Seattle RV Show (Feb 2014)
It's clearly a big mistake for me to ever go to any RV show. Mrs Lion and I went to the show this past weekend and, well more about that in a bit. I read here that these shows tend to display the inexpensive RV's and to expect a lot of stick and tin. Actually, only two companies had any stick and tin there: Lancer and Arctic Fox. Everyone else had fiberglass.
In terms of travel trailers there was a huge selection of all sizes and brands. The only Kodiak at the show was the top-of-the-line 30 footer. Mrs. Lion loves to explore floor plans, both online and at events. We tromped through at least 50 RV's. I was astounded at some of the diesel pushers there. One half-a-million-dollar number looked like a rock star's dressing room. Amazing.
We explored some 5th wheels too. I have one gripe about our Kodiak 279RBSL: the bed is a short queen and I am a tall guy (6'2"). Last summer I lost a lot of sleep due to that. I really want a residential queen. Another gripe is that the kitchen is on the curb side with the living room on the street side. As a result, our view was not the best. If you have read any of my earlier posts you might recall we had major flooding and the entire plumbing system was replaced by the dealer. We also had a leaky shower pan as well as some other routine TT issues.
At our dealer's area we saw a Heartland Bighorn fiver (BH3160 Elite). It was amazing! The living room is on the curb side! The bedroom has a full residential queen sized bed. It is set up for a washer/dryer and is pre-wired on the roof for satellite. It has 2 15,000 BTU AC's, two HD TV's, etc. It turns out that this is a new model and the one at the show is the only one in the Northwest.
There was a factory rep at the show and he spent a half hour walking us through it. We both fell in love. Since we just bought a F350 diesel, we had no problem with the weight (12,000 lbs dry, GVWR 15,500). The MSRP was way out of our range, but Heartland gave the dealer a big break and we were quoted 22,500 off the MSRP (about 25%, actually a bit more). We got a trade in on our Kodiak that only cost us about $2500. So we filled out the papers. If the bank agrees, we may have to move to the fifth wheel section of the forum.
The walk through with the rep did reveal a few fit and finish issues: someone cracked the control panel on the automatic leveling system, a door pull in the bedroom fell out of its mortar, and there was a screw on the floor. I tested as much as I could. Bighorn is the 2nd from the top line for Heartland and the quality showed. Also the factory guy gave me his card and his cell phone number and told me to call if there was any issue at all. He also said that Heartland would ship me warranty replacement parts directly if I want to install them. What a difference from Dutchmen.
Heartland is a Thor company, but Thor just holds the stock. Heartland, like Airstream is left alone. By the way, Airstream was not at the show.
The Northwest is a major market for RV's. Washington's state parks are very RV friendly. Almost all of them have full hookups with 50 amp service. That's one reason why the show was so big and the product representation so wide.
For a guy who had never set foot in any RV a year ago, I've come a long way. Maybe I am losing my mind. If I am, I have to say it's big fun.
In terms of travel trailers there was a huge selection of all sizes and brands. The only Kodiak at the show was the top-of-the-line 30 footer. Mrs. Lion loves to explore floor plans, both online and at events. We tromped through at least 50 RV's. I was astounded at some of the diesel pushers there. One half-a-million-dollar number looked like a rock star's dressing room. Amazing.
We explored some 5th wheels too. I have one gripe about our Kodiak 279RBSL: the bed is a short queen and I am a tall guy (6'2"). Last summer I lost a lot of sleep due to that. I really want a residential queen. Another gripe is that the kitchen is on the curb side with the living room on the street side. As a result, our view was not the best. If you have read any of my earlier posts you might recall we had major flooding and the entire plumbing system was replaced by the dealer. We also had a leaky shower pan as well as some other routine TT issues.
At our dealer's area we saw a Heartland Bighorn fiver (BH3160 Elite). It was amazing! The living room is on the curb side! The bedroom has a full residential queen sized bed. It is set up for a washer/dryer and is pre-wired on the roof for satellite. It has 2 15,000 BTU AC's, two HD TV's, etc. It turns out that this is a new model and the one at the show is the only one in the Northwest.
There was a factory rep at the show and he spent a half hour walking us through it. We both fell in love. Since we just bought a F350 diesel, we had no problem with the weight (12,000 lbs dry, GVWR 15,500). The MSRP was way out of our range, but Heartland gave the dealer a big break and we were quoted 22,500 off the MSRP (about 25%, actually a bit more). We got a trade in on our Kodiak that only cost us about $2500. So we filled out the papers. If the bank agrees, we may have to move to the fifth wheel section of the forum.
The walk through with the rep did reveal a few fit and finish issues: someone cracked the control panel on the automatic leveling system, a door pull in the bedroom fell out of its mortar, and there was a screw on the floor. I tested as much as I could. Bighorn is the 2nd from the top line for Heartland and the quality showed. Also the factory guy gave me his card and his cell phone number and told me to call if there was any issue at all. He also said that Heartland would ship me warranty replacement parts directly if I want to install them. What a difference from Dutchmen.
Heartland is a Thor company, but Thor just holds the stock. Heartland, like Airstream is left alone. By the way, Airstream was not at the show.
The Northwest is a major market for RV's. Washington's state parks are very RV friendly. Almost all of them have full hookups with 50 amp service. That's one reason why the show was so big and the product representation so wide.
For a guy who had never set foot in any RV a year ago, I've come a long way. Maybe I am losing my mind. If I am, I have to say it's big fun.
