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

DutchmenSport · 11-04-2018, 02:08 PM

Butchiiii,
You posted over a month ago and wondering if you've settled on a decision yet. We purchased our Montana 375FL six weeks ago. We were travel trailer owners before, so as our dealership told us ... we're in the "big league" now. And I have to agree.

We fell in love with the front living room models. I never liked the front bed rooms because they sectioned off the upper living area so much, it made the camper feel smaller and cramped all the time. Then we discovered the front kitchen and the front living room and absolutely loved that open feeling between the upper deck and the lower deck.

It's kind of funny, because this is kind how our house is set up, 2 half levels, but open between the upper and the lower. Maybe that's why the separating upper bed room walls and bath always felt claustrophobic to us.

For what it's worth, we knew there were models that had larger basement storage. Some have storage in the rear under the bed room, large enough for a golf cart now. That's simply amazing. But the think we disliked was the center island blocking everything in the kitchen when the slides were in.

The 375FL with the front door on the passenger side and the back door on the driver side and no island is a phenomenal layout. Before settling on anything, I hope you have an opportunity to actually step inside this model. I think you'll be impressed. It feels so open, the kitchen has plenty of counter space, and the entire kitchen is accessible with all slides in. The back door makes accessing the bed room and bathroom accessible with slides in.

Basement storage is not critical in our style of camping. To a full timer, it might be. But for us, the space in the living area is more important.

Everything I kept stowed away in our truck with shell and shelves in the shell fit somewhere in the new 5er, including a mountain of lumber I use for leveling, even on some pretty hefty inclines.

We hope and plan to eventually sell the house and hit the road full time. With this model, I'm pretty confident we can. It does not have a generator, so that space under the over-hang is empty, which affords a lot of storage also. As I move slow making changes and want plenty of time to think things through, I contimplating making some protective walls over the house batteries and all those wires in the front compartment where the generator would fit, to accommodate more storage and stuff won't fall or hit wires or the batteries.

I think boondocking, the 375FL is not designed for that. The refer is all 120 A.C. electric. One would have to install a pretty hefty solar panel system to keep batteries going if boondocking. The 374FL is the exact same model, except it comes with the AC/Gas refrigerator. It's worth looking at too. Hope you get a chance.

11-04-2018, 02:08 PM	#55
DutchmenSport Montana Master Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Anderson Posts: 2,606 M.O.C. #22835	Butchiiii, You posted over a month ago and wondering if you've settled on a decision yet. We purchased our Montana 375FL six weeks ago. We were travel trailer owners before, so as our dealership told us ... we're in the "big league" now. And I have to agree. We fell in love with the front living room models. I never liked the front bed rooms because they sectioned off the upper living area so much, it made the camper feel smaller and cramped all the time. Then we discovered the front kitchen and the front living room and absolutely loved that open feeling between the upper deck and the lower deck. It's kind of funny, because this is kind how our house is set up, 2 half levels, but open between the upper and the lower. Maybe that's why the separating upper bed room walls and bath always felt claustrophobic to us. For what it's worth, we knew there were models that had larger basement storage. Some have storage in the rear under the bed room, large enough for a golf cart now. That's simply amazing. But the think we disliked was the center island blocking everything in the kitchen when the slides were in. The 375FL with the front door on the passenger side and the back door on the driver side and no island is a phenomenal layout. Before settling on anything, I hope you have an opportunity to actually step inside this model. I think you'll be impressed. It feels so open, the kitchen has plenty of counter space, and the entire kitchen is accessible with all slides in. The back door makes accessing the bed room and bathroom accessible with slides in. Basement storage is not critical in our style of camping. To a full timer, it might be. But for us, the space in the living area is more important. Everything I kept stowed away in our truck with shell and shelves in the shell fit somewhere in the new 5er, including a mountain of lumber I use for leveling, even on some pretty hefty inclines. We hope and plan to eventually sell the house and hit the road full time. With this model, I'm pretty confident we can. It does not have a generator, so that space under the over-hang is empty, which affords a lot of storage also. As I move slow making changes and want plenty of time to think things through, I contimplating making some protective walls over the house batteries and all those wires in the front compartment where the generator would fit, to accommodate more storage and stuff won't fall or hit wires or the batteries. I think boondocking, the 375FL is not designed for that. The refer is all 120 A.C. electric. One would have to install a pretty hefty solar panel system to keep batteries going if boondocking. The 374FL is the exact same model, except it comes with the AC/Gas refrigerator. It's worth looking at too. Hope you get a chance.