Loctite. One Half drop is all it takes and unless you want to remove the screw it will stay put. Get what I call light use tools from Harbor Freight. Ger the ones that are in a plastic case. Screw drivers and sockets. I have found metric and standard are needed. They store easy and you can find what you want. Get a torque wrench for your lug nuts with lug sockets. Harbor Freight as well. Don't set the torque on the torque wrench unless you are ready to use it. Once done, set it back to zero or the torque value or over time will not be what you think it is. I also purchase a drill and an extension cord with the sockets for removing the coroplast to work under the fifth wheel along with Gorilla tape. And get a good pressure regulator. All hose connections need to go through a pressure regulator or opening up and repairing a leak will be on your list. A good heavy duty sewer line with a clear plastic section to make sure your black water tank is fairly clean. This is just a basic list of things you will find useful.

We love out Big Horn and would purchase another Heartland again.

 

[GOTTOYS]

Hi jdftwrth,

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

No manufacturer turns out perfect RVs. They're pretty much built by hand and human beings make mistakes. So how the manufacturer treats you when you have warranty issues becomes pretty important.

I would say that the vast majority of Heartland owners are happy with their coaches and with the way Heartland has treated them. There are many owners on this forum who are on their 2nd or 3rd Heartland RV. Of course there's a small number who are unhappy and for whatever reason ended up unsatisfied. So you'll likely hear a bunch of positive comments and perhaps some negatives.

When you look at any forum, you're naturally going to see a lot of posts from people who are asking for help. One thing you'll see here is that Heartland owners are quick to help out and share what they've learned.

We also have a very active Owners Club with local, regional and national rallies. Check out the EVENTS tab at the top of the page to see what I mean. And if you ever get to a Heartland rally and have a problem with your coach, just walk around for 5 minutes with a screw driver in hand and you'll get a half dozen people offering to help. Heartland supports these rallies and even has a full-time Director of Customer Interests who runs around the country attending rallies and paying attention to owner feedback.

The Heartland management team interacts with owners in a number of ways, including on this forum. They sometimes poll owners to find out what we think on specific questions and they listen to feedback from individuals.

My wife and I started out with a Landmark almost 6 years ago. We used it about 150-180 days per year except for 16 months full-timing in it while between houses. We love it, as do many others here.

As for costs, I loosely plan on spending an average of $1000 per year on maintenance, repairs, and upgrades. Some people pay someone to do all their maintenance and repair work. Others do it all themselves. I do a lot myself, but not everything. You'll have to have bearings packed every year or so and will probably buy a new set of tires every 4 years. If I don't spend money on repairs, I might do an upgrade.

I figure diesel at about 9 mpg. That's mostly in the mountains. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

Campground costs vary a lot depending on what you like. State Parks and Corps of Engineer Parks are less expensive and often have more natural settings, but you may have to book way ahead. If you have kids/grandkids and want a place that had amenities for them, you might end up at a KOA that's a bit more expensive. Resorts can be very nice but also can be pricey. So you might find campgrounds running from $25 - 60 /night. Electric is generally included in daily rates. If you stay for a week or longer, most campgrounds will give you a discount, but some will charge separately for electric, offsetting part of the discount.

Food expenses will depend on whether you eat out or cook everything yourself. Pretty much the same as at home.

I'm with Dan at about $1,000. per year for maintenance, repairs and upgrades. It's just the cost of doing business. I too make most of my repairs myself and try to be pro-active. I never want to sit on the side of the road waiting for someone to come and bail me out. RVs are not for everyone. You need to be able to fix things yourself as they need attention or it won't be long and it can get away from you...Don

 

[jdftwrth]

Hi all,

The info you folks have shared has been very helpful, I did pick up on the underlying sentiment that if you are gonna own one of these units you better be able to work on it yourself.

That being said has anyone put together a list of things to buy that did not come with the RV, tools, fittings etc?

Seeing that most owners are taking at least some responsibility for the maintenance and repair of their RV's are there service manuals available various models, if so where can you obtain a copy?

I have time before I buy an RV, so I am just trying to get all the information I can before I make a decision on what to buy.

Thanks!

JD

 

[lynndiwagoner]

I've had very few problems with my BC and the ones that I have had were handled by Heartland in a very satisfactory manner. RV's are kind of a hobby for me and I enjoy making mods and working on mine myself. Your basic mechanic tools are about all you need. As far as the cost goes, I really don't worry about it. I suppose you could stay in motels a lot cheaper but then you would have to contend with bed bugs and other stuff. When traveling I have about everything I would have at home plus I take the dogs along. It's kind of amazing that I can live just like at home only on the road. It's not cheap getting all the stuff you need but you only live once and you sure can't take it with you. Good luck with your decision.

 

[Garypowell]

We are on our second heartland and have loved both. You might consider finding a rally close to you and simply visit with folks and you'll find most of them will let you into their rigs. This way you get info up close and personal and hear the good and bad of it.

I often ten say owning a rig is like having a part time job...but well worth it!

 

[BusManRG]

Hi all,

The info you folks have shared has been very helpful, I did pick up on the underlying sentiment that if you are gonna own one of these units you better be able to work on it yourself.

That being said has anyone put together a list of things to buy that did not come with the RV, tools, fittings etc?

Seeing that most owners are taking at least some responsibility for the maintenance and repair of their RV's are there service manuals available various models, if so where can you obtain a copy?

I have time before I buy an RV, so I am just trying to get all the information I can before I make a decision on what to buy.

Thanks!

JD

We currently have a Jayco Class C, but are trying to work a trade-in on a Big Horn 3160EL. Many of the items my husband has accumulated will get moved to the new unit if we can ever get a deal work out, and there are many things we thought we'd need that we've carried around for the last 8 years that will stay home. Your idea of a list is important and I'm sure you will be given a great list of must haves from the very helpful people on this forum. I know that my husband will tell you that the first thing on that list MUST BE a good quality surge protector. Do not leave your dealer without one. They aren't cheap, but will save you thousands on repairs. Even the best campground will have electrical issues now and then.

 

[danemayer]

Seeing that most owners are taking at least some responsibility for the maintenance and repair of their RV's are there service manuals available various models, if so where can you obtain a copy?

Hi jdftwrth,

We have a large collection of manufacturer manuals, some of which include troubleshooting and repair information. We also have several owner-written Troubleshooting Guides, and a collection of owner-written User Guides.

Within the various sub-forum areas here there's also a wealth of information on specific repairs and modifications. And of course, if you create a new thread to ask, you'll probably get specific advice very quickly from other owners who have hands-on experience.