Sick of Heartland Big Horn! Worst purchase we have ever made

[JohnD]

. . . never could get the cable to work using cable from rv park, must be wired wrong.

We had the same problem in our 2015 Prowler . . .

The first big problem was that the cable line from the outside connector was connected to the output of the splitter behind the basement wall and the input of that splitter went to the basement cable connection for the outside TV.

Once I got that figured out, I had cable, but the picture wasn't good . . . until I unplugged the AM/FM/Stereo/CD/DVD player/sound system from the splitter inside of the entertainment center.

Poof . . . perfectly great picture!

The coax antenna connection to the AM/FM/stereo was shorting out the cable signal through the splitter, causing the fuzzy cable picture.

 

[Georgia_Biker]

Just an update on my Heartland Big Horn 3875.
The unit has been at my repair dealer since Feb 15th. The Techs found that the ice maker line apparently had been routed improperly under the slide. There were actually two hairline cracks in the line caused where the line was being pinched when the side was moving in and out. These leaks were slowly soaking the carpet under the cabinets which I was not aware of because there was no drip - the carpet was holding the water and soaking all of the wood parts. Eventually the water line was pulled loose from the back of the fridge and that is when the dripping occurred from in volume and I realized there was a problem. I shut the water off.
This RV was new in July 2015. My repair dealer has presented the situation to Art at Heartland for Warranty consideration and so far no answer. New floor molding has been ordered for replacement of the damaged pieces. Although there is relatively little cost in parts there is a great amount of labor involved. Estimate app $2000 or more.
just want to keep everyone posted on progress an I will let you know what the outcome with Heartland is.

 

[BigJim45]

Just an update on my Heartland Big Horn 3875.
The unit has been at my repair dealer since Feb 15th. The Techs found that the ice maker line apparently had been routed improperly under the slide. There were actually two hairline cracks in the line caused where the line was being pinched when the side was moving in and out. These leaks were slowly soaking the carpet under the cabinets which I was not aware of because there was no drip - the carpet was holding the water and soaking all of the wood parts. Eventually the water line was pulled loose from the back of the fridge and that is when the dripping occurred from in volume and I realized there was a problem. I shut the water off.
This RV was new in July 2015. My repair dealer has presented the situation to Art at Heartland for Warranty consideration and so far no answer. New floor molding has been ordered for replacement of the damaged pieces. Although there is relatively little cost in parts there is a great amount of labor involved. Estimate app $2000 or more.
just want to keep everyone posted on progress an I will let you know what the outcome with Heartland is.

Larry.......always a good idea to follow up with Heartland to make sure your dealer did order the replacement parts.

Good luck and hope everything turns out OK.

 

[Georgia_Biker]

Hey Jim
Thanks for the heads up. I use a company near me named APALCHEE RV SERVICE - Auburn, GA. They do not sell RV's - only repair and do body work. I have used them for several years and they are very reliable and professional.
They also fight for Warranty.

 

[wdk450]

Larry:
I know that this is more warranty issues, but I just found the icemaker water line with its pinhole leaks a PITA. Luckily, my leaks were under the kitchen slide and onto the ground. I turned off the icemaker water line, removed the ice bin from the freezer for more usable freezer space, unplugged the icemaker at the outlet on the outside access to the refrigerator, and bought a freestanding tabletop icemaker for about $100 that makes the first load of ice in just 12 minutes (instead of 4 hours for the freezer icemaker)! Here is a link to the icemaker: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Igloo-Portable-Countertop-Ice-Maker/31136425?reviews_limit=10&

 

[JohnD]

Just an update on my Heartland Big Horn 3875.

The unit has been at my repair dealer since Feb 15th.

I feel your pain . . . but hang on!

There is light at the end of the tunnel!

We have several issues with our 2015 Heartland Prowler, and most of them fairly minor issues compared to what you have going on.

We had it in to our dealer for warranty work.

They told me three weeks . . . 10 weeks later I picked it up.

Total number of warranty issues they were supposed to fix was 15 . . .

And after picking up the trailer and taking it down to Arizona last month to the Tucson Rodeo Rally (which was a big blast, by the way), we discovered that only two of those 15 issues were fixed . . . and the rest of them were only band aid repairs to get it out of the shop!

Now, while any of us feel that none of this stuff should come out of the factory . . . it does, and there is nothing any of us can do to change that!

It is a fact of life in the new world economy!

However, I put the blame on my dealership at this point!

They are the ones who screwed up my warranty issues . . . not Heartland!

And they are they ones that created at least five new problems that didn't exist before they worked on our 2015 Prowler!

They are the ones who pulled a window shade out of another trailer instead of ordering the correct one that matches all of the other window shades in the trailer . . .

They are the ones who broke several of the window valances while supposedly fixing the shade and window issues . . .

They are the ones who, after having been told at least six times over the phone what was causing the cable TV issues after I traced down the problem and just asked then to rewire the trailer correctly, to rewire it exactly the same way it was so that the issue is now back.

They are the ones who . . .

Well, I'm not going to list the rest of the issues.

Several of them I went ahead and fixed them myself . . . the way they should have been fixed!

Our dealership let us down big time, and when I let them know about it after we got home from our trip to AZ, they want me to bring it back to them.

But I'm not sure if I do after giving them 2 1/2 months to work it out and they screwed it up worse than it was before I took it in to begin with!

I will be talking to the service manager in a couple of hours, but I'm not sure I trust them anymore.

I'm just hoping that if I can't reach some kind of agreement with our dealership that I can get Heartland to cover someone else to fix stuff that they already paid another dealership to fix . . . when they did not fix the issues!

I'll report back later!

All that being said . . . we love our Heartland product, and we love the Heartland Owner's Club (HOC) even more!

We are Heartlanders for life!

And I can say that when we are ready to retire and hit the road (in 10-12 years) . . . it will be a Heartland 5th-wheel trailer that we will retire in!

Look out future HOC members . . . you'll have to put up with the likes of me (hope I haven't scared anyone off yet)!

 

[JohnD]

Larry:
I know that this is more warranty issues, but I just found the icemaker water line with its pinhole leaks a PITA. Luckily, my leaks were under the kitchen slide and onto the ground. I turned off the icemaker water line, removed the ice bin from the freezer for more usable freezer space, unplugged the icemaker at the outlet on the outside access to the refrigerator, and bought a freestanding tabletop icemaker for about $100 that makes the first load of ice in just 12 minutes (instead of 4 hours for the freezer icemaker)! Here is a link to the icemaker: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Igloo-Portable-Countertop-Ice-Maker/31136425?reviews_limit=10&

We had our icemaker in our house fridge go bad . . .

Unfortunately, it wasn't until several months after it started to go bad that we discovered it went bad!

That taught us to NEVER EVER go for an ice maker in the fridge again!

I'd rather buy the counter-top icemaker than go through a floor replacement program again!

 

[TxCowboy]

To JohnD -- Unbelievable that your dealer would screw this situation up so badly. Un-freaking-believable!

About the ice maker -- We turned our Frigideaire ice maker off within a month of ownership because it was blowing water into the freezer and the service tech says WE have to remove the fridge from the slide so that he can work on it. I'm too old to be screwing around with that nonsense. We just bought an table top version from Amazon for $100.00. Makes 26 pounds of ice per day. It does an awesome job and the DW thinks looks "cute". So win-win.

 

[wdk450]

Anyone with dealer service issues (Bad or Good) should make a post on RVServiceReviews.com about the experience. Encourage any prospective RV buyers to check out this site BEFORE choosing a dealer to buy from.
An INDEPENDENT (No RV Sales) RV servicer is usually your best bet for good RV service. An RV dealer depends on sales profits to support their business, with RV service being a function required of them by the RV manufacturers to sell the RV's. It is usually a break even or loss department for the RV dealers. RV repair is the independent RV servicer's ONLY source of business income, with customer satisfaction, timely repairs (and payment), and good customer recommendations vital to the success of the business. Last I heard, Heartland will let you get your warranty work done from whoever you choose, with a prior authorization phone call to Heartland Service.

 

[ksucats]

A little off track here as we've not had (yet) the water issues with our ice maker but I did turn off the water and winterize the unit. During our several trips this winter we have repeatedly seen that the freezer warms up into the high 40s to mid 50s when we are traveling and the fridge side stays in the high 30s to very low 40s. My thought was it is that big gaping hole for the ice to fall through when filling our glass. SO, I currently have a towel crammed into that space. While it has helped, the freezer still warms up too much. Has anyone else experienced this and what did you do to close that hole, if anything? Thanks.

Oh, the reason I'm asking here is because we first noticed it when traveling last August / September before winterizing and, even though we emptied the made ice, we didn't clear the ice maker portion itself, those cubes melted and left us a couple of puddles. Albuquerque dealer's answer - don't make ice. My response, then why did we buy a coach with an ice maker? Oh well.

 

[Skipm]

Never take your rig to a dealer for service. They don't want it. They don't make money from service. Find a good independent service person. I always use the same guy and he comes to my site (I'm a full timer) and all I have to do is call heartland and they approve it. I have never waited more then a week to get something fixed and that's usually because of waiting on parts, and its always done right and nothing else gets broke.

 

[2psnapod2]

If you can do some work yourself, Heartland has sent me some repair items under warranty and I have done the work myself.

 

[JohnD]

I'm still playing phone tag with my dealership . . .

 

[Hogladyrider]

We have owned TWO Big Horns and for us owning an RV is no different than owning a sticks n'bricks there is always going to be something.

The AC issues have been addressed and my comments are only geared towards the water line leak as we had a similar issue with our 2016 3875FB but we did not react like this gentleman did. Sure we were devastated that our now full time brand new RV had experienced damage but Heartland has been NOTHING but 100% supportive to us.

Unfortunately our leak went on for a while before we discovered it and extensive damage was done to the entire slide out. We were unable to find a local dealer here in Florida that was acceptable to us to do the repairs needed and thru staying in close contact with our Heartland Customer Service rep we have worked it all out to have the repairs performed this summer when we are up north workamping.

We have contacted the dealer in New Hampshire and discussed the repairs and at this point in time we can not say enough good things about our experiences with Heartland.

We had the option to take the RV to the dealer we purchased it from in Michigan as this is where the original "oops" happened during installation of the residential refrig.

Boo boos happen, a lot depends on how you handle your reaction to the situation.
Susan

 

[macjj]

Just a thought but I did not see any mention of this site http://www.rvservicereviews.com. Although I have not encountered the issues mentioned, I thought the thread was very interesting. Thanks


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[mlpeloquin]

Larry:
I know that this is more warranty issues, but I just found the icemaker water line with its pinhole leaks a PITA. Luckily, my leaks were under the kitchen slide and onto the ground. I turned off the icemaker water line, removed the ice bin from the freezer for more usable freezer space, unplugged the icemaker at the outlet on the outside access to the refrigerator, and bought a freestanding tabletop icemaker for about $100 that makes the first load of ice in just 12 minutes (instead of 4 hours for the freezer icemaker)! Here is a link to the icemaker: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Igloo-Portable-Countertop-Ice-Maker/31136425?reviews_limit=10&

Bill - We too purchased an portable ice maker. Love that thing. Would not bother with an in freezer one at all. We have had our share of problems, but most are road related. If the interstates were kept up, most things would not have worked loose. As a retired electrical/RF engineer for a military contractor, I can tell you that RV's can be built to withstand the roads, but you would not be able to afford them. Since I had to design both electronic and mechanical hardware to withstand much more, my fixes will remain fixed. You want them built this way, double to triple the price. Testing to make sure times ten.

 

[2psnapod2]

I replaced my line after having several leaks with a braided steel line. So far no issues.

 

[jmgratz]

Seems like I am constantly reading about ice maker issues (whether it is the water lines or ice maker itself) on many different RV forums. That is why we do not have or want an ice maker in the refrigerator/freezer. We have a stand alone ice maker in our basement and it works great and does the job without issues. Besides without the ice maker we have more freezer space. OHO

 

[2psnapod2]

Ours work great now with the new heavy duty line. We are full time and I use a lot of ice. Would never be without it!

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[Dawnnira]

We love our Big Horn!