Keystone Sprinter vs Heartland North Trail

Thanks for everyone's comments. We've decided upon the Sprinter.
The North Trail was nice, but coming up short on a couple of our criteria items.
The Sprinter pretty much covers everything we were looking for.

We love our North Trail 28BRS. The only issue I had was uneven tire wear so I re-aligned the axles. I suspect that is due to frequent turing in my cul-de-sac though.

Sprinter is one of Keystone's premier brands and I have read lots of good things about it. I think it competes more with Heartland Sundance though.

I'm the second owner of my 2013 22FBS. Here are my thoughts:

Caliber Edition - Very glad ours has it. Although the solid kitchen counter scratches, it is easier to clean the the dinette or bathroom counters.

Leaks - I'm now dealing with my second leak up at the front. First owner hit a tree or two and I've just finished lap-sealing all of that seam that my RV tech did not do the first time.

In looking at your floorplan, I'm disappointed your bed is still a short queen. I'm 6'3" and my ankles hang off, but my model is a lot shorter than yours.

I also have handling issues that I suspect are from a too-light tongue. I'm still working though how to get everything better.

Tanks, although your tanks are 10 gallons larger than mine they are still somewhat small if you're going to boondock or dry camp regularly.

We have no issues with our Sprinter. Love the lay out, love how it pulls, love how solid it is.

Good luck with your search

We have had terrific luck with our 2006 Sprinter 300FKBS. No leaks, all appliances and other mechanics still work well, mattress is comfortable although I did buy a foam topper for it, has been in below zero weather and the desert heat. We use it about 4 months out of the year. Had one day/night blind we had to replace. We do take good care of it and keep it clean. I do the inside and husband does the roof and the sides a couple times a year. Do not plan on replacing it anytime soon. We did get new tires and that is it. You will find good and bad comments just about any brand.

eluwak, I had the dealer install gas springs on the under-bed storage before we took delivery. I did some tweaking with the geometry so the lid stays open yet isn't difficult to close.
Yes, ours sits high. And it does have flipped axles. I was told it was necessary to raise it up so the flush slide would go over the wheels.
And yes, the bathroom gets warmer than the living area. I just haven't gotten around to putting a block-off plate in the bathroom heat duct.
I have a spare tire cable lift from a pickup truck but didn't see the need to put the spare under the tongue. I did fab a dual battery tray that sits on top of the frame rails, not sunk in the bottom like the factory one.

We've also been pleased with our NT. I think we only have had two issues that were super minor (plumbing fittings not completely tightened). Beyond that it's been pretty good. Our particular model has a ton of storage that we like, but we wouldn't hesitate to buy another brand either. In hindsight I do wish we would have sprung for the Caliber package though.

There are a few annoyances too (not all would apply to yours):
- Our tongue weight was super light, and caused stability issues when towing. We had to relocate the spare to the front compartment and load heavier stuff up front.
- The water connection on ours is on the back of the trailer.
- Our sewer hookup is almost on the ground it seems, and depending on how un-level the site it it gets fun hooking that up. I think your's will be higher because the king slides have flipped axles I believe.
- They install the shock on the doors, which seems nice at first, but I would really love to open it all the way sometimes.
- The under bed storage is horrendous to get to. I've thought about installing a lift system, but not sure how well it will work for this design.
- The heat is not underfloor distributed, and that prevents the temp from evening out when it's cold outside. In ours that means the dinette area stays warm, and the bathroom turns into a sauna.

Thanks for the feed back.
Mbopp - thanks for providing your experiences.
10grands - can you elaborate on your bad experience? PM me if you don't want to do it publicly.

Anyone have a Sprinter?

We have had good service from Our Heartland Big Country. No major problems to speak of. When we did have some issues Heartland Customer Service couldn't have been better to deal with. Heartland also has a very active owner's club and forum you may want to look into.

B.O.

We have a small North Trail 21FBS Caliber. Quality-wise it's OK but DW & I feel it's below the old Starcraft HTT we had previously.

DW doesn't like the solid surface countertop because it scratches easily.
I'm not sold on the wide-track wheel spacing since the tires scuff more on turns.
And the Lippert electric stabilizers rock too much and aren't as stable as standard scissors jacks.
The shower door is cocked in the frame and tore the bottom wiper strip. I have a new strip (gratis) and the procedure but haven't torn the enclosure apart to re-align the door. There were a few minor issues I fixed myself but this is the last one on the "to do" list.

But all in all we like the size and floor plan. Ours is a later model with the deeper flush slide vs the shallow raised one. The additional vent over the bed is nice, I wish it were powered. Since it's the two of us we like not having a hard wall separating the bed, leaving the curtain open make it feel like we have more room.

Buy it again? Yeah, probably.