Our First Outing with New BC

Theresau

Well-known member
Had our first outing with the new BC last weekend (in Middlebury no less...it's a family tradition to go to Shipshewana over Memorial Day).

Firstly, we just love it. There have been some small "warranty" issues but we fixed those for the most part - assume this is the case with any RV... We didn't find any major issues since we picked it up at the dealer other than that the screen door was missing the sliding plexiglass - called Heartland and they sent the part to us almost immediately.

Secondly, the following at times compares the 2014 BC to our 2010 BH – many/most of the features that we like in our new BC are also in the new BH’s. It is very apparent that Heartland “listens” to its owners – almost all areas of weakness in our 2010 BH have been improved.

Likes:
1. It's a beautiful thing - both in and out. We got quite a few compliments - one of our neighbors had a fully painted Redwood and came over and told us ours was beautiful (so was their's:)).
2. Tried the dual AC now that we had 50 amps - worked great - really like being able to run bedroom AC and have it cool living area - much less noise.
3. Kitchen design is wonderful - great deal of counter space especially with the moveable island. We like the sink being at the wall rather than in the center of the RV. There are "many" drawers throughout the kitchen. Still haven't filled them all. Double door refrigerator is awesome. Microwave is nice and roomy. Convection worked very well.
4. 20 gal ph water heater worked great - we took back to back showers with no issue.
5. Speaking of showers - bath design is wonderful (keep using that word). Large shower plus linen closet are great pluses (and medicine chest is larger than we had in our 2010 BH). Toilet worked great. (We like the BH sink – we didn’t get the vessel sink.)
6. LED lighting is very plentiful and bright - really like the lighting design over the sofa which is copied in the bath over the medicine chest.
7. We were concerned about the awning being black but the consensus among family and neighbors is that it's a good choice as it won't show the dirt...
8. Rear sofa and side recliners made living area even more comfortable than our 2010 BH 3410RE – full entertainment center provides a great deal of storage and great viewing of the TV.
9. Really liked the fireplace - we were concerned it wouldn't be as nice as had been in our 2010 BH but it is actually better - has a timer and true thermostat (e.g., 70 degrees, etc.) and there is a remote.
10. Level ups worked very well. We had "some" scary moments using this live for the first time - we joined our programmer and mechanical thinking caps to figure it out – my (programmer) feedback: this really needs to be more user friendly/intuitive - using an up arrow with multiple functions is really not acceptable (pressed once = manual, and pressed twice = retract (including landing gears). Also, good that there is still a front switch for the landing gears.
11. Furnace ducting is much better designed than had been in our 2010 BH. BH’s heat was so great in the bedroom and bath that we had to close off the registers (with purchased closeable registers) and also stuff a towel in it (bedroom); whereas, the majority of heat in the BC comes to the living area.
12. Towed like a dream even with just a standard pin box; 2010 BH had a great deal of chucking even with the TrailAir TriGlide. We noted this improvement when we took it home “dry.” But it still towed well loaded down.
13. Extended pin box is very nice – can get around our short bed truck more easily when hooking up.
14. Much better tank level indicators.
15. Oven vent cover is beautiful and once we got it opened, we found it works very well!
16. Range has better controls – the Magic Chef in our 2010 BH only had variable control for the high powered burner – the Atwood has variable control for all 3 burners. We also like the stainless steel finish better than black.
17. Really like the VERSA table – had a good time trying out all the different ways to turn it. (This was one of the key reasons we went with a BC – wanted a full sized table.)
18. Mattress is MUCH better in the BC than had been provided in the 2010 BH.

Dislikes:
1. Beauflor is attractive (we have BH design) but too soft – slide leaves marks.
2. Difficult to reach oven vent cover.
3. Dealing with bathroom door is cumbersome – we installed a nickel magnetic door stopper to keep it open when not in use (from Amazon). Our 2010 BH gets a plus here because it had a pocket bathroom door – however, we understand the reasoning behind deleting this (space) and would rather have the space.
4. Sofa bed mattress is terrible :( – it really shouldn’t be called a mattress – doesn’t even lay flat when bed is opened. We are offsetting by placing the Flair air mattress (same as provided in the BH – dealer ordered it for us) over the standard mattress. BH’s sofa bed is miles ahead of the BC’s – much better mattress and system overall as well as it includes storage. Our order originally included the BH sofa bed but it was discovered later by engineering that it would not fit in the BC. (This was very close to a deal breaker – reason dealer provided the Flair air mattress.) We're looking into replacing the mattress but the sofa is so shallow we're concerned that replacements won't fit.
5. No underbed storage as the BC’s bedroom has a hydraulic (not electric) slide – we modified to include a large Sterilite bin from Target in the left side.
6. QC at Heartland and inspection at dealership could have been better - there were some minor issues that were very apparent once we got it home and inspected it even further. Examples include the screen door, crooked drawer in entertainment center, broken toilet (we caught this during our inspection the at dealer's and it was replaced; however, when we got home we found it leaked as the dealer did not put in a seal), living area TV mount was crooked top and bottom and front and back (we had dealer correct - but their fix didn't :(), awning loose in one corner, vent cover caulked in, front burner in range was loose (dealer fixed), main door was warped and wouldn't close correctly (this had been a problem with our 2010 BH so we knew how to fix), and there were screws protuding in the sewer storage area that had to be cut down.

Theresa
 

Nabo

Southeast Region Director-Retired
Overall sounds like you have a great coach. Glad the plus's outweigh the oopsies.
 

jassson007

Founding Louisiana Chapter Leaders-Retired
We are still out in ours Thersea...other than the couch we have some issues that will need to be taken care of as well but heartland told dealer is would be 6 or 7 days to get parts, we are in Elkhart, go figure...hmmm!! The large window in the rear cap that opens is in a bind when the screen is in place and the screen slide when the window is open, the side window on the off door side next to the large rear window will not open all the way due to the frame being bent, the bathroom door rubs/scrapes the carpet in the hall area and we are afraid the carpet will wear out quicker here, extensive scrapes all over the bottom and up the sides of the rear cap and here is the biggie...the dinette/chair slide scraped the floor exposing the white underside of the beaufloor material. The dealer attempted to repair the floor but was apparently unsuccessful but did fix what cause it but floor is damaged. We plan to attempt to get in touch with Brian W tomorrow and see what he might be able to make happen for us at least on the floor and rear cap.


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ParkIt

Well-known member
I'm jealous. Wish we could afford to upgrade to the newer BC but I still love ours, it just has a to do list over time :)
 

Milton_and_PeggySue

Active Member
We have a 2013 and we have made a few upgrades, but like you had a few problems from factory, broken light fixture over the the table, broken sink and a blow out on the way home from the dealer. Got it in march and have used it 4 times already. But on the last trip got a smell from grey water tank, GFI switch tripping and a leak on the rear on the roof. Going on 4 weeks and they have fix all the problems but the GFI switch, they replaced it and still tripping.
 
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Theresau

Well-known member
Be on the lookout or prepared for cabinet door issues. This happened to us this weekend. One at the left side of entertainment center and then one over the chairs. Turns out the struts for these types of doors is too strong. There were earlier threads about this - one said there is an adjustment screw in the strut but we couldn't find one. Plan is to put Gorilla glue in the plastic molley and then rescrew the hinge. (Hinge pops off due to the pressure.)

We haven't had any leaks. But our rear AC is close to non-existent - have a call into Dometic. HL tried to fix during the rally - replaced thermostat and adjusted some of the wiring but it's still not good.

Good to hear you are enjoying it. I still LOVE this layout. Love the kitchen. Just began using the desk....had been using the kitchen table for the computer. Really like the desk now.

We put in a TV in the basement - mounted it and it is working great.

What was wrong with your sink - was it the vessel in the bathroom? (We went with the plain one but not crazy about the "plastic" sink...learning to work with it..)

Theresa

P.S. We have a 1965 Chevelle SS
 

Milton_and_PeggySue

Active Member
The sink had a crack on it and the drain plug was chip, but they replaced both and a light above the table was broken at delivery time. It took four times before they got the right one. I have noticed that they have a lot of problems ordering the right parts. The rv still at the dealer going on the fourth week trying to fix and electrical problem, the gfi in the bathroom keeps tripping, first they found a loose wire, that did not fix the problem and now they replaced the gfi switch and still have the problem when turn the hot water heater on ac power. WE DID HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ONE OF THE HINGES, AND I AGREE THE HINGES ARE TOO STRONG FOR THE SMALL CABINET DOORS.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
fourth week trying to fix and electrical problem, the gfi in the bathroom keeps tripping, first they found a loose wire, that did not fix the problem and now they replaced the gfi switch and still have the problem when turn the hot water heater on ac power.
The hot water heater is not on the GFCI circuit, so if turning on the hot water heater trips the GFCI breaker, you have an unusual problem. I would guess it's more about the hot water heater than the GFCI.
 

Milton_and_PeggySue

Active Member
Re: Very Disappointed

Well after waiting for four weeks for our rig to get some issues fix we were happy to received the call yesterday to come and pick it up. So i asked the person on the other side all issues has been?, and he stated, oh yeah. Well the issues were fixed but somebody ran into it and did some damage to paint and rubber seal that runs from the roof. So here we go again drive home with no rig. The question is how long are they going to keep it this time. Never mine the dealer is 84 miles from home. Got something good out of it, free delivery when is done.
 

jayc

Legendary Member
Re: Very Disappointed

My dealer banged up the J-wrap but ordered the parts and let me make my own arrangements to come in after the parts arrived.
 

Theresau

Well-known member
I've had no problem ordering parts directly from Heartland. Had to order quite a bit recently due to a large scratch in J skirting - parts handled great. One of the dinette chairs had a short leg. I just had to send a picture of the issue and the chair design and they sent a brand new one to my home via freight.

The sink had a crack on it and the drain plug was chip, but they replaced both and a light above the table was broken at delivery time. It took four times before they got the right one. I have noticed that they have a lot of problems ordering the right parts. The rv still at the dealer going on the fourth week trying to fix and electrical problem, the gfi in the bathroom keeps tripping, first they found a loose wire, that did not fix the problem and now they replaced the gfi switch and still have the problem when turn the hot water heater on ac power. WE DID HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ONE OF THE HINGES, AND I AGREE THE HINGES ARE TOO STRONG FOR THE SMALL CABINET DOORS.
 

dbbls59

Well-known member
Re: Very Disappointed

I was surprised when you said the bed room slide was not cable. When did they go back to hydraulic?
 

Speedy

Well-known member
Re: Very Disappointed

Ours is hydraulic on a 2011. I'm surprised they have gone back to cables on many 2014 units.
 

Theresau

Well-known member
Re: Very Disappointed

I don't know - we expected cable but it's definitely hydraulic. Is yours cable? I was wondering if they went back to all hydraulic slides for 2014. Then I thought perhaps only Big Country was hydraulic but that didn't make a lot of sense since they are built on the same line. Could someone with a 2014 Bighorn or Landmark advise if they have electric or hydraulic bedroom slide...

Our 2010 BH was hydraulic.

I was surprised when you said the bed room slide was not cable. When did they go back to hydraulic?
 

jassson007

Founding Louisiana Chapter Leaders-Retired
I think it depends on size and weight of slide and room for hydro mech in the area. My 3450ts bed slide is cable and other 2 are hydro. Cable is still faster than my old sob.


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Theresau

Well-known member
This is all very interesting. BH specs indicate electric/cable bedroom slide. I noted when we were determining which model to go with and at that time were planning a BH that they had electric bedroom slides.

Maybe our BC is the only one with a hydraulic slide (and it is we can see it under the bed...). :):confused:
 
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