Re: ATF: Landmark - SCREAMING
I am sorry for venting on this forum. I will be talking to the factory tomorrow. My wife and I love our 5th wheel but believe the Dealer is a liar and is totally incompetent. We talked with some factory people last Thursday at the Tampa RV show but that was before this latest hydraulic failure. A brief history. 6 weeks after purchasing the unit we made an appointment with the dealer to fix some minor issues. After hooking up the camper and starting to retract the jacks I noticed they were not retracting but instead had a 6 foot puddle of red fluid under the middle jack on the drivers side. Upon inspection one line had blown off the fitting and the second line had a bubble the size of a quarter in it that was dripping. The dealer told me they had no one to come down and fix it to just hire a mobile hydraulic hose company and they would reimburse me. The company came and repaired those 2 hose ends and in checking found one on the opposite side with another bubble that was dripping also. They told me whoever had crimped the hose ends had a tool that was not calibrated properly and the crimps were not tight enough. They said the factory should replace all the hoses so I would not have trouble in the future. Informed the dealer of this when I got there and gave them pictures of the fittings, hose ends and a write up sheet from the hydraulic hose company. I was told it was done 2 weeks later and I could pick it up. Only 2 items were fixed on the list and they said they could see noting wrong with the hoses and the factory would not allow them to be changed out. 6 months later we dropped off camper with fluid leaking out of a bubble in the fitting connection in the middle jack from the line that did not have a new fitting put on. There also was fluid leaking out of the belly pan so one of the fittings on the DR slide out was leaking. They replaced 2 lines and again said the factory would approve no more. We have has small amounts of fluid leaking out of belly pan again so we were going to make an appointment and take it in again. Did not make it as it is now an immovable object with 4 gallons of transmission fluid up in the pan slowly dripping out. This is just one problem I could right 12 pages on the lack of expertise on the dealers part but I can give one quick example. No satellite signal was getting in from the living room hookup to the cabinet next to the living area TV. I changed both fitting ends but testing still showed an open circuit on both ends. I gave this information to the dealer who replaced a splitter and declared the problem fixed. Nope then the 2nd try and it came back with nothing wrong. I finally refused to pick up the unit until they could show me a signal. The tech pulled the RG6 from the bundle under the slideout and one end came out of the the floor. It was never connected from the factory. I now can get satellite in the living room but had to connect all the tv antenna connection back up as the unscrewed all of them for what I have no idea.
A couple of things. First, regardless of what the dealer said or they said Heartland said, either the crimps are bad or there is a hydraulic over-pressure situation (which would have stressed ALL of the connections, whether they have popped yet or not). If an expert hydraulic maintenance company told you the crimps were bad, I'd go with that and insure (warranty or not) that every single hydralic fitting was replaced. The mere fact that you had three blowouts indicates that not replacing all the connections is unwise. If it were my coach, I wouldn't use it again until the hydraulics were replaced. Also, I'll bet the campground loves red hydraulic fluid leaking all over their site.
Regarding dealers, I was in a job where I dealt with dealers for my entire career. Dealers serve many useful purposes, but one of their main functions is to separate the manufactiurer from the consumer. I hope I'm not ruffling anyone's feathers here, but this is a simple truth. A good manufacturer will eventually step up to a legitimate problem, but make no mistake about it - the dealer is a buffer and there is always this game between them and the manufacturers for "approval". The customer is the one who must navigate these rough waters, as you are learning. By the way, incompetent dealers are all over the place - not much you can do except when you find a good one, continue to go there. Of course, another take on this is that the manufacturer selects their dealers, so to a certain extent, they are definitely responsible for any shoddy dealers in their network. This whole idea that the dealer is bad but the manufacturer is good is nonsense. With my background, I don't separate the dealer and the manufacturer - they are partners in this business deal. If they weren't, there wouldn't be all those pesky contracts.
Regarding the satellite signal problem, I didn't notice what model of coach you have, but if you aren't getting that satellite signal, go into the closet and find the TV antenna amplifier outlet. If the red light is on, turn it off - it is meant to amplify ONLY the on-air signal from your crank up antenna. If you turn the signal amp off, you should receive satellite just fine. Now, it may very well be something else, but this worked perfectly for me. Also, check EVERY SINGLE TV COAX CONNECTION. I stress this because literally every, and I'm not exagerating, connection in my Bighorn was hand tight. I watched the dealer go through the entire system and tighten every one properly - I have a good dealer - he made a housecall and did this in my driveway.
Finally, regarding venting. You spent a lot of money on a quality product and for whatever reason, it's not working. Worse, it's not working repeatedly. Sharing those problems with other owners of similar very expensive products is NOT venting - it's communicating. Certainly, the manufacturer deserves the chance to make it right, but in my book, communicating that information is supremely appropriate.
Good luck and I'm sure you'll get this resolved so you and your family can enjoy your coach.