Heartland "Bighorn " ?

[sayoung]

We are looking into getting another 5er and it must have bath & a half. Our preferred dealer has 3 , a Bighorn and Jayco Pinnacle & Eagle. We have a 2011 Jayco now and it's been a pretty trouble free rig plus our local dealer was great on the few warranty issues we had .
For Heartland owners, have they been good reliable units ? Price wise it's between the Eagle & Pinnicle . This maybe what we will be living in as we are thinking of selling the house & moving onto our acerage we have setup now. Thanks.

[ReneeG]

Agree. Good and bad in all. Our 2011 Heartland Bighorn has been solid and trouble free with only maintenance issues.

[goducks10]

justme wrote:

Super_Dave wrote:

newman fulltimer wrote:
I wouldn't buy a heartland.

We love our Heartland and could easily live full time in it. OP could probably use reasons you'd not buy a Heartland rather than blanket statement, particularly if you haven't owned one.

My neighbor has a Landmark that he seems to be always working on things that failed. I have learned a lot about RV helping him out with his troubles. His wife just shakes her head in despair when some one mentions Heartland. 🙂

Can't we say that about any brand though? They all make good ones and bad ones.

[justme]

Super_Dave wrote:

newman fulltimer wrote:
I wouldn't buy a heartland.

We love our Heartland and could easily live full time in it. OP could probably use reasons you'd not buy a Heartland rather than blanket statement, particularly if you haven't owned one.

My neighbor has a Landmark that he seems to be always working on things that failed. I have learned a lot about RV helping him out with his troubles. His wife just shakes her head in despair when some one mentions Heartland. 🙂

[memtb]

jpjulian wrote:
We have a new Mobile Suites, owned by Thor. We had a Bighorn/Heartland for 7 years, now owned by Thor. Jayco is now owned by Thor. As I posted on another thread, I believe QC has suffered on Heartland units and on DRV units since bought out by Thor. Our MS had an MSRP over 150k and the ceiling fan was stapled on. Really???? You really have to look at build quality more and more these days. We looked closely at a New Horizons at the Tampa show last January and fit and finish were A-1. The only gripe I could find was the weight. Felt I'd need a Freightliner to replace my dually.

Joe

With quality .....comes weight! Been saying this for years. Most everyone wants light, the manufacturers promote lightweight.....and the consumer gets a “heavyweight” headache!

[jpjulian]

We have a new Mobile Suites, owned by Thor. We had a Bighorn/Heartland for 7 years, now owned by Thor. Jayco is now owned by Thor. As I posted on another thread, I believe QC has suffered on Heartland units and on DRV units since bought out by Thor. Our MS had an MSRP over 150k and the ceiling fan was stapled on. Really???? You really have to look at build quality more and more these days. We looked closely at a New Horizons at the Tampa show last January and fit and finish were A-1. The only gripe I could find was the weight. Felt I'd need a Freightliner to replace my dually.

Joe

[BarneyS]

For those of you who have an "edited by Moderator" type message in their posts, or have had a post deleted, I invite you to read this thread that I posted a couple of weeks ago.

If you have comments to make to me about this, send me a PM rather than hyjacking this thread.
Barney

[cummins2014]

BarneyS wrote:

cummins2014 wrote:
Snip...

I have heard everything bad about the Montana's you could possibly think of, and the same with your Heartland. Defend if you want ,but why ??????

Probably because the op asked and that is the purpose of this thread?
Barney

Well let me put it a different way, being that you deleted my last reply to you. No the thread isn't about arguing or defending what brand you bought, its about stating the good ,and the bad about a specific brand asked by the OP .

IMO ,no the thread is NOT about defending a brand, thats what leads you to shutting a thread down, arguing about my fifth wheel is better then your fifth wheel.

[neal10a]

I thought it was fairly recent, but couldn't remember the date. I still stand by my comment of date of manufacture making all the difference. Newer rigs (within the last few years) are not of the same quality as they used to be.

Can you provide some data to backup your claim about quality?

[ReneeG]

allen8106 wrote:


July 1, 2016 it was announced that Thor had bought Jayco.

I thought it was fairly recent, but couldn't remember the date. I still stand by my comment of date of manufacture making all the difference. Newer rigs (within the last few years) are not of the same quality as they used to be.

[allen8106]

ReneeG wrote:

justme wrote:
Both Jayco and Heartland are subsidiaries of Thor. Jayco has a better suspension and is better built in the most important areas like the roof and underbelly. The cabinetry and appliances are basically equivalent.

As of what year?

July 1, 2016 it was announced that Thor had bought Jayco.

[FlatBroke]

We had a 06 and 11. 06 had problems but I blame it mostly on the dealer. Could be that Thor has been cracking the whip for more production.

[allen8106]

I have a 2010 Jayco and it's been mostly trouble free. I've had a few very minor issues.

-The propane pigtails at the tanks had to be replaced about the third year.
-Had an upper cabinet door break loose and fall off. Was caused by a poor latch and a very rough road that allowed it to open then just hang there bouncing until it broke the upper hinge.
-The air mattress is a less than stellar set up.

Almost 30,000 miles towing this rig and never have had a bearing failure/issue, no blow outs, no axle issues, no frame issues. We've hauled to to Montana, California, Oregon, Arizona about 6 times. Overall it's served us well and we've used it a lot in my opinion.

The only way I would switch to another brand is if and that's a big if, I might consider a New Horizons. They are custom built by hand in Junction City, KS. A New horizons might actually be our full time retirement rig.

[jdb7566]

Friends have a 2018 Pinnacle and they are quite disgusted with it. It has to go back to the factory for a known problem of stress cracks appearing in the gel-coat of the main wall near the lower front corner of the BR slide, plus staples comming through the roof membrane. $100K and headaches. IMO if you like what you have with no problems, why change?

nea

[B_O__Plenty]

neal10a wrote:
Jayco has better engineering in the suspension and other areas that promote for better traveling. Heartland puts their effort into glitz and glamor rather than engineering.

What's to engineer? They both buy their frames from Lippert. They both use tandem axles with leaf springs and either Lippert or Dexter axles. Look the same to me. It's not like they build any part of the chassis themselves.


B.o.