North Trail 33tbud

[billman]

Hello all,
we purchased a 33tbud new in 2014 and really like it. The trailer tracks wonderfully and is easy to set up. We took a trip out west from New York in the summer and experienced a few hang ups that could have been really bad if not for some help from Norco slide mfr. the main slide gear box stripped out in Grand Teton NP and rendered us stuck until it could be fixed. Great place to be stuck but still stressful on the family. Norco slide folks sent a new gearbox to us and we had a field repair done to get us through the rest of our trip. Also had trouble with the plastic fenders not holding up over the 7000+ mile trip. The fenders were either over tightened in the mfg process or lacked bracing which made them flap and eventually break to the point that I had to pull over to remove them in fear that I would cause an accident.
When we got home we were able to drop off the TT to our dealer for the proper repairs. I'm not entirely happy about a new TT breaking the way it did but we are otherwise happy with our purchase. We are looking forward to another summer trip this year and hopeful we have worked out any kinks. Any feedback from other owners is appreciated as I look forward to using this forum.

 

[Shortest Straw]

The is another NT parked in the same storage area as mine and just a couple of spots down from me. The fenders on it are all cracked and broken as well. On our first trip with ours we had some of the screws vibrate loose as well. Heartland customer service recommended that I take all of the screws out and put some silicone on them to keep that from happening. I also made some braces to keep the fenders from vibrating so bad. So far so good.

 

['Lil Guy']

It's beyond me why they put those long wood screws through the plastic and have them protrude about an inch on the inside. Someone at assembly might have overtightened them dwith his power drill.lol I had a similar issue dwith my NT21FBS and dwas going to brace them and use screws with a backing washer and nylok nut.

 

[JohnD]

Those fender screws are unbelievable.

I took our Trail Runner through a car wash before we headed down to Arizona back in January, and when I was done I noticed the one of the fenders was loose.

Two of the screws came out while I was spraying the trailer!

I found one of them on the ground under the trailer . . . the other was gone.

Luckily, I had a few extra RV screws in my toolbox and put them back in, then I tightened all of them on both fenders.

Turned out that all of them were basically only finger tight.