New Cardinal 36-2BHLE Arrived!

Shawn.L.Turbo · Post by **Shawn.L.Turbo** » Sun May 13, 2007 6:20 pm

Well, after a long nearly 4 month wait, our new Cardinal 36-2BH LE trailer is in our driveway.

Did the PDI pickup late last week, and just got some time this weekend to really look it over carefully.

A photo of it here:

We sold our old Okanagan 5th wheel (29 footer) for this one. Our old one was a very well built trailer, so I was curious to see how the Cardinal would stack up against it in terms of build quality.

It's always tough to really tell when it's sitting at the dealer. A guy really needs to spend the time looking in those "odd spots" for signs.

Overall, Cardinal has tried to equip this trailer with good quality components. There's no question they positioned this higher in the market with higher end faucets, tubs, etc.

So, after spending two days having a good look around, here's what I found that could have been better:

1) Some careless placement of screws. There are 3-4 screws sticking up on the inside of the front storage. They are LONG screws and protrude a good 2 inches out of the floor of the front storage.

2) Careless attention to the alignment of exterior door latches. They weren't tight at all and provided almost no seal to driving rain. I had to go around and slightly bend the latches to makes them seal positively and tightly. I had to do this with every single exterior door.

3) Garbage tires. Karrier Load Star. On a high-end rig? Tires is not a place you want to try to save a buck. Bad tires do more than just self-destruct. They usually take trailer parts with them. Polished aluminum rims with crappo tires.

4) Careless application of sealant on the underbelly. Kind of looks like they shot it from an applicator 6 feet away. Makes it look like those "cheapo" RV's.

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I don't want to sound like I'm complaining. These are just very simple quality control issues that I feel should not be present on a higher end rig.

On the other hand, on the interior, we've found the fit and finish to be extremely good. Cupboards and door alignment couldn't be better. It's near perfect.

Overall, we're really happy with it. It just frustrates me to see the "little things" completely overlooked, when they could be so easily controlled with a little attention to detail.

The floor plan is much better than our old rig, so we'er looking forward to taking her out.

Cheers.

Shawn

Tinner · Post by **Tinner** » Sun May 13, 2007 7:39 pm

Nice looking rig. We have a 2003 36RLE with triple slides and triple axle. Sure like ours. Enjoy.

Diesel Dave 04 · Post by **Diesel Dave 04** » Mon May 14, 2007 4:44 am

Shawn looks good, on my first trip I found 2 water leeks one was at the shower up in the wall above the TV and the other was at the flush/water valve on the toilet in the rear bath. Both lose fittings more QC issues. I had a broken shock I found when i was looking under the unit to see where the water was coming from. And my Converter was only putting out 9.4 volts. when we went to put the slides in that first time out the main slide bound up and scared the bling out of us when it popped free.
I took it in they fixed it all up and the next 2 trips have been great.
There are 2 things i found that i dont like 1 the hot water tank. When i drained it the water ran into the camper do to them not sealing it to the wall right. QC issue, and if i had to do it again I would have went to Hyd. front landing gear.
I feel the motor or gearing is not right for the weight of this unit, My motor for the landing gear will get hot and smoke when i lift the front all the way up, I have to extend them all the way out do to my driveway beeing down hill.

How is the Mega cab doing does it feel good and stable towing?
Im sure it pulls it fine.
Dave

jamespatrick4 · Post by **jamespatrick4** » Mon May 14, 2007 4:56 am

Shawn: Congrats on the new rig. We picked up our new 36-2BH LE just a couple of weeks ago also. I found similar exterior QC issues as yours but I think the same guy who did the exterior also did my interior as it had/has its share of problems too. I don't know what it is about the exterior doors, they must be training a new guy on the extrior door install line - mine are the same way. However, I agree that overall they are nice rigs and the major systems seem to be well built/installed (with the exception of the tires - does FR really want us to have a blow out towing one of these big babies down the highway???)

Again, congrats and good luck.

James

Shawn.L.Turbo · Post by **Shawn.L.Turbo** » Mon May 14, 2007 5:53 am

Thanks everyone.

I haven't de-winterized the water system or tried it at all yet, but I want to do that tonight to see if there are any water issues before heading out.

Seems like others have the same basic QC issues.

We started packing the primary "semi-permanent" items out to the trailer last night. I think we're really going to like this floorplan with the kids.
Having that separate bedroom will be a godsend.

Diesel Dave 04 wrote: How is the Mega cab doing does it feel good and stable towing?
Im sure it pulls it fine.
Dave

Dave, yes the truck handled it beautifully. I have more turning radius than I thought I was going to have. It's going to take some practive to back this puppy up in tight spaces, although tight spaces and a 36-2BH is really an oxymoron...LOL

Shawn

Diesel Dave 04 · Post by **Diesel Dave 04** » Mon May 14, 2007 12:33 pm

We love are 36 2BH more every trip It is big and i find the tail swing to be scarry some times in tight spots but we love the roomey inside and I allready changed the door handle to the upstairs it now has a lock, there is no reason for the kids to invade us any more

loven it

One thing I did first thing was I made a spacer out of wood and painted it white and placed it under the red light on the right rear corner, this put that light out enough so I could see it in the mirror, My awing bracket would block my view of that light and i couldnt stand not knowing where that corner was when i was passing someone.

MARK33062 · Post by **MARK33062** » Wed May 16, 2007 7:18 pm

Check your water pump fittings good they usually leak and when U tighten them on 1 end the other loosens up. The flusher valves leak behind the fascia. The door and pull out pantry come loose in travel and if full the weight will shatter the wooden door. The access panel beneath the garden tub - check for a leak there, as well as the shower hose breaking ath either end (cheap plastic). Cable Tv and antenna connections as mentioned in other posts. Check UR awning screws at the top the are usually put in with a screw gun and have stripped out holes behind them.
Water will get under the decal graphics and cause bubbles. Checkfor broken or missing screws holding the underbelly covering in place.

Anything else that goes wrong just look at the site - its already happened to us other owners before. As for the quality of FR units they just cant be beat- I looked at many others before buying and could have spent more $$$ for the same problems and then some..

PS - Goodyear G159's are xcellent for this unit - the comments were right about the tires - and U really dont want a blowout with your SRW truck pulling it.. NITRO FILL also !!!!

snookman35 · Post by **snookman35** » Thu May 17, 2007 8:09 am

You Guy's Are Making me Drool. We're real close to pulling the trigger for a 36-2bh

Diesel Dave 04 · Post by **Diesel Dave 04** » Thu May 17, 2007 10:20 am

Shawn what hitch are you useing My buddy with a mega cab just put money on a fifth wheel and was asking me about hitches.

Crismon4 · Post by **Crismon4** » Sat May 19, 2007 11:04 am

....for what it's worth, DH is driving home from Adventure RV (Cheyenne, WY) with our 33TBHLE and we're towing with an '07 3500 MegaCab. He installed the Pull-Rite autoslide. As a part of the PDI, he and the Service Manager jack-knifed it so he could observe and get a feel for the operation of the autoslide.....he was very satisfied. I'll report more when he arrives home....only 4 hours to go!

An acquaintance of ours was towing his 5th wheel with the Hijacker, but after 9 months of "issues", his dealer took it out and put in a Pull-Rite.

Thanks,

Tricia

Luizianna · Post by **Luizianna** » Tue May 22, 2007 7:59 am

Tricia, congrats on the new rig!! I know you'll have many years to make great memories!!

Shawn.L.Turbo · Post by **Shawn.L.Turbo** » Tue May 22, 2007 4:30 pm

Diesel Dave 04 wrote:Shawn what hitch are you useing My buddy with a mega cab just put money on a fifth wheel and was asking me about hitches.

It's a Reese 14K Classic.
It's identical to the 15K that they have available today - they had the 14K re-tested and uprated to be called the 15K the year after I bought mine.

What used to be the 15K is now called the 16K, and so on.

Shawn