Our new 3875FB

Yes, we traded in Patience – our Open Range 399BHS – in favor of a brand spanking new Heartland Big Horn 3875FB. We plan to travel for at least 3 more years and, with the sale of the house, felt justified in upgrading to a unit that better fit our current needs. We don’t have a separate bunkhouse bedroom for guests now, which was great when the grandkids visited, but was used too seldom to justify the use of that space. We opted for a unit which provides a larger, more comfortable living space for Jett and me.

Our new home has just one bedroom, but it equipped with a king size bed and a better TV – the two things Jett needs for a good night’s sleep. It has a bath-and-a-half, as did the Open Range, but the full bath is more spacious (and is, in fact, larger than the main bath in our house) and the half bath is much more comfortable (and with more storage) than the old one. The kitchen boasts a full-size side-by-side residential refrigerator and a larger convection microwave. The living room has a full-size sofa which is great for napping, two wonderful recliners and a very nice 46″ television with Blu-Ray DVD player. There are more windows, two air conditioners, LED lighting and outlets everywhere.  The storage is amazing, both in the living area and in the basement. The main slides are hydraulic (no more snapped cables!), the stabilizers are hydraulic and self-leveling and the electric umbilical is on a powered reel. Rather than wrestling with a stiff power line on a cold morning, I can now just press a button! Ah, heaven!

All-in-all, we are very happy with the layout and the general living comfort of the new RV.  To see what I am talking about, view this video.

But…

The “initial quality” of the workmanship has been a disappointment. The very first time we dropped the hydraulic landing legs, one of the hydraulic pistons leaked. In the two months since that day we have encountered the following problems:

• All three sinks have leaked.  One leak was due to poor sealing of the under-counter sink, one was due to a faulty coupling on a cold water line and one was due to a loose drain seal.  We really didn’t expect to be dealing with numerous plumbing problems in a new vehicle.
• Two hinges have detached from the cabinet doors.
• The rear window (by the sofa), if opened, cannot be closed without pressure from outside.
• The Dyson cordless vacuum cleaner was DOA.
• The LED lights over the recliners flicker.
• There is a ripple in the kitchen linoleum, due, we think, to an object being caught under the main slide before it reached the dealer.

Broken hydraulic line

We are currently working on getting these issues fixed (and, in fact, are “homeless” because the new unit is back at Camping World being worked on), including the complete rupture of the hydraulic line that occurred when we lifted the landing jacks for the trip to CW.  Heartland, to their credit, has been very understanding and cooperative.  The service at Camping World, by comparison, has been abysmal.  We have been on the receiving end of rude receptionists (“The service department looks busy right now so they probably won’t answer the phone. Call back later.”) and service staff (“I don’t have the Heartland number here.  Just Google it.”).  We can never get a straight story from CW.  When asked about the linoleum, we were told that it was a discontinued item (hard to believe, but true) and that Heartland had recommended that they cut a patch out from under the sink (untrue; Heartland says that would never recommend such an action).  We were later told the replacement linoleum had arrived.  Also untrue.  And when the replacement Dyson arrived, they wanted us to come down to Berkley (round trip 150 miles) to pick it up rather than spending the $20 it would cost to ship it to us.  They finally relented and shipped it, but only after telling us how they were making this special effort just for us.

Gee, thanks.

Now they have received the second set of keys (the unit came with just one set) and, unbelievably, are balking at mailing them to us. A security issue, they say, at which Heartland scoffs.

Our ex-RV

When we bought the Big Horn we also purchased the optional “protection package” from CS – about $2,000 worth of coatings for the exterior paint, the interior carpets and other “soft surfaces.” But we can see no evidence that these coatings had actually been applied.  When we asked what proof they could give us that the work had actually been done, they said we had the receipt.  We had to explain that we know what we paid for, we just wanted to see proof that we had received what we bought.  They quickly – too quickly, we think – volunteered to reapply the protection.

Jett is insisting that she be there to watch them apply the protection this “second time.”

Meanwhile, the Open Range is still available at CW Berkley.  If anyone needs a well-loved and widely-towed fifth wheel, go talk to the people at Camping World.

But if they offer you a “protection package” just say no.