[Renegade1LI]

Originally Posted by Coddiwomple

Hey Montana owners.

Sharon and I (Jim) are full-timers; living in Arizona during the winter, and the upper Midwest during the summer, and zigzag traveling between the two seasons. We currently own a 40' 2011 HitchHiker CE loaded with "comfort" features, and tow with a 2011 Chev Silverado dually diesel. We love our 5er, however, due to Sharon's father moving in with us, we need a home with a second bedroom and bathroom.

We currently have hydraulic auto leveling, hydraulic slide system, 2 A/C units that are external (don't come through the ceiling) so they are quiet, dual-pane windows, residential fridge, 2400 watt inverter, 4 - 6 volt batteries, ++++. We realize that we might not find a 2-bedroom 5er with all the features in our current home, but want to get as close as possible within our budget. We liken this to looking for the 5-legged sheep that has black and white stripes and a pink head! Difficult to find!

We have been doing loads of research and have discovered that a Montana High Country 362RD might be in our future. We were really excited about this floor plan until I found several posts in this forum about problems with the LCI electric auto leveling system....that several owners manually level their 5er with boards before engaging the auto leveling!! To me this is absurd - one shouldn't have to manually level a rig that has an auto leveling system! Also, I found where the slide cable gearbox leaks oil onto the slide roof, which damages the membrane. Are these two issues wide spread, or is there a small percentage of units with these issues?

Thanks for any info you can pass on.

I will add that we have had both issues, however the fixes are very simple & not a deal breaker for us. The 3.0 works great once you understand it, the gearboxes will drip & the fix is to install drip pans under them. If you know that in advance you could get them installed prior to delivery. The 3.0 needs to be better explained at PDI, I think most people dont understand how electronic controls function. Once I spoke to Lippert cust service it was clear how to reset them & now they work great consistently. Being a heavy construction contractor who works with hydraulics every day its nice knowing that they are not in our camper.