RVBusiness, September/October 2019

HEARTLAND RVS Open House Highlights Heartlands Directors of Sales A J Jones and Kyle Miller with new 2020 products including the Cyclone fifth wheel and Prowler travel trailer While its old news that Heartland Recreational Vehicles underwent a bit of a revamping of its executive suite recently the results have apparently created a more responsive manufacturing concern Its going great actually the guys have been extremely excited about it said A J Jones We trimmed some of the layers back and its allowed us to maneuver much faster Weve eliminated the vice president position when Coley Brady left the company instead Kyle Miller and myself are splitting those duties within our respective Director of Sales positions It just allows us to maneuver a lot faster and get things accomplished faster he added We literally eliminated a whole layer of management from the way we were previously structured I now oversee about three quarters of Heartlands products while Kyle oversees DRV Cruiser and the stick and tin Heartland products The more maneuverable Heartland has already resulted in a number of new floorplans Jones noted Weve got some very exciting things that were interested in showing at Open House he pointed out We completely revamped the Bighorn product literally from the ground up from what Bighorn was last year Weve completely tweaked the inside of the unit to give it a new modern interior look that were really proud of We also repositioned price points throughout the line on both Bighorn and Bighorn Traveler driving the price down considerably and putting us at a much more competitive price point As Jones noted this wasnt achieved by decontenting the line but by streamlining production by utilizing packages The customers still have the option to order a fully decked out Bighorn but the use of packaging specific accessories and upgrades as far as that goes but by using the package concept you really reduce the price considerably from where it was last year Among the 2020 floorplans Jones called out the attributes of the 3375 Its got a slide in slide bedroom but the key is its still a shorter unit its only 36 feet long Were seeing an abundance of customers out there looking for shorter units especially for traveling to national parks and these shorter units fit the bill A lot of times youre limited by size to what you can do but while everybody wants the smaller unit they never want to compromise the living space We were able to come up with a floorplan that gives arguably one of the biggest if not the biggest bedroom bathroom combinations in the industry and we did it within a small footprint The 3375 features a 15000 pound GVWR pricing had yet to be determined but is expected to be about 90000 The line also includes a rear den model with a complete new decor We were a darker brown wood before but were seeing the overall marketplace trending towards lighter colors now We Heartland to Debut New Stick And Tin Lithium Toy Hauler Less Expensive Bighorn Fifth Wheel New Heartland 2020 Lithium stick and tin toy hauler 160 RVBusiness S E P T E M B E R O C T O B E R 2 0 1 9