2018 Montana 3950BR Nightmare... your opinions please.

[jeff_banning]

We decided just before the holidays that we wanted to work more from our camping spot on the lake and have some additional room for the grand kids. We saw the Montana 3950BR at a RV show with the office and king loft and went to Camping World in Lowell Arkansas looking specifically for this model. 4 hours later we had traded our 2011 Open Range 316RLS for a 2018 Montana 3950BR... we are told it is the "best". 3 days later went back and picked up our new camper, did the walk through, left as "Happy Campers"

The Nightmare begins -
We get home, open it up to start putting all of our stuff in and immediately notice a deep scratch in the linoleum and looking under the slide a cut in the material under the slide. I take pictures and text salesman and know they left something on the floor (I suspect a screw near the theater seat they were working on) that caused this. Salesman promises call back from service... no call, next day no call and I call again at noon, finally a call at 4:45 day two. Service says, we can patch your linoleum... I say OH Hell NO. I call salesman, tell him to manufacture defect it and get me a new unit. He refuses, I escalate to management, get same story.

I have family coming in from 600 miles away and a camping spot reserved so I have to leave... the Nightmare continues...
Camping spot (like 75-85% of all lake spots) is 30A so I hook up with my adapter, crank on the rear air, and by noon it is 89 outside and screaming hot inside. Montana thermostat does not show inside temp, only set temp so off to town to get indoor outdoor digital thermometer. 2 hours later I see it is 89 outside and 86 inside. When it hits 93 outside and 90 inside we have to leave for the day because we can't take it. One air unit on will only scrub 3 degrees. This is our 3rd dual air 50A unit and never have we had to run the front air to keep the main cabin livable. Multiple calls to Camping World Service and I can't get help, then a call to KeyStone and Camping World sends out tech.

Nightmare Won't Stop -
In the interim, I get milk out of the refrigerator and find it is warm... fridge on max is 52 degrees inside and freeze pops put in 3 days earlier and not frozen.

Tech shows up, says air is fine, it is blowing at 50 degrees but agrees inside is hotter than hell says camper requires both airs operating because it is a common duct. We try adding front air fan only, and lose another 2 degrees. Running front A/C pops 30A breaker as I knew it would. Then tech tries to tell me 52 in fridge is within range but agrees freeze pops are not frozen. Then I google fridge temps and show him the FDA recommends no less than 40 degrees fridge and zero freezer.

Horror show goes on... family is coming in so I see my power pole has two 30 amp breakers and a 20 amp.. off to Home Depot. $105 later I have the material to make 2 30A males into a 50A female splitting the poles as needed. One hour later I have both airs running and high hopes..., it is a NO GO. Next day it hits 95 and it is 85-87 in camper, both air on and I can only scrub 7-10 degrees. Then my freaking front air quits, thermostat now reads 13 degrees and air is cycling on and off. Resetting it does no good, still shows 13 degrees (front only drops to 55 at lowest setting) so I know thermostat has lost its mind.

We struggle through holiday and drop camper at Camping World, guy says "maybe" have it back in 2 weeks.

My vacations are ruined, my wife and I are sick at guts over this purchase, and Camping World is the absolute worst.

So sorry for the saga, but what is your experiences with Camping World and anyone have a 3950BR, does your camper stay cool with one air or even two when temps hit close to 100. Oh, our camping spot was lakeside and shady most of the day.

Thanks - Jeff

[Eagleback]

Wow. Sorry to hear that one. We live in southwest Florida all year and the temps that you know are hot and humid and the sun is an enemy to all. We have 1 Dometic brisk air 2 in the back and it will run all day and it keeps the camper at a comfortable temp around 72 to 75, But we do not like one air to run like that so i placed an 8000 Btu air in the bedroom window and it stays real nice all day and night and the rear air gets to take a break here and there during the day. Im not saying to do what we have done with a window shaker but our one air worked nice even though it had to run all day and night, so i would say there is a real problem some where with your unit and with out a doubt needs to be researched.

[1retired06]

We have been very happy with our AC operation, even in 100 degree weather, inside temp stays in the mid 70s with both units running. Do keep the shades down in hot weather. Within 30 days, the RV frig in our 2015 starting running just like you described with yours. Cooling unit replaced under warranty.

[mlh]

Sorry about your problems. This is a story we have heard many times about your air conditioner and Camper World. They are not going to replace your camper. Keystone wouldn't replace it if it was flying apart going down the road.
How is it that 24000 BTUs will cool my house and run 25% of the time and 30000 BYUs won't cool a 400 foot camper. What's wrong with this. Either they are lying about the BTUs or the insulation in these units or both. Good luck getting it fixed dealing with Camper World.
Lynwood

[scottanddeb]

Hello Jeff,
We recently purchased a Montana from Camping World. It will be the last time we ever deal with them.
As far as the a/c, we had the same issue where it would not cool and it keep cycling. I removed the vent covers and found the 3" vents were still restricted by construction materials and duct tape. Once we made sure each vent had unrestricted air flow, it helped 100%. It now runs without the cycling. We do have to run both a/c's to keep it around 72.
I'm going to review them again this week, see if i can open up some more air flow.

Sorry i can not give you any advice on CW except to email the CEO. LOL

Best to you.
Scott

[happy camper x2]

WOW Having the same a/c issues as you. It seems to be consistent with the whisper quit units.It has been a slow process (going on thirty days) dealing with Keystone and CW. There is a series of fixes on the a/c problems got number 4 approved yesterday and CW started the fix today. Good luck

[TELECOOL]

Hi Jeff,
I just became a new member but I can feel your pain we just purchased our new Montana in April and took it out to Oklahoma for the first time on June 23- 24th with our two grandsons it was around 92 degrees when we got to our location and got set up we had the 50 amp hook up got both the front and rear a/c units going full blast we about burnt up until around midnight they had a heavy rain storm come through that cooled us down and it rained until noon the next day.Thank god this helped to maintain the temperature.We made it another night but come Sunday morning it was starting to heat up.We left around 9 that morning.I'm an air conditioning contractor and what I found the problem to be is not enough air flow to get sufficient cooling through out the trailer because the air is ducted and both units share a common duct the bedroom is cool enough but the living area and kitchen struggle to cool down.My Montana came set up to add a 3rd air if needed however Keystone doesn't recommend that.However being a Dometic Dealer myself I went ahead and purchased another unit and removed the roof vent fan that was located in the kitchen area and installed the 3rd a/c unit the power wiring and thermostat wiring were already there tucked up in the ceiling.However this new unit is not ducted like the other two and it freeblows inside the living area and it will cool that area down great I tested it in 95 degree weather last Sunday.Only drawback is you can not have the bedroom air on and the 3rd air unit on at the same time because they are both betting power from the same circuit Keystone had installed a relay behind the breaker panel that senses which unit will get powered based on which unit is turned on.This is a safety factor and should not be wired around for anybody that would think otherwise.I also found one of my supply air vents in the living area was not blowing air out of it so I popped the grill off the vent and found a 3" circle of styrofoam from where they cut a hole in the duct with a hole saw and left the cut out in the duct where it made its way over to the vent opening and also found they had drilled a hole through the top side of the duct with the mandrell from the hole saw when they made the hole for the vent.I called Keystone about this the lady I spoke with didn't seem to care but I told her that this is something they should make sure is not happening all the time or there are going to be a lot of new Montana's out there with bad airflow issues.Also I wonder if they know how to use a vacuum cleaner at the factory every time I open up the ceiling or expose anything I'm finding a hole lot of saw dust.Thanks quality control.Good Luck with your Montana. Johnny V.

[jeff_banning]

Thanks Johnny V, hopping to not have to go through that pain or expense on a brand new camper. You have way more tolerance on this expensive of a camper for Keystone's poor engineering and design.

[oldelmer1]

You can try going to RV.NET and post your note to Marcus Lamont, President of Camping World, maybe he will respond.

https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/f...tings/forum/95

[happy camper x2]

Jeff
To back what Johnny V stated. They are adding two more returns and 2 to 4 more dumps to our 353. The tech states these units are choked down. They added one more return and the temp dropped 7 degrees within a few minutes. They are documenting each step hopefully a service bulletin well come from this and repairs will be a lor easier and who know they may fix them before they leave the factory.

[Dixie Flyer]

Originally Posted by happy camper x2

WOW Having the same a/c issues as you. It seems to be consistent with the whisper quit units.It has been a slow process (going on thirty days) dealing with Keystone and CW. There is a series of fixes on the a/c problems got number 4 approved yesterday and CW started the fix today. Good luck

So what is the fix?

[Dixie Flyer]

Originally Posted by happy camper x2

Jeff
To back what Johnny V stated. They are adding two more returns and 2 to 4 more dumps to our 353. The tech states these units are choked down. They added one more return and the temp dropped 7 degrees within a few minutes. They are documenting each step hopefully a service bulletin well come from this and repairs will be a lor easier and who know they may fix them before they leave the factory.

Okay I see what the fix is. So I will talk with Camping World to see what help I can get.

[happy camper x2]

1. motherboard
2. tape plenum to prevent churning of air at the a/c
clean out debris
3. check for correct location of a/c over plenum
4. put pvc pipe in return air ducts to keep open
5. extra returns and drops

With Johnny V adding a third air and not connecting to the ducts and just allowing the air to dump in the camper would bypass all the constrictions. This a good fix except our campers have an issue that needs addressed. Plus the additional expense of adding the ac and wiring.
I should hear from CW tomorrow will update hopefullywith good news.

[jeff_banning]

Originally Posted by happy camper x2

1. motherboard
2. tape plenum to prevent churning of air at the a/c
clean out debris
3. check for correct location of a/c over plenum
4. put pvc pipe in return air ducts to keep open
5. extra returns and drops

With Johnny V adding a third air and not connecting to the ducts and just allowing the air to dump in the camper would bypass all the constrictions. This a good fix except our campers have an issue that needs addressed. Plus the additional expense of adding the ac and wiring.
I should hear from CW tomorrow will update hopefullywith good news.

Pete - Are they pulling the ceiling out of your new camper to add the drops and returns? The idea makes me cringe... good luck brother, hope this works.

[happy camper x2]

no they are using a hole saw and drilling up from the inside to add the drops same with the returns drilling holes in corners and then using jig saw to connect

[happy camper x2]

they will tape and then secure drop with screws and then the directional cover will go over sounds like the way they do it at the factory. except they are not standing on the ceiling

[happy camper x2]

fingers crossed and hoping it works

[TELECOOL]

Pete,
If you have a chance to get any pictures of what they are doing would appreciate you sharing them I called the factory to find out how the duct is run in mine and wouldn't share that information I guess they are afraid I would fix it correctly.

Thanks
Johnny V

[happy camper x2]

will post pics and results when I get my unit back

[happy camper x2]

okay
got a call from CW today all repairs or modification completed his morning. They pulled camper out on the lot and let the inside temp get up to 102 turned on a/c and in less than 4 hours it was 70 degrees inside. Do not know if both units or just rear was running..Due to work I will pick up Tuesday and post pics.