I was at the Greenville, SC RV show yesterday (1-10-15). I looked at and took a lot of pictures of Keystone trailers including this 2015 Montana 3850FL. It shows really nice and is loaded with options.
Here are pictures of the trailer, its show price and its certification label.
http://www.irv2.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=27418
http://www.irv2.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=27419
http://www.irv2.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=27420
This is a very heavy unit to have Power King 16” load range E tires and I talked with a sales person about it. He was not tire savvy and got a factory rep that turned out not to be much more interested in the OE tires and certification label problem.
I looked at the owner’s manual and brochure for this particular trailer and could not find any information justifying the fitment of the LRE tires.
Here is what I see as a problem with the certification label. It shows both axles having GAWR of 7000#. The problem with that is they show the tire size to be ST235/80R16E at 80 PSI. The Power King tire is rated at 3520# at 80 PSI. However, without giving the new owner any warning he/she could use that same identical sized tire from Goodyear or Maxxis and only have 3420# of load capacity at 80 PSI. That is under the minimum standards for GAWR 7000# axles.
The Regulations for manufacturers to follow clearly states that they MUST specify in a document to NHTSA whenever they are using OE tires that have more than one certified (on the tire) load capacity for tires of identical sizes with the same load range. Another regulation defalts all such tires to the lowest load range without documentation.
In the past, Keystone has had to recall entire model line-ups for Certification label errors and I’m sure this will be another time if the dealer doesn’t take action before the unit is sold.
Cal