cardinal vs big horn vs big country

We lived in our Bighorn for six years and put over 80k miles on it. Loved it so much, we now live fulltime in a Heartland Landmark. Great company and product!

We have a Bighorn 3685RL and we are very happy with it. This unit is built well and we have had very good resposne from dealer and factory over the few small issues we have had so far. Heartland make a good unit.

Lakeside

Can't speak for the Cardinal but the Big Country and Big Horn are built side by side on the same assembly line along with the Landmark. They have pretty much the same construction and insulation. The Big Horn is a small step up from the Big Country, with a few more amenities and nicer trim. The thing you would get with a Heartland product is the best factory support and customer service, bar none!

B.O.

We had a Cardinal and traded it for a Big Country. Both were/have been very nice units and liked them both. It wasn't that we were displeased with Cardinal but we liked the floor plan on the Big Country.
We've never had any real trouble with either. We kind of believe the Big Country has better and more efficient insulation qualities. It's hard to compare them since weather conditions vary but even tho the BC is a larger unit and they had the same size AC/heating the BC seems to cool better and stay cool in summer and warm better in colder. If sitting in the full sun on a really really hot (95-100+) day the Cardinal would only cool to about 80 and continue running where the BC cools to whatever we set it and will cycle on and off. There were a few days in the Cardinal where we had some warm days. Again, hard to compare because we didn't have the BC sitting alongside on those exact same days.
If I were to trade again it would be either another BC or Cardinal and boil down to which floor plan we liked better, which dealer we liked better for any service, and what deal we could work.

naturist wrote:
If the plan is to put it on a lot and leave it there, why a 5th wheel? Why not a park model? Just askin' . . . .

the plan for now is to leave it but if we aren't happy there or decide to move around it would be easier , plus i don't recall seeing any park models in this resort

We have been full time for 6 years and have had both a Cardinal and two Big Horns. We recently traded from a 36 foot Big Horn to a 40 foot model 3685. We were actually quite happy with all three units. I believe your selection between the two can be based on floor plan. The Big Country is a small step down from the Big Horn but still a nice unit. If you study the units, you will see that they all use the same component parts. Norcold or Dometic fridge, Dometic or Thetford toilets, etc. We purchased all three of our units from RVCAPITALWHOLESALERS. We had the Cardinal and the first Big Horn delivered to us but this last unit we went to Elkhart to pick it up. Took the factory tour while there. We were impressed with the tour.

If the plan is to put it on a lot and leave it there, why a 5th wheel? Why not a park model? Just askin' . . . .