G_Hage
Active Member
As you know, I have been searching for the original owner(s) of our 2008 Mount Rushmore Suite #6197. We bought it with little history as to ownership, maintenance, or past warranty issues and repairs, which are the hazards of buying a used RV from a dealership in many cases. So you go with your gut feelings and what you see. And that's exactly what we did. What we saw looked good, and what we felt, seemed solid. But I still needed to know, case maybe they could fill in the blanks.
No, I didn't meet or talk with the original owner, or get a PM or email from them. But in searching this public forum, I found them. At least ALL of the comments and information points directly to them, and our fiver.
It begins 2/4/07 with a thread called "Mount Rushmore w/kitchen island" where many of you help as these perspective buyers put together the ideas of what will become MR #6197 when they took delivery in July that same year. There is even discussion of their planning to place the extra small freezer in the washer/dryer area, currently still there in our now #6197. Extra outlets installed in the kitchen island cabinet, the entertainment center, etc, what was their add ons are our now reality. The solar array and the missing inverter replaced with a converter, after so many of you responded to request for advice on the thread "How does my solar system work".
But most alarming to us tonight, was in reading the "Stuck in Las Cruces" and learning of the axle and suspension failures only after 6000 miles on the road from when the unit was first put in service. One can only be left asking themselves what caused such a catastrophic sounding failure so early on in this unit's life after reading that. The cracks in the kitchen slide (which do no show today), and the issues with the pinbox sinking into the fiberglass a half inch or so. The battles over the costly repairs and who was going to take responsibility. Yet through it all sounded as if Heartland stepped up to the plate and backed their product, as we have read over and over on these forums.
Yet, as we sit here tonight in our first RV that we love so much and think is so beautiful, we cannot help but think "OMG, what have we bought? Is this fiver going to be nothing but problems and an expense for us now?" Scary as HECK to say the least for us. Our dream RV sounded as if it was to also be their dream Fiver, and not their first, yet it sounds as if it became their nightmare, and now possibly ours.
I'm sure the folks at Heartland and Lippert remember this unit well, as these major issues occurred and were repair in May/June 2009. Sadly, I doubt I will be able to get any reassurance from either that we have nothing to fear as all is repaired as if it were a new unit, or what damage you can't see is hidden in the walls and places you can't see and you should dump it like a hot potato, NOW!
I would like to believe all is well, but unfortunately with the passing of one, and I assume the surviving spouse is no longer RV'ing, we feel we cannot even ask what happened and did the unit perform well for you the remaining years until it was sold. So, we are left to guess.
I'm sure now many of you know the MR we now own, and the couple that once owned it. Since I had never met them, out of respect I've not named them. Yet we would still love to hear, as we share the same workamping dream they once lived in MR #6197.
No, I didn't meet or talk with the original owner, or get a PM or email from them. But in searching this public forum, I found them. At least ALL of the comments and information points directly to them, and our fiver.
It begins 2/4/07 with a thread called "Mount Rushmore w/kitchen island" where many of you help as these perspective buyers put together the ideas of what will become MR #6197 when they took delivery in July that same year. There is even discussion of their planning to place the extra small freezer in the washer/dryer area, currently still there in our now #6197. Extra outlets installed in the kitchen island cabinet, the entertainment center, etc, what was their add ons are our now reality. The solar array and the missing inverter replaced with a converter, after so many of you responded to request for advice on the thread "How does my solar system work".
But most alarming to us tonight, was in reading the "Stuck in Las Cruces" and learning of the axle and suspension failures only after 6000 miles on the road from when the unit was first put in service. One can only be left asking themselves what caused such a catastrophic sounding failure so early on in this unit's life after reading that. The cracks in the kitchen slide (which do no show today), and the issues with the pinbox sinking into the fiberglass a half inch or so. The battles over the costly repairs and who was going to take responsibility. Yet through it all sounded as if Heartland stepped up to the plate and backed their product, as we have read over and over on these forums.
Yet, as we sit here tonight in our first RV that we love so much and think is so beautiful, we cannot help but think "OMG, what have we bought? Is this fiver going to be nothing but problems and an expense for us now?" Scary as HECK to say the least for us. Our dream RV sounded as if it was to also be their dream Fiver, and not their first, yet it sounds as if it became their nightmare, and now possibly ours.
I'm sure the folks at Heartland and Lippert remember this unit well, as these major issues occurred and were repair in May/June 2009. Sadly, I doubt I will be able to get any reassurance from either that we have nothing to fear as all is repaired as if it were a new unit, or what damage you can't see is hidden in the walls and places you can't see and you should dump it like a hot potato, NOW!
I would like to believe all is well, but unfortunately with the passing of one, and I assume the surviving spouse is no longer RV'ing, we feel we cannot even ask what happened and did the unit perform well for you the remaining years until it was sold. So, we are left to guess.
I'm sure now many of you know the MR we now own, and the couple that once owned it. Since I had never met them, out of respect I've not named them. Yet we would still love to hear, as we share the same workamping dream they once lived in MR #6197.
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