New owners of a Trail Runner 25 SLE

[Silverstone]

Good day, everyone!

My wife Audrey and I bought a 2017 Trail Runner 25 SLE for us on the Easter weekend 2017 at Westerncountry RV in Airdrie, AB. We do live in Stony Plain, AB Canada. Still we have to wait until the 3rd of May to take over our trailer, but we are already looking around what direction we take on our 1st trip. I personally had a Knaus Suedwind travel trailer in Germany to cruise around in Europe. Italy, France, Spain, Austria and yes, Germany are some of the countries I did visit on my trips. Why we got the 25SLE? It was on special sale and we would have had paid $1,000 less for the 21 SLE but with the years we are getting older and a nice queen size bed in the front plus a dinning place what we don't have to rebuild every time we like to go to sleep, the 25 SLE gives us a lot of space to travel around.

With my history with travel trailers, I was a bit stunt where the weight is coming from in the North American travel trailers. My German travel trailer had a GVWR of 1,500 KG (3306.934 LBS) and I did had full cupboards around the ceiling and lots of storage place under the seats / beds. Our Trail Runner 25 SLE (close the same size as my German trailer) has a weight of 3130 kg (6,900 LBS) with lots of shelf's what looks a little bit "poor". One modification would be to get some doors installed that we actually could use the storage. Yep. I know. We actually looked at a used 2011 Prowler but the furniture was completely destroyed including the floor. (No idea how people looking after their trailers in North America. But the Prowler was a salvage trailer at least!). Anyway. We also got the extended warranty for extra 6 years. Why? Most of my things break short after the warranty is over. Gives us 7 years peace of mind.

See you on the road!

 

[danemayer]

Hi Silverstone,

Congratulations on the new Trail Runner and welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum.

If you have questions about your trailer, don't hesitate to ask. There's a great bunch of friendly and helpful people here who are quick to share what they've learned.

 

['Lil Guy']

Congrats on your new purchase and welcome to the forum. Enjoy and hope to meet you down the road. While you're here, check out the HOC.

 

[Silverstone]

Hi Silverstone,

Congratulations on the new Trail Runner and welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum.

If you have questions about your trailer, don't hesitate to ask. There's a great bunch of friendly and helpful people here who are quick to share what they've learned.

Thank you very much! I am sure that we will have a lot of questions about our new Heartland trailer.

 

[atckid]

Not wanting to "hijack the thread but, I'm a "newbie" too (Mallard M27) and trying to figure out how I make two posts before I can start a thread with newbie questions. Please forgive me.

 

[jimtoo]

Not wanting to "hijack the thread but, I'm a "newbie" too (Mallard M27) and trying to figure out how I make two posts before I can start a thread with newbie questions. Please forgive me.

Hi atckid,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and to the family. We have a great bunch of folks here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge when needed.

Be sure and check out our Heartland Owners Club. Join us at a rally when you can and meet lots of the great folks here and make friends for a lifetime.

Enjoy the forum and your new unit.

Jim M

 

[atckid]

Hi atckid,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and to the family. We have a great bunch of folks here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge when needed.

Be sure and check out our Heartland Owners Club. Join us at a rally when you can and meet lots of the great folks here and make friends for a lifetime.

Enjoy the forum and your new unit.

Jim M

Thanks Jim. I have joined the Heartland Owners Club and I am looking forward to meeting and greeting and learning.
Sandy and Barbara and our Fur Baby Ebby

 

[Silverstone]

Not wanting to "hijack the thread but, I'm a "newbie" too (Mallard M27) and trying to figure out how I make two posts before I can start a thread with newbie questions. Please forgive me.

No worries. I was thinking that too. May I say "Welcome to the family, atckid!" too?

 

[Silverstone]

Good day together.
We picked up our trailer today and I am a bit disappointed with Heartland saying that they have better quality RV's than their competitors. Why? The whole bathtub surrounding was / is still lose. Seriously in the area where water gets everywhere, Heartland decided not to fix the bathtub surrounding tight to the walls? The technician drilled some holes in the wall to fix it somehow. No silicone at all in that area. Again, seriously? MDF pieces in the bathroom, cut to "a" length were I wished that North American companies would use millimetres instead of foot. Gaps all over the place, cuttings not even a bit covered with tape or paint. MSRP $32,000 Canadian dollars?

There isn't any pride in that trailer production at all. Trailer has to get back in when the dealer knows what Heartland likes to do with the bathroom. Sorry! Trailers like ours should not have left the production plant! I can not show that trailer to anyone until the issues are fixed.

 

[redevil]

This is what I noticed with a lot of the new trailers I was looking at as well, the quality issues. Which made my decision even more difficult when spending this amount of $$ on one. I figure I will use my trailer this season to see all the issues that needs to be addressed for the off season when I can bring it back into the dealership. Hopefully nothing major comes up that needs it to be sidelined for the camping season as I've heard it takes a while to get in to some of the dealerships in Calgary or Airdrie.

My brother has to wait 3 weeks to have something addressed on his rig at Western RV in Airdrie.

 

[Silverstone]

This is what I noticed with a lot of the new trailers I was looking at as well, the quality issues. Which made my decision even more difficult when spending this amount of $$ on one. I figure I will use my trailer this season to see all the issues that needs to be addressed for the off season when I can bring it back into the dealership. Hopefully nothing major comes up that needs it to be sidelined for the camping season as I've heard it takes a while to get in to some of the dealerships in Calgary or Airdrie.

My brother has to wait 3 weeks to have something addressed on his rig at Western RV in Airdrie.

We actually can't blame the dealers for the poor craftsmanship companies have these days. I actually had to let the "walk-through" guy a couple times know that I am not signing anything without getting some things in writing. The finance manager actually came out and cleared some points with that guy and got the shop guys coming out and fix some of the issues. I could not checkout the electric equipment and I was actually not in the spirit.

But I have to say that the trailer got some upgrades for free like the electric power jack in front. The trailer did had only the manual one when we did see it 1st time. I can only ask people not to sign papers right away, doesn't matter how often they ask for it. And check the inside after the trailer was moved in front of the dealership. I don't know if it was made on purpose, but the shower curtain was pulled in front of the lose shower wall.

Other issues the trailer has:
ALL decals and stripes have bubbles or they have cracks in it. The dealer is asking for a full set to be replaced under warranty.
Partly lose walls inside the outside compartments - fixed with a staple gun before we left.
One thing made me so mad, I actually asked some of the people if they are "right" in their heads. Why? When we had the walk-through, I did notice the guy slamming the left front compartment door 3 times. I didn't pay attention because he explained on how to fill and empty out the tanks and so on. After he was done, I walked back and checked out that door because it was still not proper closed. I opened the door and - a screw was sticking out. I touched it and 2/3 of the screw fell down. Seriously? Who made the PDI? Slamming a door instead of looking why the door isn't closing easily? Lucky that they know with a mad customer. They walked away and came out when I did stop steaming anymore.

Chris the finance guy was sorry but he made some calls to get some people rolling. If this is North American pride in doing a job, I am sorry. I do not wonder that most of all items made somewhere else in the world. It is much cheaper and has a better quality. Sorry if I offended someone but I am not use to such a behavior and poor quality.

What's now? Because of all the issues, the dealer has to do work twice what should had to been done in the factory plant in the first place. On top. The protection package what was put on the trailer has to be redone again. Maybe that's the way to keep everybody busy and in their jobs?!

Sorry again, Heartland! No quality control at all on your plant - or only very poor craftsmanship made with no pride at all. My old master and owner of the VW/Audi dealership had a fine way to let us young guys know that something was very wrong. A slap in the face and a nice reminder that it shouldn't happen again!



But we took the trailer home and waiting for a call today when we can drop the trailer at WesternRV in Leduc.

 

[Stenz]

Looking for an update. How are you like your 25 SLE so far?

Anything good or bad to report?

 

[Silverstone]

Good day!

To keep you guys updated:
We used our travel trailer the 1st time for a whole week after some warranty issues were finally fixed. It would have been a very nice trip if my wife wouldn't had pointed out that the inside wall on the driver side is lose and "waving in". Because it was a rainy day, I thought 1st that we would had a water leak on our brand new trailer. That gave me a little shock at first, but after taking a closer look, it made me angry again. How can people talk about quality if they have no pride in what they do?! Another disappointment to a long list we had already with this purchase. The assembler missed the stud completely and put only tape on top where two wall parts touching each other. Now that we actually moved the trailer on the North American highway's, the "proud North American" product is falling apart. How can somebody expect that a wall what should be stapled and maybe glued to to a stud, would hold with the help of a bit of tape? I don't know if they have to open the wall to get it permanently fixed like it should have been left the factory. I am guessing that Heartland does not have any kind of quality control in place or, and that would be another explanation, doesn't care how products leave the factory. It's also poor planning of construction materials if you have to patch walls together with tape only IMHO!

 

[terribruce]

Hi Siverstone, Congratulations on your new Trailer Runner. And welcome to the forum and this wonderful Heartland family.
You will get all kinds of information you may need.

And Congratulations atckid on your new Mallard. Welcome to you as well. Safe travels to you both.

Terri