As I write this our washer/dryer is sitting on the floor of our bedroom, the closet torn apart and wet, moldy carpet and wood piled outside our door. The Mobile RV Tech believes, for the 18 months we have owned the trailer, a small leak inside the wall, behind the washer/dryer has been dripping down the pecs hose and saturating everything from the wall out. We are waiting to hear if the extended warranty will cover the damage and the repairs. [EasyCare Extended Warranty has paid for all repairs in a very timely manner]
My purpose in writing is not to gripe about the service we have gotten or even Heartland or EasyCare warranty’s willingness to pay. My purpose is to say how disappointed I am in the product Heartland is building and it’s dealers are selling.
We purchased our Bighorn 3585RL from Curtis Trailers in Hillsboro, Oregon in May of 2013. We had sold our home and were planning to live in the unit, advertised as a “Fulltimers” trailer. We purchased a satellite dish and the washer and dryer and the dealer installed them.
Our salesperson, Vaughn Nelson was a great help, above and beyond, in getting us in the unit and headed down the road.
As we expected, having been full timers before and owning several other trailers, that there would be the usual punch list of things needing to be done, but who knew the list would be so long. Our first visit to Curtis took 2 full days to correct a list of little things, that were just poorly installed or poorly built at the factory, including tears in the back of “new” leather recliners, latches that didn’t latch, drawers that wouldn’t open, etc.
Curtis service department has always been great and tried to take care of everything they could, including things I assume they would not be paid for. We are particularly pleased with Curtis Trailers.
We made a stop at a Heartland dealer in Denver, Windish RV. They not only couldn’t fix the things needed, they didn’t want to, so we returned to Oregon and Curtis where the fireplace, back window, microwave, among many other little things were replaced or fixed. Again, they were great but the reality is, most of things needed to be fixed because of poor installation, inferior products, and not taking the time to do it right the first time.
Since then we have had our water heater pressure relief valve blow out covering everything with water, including the inverter, which shorted out, causing it to not stop charging the batteries, which caused them to burn up. We did all the repairs and Heartland paid for the inverter and ONE battery. The people at Heartland were helpful but we were the ones that had to make things right, repair and replace. It was installed improperly the first time which caused the problem.
Most of the 12 volt system lights were burned out because of this issue, which we are still dealing with.
Later the crimps in the feeder hoses to the water heater began to leak and we couldn’t get them to stop without replacing them with the kind of quality fittings that could have been put in to start with. That required a visit from a mobile tech and several days without hot water.
The furnace also needed a service call, it shut down because it had styrofoam in it. Styrofoam has been an issue from day one when we turned on the air conditioner and “snow” fell throughout the coach. We are still finding it in places, wondering when a piece will find its way into the furnace again. If someone would have made the effort to vacuum it out before delivery it would have saved us all kinds of time, money and frustration.
Along the way the flush pedal on the toilet fell off and could not be reattached. Again a service call to a mobile tech and after a couple of weeks a new upgraded toilet was in place. Both the tech and the manufacturer that provided the new toilet, at no cost, agreed that the handle had been installed incorrectly, by the installer and should not have failed.
After about 10,000 miles the tires were warped out of shape and unsafe and we had to purchase four new, much upgraded tires, at $200.00 apiece. The tire dealer assured us that it was not a weight issue but a cheap, poorly chosen tire for this unit. Why not buy the right tire to begin with, charge a few dollars more and have a tire that will last for 50K miles?
There are still little things that need attention, but when you live and travel in your home, it is difficult to find a way to get it to a dealer you know will do it right. We are learning along the way to fix things that Heartland should fix, ourselves, it’s just easier.
It is also easier to work with mobile techs as well. You end up paying for a service call but you don’t have to take your home, leave it on a dealer lot for days, spending dollars on diesel. Curtis, by the way, is the only dealer we have found, that provides space for you to stay in your home while they do the work. The problem is they are so busy, it takes weeks for an appointment and no one will order parts till they see the problem and that will set you back many more days.
And now a closet is torn out, washer and dryer stacked in front of the bed and mold all over the closet floor, simply because someone didn’t take the time to crimp a fitting before they put the wall in. If this were the only shoddy work, I would chock it up to bad luck, but it is just another in a long line of failed systems due to building things poorly at the factory.
My wife was on the floor in front of the closet, playing with our granddaughter when her knee found water. Who knows how long it would have been before we found the slow little leak and even more damage was done. The mobile tech had to remove W/D, the carpet, the walls to find the mess, he is certain has been going on since we have owned the rig.
As I said, we are waiting to hear if EasyCare will pay for the work, that looks like will cost as much as $1000.00. In the meantime we are trying to dry the mess and live around stuff stacked every where. [EasyCare did in fact pay all costs for repairs]
As I said, most everyone along the way has been helpful, especially Curtis service department, the mobile techs who have helped us along the way and even Heartland has paid some of the costs.
What bothers me is that you are willing to send your units out with defects like this. Every service person, without exception, has said something like this “they build them so cheap and so fast, there are always problems”. “You can only hope they aren’t big problems”. But to those of us who buy them, live in them and travel with them, there really are no “little” problems.
My purpose in writing is not to gripe about the service we have gotten or even Heartland or EasyCare warranty’s willingness to pay. My purpose is to say how disappointed I am in the product Heartland is building and it’s dealers are selling.
We purchased our Bighorn 3585RL from Curtis Trailers in Hillsboro, Oregon in May of 2013. We had sold our home and were planning to live in the unit, advertised as a “Fulltimers” trailer. We purchased a satellite dish and the washer and dryer and the dealer installed them.
Our salesperson, Vaughn Nelson was a great help, above and beyond, in getting us in the unit and headed down the road.
As we expected, having been full timers before and owning several other trailers, that there would be the usual punch list of things needing to be done, but who knew the list would be so long. Our first visit to Curtis took 2 full days to correct a list of little things, that were just poorly installed or poorly built at the factory, including tears in the back of “new” leather recliners, latches that didn’t latch, drawers that wouldn’t open, etc.
Curtis service department has always been great and tried to take care of everything they could, including things I assume they would not be paid for. We are particularly pleased with Curtis Trailers.
We made a stop at a Heartland dealer in Denver, Windish RV. They not only couldn’t fix the things needed, they didn’t want to, so we returned to Oregon and Curtis where the fireplace, back window, microwave, among many other little things were replaced or fixed. Again, they were great but the reality is, most of things needed to be fixed because of poor installation, inferior products, and not taking the time to do it right the first time.
Since then we have had our water heater pressure relief valve blow out covering everything with water, including the inverter, which shorted out, causing it to not stop charging the batteries, which caused them to burn up. We did all the repairs and Heartland paid for the inverter and ONE battery. The people at Heartland were helpful but we were the ones that had to make things right, repair and replace. It was installed improperly the first time which caused the problem.
Most of the 12 volt system lights were burned out because of this issue, which we are still dealing with.
Later the crimps in the feeder hoses to the water heater began to leak and we couldn’t get them to stop without replacing them with the kind of quality fittings that could have been put in to start with. That required a visit from a mobile tech and several days without hot water.
The furnace also needed a service call, it shut down because it had styrofoam in it. Styrofoam has been an issue from day one when we turned on the air conditioner and “snow” fell throughout the coach. We are still finding it in places, wondering when a piece will find its way into the furnace again. If someone would have made the effort to vacuum it out before delivery it would have saved us all kinds of time, money and frustration.
Along the way the flush pedal on the toilet fell off and could not be reattached. Again a service call to a mobile tech and after a couple of weeks a new upgraded toilet was in place. Both the tech and the manufacturer that provided the new toilet, at no cost, agreed that the handle had been installed incorrectly, by the installer and should not have failed.
After about 10,000 miles the tires were warped out of shape and unsafe and we had to purchase four new, much upgraded tires, at $200.00 apiece. The tire dealer assured us that it was not a weight issue but a cheap, poorly chosen tire for this unit. Why not buy the right tire to begin with, charge a few dollars more and have a tire that will last for 50K miles?
There are still little things that need attention, but when you live and travel in your home, it is difficult to find a way to get it to a dealer you know will do it right. We are learning along the way to fix things that Heartland should fix, ourselves, it’s just easier.
It is also easier to work with mobile techs as well. You end up paying for a service call but you don’t have to take your home, leave it on a dealer lot for days, spending dollars on diesel. Curtis, by the way, is the only dealer we have found, that provides space for you to stay in your home while they do the work. The problem is they are so busy, it takes weeks for an appointment and no one will order parts till they see the problem and that will set you back many more days.
And now a closet is torn out, washer and dryer stacked in front of the bed and mold all over the closet floor, simply because someone didn’t take the time to crimp a fitting before they put the wall in. If this were the only shoddy work, I would chock it up to bad luck, but it is just another in a long line of failed systems due to building things poorly at the factory.
My wife was on the floor in front of the closet, playing with our granddaughter when her knee found water. Who knows how long it would have been before we found the slow little leak and even more damage was done. The mobile tech had to remove W/D, the carpet, the walls to find the mess, he is certain has been going on since we have owned the rig.
As I said, we are waiting to hear if EasyCare will pay for the work, that looks like will cost as much as $1000.00. In the meantime we are trying to dry the mess and live around stuff stacked every where. [EasyCare did in fact pay all costs for repairs]
As I said, most everyone along the way has been helpful, especially Curtis service department, the mobile techs who have helped us along the way and even Heartland has paid some of the costs.
What bothers me is that you are willing to send your units out with defects like this. Every service person, without exception, has said something like this “they build them so cheap and so fast, there are always problems”. “You can only hope they aren’t big problems”. But to those of us who buy them, live in them and travel with them, there really are no “little” problems.
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