HELLO from a NEWBIE ! ! !

[ImAfossil]

A special hello to all that are out there.

My wife and I are still in the RV learning curve. We have 3 years experience. We believe if there is a RV mistake to be made, we accomplished this in the past 3 years.

We had a 27 ft 5r (not Heartland) and now are the owners of a 2013 North Trail 21FBS Travel Trailer. Just the 2 of us (and doggy) we did not need a 6 / 8 sleeper and my pickup truck keeps thanking me for the drop in weight. The dry weight drop was a significant 43%.

We took delivery on 6/27/2012 and have not done a trial run to shake out any bugs.

We are open to questions, suggestions, opinions. Whatever you like to hit us with, to cap off this new exciting adventure.

Looking to hear from the Forum members.

Thanks, fossil

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Welcome to the heartland Forum & Family! It's good that you've found our forum. We were all new to this at one time so don't feel too bad. I learn something new almost every day. Enjoy your new North Trail.

 

[JJOren]

Welcome Aboard Fossil!! That Northland is a great rig! And it is made by a great company! I suspect that most of us can echo your sentiments about making mistakes! At least I know we can!! Have a great time on that shake down cruise!!!!

 

[pegmikef]

Welcome. I too have a North Trail and now have 13K plus miles on it with no real problems. If you haven't done so already, I would first test everything you can . . . all the appliances (a/c, furnace, stove, oven, microwave, reefer, etc.). When you test the hot water heater make sure you it is full of water first. I would test this on both propane and electric (also the reefer). Note that you might have to bleed the air from the propane line when using propane for the first time. I always just take a lighter and turn on one of stove burners and hold the lit lighter by the burner until it lights. When it lights, the air has been pushed out. Outside, check the tire pressure and lug nuts, battery terminal conections and try out the awning and electric jacks if so equipped. This is by no means a complete list, but hopefully will give you an idea of what to check since it is new.

 

[recumbent615]

Fossil,

Welcome to the Heartland "family' There are always folks on here to help with any question you may have about camping or Heartland. You live in PA, check out some of the State and Regional rallies - the North East is a very active Owners group with lots of activities going on. There's a Rally in VT the first weekend of August and there are a few slots open. It is a good way to meet other Heartland "folk". Check out the Rally page //heartlandowners.org/showthread.ph...wnal-8-2-2012-to-8-5-2012?p=244636#post244636

Hope to see you all somewhere down the road!!

Kevin Barrett

 

[CTD2005]

Welcome to the Heartland family and forum! Mistakes happen no matter what your doing. AS far as I'm concerned the learning happens every time we go out. That is part of the fun of rving. There is always a new place and a new challange to learn from.

 

[Manzan]

Fossil, we took delivery of our 21FBS a year ago last March and love it. Did have a problem with axles but my dealer, Heartland and Lippert took excellent care of us. Have about 2500 miles on it since the problem and every thing is AOK. This is our third trailer in the last 23 years and is by far the easiest pulling of them all even though it is the biggest of them. Just two of us without any fur babies. Check everything! Look for leaks in the plumbing-often things not tightened sufficiently. Same with television connections that may have to be tightened. Other than the axles, the only other problem we had was with the hinges pulling out of the overhead doors. A drop of glue and a slightly longer screw took good care of that. Dealer should take care of any problems but if not, call Heartland customer service, VIN# in hand and ask for help. Very easy to deal with. I have a great dealer but Everett WA is a bit far for you to go.