Why we bought a 2015 Heartland Road Warrior 425
The first RV we purchased just over a year ago was on a whim. We had decided to move away from California to be closer to family to settle down. Danielle won the debate if we should settle down in Minnesota vs Maryland because although MN is more beautiful, it’s just too darn cold in the winter! I somehow convinced her that if we were going to leave the Surfing Community of Newport Beach, CA that we should buy an RV and travel for six months. We headed to a local dealership and the rest is history.
Now fast forward to today and we have enjoyed the freedom of RVing so much that we’ve decided to do this with no end in sight. Being marketing experts, we started a company that does Social Media for RV Dealerships and Campgrounds so we can sustain our travels. With this type of business model we can work remotely and share our passion of RVing to the world.
We recently found out Danielle is pregnant, so we made the decision that we were going to upgrade to something that had more space and felt like a home. We had been looking at RVs online and found a floor plan that we both agreed would be the perfect fit for us. It was the Heartland Road Warrior 425. A few weeks later were visiting one of our clients, Optimum RV in Ocala, FL. In just 2 weeks we would be filming the TV Show “Going RV” which is a form of House Hunters RV Version at their Dealership.
After we met the owner the Denver Beck, we immediately noticed the Road Warrior. We hadn’t been in one as of yet and Danielle nudged me that this was the RV we had chosen online. I didn’t recognize it because of the Full Body Paint job As soon as she laid her eyes on this I could tell the decision was made. This would be our new home.
We spoke with Denver about their Social Media, then threw out that we wanted to talk numbers about the Road Warrior. After agreeing on a purchase price we signed papers and had we were proud new owners of a brand new Toy Hauler. We were trading in our 27 ft Class C Sunseeker and now the challenge was we had to find a truck to pull the 44ft Road Warrior. We searched for just a day before finding a 2008 Chevy 1 Ton Dually which had a tow capacity that would handle the RW.
Here’s a summary of what we felt was important to us in upgrading:
- Separate Space, Danielle likes music while she works and I like silence. With the RW we are able to turn the Toy Hauler area into my office and give us separate working areas.
- Amenities, this thing is fully loaded with all the bells and whistles so that we feel at home.
- Washer/Dryer, this is a convenience we felt strongly about.
- Something modern, if we are going to do this for at least the next few years we wanted something that looked and felt modern.
- Floor Plan, we wanted something that makes sense for how we want to live and also had the capacity to put a baby area. Since we didn’t have a dishwasher, I wanted to be able to watch our TV when I do the dishes or Danielle when she cooks.
- Bath Tub, Danielle wanted a way to give the baby a bath in the RV. I also like having the convenience of having a second bathroom. It’s great in my office and really nice when we have guests.
Now it was time to move everything from the Sunseeker into the Road Warrior. It took two days to move everything into the RW and we Boondocked at the Dealership which turned out to be a lot of fun! The move was was chaos inside the RV, it’s incredible how much stuff we had accumulated in just one year on the road. It reminded me that I love being somewhat of a minimalist. After all, we still have two massive storage units back in Orange County, CA of stuff we “needed” to keep. I couldn’t even tell you what’s in there, we obviously don’t need it… As much as I can’t stand buying a bunch of “stuff” we may or may not need, I’m convinced Danielle loved the upgrade because she gets to go shopping for things to make it look and feel like home. I couldn’t keep up with her at Walmart as she was darting all over the place. 
The bedroom is gorgeous. Danielle wanted the king size bed however I wanted a queen because I knew that the bigger the bed, the more space it took up. I was hoping to get something under 40 ft long and felt like a larger bed and bedroom wasn’t something we needed. It came with the layout we chose. Although it is still a little nerve racking driving such a large Toy Hauler (gross weight is around 20,000) I’m extremely happy with the larger unit.
The bathroom is so much larger than in our Sunseeker. It’s modern and has the tub Danielle was looking for.
The living area is Danielle’s favorite part of the layout. It has a huge couch which also works as recliner massage chairs, a good sized kitchen, and some extras such as a fireplace, heated floors, and a other bells and whistles.
In the living area Danielle has a built in workspace.
My favorite part is the Toy Hauler which we’ve turned into my man cave/office. We bought some things from Ikea to make it functional to the way I like it.
There is a drop down queen size bed above my office. This is great for when people come to stay with us. I have my own bathroom in the back. At first I didn’t like this idea because I wanted to save the space and felt it wasn’t needed. I would have rather had a smaller unit to drive around but after having it I have decided I really enjoy the convenience and since we’ve had multiple friends come stay with us it’s really been nice to offer them their own bathroom.
Probably the coolest feature about the RW is the drop down Deck off the back of my office. We grill out there often and it is just so cool!! If we ever don’t like our view, we can just go somewhere else!!
Here’s a quick tour of our home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycpVf2qecWE
Here’s a breakdown of some of the features in our home.
Congratulations on your new home! We bought a 2015 Grand Design Momentum in March and it has a very similar layout to yours. I absolutely love it. We moved from a 26′ travel trailer, and I have no clue how we fit all of our stuff in there once we got it all out! (And the washer/dryer is a super time saver!)
Awesome and thanks! Yeah we went from a 27 ft to the Road Warrior and it took 2 days to move all our stuff haha!
I know its a little late to post question but been reading your blog and then saw you guys on Going RV…. I was like I know those folks from somewhere! Oh its the Hannans!
Anyway wanted to really ask about your truck to tow the 5th wheel. I read that it is a 2008 Chevy and we been considering a gently used 5th wheel but newer trucks with the towing capacity are quite pricey as much as moderate priced 5th wheel so alternative we are considering is an older truck (not old truck but gently used as well). 20,000 pounds to pull is no small feat so we are looking perhaps smaller 5th wheel
Any advice that you can provide on buying the used truck for the 5th wheel that you considered? Like what did you look for and what did you looked out for!
Also did you have any work done after purchase on the truck and what were the miles and if did have higher miles was that a concern?
Heated floors? Nice!!
Haha the funny thing is we owned it for a week before we figured out it had heated floors!
That’s a beautiful trailer. My wife and I have twins and decided to go camping this past year in Lake George NY in a tent with them. Well let’s say that wasn’t the most enjoyable trip and my wife and I agreed we would never tent with them again. We just purchased our first trailer (Fuzion 322) and I am very excited to start our journeys with it. After seeing your trailer I’ll probably be trading mine in next year for a 425. Love that paint job!
Haha glad you upgraded to the trailer! The Fuzions are nice, enjoy!
Your RV looks very nice. Do you think dark full body paint effects the cooling inside and have you noticed a difference? Is there a significant difference in keeping the RV cool? Thank you.
Hey John, we have not had an issue keeping it cool. Not sure if that’s because the black hasn’t had a big effect or the ac is just that good…
Thanks for the tour! I love the concept of using the Toy Hauler garage as an office. And that deck… wow!
Did yawl have glass shower doors and removed them?
Hey Mirta, Our Road Warrior 425 came with a shower curtain.
Hi , I been researching 5th wheel Toy hauls . I love the new Road Warrior. As a chef I love kitchen its huge people around me at a RV park are going to be eating grand. I hear from a lot of ppl to stay away from Thor Industrials RV’s that there products are full of problems. Have you had any ? Thanks Doug
We work in the industry with A LOT of manufacturers and what I’ve learned is ALL RVs that bounce down the road are susceptible to issues. We had a slide out motor go out and Heartland took care of replacing it right away. Overall we’ve been VERY impressed with the Road Warrior.
What kind of dog is the little tan colored guy?
They are both our Traveling Pomeranians
Are Toy haulers … OK, I need a question answered. We need to have an RV that’ll stand up to one month of winter every year in MN. We wanted a Toy Hauler for that exact reason, we can each have an office. I am a blogger, my husband is a day trader. Could you make that Toy Hauler work for SERIOUS winter camping? Since you are from MN originally, you know how cold it gets! Any advice? We were told Montana was the only way to go if winter camping. ~Kim
The Montana is good. I’m convinced all RVs will need good preparation if you’re in MN when the temp drops. Our Toy Hauler section of our Road Warrior has a tougher time keeping warm as the rest of the RV. The main concern is freezing water. We have the arctic package which has a heated underneath, heated pipes, tank heaters, floor heating, thicker insulation, etc. Make sure you run the furnace because it seems to heat the underneath and overall spreads the heat well. Space heaters are great ways to help warm things up as a supplement to burning through propane from the furnace. I block off with blankets any areas that have gaps like the doors. Let me know if you have any other specific questions I might be help out with! Gone with the Wynns have a really good youtube video showing how to handle winter camping.
Yep. Thank you so much and am an avid Wynn’s YouTube watcher! Run that furnace, definitely! The Montana has heated tanks, thank gawd! You know how miserable it is when pipes freeze! The burst of a frozen pipe??? Well, all midwesterners have all been there. Yuk. Headache. Serious about skirting when in the thick of it as well. So appreciate the great advice!
Were you up in MN in the camper during that crazy cold last week?
Not in a camper, still in our house. Couldn’t even keep our house warm enough! Crazy, awful -55 to -65 windchills! We had to put our move back a year. (I ended up getting pneumonia, 6 weeks before our house went on the market! We pulled the house off the market. I ended up in the hospital and it took a good three months to get over it.) I knew you were Bemidji based at one point. I know Princeton. I’m originally from Brandon, 12 miles west of Alexandria. Small world! ~Kim