Trailer Leaning

[jpmorgan37]

Tom;
Sure hope that they can get you back on the road fast. Maybe you can still make your trip this Thursday after all and with a level trailer to boot. I'm happy for you that you were able to get off the road with having a tragedy. Hope to see you at the rally.
John

 

[Tom of Ypsi]

John and Slaytop,

Thanks for your concern. I talked to the dealer today and they believe the bolts for the spring hangers never had any nuts on them. I guess I am pretty lucky that nothing else happened and hate to think what could have happened. I should know more tomorrow and hopefully I can get back on the road. My understanding is that Heartland is aware of what happened and has requested pictures but I do not know this for sure. I hope this is true so this does not happen to anyone else.

 

[jpmorgan37]

Tom;
That is a shocker. I am pleased that you found out what the problem was and thankful that you didn't lose you rig or worse. Let's keep our fingers crossed that they can get you on the road quickly.

John

 

[Tom of Ypsi]

Another Update:

ANOTHER UPDATE;
Just talked to my dealer and it sounds like I will not be camping this weekend again and this is not the first time because of problems with my coach. Heartland will not fully pay for the repairs even though the dealer told me that the bolt holding the springs to the spring shackle never had a nut on it. To get on the road at all I have to shell out around $430 and Heartland will pay around $430. I sure am glad I did not have to pay for the other five times the coach was in the shop with approximately 20 items needing fixing plus the 50 to 60 days in the shop. I have Star RV extended warranty insurance but they will not cover the cost because there was nothing broken.

 

[Trap]

Really sorry to hear about your problems Tom. Hopefully Heartland will come through for you. That's scary having something like that happen.

Trap

 

[BluegrassMan]

I have my Grand Canyon in the shop as we post. I Feel that Lippert has a definite QC problem with their chassis etc. Their over the road tech was at my dealer this week looking my suspension over. He supposedly has my problems fixed. I'll crawl under and look myself before I take the trailer home.

 

[jpmorgan37]

Tom; I delt with extended warranty companies (basically insurance companies) for quite a few years. Don't take their first answer. The trailer resting on the smoking tires while you were manuvering to a stop sure sounds like something broke to me. If it came apart when it was supposed to be together, it's broke!!! Put pressure on the right place and you'll get action.

John

 

[Tom of Ypsi]

I am armed with all of my paperwork and am planning on seeing the dealer personally today and get this thing figured out. I want to know who is responsible, all I know is it is broken, I am lucky the trailer is not torn up, no one else was involved and I did not get run over on the road. I know these insurance companies want your money but do not want to pay when time comes but I will fight whoever, whenever and wherever to get this right. I was not the cause of this because of misuse. I know the inside of the trailer smells like burnt rubber, wonder how long that will linger? I planned on using this trailer as my fulltiming rig next year but I am really apprehensive now. Everytime I have taken the rig out I have to fix something or have it fixed. I just can't keep going like this.

 

[nscaler2]

Sue them if they don't want to play nice

Tom,
My daughter the lawyer, and a good one I might add. Said that in a case such as yours that a warranty that is limited to time does not apply. They sold you something that was not merchantable. It would be a bit like an automobile manufacturer selling something unsafe and then having to do a recall years later to have it fixed. This should be at NO charge to you because of lack of mechantability. Besides this was a huge saftey problem. A call to the national highway safety commission might be in order. Furthermore don't let them lay it off on Lippert, the frame manufacturer. It is Heartland's responsibilty to monitor Lippert's quality BEFORE they build a trailer on top of it and then sell it to you. My 2 cents worth.

 

[Scott]

Bolt/Warranty/Satisfaction

Tom,
This is Scott. First of all, I'm sorry that you feel Heartland has wronged you in any way.
You are correct, a nut coming off of a bolt on a trailer is not supposed to happen. In fact, the nuts that are put on those bolts are designed so that they will be very difficult to get off.

We called the dealer to talk with them about their supposed statement about the nut "never being on that bolt". They tell us that they were theorizing and that they "..can't really say whether it was never on or came off later."

They did say that the end of it had rust on it, which means it was on, and in place for some time. Because there was rust on the end of the bolt, he correctly surmised that that would not have been the case if the nut had never been on the bolt. It just would not have stabilized the coach over the last year without a nut. Because the unit was out of warranty, and not knowing if you had ever had an alignment done on the coach, he offered to split the cost with you.

Obviously that was not taken to kindly.

Tom, we are going to take of you.

Am I doing this because someone mentioned the word "sue" in this thread? No. Not at all. And I want to make that clear. The fact is, your coach is out of warranty. We are not obligated legally to do anything. We do what we do because we want to - not because we have to.
Too many people use the word "sue" in this industry, without knowing the legalities and the thoroughness of the warranty.

As long as I am here at Heartland, we are always going to do our best to do what we can to help our customers out.
In your case, when the facts are "gray" as to when and where something could have occurred, our service rep. made a peace offering to split the cost with you.
I don't think he was way off here. Nevertheless, I have instructed him to call you and work this out to your satisfaction.

ST

 

[The RV-Ramblers]

Having seen responses like the previous one from Scott is the main reason that I have ordered a BigHorn from Heartland and RVs for Less. Where else do you see a Vice President comming onto an owner forum to see what problems customers are experiencing and then working on their resolutions?

 

[Princess Kathleen]

Ditto

I agree....after meeting Scott almost two years ago, then touring the factory....Heartland is a new company, but they are standing behind their product....a good business is only as good as the employees and the employers.....and their word!

PK

 

[phranc]

Of course, the issue is not having a problem,because problems will occur, but how that problem was solved.. Sounds like a solution is at hand. I concur with Princess Kathleens statement

 

[Tom of Ypsi]

Scott,
Thank you for taking on the repairs of my coach. This goodwill gesture on your and Heartlands part is very much appreciated and should be noted by all who are reading this thread. I have always promoted Heartland products either in posts here and other forums and showing off my coach too many times to count and with this gesture I will continue to do so.
I do want to make one thing clear, I never had any intentions of suing, persuing this matter through the courts or any other way without directly talking to someone from Heartland. I do not believe that frivolous lawsuits help anyone, if anything it usually makes matters worse.
Now, everyone please take note, to answer the question about Star RV insurance or probably any insurance for that matter. When you have someone write up what is wrong do not let them just write up a bolt is missing. The insurance companies will not pay for the missing bolt. The person writing the work order up has to go into detail explaining what is wrong. I did not see the write up and I further found out there was no write up. There was an assumption that Star RV would not cover this because they will not cover a missing nut.
In closing I hope to see everyone at the rally if the dealer can find a spring for my coach by then. Until then safe and happy travels and again SCOTT, THANK YOU.
Tom & Judy Atkinson