After a couple weeks, and numerous “interviews”, my wife and I are now proud parents of a 2014 Heartland Gateway 3650BH. We brought the unit home Saturday afternoon and we are so excited. We have a short weekend trip planed soon, and CANNOT wait to go camping in the new rig.
We had a smaller bumper pull trailer prior to this one, and started looking for something with more room in the master bedroom and a larger bathroom with a full sized shower. Now that I have a larger truck, a 5[SUP]th[/SUP] wheel is an option. Longer trips have been coming up in conversations lately, so the 5[SUP]th[/SUP] wheel idea was a natural choice. Our last trailer was a bunk house, and with two kids and the occasion friend or two the bunk house floor plan was a necessity. We also had an outdoor kitchen that we used quite a bit in the last trailer, so an outdoor kitchen on the new unit was high on the priority list as well. Finally, with the majority of our camping being done here in Oklahoma, plenty of air conditioning was in order, with two AC units being our preference.
Along came the Heartland Gateway series and the 3650BH. It was love at first sight. We’d seen the unit online and found a local dealer that had one on the lot. I meet my wife there after work one evening that was pretty much it. We came back a couple days later to look again and started talking numbers. A few days later the entire family spent the whole day looking at trailers at numerous other local dealers, just to make sure there wasn't anything out there that we liked better. That evening we stopped back by the Heartland dealer and put down a deposit on the 3650BH. We could not find anything else that fit our family’s needs like the Gateway 3650BH did.
Both my wife and I were impressed with the build quality of the Gateway units. Sure there were some trim features that need to be touched up, but that seems to be the way of the RV industry anymore, leaving the finally details to the dealer to fix as “warranty issues”. But it was nothing major, just that “I want everything to be perfect if I’m spending that kind of money” kind of an attitude.
One thing that drew us to the Gateway was the interior decor and color scheme. We both loved the colors, and everything seems to “just fit”. You can definitely tell that it was NOT decorated by a bunch of engineers. And that’s a good thing. The unit feels very comfortable, and I might even go so far as to say the decor is soothing and relaxing. It makes the trailer feel very much like a home.
Of course the kids like the bunk room, and now they have their own half bath. The half bath back there has its own entrance/exit door, which is nice when outside and you just need to come in to potty real quick, but I’m a bit worried about the kids having easy access in and out. We’ll just have to set some rules and bust some butts if they try sneaking out in the middle of the night or anything like that. ;-)
Already I've added a battery cut-off switch in the battery compartment (for use while in storage), and a couple Camco screen door cross bars. I will also be adding a Progressive Industries EMS, but I need to evaluate if I can install the internal unit vs the portable outdoor unit. I’d prefer the internal unit, but I’m not sure how accessible the wires are, I’ll know here in a few days when I have time to open up a few of the panels and take a peak in there. We also fell in love with the Oxygenics shower head I installed in out last trailer. I’ll give the shower head a trial run a time or two, as it looks much better than the cheap plastic shower head that you typically see in a trailer, but the Oxygenics head is ready to be installed at a moments notice should the need arise.
I will update this thread with comments after our first outing, for those interested in the “on the job” functionality of the new trailer. I’m also more than happy to answer any questions about the 3650BH that anyone has, since they are relatively new to the Gateway line. Well I guess the whole Gateway line is pretty new, with the 3650 being the “youngest”. Also, thanks to those here on the owners’ forum that answered my pre-sales questions, you all are great. I hope I can be as helpful to others as you all were to me.
p.s. I just uploaded a couple pics to the photos area of the Gateway Community.
We had a smaller bumper pull trailer prior to this one, and started looking for something with more room in the master bedroom and a larger bathroom with a full sized shower. Now that I have a larger truck, a 5[SUP]th[/SUP] wheel is an option. Longer trips have been coming up in conversations lately, so the 5[SUP]th[/SUP] wheel idea was a natural choice. Our last trailer was a bunk house, and with two kids and the occasion friend or two the bunk house floor plan was a necessity. We also had an outdoor kitchen that we used quite a bit in the last trailer, so an outdoor kitchen on the new unit was high on the priority list as well. Finally, with the majority of our camping being done here in Oklahoma, plenty of air conditioning was in order, with two AC units being our preference.
Along came the Heartland Gateway series and the 3650BH. It was love at first sight. We’d seen the unit online and found a local dealer that had one on the lot. I meet my wife there after work one evening that was pretty much it. We came back a couple days later to look again and started talking numbers. A few days later the entire family spent the whole day looking at trailers at numerous other local dealers, just to make sure there wasn't anything out there that we liked better. That evening we stopped back by the Heartland dealer and put down a deposit on the 3650BH. We could not find anything else that fit our family’s needs like the Gateway 3650BH did.
Both my wife and I were impressed with the build quality of the Gateway units. Sure there were some trim features that need to be touched up, but that seems to be the way of the RV industry anymore, leaving the finally details to the dealer to fix as “warranty issues”. But it was nothing major, just that “I want everything to be perfect if I’m spending that kind of money” kind of an attitude.
One thing that drew us to the Gateway was the interior decor and color scheme. We both loved the colors, and everything seems to “just fit”. You can definitely tell that it was NOT decorated by a bunch of engineers. And that’s a good thing. The unit feels very comfortable, and I might even go so far as to say the decor is soothing and relaxing. It makes the trailer feel very much like a home.
Of course the kids like the bunk room, and now they have their own half bath. The half bath back there has its own entrance/exit door, which is nice when outside and you just need to come in to potty real quick, but I’m a bit worried about the kids having easy access in and out. We’ll just have to set some rules and bust some butts if they try sneaking out in the middle of the night or anything like that. ;-)
Already I've added a battery cut-off switch in the battery compartment (for use while in storage), and a couple Camco screen door cross bars. I will also be adding a Progressive Industries EMS, but I need to evaluate if I can install the internal unit vs the portable outdoor unit. I’d prefer the internal unit, but I’m not sure how accessible the wires are, I’ll know here in a few days when I have time to open up a few of the panels and take a peak in there. We also fell in love with the Oxygenics shower head I installed in out last trailer. I’ll give the shower head a trial run a time or two, as it looks much better than the cheap plastic shower head that you typically see in a trailer, but the Oxygenics head is ready to be installed at a moments notice should the need arise.
I will update this thread with comments after our first outing, for those interested in the “on the job” functionality of the new trailer. I’m also more than happy to answer any questions about the 3650BH that anyone has, since they are relatively new to the Gateway line. Well I guess the whole Gateway line is pretty new, with the 3650 being the “youngest”. Also, thanks to those here on the owners’ forum that answered my pre-sales questions, you all are great. I hope I can be as helpful to others as you all were to me.
p.s. I just uploaded a couple pics to the photos area of the Gateway Community.
