Montana Owners Club - Keystone Montana 5th Wheel Forum - View Single Post

sreigle · 06-17-2005, 07:20 AM

One thing I think speaks to improved quality of the Mountaineers is they now have their own assembly plant. Previously they shared the plant with the Montanas, with each built on alternating days. As the sales volume increased more and more had to be built each day. Now, with their own plant, that build rate can be distributed over the entire week. I don't know if the plant operates every day but the capacity is there to do so. I'm convinced the quality problems we saw for awhile had to do with having to push through too many units per day.

As for minus 30F, we were told at the service center in Goshen that the Montana is warranted to 28F. We originally could get down to 22F before freezing pipes. Did a little caulking on the belly pan and we got down to 17F. Continued doing some ohter things and last winter we got down to 3F without freezing. The furnace was set on daytime temp all night to keep the warm air going into the belly and I had heat taped the low point drains. We woke up to frozen pipes again but the outside temp was minus 5F.

The new Montanas have the low point drains in the basement storage area where they are far less likely to freeze. Plus, Keystone moved all the water lines up between the floor rails where they get the warmest air in the basement and do not lay on the steel frame members. So the new ones should fare better than the 22F we at first got out of ours. I'd guess they'll go into the low teens without modification but that's just a wild guess. I don't know if the Mountaineers share this same design but it would be a good question to call Keystone Customer Service and ask about.

We do not have the doublepane windows (wish we did). So for the winter we cover the windows with the 3M window film made for stick homes. It helps a lot inside but there still is a lot of cold air coming through the walls, especially where the cabinets are. We stay warm but use the furnace a lot and supplement with electric heaters to keep the propane usage down. Just be sure the furnace runs enough to heat the belly. I don't know if the Mountaineer has a heated belly or not.

06-17-2005, 07:20 AM	#7
sreigle Montana Master Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Oceanside Posts: 20,028 M.O.C. #20	One thing I think speaks to improved quality of the Mountaineers is they now have their own assembly plant. Previously they shared the plant with the Montanas, with each built on alternating days. As the sales volume increased more and more had to be built each day. Now, with their own plant, that build rate can be distributed over the entire week. I don't know if the plant operates every day but the capacity is there to do so. I'm convinced the quality problems we saw for awhile had to do with having to push through too many units per day. As for minus 30F, we were told at the service center in Goshen that the Montana is warranted to 28F. We originally could get down to 22F before freezing pipes. Did a little caulking on the belly pan and we got down to 17F. Continued doing some ohter things and last winter we got down to 3F without freezing. The furnace was set on daytime temp all night to keep the warm air going into the belly and I had heat taped the low point drains. We woke up to frozen pipes again but the outside temp was minus 5F. The new Montanas have the low point drains in the basement storage area where they are far less likely to freeze. Plus, Keystone moved all the water lines up between the floor rails where they get the warmest air in the basement and do not lay on the steel frame members. So the new ones should fare better than the 22F we at first got out of ours. I'd guess they'll go into the low teens without modification but that's just a wild guess. I don't know if the Mountaineers share this same design but it would be a good question to call Keystone Customer Service and ask about. We do not have the doublepane windows (wish we did). So for the winter we cover the windows with the 3M window film made for stick homes. It helps a lot inside but there still is a lot of cold air coming through the walls, especially where the cabinets are. We stay warm but use the furnace a lot and supplement with electric heaters to keep the propane usage down. Just be sure the furnace runs enough to heat the belly. I don't know if the Mountaineer has a heated belly or not.