Prospective buyer for torque T285 toyhauler

[ajtanzer]

Hi,

My husband and I went to the rv show by us this weekend. We currently have a 2014 Starcraft 24rls travel trailer. We bought it brand new and ever since our first campout it has been nothing but trouble and headache, from the roof ripping, awning breaking, issues with the black tank, and the gray water tank leaking into our underbelly. Thankfully it’s still under warranty and supposedly the issues are all fixed but we won’t know until spring. My husband has camped his entire life with a Camping club and his parents have owned various units. We spent a good six months researching and looking for our current unit. We have since decided that a toyhauler with at least a 16 foot garage is what we need and want now. We have since fallen in love with the heartland torque t285 toyhauler for various reasons. But we have serious hesitations due to some people telling us there are issues with heartland and service. My husbands family is all about jayco, which is fine, everyone has their opinion, but we really really like this unit. But due to our current piece of crap we have serious reservations. My husbands biggest fears are delamination or a leaking roof. Looking to gather some reviews or research from other heartland owners to give us a better mindset if we do decide to go with this heartland toyhauler. Any information or advice would be very helpful and we welcome any type of information. Thank you in advance!

 

[danemayer]

Hi ajtanzer,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum. There's lots of useful information here along with a great bunch of friendly and helpful people.

While there are going to be differences in the manufacturing process across different manufacturers, all RVs are essentially built by hand by people who are hurrying. Materials used are similar across manufacturers. And of course the appliances and subsystems used by the manufacturers come from a small number of vendors, so there's not much difference there.

Heartland toy haulers have been selling quite well for a number of years because Heartland management has been listening to owner feedback and is creating trailer designs that appeal to a broad set of customers.

More important, as many of us have found, Heartland is very easy to work with, compared to other manufacturers, when something does go wrong. For example, if you get prior approval, Heartland will authorize warranty work to be done by an independent repair shop, a non-Heartland dealer, or a mobile servicer. Not all manufacturers will do that. Heartland will also sometimes agree to ship you parts for self-repair if the item is something that can reasonably be self-repaired, instead of requiring that you drop the trailer off at a dealership.

Heartland supports a very active owners club with local, regional and national rallies where you can socialize with like-minded folks and have a great time. Click on the EVENTS tab at top of page to get a list. Many more events will be posted over the next 2 months. Our club President is a full-time Heartland executive who gets paid to run the club and travel around the country going to rallies. Ok, he does do one or two other things too.

And the support network from Heartland Customer Service and from owners active on this forum, are unparalleled. Check out our owner-written User Guides in this folder. In the middle of a crisis, there's nothing quite like finding out that you can fix it yourself in 15 minutes without interrupting your trip.

 

[AJJONES]

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me anytime at Aj.jones@heartlandrvs.com. I am senior GM over the brand. We would love you to join the he heartland family!!

 

[ksucntry]

Hello, I'm not sure if I can help much on this subject other than to say we just bought our first TH and its the Torque T285 you are interested in. After many months of insane research and shopping we decided to jump in. I can't add much enthusiasm to this because we haven' even camped in it yet. Just drove it home from the dealership and parked inside the shop to sit for the rest of the winter. Picked it up the 1rst week of December. Hoping to start getting in some trips come April. I'm not patient so this hurts a little. LOL

Anyway I' can't help yet as far as if its a "quality" unit or not yet but let me know If you have any unit specific questions and I would be happy to help

Brian from Kansas

 

[klp605]

Although I can not speak on the Torque, I can say that after months of research we decided on a Heartland product. Our previous TT was a manufacturer who's warranty was horrible. I called and talked to the sales reps and the warranty departments for a few different manufacturers. Another key was what owners were saying.

Heartland has been amazing. I am confident when the warranty work on our TT is completed I will still be highly satisfied. The deal sealer is this group of incredibly kind and helpful Heartland family.

Best of luck on the final decision.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[Jjensen6pack]

Hello, I'm not sure if I can help much on this subject other than to say we just bought our first TH and its the Torque T285 you are interested in. After many months of insane research and shopping we decided to jump in. I can't add much enthusiasm to this because we haven' even camped in it yet. Just drove it home from the dealership and parked inside the shop to sit for the rest of the winter. Picked it up the 1rst week of December. Hoping to start getting in some trips come April. I'm not patient so this hurts a little. LOL

Anyway I' can't help yet as far as if its a "quality" unit or not yet but let me know If you have any unit specific questions and I would be happy to help

Brian from Kansas

Hey Brian, we are thinking of buying this model but can’t find the heating vents, do you know where they are?

 

[ksucntry]

Hello, heating ducts are Black vents - located on the walls near the floor. Should be 2 on the wall next to the fridge, 1 in the bathroom(gets nice and toasty in there) 2 more in the bedroom in the cabinets on both sides of the bed. Don't quote me but I believe there is another in the kitchen and I think that's it. takes a while for the living RM/garage area to warm up - just not enough duct work in that area. Bedroom and bathroom are fine though. Hope this helps

 

[JDH]

Hi,

We bought a Torque 2017 T31 toy-hauler on 01/04/17 after doing lots of research. Since day one we've had issues with all sorts of things. All clearance lights decided to quit working, awning wouldn't retract, generator wouldn't start after multiple try's, bathroom sliding door hinge broke, kitchen faucet got stuck in spray mode, Furnace wouldn't heat to what it was set on (which sucks when you're camping in 32 degree weather) nor was it secured down not to mention it was sitting on 110V wiring, interior lights were losing insulation, trim inside above the sofa fell off. ( I can't remember what more we've had to deal with) Our biggest issue we're dealing with and have been dealing with since day 1, is getting the manufacture to fix the delam on the back garage door. We upgraded from a camper to this since we have toys and it's been a headache all year. Since September, it's been at the dealers for a total of 97 days. They've had it since December 21st & we still don't have it. We're re-thinking our purchase at this point. I understand that trailers, campers, toy-haulers are made in mass production, but I feel for how much you spend on them they should put a little more effort into making them.
Good luck with whatever you end up getting!
Happy Camping!!!

Jason & Alessa

 

[cookie]

If your rig has been sitting at the dealer for that long it might be time to contact Heartland yourself and explain the situation. It's not unheard of for dealers to drop the ball. They may not have even contacted Heartland for warranty parts or labor at this point.
Call Heartland Customer Service and explain the situation. Have your VIN handy.
Of course this depends on whether or not you bought the rig new and are the original owner. Warranty does not transfer.
877-262-8032 / 574-262-8030

Peace
Dave

 

[castone001]

Hi!

We bought the T285 after a year of looking and we were actually looking for a 5th wheel until we saw this model at an rv show. We loved the design and roominess FEEL. We have taken it out a couple times now. We haul a 2007 Yamaha Rhino and 2006 Ltz400 quad. To give you an idea of what goes inside. Its a tight fit but all goes in fine. Its a heavy trailer but my truck 2016 F250 Diesel 4x4 crew cab short bed fitted with airbags tows it like a dream. Just have to turn "Wider" LOL!.

We found that the Heartland brand was the most detailed and had very few flaws in the construction as opposed to the other brands we looked at. It just seemed to be higher quality to us.

I do love pretty much everything about this trailer so far and only have some minor issues complaints

1) I wish the storage compartment in the front had a door on the driver side. Its way too deep to get at anything we store inside
2) Why is there only 1 generator on/off switch in the coach. Its above the master bed.?? Put another switch at the control panel please


Now it is in for some warranty work:
1) the front cap on the drivers side above the LED lights had some significant spider cracks in the fiber glass (Major)
2) The patio screen where they glued the velcro to the ramp door frame never stuck and came off. (Minor)
3) during the last rains (im in southern California) LEAKS! not sure if they came from the roof or the refrigerator area?
4) Several other SMALL items are on the list

Waiting to hear back fro the dealers/service dept on the when we get it back and where the water leak was from. It's been in there for 2 months now.

hope this helps.

Chris

 

[CampDawg]

We own a 2018 T-285 since July 2017 and had zero problems with it.

 

[schew]

Hi,

We bought a Torque 2017 T31 toy-hauler on 01/04/17 after doing lots of research. Since day one we've had issues with all sorts of things. All clearance lights decided to quit working, awning wouldn't retract, generator wouldn't start after multiple try's, bathroom sliding door hinge broke, kitchen faucet got stuck in spray mode, Furnace wouldn't heat to what it was set on (which sucks when you're camping in 32 degree weather) nor was it secured down not to mention it was sitting on 110V wiring, interior lights were losing insulation, trim inside above the sofa fell off. ( I can't remember what more we've had to deal with) Our biggest issue we're dealing with and have been dealing with since day 1, is getting the manufacture to fix the delam on the back garage door. We upgraded from a camper to this since we have toys and it's been a headache all year. Since September, it's been at the dealers for a total of 97 days. They've had it since December 21st & we still don't have it. We're re-thinking our purchase at this point. I understand that trailers, campers, toy-haulers are made in mass production, but I feel for how much you spend on them they should put a little more effort into making them.
Good luck with whatever you end up getting!
Happy Camping!!!

Jason & Alessa

Soo sorry to hear what you are going through. No on should ever have to endure that many problems after spending the amount of money these things cost.
We have the same model you do and fortunately for us, we have had almost zero issues with it so far.