Common Sense Improvements

[bobsals]

My wife and I have had our 2010 Mountaineer for over a year now and have made many mods and improvements to the unit from the time we took delivery of it. Many mods we really could not or expect the factory to do, so this is just a list of things that to us is just common sense changes or additions that the factory could do. They are not in any order of importance.

* Put the electric switch for the hot water heater inside the unit and not inside the exterior cover.
* Put the spare tire on the rear of the unit so it is more easily accessed.
* Incorporate a slide out pantry in all units
* Install latches to hold all exterior doors in the open position.
* Get rid of or relocate exterior speakers to a lower more useable location and add exterior volume control. Ours are located at the top of the livingroom slide - RIDICULOUS !!!
* Raise or relocate wall lamp near table. Our inside chair hit the wall lamp. I ended up junking the lamp and installed a swing arm lamp.
* Improve integrity of the utility compartment access port. When water drains out of the compartment it can get into the insulation. The 4" round opening needs to be sealed up better.

My suggestion to Keystone is, make it mandatory for your designers to live in their units for a week or so and also have to change a flat. You will see improvement after that.

[HOOK]

I like the spare under the belly, leaves me able to use cargo tray, or bicycle rack. 2011 3455sa W/H elec. swich is inside on control panel. Agree with door holdbacks. 3455sa has 2 pantrys. Iwould like for rear hitch to be 2" and stronger.

[Wayne and Carolyn Mathews]

I second the need for every unit having a slide-out pantry. Our 3585SA has no good place to store canned goods safely.

My lamp problem is a bit different, but it's still one that needs attention: The lamp that sits on the small table between the two recliners is 1, so lightweight that it falls over easily, and 2, is at a height that makes the shade on it hit right at at eye-level, therefore producing no usable reading light and blocking anything that's at eye level view outside the nice, big window. We are replacing the lamp with a heavier one, which may or may not solve the problem because the recliners frequently bump the table when we move in those chairs. I'd like to have an adjustable-height hanging lamp over that small table rather than a lamp. However, in our rig, those chairs, table, and lamp are in a slideout, which makes hard-wiring that kind of lamp difficult. I'm not sure the ceiling there could support a hanging lamp anyway. If I can solve the ceiling strength problem, I am going to go back to the 1970s and put a lightweight hanging light there, because I do have a plug in one wall of the slide-out, and I can plug the light in there. When we travel, I'll just unhook the light from the ceiling hook.

Carolyn

[JimF]

I thought our 2007 3400RL was so perfect that I spent the next 3 years modifying everything in it. By 2011 we had a custom built product that was perfect and I sold it for as much as I paid for it, so there is something to say for doing the mods yourself.

[Rancher Will]

I suggest a better quality inspection before a Montana leaves the factory.

Our 3750FL arrived at our dealer (RV America) with no pull rod attached to the Black Water Tank. The dealer had to open the underbelly to install a pull rod for use to empty the tank after I discovered the problem on inspection at delivery. Also the three waste rod ports inside the waste control port were mislabeled. I relabled then to match their use.

The remote controle unit arrived with dead batteries also. The Dealer installed new batteries and took care of this also.

These were minor problems but readely noticed if really inspected.

[bobsals]

quote:Originally posted by Wayne and Carolyn Mathews

I second the need for every unit having a slide-out pantry. Our 3585SA has no good place to store canned goods safely.

My lamp problem is a bit different, but it's still one that needs attention: The lamp that sits on the small table between the two recliners is 1, so lightweight that it falls over easily, and 2, is at a height that makes the shade on it hit right at at eye-level, therefore producing no usable reading light and blocking anything that's at eye level view outside the nice, big window. We are replacing the lamp with a heavier one, which may or may not solve the problem because the recliners frequently bump the table when we move in those chairs. I'd like to have an adjustable-height hanging lamp over that small table rather than a lamp. However, in our rig, those chairs, table, and lamp are in a slideout, which makes hard-wiring that kind of lamp difficult. I'm not sure the ceiling there could support a hanging lamp anyway. If I can solve the ceiling strength problem, I am going to go back to the 1970s and put a lightweight hanging light there, because I do have a plug in one wall of the slide-out, and I can plug the light in there. When we travel, I'll just unhook the light from the ceiling hook.

Carolyn

Carolyn, I just installed track lighting over our counter area and needed a place to anchor it. I used a magnet to detect where a ceiling joist was so could drill into it rather than just the wood ceiling. If you have a fairly strong magnet (I used a telescoping one), it should tell you exactly where a metal stud is.

[Wayne and Carolyn Mathews]

Thanks, bobsals, for the suggestion. My son-in-law has a magnet, too, so I think I'll assign him the "get me a better light" problem. It's so nice to have sons, son-in-laws, and future son-in-laws to help us out occasionally!

Carolyn

[richfaa]

Note that at the fall rally we have "show and tell" showing all the mods we have done. The Montana folks are always there with notepads taking notes and many of the mods have shown up on later models.

[indy roadrunner]

I for one like the hot water switch outside. It reminds me to open the pressure valve to insure there is water in the tank before I turn the switch on that way I don't "dry fry" a heating element.

[HamRad]

Isn't the switch on the HWH for the electric only? The switch on the inside activates the propane only doesn't it? I'm getting confused. Another way we control the electric element in the HWH is at the breaker box. When boondocking we turn the HWH breaker to the off position. Dennis

[drknapp]

quote:Originally posted by HamRad

Isn't the switch on the HWH for the electric only? The switch on the inside activates the propane only doesn't it? I'm getting confused. Another way we control the electric element in the HWH is at the breaker box. When boondocking we turn the HWH breaker to the off position. Dennis

On ours we have a switch for both gas and electric inside. There is a switch by the hwh outside also. I don't know when they started adding both inside.

[HamRad]

Drknapp,
Thanks for the info. How cool that they've added a switch inside. Ours is an older model. Hopefully we'll be upgrading in the near future. Looking forward to all the cool dodads that they've added over the years. HamRad

[bobsals]

I'm pretty sure that all Atwood hot water heaters have both the electric and gas switches on the same control. Those of us that have Suburban HWH, the electric switch is located on the exterior of the coach in the HWH compartment. Some people just leave the switch in the "ON" position and control it by just using the breaker to turn it off. We just added a switch between the breaker and the HWH to be able to control it from inside.

[worknomore]

New Montana's (2009+, I think), with Suburbans have the inside switche installed @ the factory. Older ones don't - I added the switch inside also on our '05 2955RL before we got our 2011...