Heartland Bighorn

I'm looking for information from anyone who might have purchased a Bighorn 5th wheel. 

I realize that it is a brand new trailer by a brand new company ? Heartland ? and that there isn't going to be a lot of experience with this rig out there yet. 

We looked at a couple yesterday at River City RV in North Little Rock.  They seemed to be a very good RV and what I have read so far sounds good.  I'd just like to get some info from someone who has one.

Thanks

We also looked at a Mt. Rushmore by Heartland here in the RV show in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago.  I was very impressed with the apparent quality, the hot water manifold center, layout, etc.  the sales people seemed to be quite knowledgable but couldn't find anything out about reliability.

Lenes

Looking at their literature, the Bighorn was introduced during the 2005 model year, which means that the dealers would not have much information on reliability.

On an anecdotal note related to reliability, the salesman that was talking to us at the dealership told us that three engineers that work at the nuclear plant in west central Arkansas had each come to River City RV ready to sit down and order exactly what they wanted. One of them had asked this salesman, or so he said, "do you realize what you have here?" Anyhow, the trailers were built, delivered to the store and the buyers picked them up.  He said that he hadn't heard or seen anything from any of them since, which to me says that they probably had not had any problems.  Of course I don't know how much they've used the trailers.  The salesman did say that one of them was gettiing ready to retire and that he planned to do some traveling.

I think the salesman really didn't understand what he had toild me, since he was also telling us that if we bought a trailer, we shouldn't plan on any long trips right away so that all of the bugs can be worked out and fixed. He made a point of telling us that and also telling us that the dealership would work with us to make sure that every problem was resolved. 

From what I've read here on the forum, I understand that problems should be anticipated and that they should be resolved.

However, I also believe that with a good quality product and good quality control, the need to fix anything should be the exception, not the rule, and should have been found and corrected at the factory.  It sounds like that might be happening with Heartland Recreational Vehicles.  We're going to look at them again.

I guess if we get serious about the Bighorn, I'll have to get the name of those 3 engineers.

Spent the evening scouring the website. Although I haven't seen a Bighorn in person, I'm really like the construction and fit/finish of the 5th wheels. I'm impressed. Hope they have some on display at the big Daytona rally next week. Maybe I'll trade in my new Alpenlite. 

Nice site. Nice vehicles. Nice finishes. But what is this? Helping folks learn more about the RV World? The RV University isn't 'open' yet but from the looks of the 'curriculum' somebody has been doing a lot of homework on what RV newcomers might need/like to know.
http://www.heartlandrvs.com/rvbuyers.html

Ian:

I know nothing about the units but if I were looking for guidance I am not sure I would turn to someone selling RV's for it.

In the US we have Life On Wheels and other unbiased forums that provise good advice. The RV Forum has files with good checklists for what to look  for.

Certainly agree with you there Jeff. What I was surprised about was that a supplier had plans to make an effort to help the buyer with a lot more information than suppliers usually do, well at least, suppliers that I have seen pages for.  Many sites will have a page of FAQ's but nothing much past that, and very selective questions too. The range of topics that these folks intend to cover would have to be called extensive even if they only do a short piece on each topic.

Generating all that content is going to take some significant work, work that suppliers would usually not want to pay for. This is a commitment that I believe needs to be encouraged from other suppliers, though I would still come to places like here for unbiased comment. Nothing a supplier says can withstand the words from folks who know about these things because they have been there and done that and are not afraid to share their knowledge, positive or negative 

A week or so ago, we had opportunity to see a couple of different floor plans of the Bighorn as well as Heartland's top-of-the-line Landmark at Outdoor Living Center in Fort Smith, Arkansas. 

Having looked at the Heartland's literature and website, we were able to look at some of the details that we didn't know about when we first came across the Bighorns in Little Rock.  Armed with quite a bit more knowledge, I've got to say that I am still favorably impressed with the Bighorn. 

When we looked at the Landmark after looking at the Bighorn, I didn't see anything that much better that would make me want to spend the extra money for one.

The Bighorn and the Sundance (the next line down from the Bighorn) each have a very similar floorplan that we really like.  The construction methods and materials are very similar.  The main differences are that the Sundance is a lower profile 5th wheel and many of the things that are options on the Sundance are standard on the Bighorn -- and we will probably want most of the options, which will bring the price of the Sundance up closer to the price of the Bighorn.

We still plan to do quite a bit of looking around before we actually buy, since it's still 10 months before I am eligible for retirement and have no plans for a traveling vacation before then.  While I understand that most people who continue to RV will buy several different ones over time, our intention is to try to find the right one for us the first time.

Right now, we will be comparing all other models that we look at against the Heartland RVs.