Recall Affecting Certain Heartland Units Issued By NHTSA
If you own a 2019-2021 Cyclone or 2020-2021 Bighorn Traveler RV, contact Heartland customer service at 1-877-262-8032 to see if your unit is part of the recent recall issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Reason for recalls
According to the report, the front landing legs may buckle due to insufficient support while the unit is stationary. It is noted that the root cause of the defect is from inadequate bracing for the front landing legs.
The sudden drop from a landing leg malfunction can cause damage to the RV, injury to persons, or death. Many fifth wheel RV units have their beds in the front area of the RV. A sudden malfunction of the front landing legs would be an effective but very dangerous alarm clock.
So far, Heartland Recreational Vehicles, LLC (Heartland) is sending techs to fix and gather notes on 4 units that have suffered issues from the defect. The report details the damage caused in one of the affected units,
“The front jack on the ODS bent, the LP & generator box are damaged, and the jack bracket & main rail are bent.”
What should you do?
If you have an affected unit, be sure to treat the front landing jacks as defective/unsafe. Don’t allow humans or equipment under, around, or in the unit while the defective landing legs are holding it up. According to the recall notice, Heartland has yet to provide a recall schedule. However, they will be notifying owners and dealers about the issue, and dealers will be able to install a jack bracket to reinforce the landing legs, free of charge.
To ensure the safety of your unit and the speed of getting it repaired, you can take action by calling Heartland customer service at 1-877-262-8032. You can also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.safercar.gov for more information.
Keep good maintenance records
With this or any repair for your RV, you’ll want to keep good maintenance records. If you ever wanted to sell or trade in an RV that had a recall, you would want to be able to point back to exactly when and where you had the service completed.
RV LIFE Maintenance is now included in the RV LIFE Pro Suite of tools. Along with RV LIFE Trip Wizard and the RV LIFE app, these three tools are designed to equip the RVer will tools that will help simplify your RVing experience.
I haven’t had my heartland for 30 days & the roof leaked! 1gray tank is leaking and the other is cracked it’s been leaking since day one! Both exhaust fans went out & slides aren’t sealing properly! Walls have cracked too! I am so sick of this piece of crap it’s not even funny! No one stands behind their products at heartland & people are spending their life savings on this with a warranty that is useless!
I have a heartland north trail, I purchased it about a year ago from camping world brand new, it has been a lemon since I bought it, heartland failed to glue any of it’s plumbing in the kitchen, it was leaking since it was 4 months old, it caused the furnace to go under water, it had at least a foot of water level in it, mold is growing, heartland does not want to accept responsibility nor does camping world, we live in it, fed up with all of it, single with handicapped child, he shouldn’t have to live like this, we have had nothing but problem s from day one, figured heartland would be a good brand, this unit is cheap, cheap, even good Sam would not do anything!
Deanna, I also own a Heartland North Trail 25BHPS. I have found it to be less than the quality unit the dealer described. I’m with you on the cheapness of Heartland. My rig developed water leaks this winter/last fall and now we are in rigorous discussions with the dealership over who is responsible for the damage and the leaks (it started before the freeze). I hope you are able to resolve your issue to your satisfaction and to your benefit.
Unfortunately some of the Gravity Fifth wheels also have this issue and heartland could care less about addressing it and helping the owners who have had 4 legs replaced and they have all 4 buckled.