Heartland RV Renews Focus on Quality & Dealer Relationships

It’s been seven months since THOR Industries president Bob Martin announced that the Heartland brand would move under the Jayco Family of Companies.

Now, with fall shows underway and new model year units hitting dealers’ lots, Heartland and Jayco execs say they’re ready to go.

“We’ll introduce a new lineup of products — we’re going to start shipping them this month,” Jayco President and CEO Ken Walters told RV PRO in August. “Prowler, North Trail, Sundance travel trailers and fifth wheels, Bighorn and Cyclone will be the initial lineup … going a little bit back to the basics of partner products that have a legacy and a measure of success.

“That will be the initial lineup of products and what follows beyond that, we’re still working on.”

Originally, Heartland built its products on three separate campuses, Walters says. In the first few weeks of April as Jayco was integrating Heartland into its operations, they also had to decide which products to focus on under the Heartland name. During that process, production moved to Jayco’s Middlebury, Indiana, site.

The impetus for bringing Heartland under the Jayco umbrella came from a couple years of an underperforming budget, Walters says, and improvements needed in quality of the product and dealer relations.

“By all accounts from both Kyle and his team and the dealers we’ve had through the product, it’s gone exceptionally well,” Walters says, referring to Kyle Miller, Heartland’s general manager, and speaking on the new Heartland units. “I think [it’s been] better than expected given the shortened timeline.”

It was the know-how already in action at Jayco that allowed the quick turnaround to happen, while still maintaining a high standard of quality.

“What we’re doing at Jayco is working,” Walters says. “We have a team that seems to respond really well to challenges, and we’re good at strategy, and we’re good at executing a plan.”

While the market is still a challenge that all RV manufacturers and dealers are grappling with, Nic Martin, Jayco’s vice president of sales, says things have become a little more consistent.

“I don’t think we’re under any misconceptions of what the market is or planning for it to be significant growth,” he says.

Nevertheless, there’s a hole in the market where Heartland products used to be, and now, they are poised to fill that need with new and improved offerings.

“Judging by early responses from dealers, they certainly have a need for some of that, even considering that I don’t think it’s their expectation that their business will be drastically up in ’26 over what they’ve been in ’25,” Martin says. “But [there’s] nothing materially to make us feel worse about the market either; a lot more of the same and we’ve done pretty well navigating that.”

A New Attention to Detail

As for how the Heartland units themselves have changed? Well, the Jayco execs say the new product isn’t comparable to what’s been done previously. The suppliers for different components will be similar to or the same as what Jayco’s brands use, such as hardwood cabinet doors.

“Our view on materials and things we’re not willing to compromise on structurally … there will certainly be a different story to the product there,” Walters says.

Miller commends the history of Jayco’s 55 years of experience and how that has been poured into the new Heartland products.

“When walking the initial pilots or prototypes, we were just blown away by the fit and the finish and the quality. All of that struck a really positive nerve with our entire sales staff, and instantly confidence came right back into our team,” Miller says.

Miller adds that he feels the dealers have gained that same burst of confidence after viewing the new Heartland units.

During the integration of Heartland into Jayco, there was some reduction in the labor force, mostly among manufacturing and direct labor since that’s the largest part of the company’s workforce, Walters says. Just under 200 employees have been integrated into the Jayco Family of Companies.

While the Heartland manufacturing all occurs in Middlebury right now, some of that will also eventually take place in Jayco’s Twin Falls, Idaho, facility.

The first real test for the new Heartland would be at the America’s Largest RV Show in Hershey, Pennsylvania, during September. As of press time for this issue, the show had not occurred, but Walters notes that getting the product in front of consumers is the “real measuring stick of success.”

“We’re ready. We’re going to show a complete lineup of product [at Hershey] and the following week at Open House,” Walters says. “[We are] confident in our lens of what [the] product should be and [what is] good quality, high value, competitively priced [for the] middle of the market.”

Walters adds that he believes Jayco and Heartland will show that their dealers matter, the customers matter and the “name on the front or side of the unit won’t be the most important thing.”

“The value, the price, the volume — we think they’ll see we’re confident in that,” he says. “We’re ready all the way around.”

Excerpts From the Announcement on Moving Heartland Under Jayco

From Bob Martin, president and CEO of THOR Industries:

“Through the current downcycle, our companies focused on appropriate brand rationalization and rightsizing their product lineups to meet the current market conditions and customer demands.”

“By leveraging Jayco’s expertise and learning into Jayco’s support structure, we are confident that Heartland will achieve meaningful performance improvements, delivering greater value to our customers, dealers and stakeholders.”

“Our goal is to foster a more seamless operational framework that allows us to operate more efficiently and more effectively in the evolving U.S. market. This restructuring reflects our dedication to long-term growth, efficiency and excellence in the RV industry.”

From Ken Walters, president and CEO of Jayco:

“We look forward to working with key members of the Heartland team to get those brands back where they belong in the market.”