Herman8111
Member
I am currently looking at a used 2010 cyclone. I've read reviews seen some decent and some horror stories anyone have any major issues with theirs? It's a 4 hr drive to look would like to have an idea before I make the trip thanks
Used cyclone
- Thread starter Herman8111
- Start date
danemayer
Well-known member
Hi Herman,
Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum.
When you look online, what you often see is all the problems that people post about. It's disproportionate because most people don't post that they're not having problems.
When looking over a 2010, perhaps built in 2009, you're going to want to evaluate carefully for any issues that may have arisen out of poor maintenance. Inspect caulking, look for any signs of water intrusion or leaks, check the underside of slideouts for soft spots. Btw, it seems like "it's been stored inside and only used twice per year" goes along with many resales. Assume otherwise.
On a 9 or 10 year old trailer, you'll want to check the suspension for wear. Look at the shackle links in particular. And check the date code on the tires. If more than 3 or 4 years old, you'll probably want to change the tires.
Specific to toy haulers, make sure the ramp can be lowered and raised by one person. If it's hard to manage, there could be water intrusion.
If you're new to RVs and don't know what any of these things are, you may want to arrange for a mobile servicer to meet you and inspect the rig for you. It may cost you $150-200 but could save you a lot in the long run.
Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum.
When you look online, what you often see is all the problems that people post about. It's disproportionate because most people don't post that they're not having problems.
When looking over a 2010, perhaps built in 2009, you're going to want to evaluate carefully for any issues that may have arisen out of poor maintenance. Inspect caulking, look for any signs of water intrusion or leaks, check the underside of slideouts for soft spots. Btw, it seems like "it's been stored inside and only used twice per year" goes along with many resales. Assume otherwise.
On a 9 or 10 year old trailer, you'll want to check the suspension for wear. Look at the shackle links in particular. And check the date code on the tires. If more than 3 or 4 years old, you'll probably want to change the tires.
Specific to toy haulers, make sure the ramp can be lowered and raised by one person. If it's hard to manage, there could be water intrusion.
If you're new to RVs and don't know what any of these things are, you may want to arrange for a mobile servicer to meet you and inspect the rig for you. It may cost you $150-200 but could save you a lot in the long run.
Herman8111
Member
I have a couple of campers in the past the big thing I'm looking at is the quality of the cyclone in general. Some of the reviews I've read we're pretty bad about the co in general. Just wondering if it's just a few bad reviews cause people just unhappy or are they of bad quality. Thanks
JohnD
Moved on to the next thing...
You are going to find good and bad reviews about every brand of RV that is made.
And none of them will reflect the current status of the one you are thinking about.
You should just plan to take a drive up there and take a look at it.
After all...would you buy it, or any other RV for that matter, sight unseen?
I know I wouldn't.
And none of them will reflect the current status of the one you are thinking about.
You should just plan to take a drive up there and take a look at it.
After all...would you buy it, or any other RV for that matter, sight unseen?
I know I wouldn't.
Flick
Well-known member
Generally speaking, we are very happy with our 2015 Cyclone. Quality is in the eye of the beholder. These things are built thinking that one will fit all unless you special order one customized to your specs and then that one still comes in almost exact to the others. That is why you read here all the mods that almost everyone is doing. We really love ours. There’s only one thing that I don’t like. It’s the upkeep for the exterior that is a handful. Wax on. Wax off. At least for ours a better finish would have been helpful. I agree that the way to rule out major problems is to have it checked out. Most times if just one major problem is found, you can get the price lowered to offset the inspection. Good luck.
zolman
Member
Just bought a new Cyclone but I've had RV since the early 80's. Frankly I bought new so I would not have issues without a warranty.
DaneMayer gave you some great advise. But if you are not familiar with RVs and the problems that Dane mentioned I get some help from someone who does.
Some of RV are being sold by individuals that might be very suspect in having various problems. That maybe the reason they are not being sold through a dealer. You usually have some recourse through a dealer that you don't have through a private party purchase. My suggestion is if the RV has the floorplan you want and if you have a truck that is capable of pulling it, I'd take the 4 hour trip. If you like it and don't see any of the problems that Dane mentioned, I would then contact a mobile RV repair service that is close to the Cyclone you are interested in purchasing.
I would then pay him to inspect the RV and use his expertise to carefully evaluate your possible purchase. It would be worth a couple hundred dollars to avoid getting a lemon. I've seen people buy used RVs and have to spend more money on repairs than their initial purchase price to get the newly purchased RV usable. This summer I talked to a Open Range owner who purchased a 5 year old toy hauler. He ended up having to replace both his kitchen and slide out flooring because he did a poor job of inspecting the RV before he purchased it. It took months and huge $ to get the flooring fixed properly.
DaneMayer gave you some great advise. But if you are not familiar with RVs and the problems that Dane mentioned I get some help from someone who does.
Some of RV are being sold by individuals that might be very suspect in having various problems. That maybe the reason they are not being sold through a dealer. You usually have some recourse through a dealer that you don't have through a private party purchase. My suggestion is if the RV has the floorplan you want and if you have a truck that is capable of pulling it, I'd take the 4 hour trip. If you like it and don't see any of the problems that Dane mentioned, I would then contact a mobile RV repair service that is close to the Cyclone you are interested in purchasing.
I would then pay him to inspect the RV and use his expertise to carefully evaluate your possible purchase. It would be worth a couple hundred dollars to avoid getting a lemon. I've seen people buy used RVs and have to spend more money on repairs than their initial purchase price to get the newly purchased RV usable. This summer I talked to a Open Range owner who purchased a 5 year old toy hauler. He ended up having to replace both his kitchen and slide out flooring because he did a poor job of inspecting the RV before he purchased it. It took months and huge $ to get the flooring fixed properly.
JohnD
Moved on to the next thing...
While there may be some truth in that...I don't think this is normally the case.
There are probably more unscrupulous dealerships out there than there are shady private sellers of RV's.
One thing to keep in mind is that most RV dealerships don't offer up much (if any) warranty on a used RV and typically sell used RV's 'AS IS'.
I recently sold my 2015 5'ver by myself and sold it quickly, as where I live there are literally 1000's of RV's sitting around in peoples yards for sale and on RV dealership and consignment lots...and most of them have been sitting there in the same spot since we moved here a year and a half ago.
And they are sitting there unsold mostly for these two reasons...
1) The used RV's are almost always priced too high...
2) These dealerships and consignment lots mostly (but not all) are operated by the local RV dealerships...
In other words...the dealerships are using these over-priced used RV's to lure customers on their lots to actually get them to buy a brand new RV instead, that will bring in more profit than any used RV can.
I live in Yuma, Arizona and this place is an RV mecca!
There are so many used RV's all over town...everywhere you look there is an RV for sale!
While I could have sat on my 5'ver for months to years trying to get what it should have been able to sell for, I priced it to sell fast and got a fair price that I was happy with.
The new owner drove all the way down to Yuma from Idaho to look at it...and bought it two days after he originally called me from there.
I took the time to point out a couple of minor things about the RV because I actually knew about them as I was the one who used the 5'ver since it was brand new, where a dealership wouldn't know any of these things since they most likely just took it in on a trade towards a new RV.
Had my 5'ver been sitting on one of those lots for sale in the sea of other lonely orphaned RV's waiting to be claimed and losing their value each and every day...the dealership or consignment lot would have priced it high just like all of the other RV's sitting there and all the while the hot Arizona desert sun would have continued to take it's toll on the caulking, awning, plastic trim, roof vents, paint job and much more, which means that the longer it might sit there...the worse shape it would be in for the person who would want it.
Now...no more storage fees or insurance premiums...and I don't have to worry anymore about checking the caulking or taking the battery out to keep it from boiling over in the 115+ degree summer temps down here, or someone breaking into it or stealing it!
Used is used...be it a car, truck, motorcycle or a bricks and sticks house!
A used RV just needs to have a good and complete PDI done with the buyer and seller just as much as a brand new one does at a dealership before you take it off of their lot or out of their front yard.
Buying from a private party can save you lots of cash if you are looking for a used RV.
And if a warranty is the most important thing that an RV purchaser is looking for, then buying a brand new RV is the only way to go.
We are on our 3rd Cyclone, a 2013 300C, 2017 3611 JS, and now a 2020 4007. The 2013 was solid and we had no problems. Quality and craftsmanship was great. Unfortunately a garbage dumpster behind it caught fire and the rear of the rig burned. Was deemed a total loss because of smoke damage. Had replacement insurance and the insurance bought us a new (2017) 3611 as that was deemed to be a comparable model to the 300C which was no longer in production. Unless we wanted to go on a road trip, we had to buy this model sight unseen as it was in San Diego and we were in Northern Ca. Won't do that again.
The 3611 craftsmanship was horrible. On our first trip the trim above the main slideout fell off along with a cupboard door. The vacuum ducts were not connected to the vacuum in the underside, water leaks at the UDC and under the kitchen sink, loose hydraulic connections at the pump and one of the stabilizers, the inverter went out on our second trip as well as the fireplace, and the factory put right side brake assemblies on both sides. Instead of auto adjusting on the left side, it backed the adjusters out until the adjusters came apart.
I was able to repair most of the issues myself and warranty covered the rest but I had to work on it prior, during, and after almost every trip. Between the warranty repairs and my work, it became a solid trailer though design was horrible. We traded it in for our current model and so far am very pleased with the craftsmanship and quality. The layout is great also.
So to answer your question, we are overall pleased with the Cyclone models but you can always get a lemon. Some great advice given on the previous posts. Best advice I can echo for a used model is to go look at it and if you like it, get an experienced RV tech to inspect it. Well worth the money.
The 3611 craftsmanship was horrible. On our first trip the trim above the main slideout fell off along with a cupboard door. The vacuum ducts were not connected to the vacuum in the underside, water leaks at the UDC and under the kitchen sink, loose hydraulic connections at the pump and one of the stabilizers, the inverter went out on our second trip as well as the fireplace, and the factory put right side brake assemblies on both sides. Instead of auto adjusting on the left side, it backed the adjusters out until the adjusters came apart.
I was able to repair most of the issues myself and warranty covered the rest but I had to work on it prior, during, and after almost every trip. Between the warranty repairs and my work, it became a solid trailer though design was horrible. We traded it in for our current model and so far am very pleased with the craftsmanship and quality. The layout is great also.
So to answer your question, we are overall pleased with the Cyclone models but you can always get a lemon. Some great advice given on the previous posts. Best advice I can echo for a used model is to go look at it and if you like it, get an experienced RV tech to inspect it. Well worth the money.
Lynn1130
Well-known member
We just sold our 2011 3010 after buying it new 9 years ago. We had the usual small repairs that you get with any new RV but overall nothing major and we loved it. I put it up locally on Craig's list and the new owner drove it off 3 weeks later. For what we were asking, but then I'm a little picky about my equipment so it looked pretty much new inside and out.
We purchased a Class C that has 12K miles on it and is new with most all of the bugs already taken care of. I found several candidates on RVTrader and eliminated from there. The furthest from us was about 350 miles and I limited how far I was willing to travel to look. You just have to do your homework.
We purchased a Class C that has 12K miles on it and is new with most all of the bugs already taken care of. I found several candidates on RVTrader and eliminated from there. The furthest from us was about 350 miles and I limited how far I was willing to travel to look. You just have to do your homework.
