mountainlovers76
Mississippi Chapter Leaders
Well, after a lot of hesitation and looking, my wife and I have decided to give Heartland one more chance. We just placed an order for a new Key Largo through Camping World in Dothan AL. I must admit, I had to think long and hard about ordering another Heartland product after all the problems we have had, especially with the frame, on the 2009 Bighorn 3600RE we ordered new from the factory a few years ago. Over the last four years I have had to have some frame welding done TWICE and replace the front fiberglass overhang TWICE at my expense and it is now pulling away again. Needless to say this left a sour taste in my mouth and due to that I have not visited this forum much the past couple of years.
In any case, there are a lot of things I do like about Heartland and I have camped enough to know that some problems are just inherent to the RV'ing lifestyle, some more than others. Heartland does offer several different and very nice floor plans in all their products with nice features and decor options. Even with the problems with the Bighorn we loved the interior and the floor plan. It fit our way of traveling and camping nicely. When we decided to upgrade our coach we looked at many different brands and it came down to either Heartland's Landmark or DRV's Mobile Suite for us. There are a lot of upgrades that come standard on the Mobile Suite and some Heartland does not even offer on theirs but after a lot of looking and talking we decided the look and layout of the Landmark Key Largo inside and out fit our needs at this time the best. You can also say we went all out on this order...fireplace, dual heat pumps, dual pane windows and Yeti package since we love to winter camp in the mountains, 8000lb axle and brake upgrade, outside entertainment system, 4 door refer, Full Body Paint, Full Timers package, 6 point leveling system and other options.
A big selling point was Cliff at Camping World and Ron with Heartland. My wife spoke to Cliff a few weeks ago on the phone about looking at a Landmark but they did not have one at that time. He told her they had one coming and as soon as it arrived he would call. True to his word he called the day it arrived and last weekend, Feb. 16, we made the drive over. This Camping World is a ten hour round trip from our home. Cliff has been great to work with along with Dave the general manager. If we needed to know something they could not answer then they would call Ron with Heartland. My wife has even spoken to Ron and he has been very helpful to try and answer her questions also. The Landmark they received was the San Antonio and not the Key Largo we had been thinking about and it had a different interior and exterior color scheme than we wanted but it gave us something to actually see to help make our decision. We decided against the San Antonio and talked about waiting for a Key Largo to arrive that they had ordered also or just go ahead and place an order. The middle of last week Cliff called us back, the Key Largo arrived sooner than expected so my wife made another ten hour trip last Saturday to see it. It did not have a couple of options that we wanted but other than that my wife really liked it and from the pictures she took so do I. To make a long story a little shorter, we went ahead and placed our order. That probably would not have happened if it had not been for Cliff and Ron. They took an interest and cared about us more like friends than just as a customer. We drove several hours to a couple other places that sold Heartland Landmarks and they were supposed to contact us with some information about a purchase as well. To this day we have not heard a word from those other dealers. Guess they have enough money that they did not need to sell anymore.
So, as I stated earlier, we are giving Heartland one more chance. I am crossing my fingers that I do not have the problems with the frame in the Landmark as I did in the Bighorn. I can handle a lot of other problems but frame and structural problems can make for very serious and unsafe conditions.</SPAN>
In any case, there are a lot of things I do like about Heartland and I have camped enough to know that some problems are just inherent to the RV'ing lifestyle, some more than others. Heartland does offer several different and very nice floor plans in all their products with nice features and decor options. Even with the problems with the Bighorn we loved the interior and the floor plan. It fit our way of traveling and camping nicely. When we decided to upgrade our coach we looked at many different brands and it came down to either Heartland's Landmark or DRV's Mobile Suite for us. There are a lot of upgrades that come standard on the Mobile Suite and some Heartland does not even offer on theirs but after a lot of looking and talking we decided the look and layout of the Landmark Key Largo inside and out fit our needs at this time the best. You can also say we went all out on this order...fireplace, dual heat pumps, dual pane windows and Yeti package since we love to winter camp in the mountains, 8000lb axle and brake upgrade, outside entertainment system, 4 door refer, Full Body Paint, Full Timers package, 6 point leveling system and other options.
A big selling point was Cliff at Camping World and Ron with Heartland. My wife spoke to Cliff a few weeks ago on the phone about looking at a Landmark but they did not have one at that time. He told her they had one coming and as soon as it arrived he would call. True to his word he called the day it arrived and last weekend, Feb. 16, we made the drive over. This Camping World is a ten hour round trip from our home. Cliff has been great to work with along with Dave the general manager. If we needed to know something they could not answer then they would call Ron with Heartland. My wife has even spoken to Ron and he has been very helpful to try and answer her questions also. The Landmark they received was the San Antonio and not the Key Largo we had been thinking about and it had a different interior and exterior color scheme than we wanted but it gave us something to actually see to help make our decision. We decided against the San Antonio and talked about waiting for a Key Largo to arrive that they had ordered also or just go ahead and place an order. The middle of last week Cliff called us back, the Key Largo arrived sooner than expected so my wife made another ten hour trip last Saturday to see it. It did not have a couple of options that we wanted but other than that my wife really liked it and from the pictures she took so do I. To make a long story a little shorter, we went ahead and placed our order. That probably would not have happened if it had not been for Cliff and Ron. They took an interest and cared about us more like friends than just as a customer. We drove several hours to a couple other places that sold Heartland Landmarks and they were supposed to contact us with some information about a purchase as well. To this day we have not heard a word from those other dealers. Guess they have enough money that they did not need to sell anymore.
So, as I stated earlier, we are giving Heartland one more chance. I am crossing my fingers that I do not have the problems with the frame in the Landmark as I did in the Bighorn. I can handle a lot of other problems but frame and structural problems can make for very serious and unsafe conditions.</SPAN>
