New Montana???

[JnSWells]

I don't want to make anyone mad, but I am a bit curious.. We have on order a new Montana thinking it was an upgrade from our 2005 Cedar Creek. I have done a lot of research awaiting the arrival and find a lot of folks leery of the tires and replacing brand new beds.. We are still on the original tires (G rated) and the bed is as comfortable as when we first purchased. (As good as home or better) I thought of Montana as upper quality and wonder why you think Keystone does not put the better rated tires and quality mattress on such a nice unit? I am still excited about our new rv but I find having to buy a new mattress and replacing tires on a $70,000 unit questionable.. We ordered the 3100RL, do you think tires should be replaced or is the weight on this model ok??

[DarMar]

Well Jim & Suzanne what can we say??? We are currently on our 3rd Montana and overall have been very pleased with each of our purchases. You are not alone in your thinking about the tires and mattress. On our last, a 2010 3455, the first thing we did was switch the residential mattress from our 07 model into the new and told them to keep the new matt with our old trade. The second thing we did was put g614's under our new unit. Why Keystone tends to skimp in these two very important areas is puzzling, although there is some progress toward upgraded tires as an option. Good luck and congrats on your 5er, in the long run we are sure you will be pleased. We look forward to your future posts!!!

[DQDick]

X2 on being happy with our purchase. We also took the residential mattress from our trade-in TT and transferred it to the Monty and replaced the tires. Montana's can now be ordered with G614's, but it's an option. Keystone, like many other brands, dealers generally sell more than one brand of RV. Keystone claims that if they put expensive tires on the rigs to start with they would be at a competitive disadvantage, price wise, with the other brands on the dealers lot. If you check other forums you'll see that Chinese tires are a major complaint from owners of most other brands so maybe their right. On some of the large forums like Good Sam or Escapees it's not unusual to see folks interested in price first and quality or safety second. By putting the saved money into interior goodies they think they have a better chance of making the sale.

[CATCRAW]

I guess it is all a matter of opinion. Our new 2011 Montana has a very comfortable pillow top mattress which we love. The tires - although we have not yet had an issue, are being replaced before any trips in the Spring. Better safe then sorry. Other then that we love our choice!

[NCFischers]

We changed the Marathons for BF Goodrich Commercial TA's and added a four inch memory foam pan on the mattress.

[JnSWells]

Maybe I will try and keep our mattress also.. As for the tires I don't see why they can't put the better grade on the more expensive Keystone products, list price between Cougar and higher priced models are around 20,000, thinking that price difference could well pay for better tires.. and VERY happy consumers.. I think in the end we will be happy with our choice.. By the way.. this is Suzanne and thank you for all the info and happy camping to all...

[DarMar]

Welcome to the MOC family Suzanne and sorry for that oversight on my part. I have edited my original post and all I can say is it's a good thing my DW looks over my shoulder most of the time, otherwise I probably would be a rudderless ship.

We, as in Maureen & I look forward to all your future posts, take care!!!

[jimcol]

Suzanne, Don't be so hard on yourself or Keystone. Everyone that does research on an item after they purchase it always has some "Wish I had known that" issues. Not every mattress ever shipped on a Montana is/was bad. We are still sleeping on the original and love it. It would not matter which mattress Keystone put in their product someone would be unhappy. That is why the market is full of different mattress manufactures and styles. Not everyone has had problems with their stock tires. We got 11,00 miles out of ours before a defect became apparent. We were lucky enough to replace them before they failed and caused damage. While the stock tires have a bad reputation on this and other RV forums remember we tend to only hear the bad. I often wonder what the % is of those that are still rolling without a defect or failure. (I must admit knowing what I know now about these China Bombs I would use it as a negotiating point if and when I ever bought another RV) If tire failure rates ever get high enough to effect the number of sales Keystone would change the tire brands in a minute and reflect it in their MSRP.
Having said all this I hope you enjoy your new unit as much as we have enjoyed ours for the last 6 years. Jim

[sfish]

We did what Jim and Vickie did and are very happy.

[HOOK]

We have owned several brands in 40 yrs. Did two years of research before buying our 2010. I'm satisfied that I could not have purchased more for my money. we have a very nice mattress at home but chose to add a memory foam topper, very comfortable, sowe followed suit in the Monty, very comfortable. We did have tire trouble, but were taken care of by Goodyear very well. I think you will find your Monty very satisfactory. Keystone is an excellent company. Larry

[Recumbent]

We put 7k (3 tires anyway)on the OEM China Bombs and had the one blow-out at 5k. That was it for us as we had read many posts about those tires. We put on 4 G614 tires and feel confident about traveling. The old tires are resting in a cool dark and dry concrete block room at the farm.

[indy roadrunner]

We have the original pillowtop mattress along with 1 inch memory foam and love it. I sleep better on it than I do my Sleep Comfort in the stick house. I had the China Mission's on for 3 years without any problems and switched to BFG Commercial T/A's. I think any RV builder will cut corners to save. They build a recreational vehicle to be used as such where as we turn them into second or full time homes. We subject them to forces stronger than earthquakes IE (I65 in Birmingham) and things will break or loosen up. Try building a stick house for what you pay for an expense RV and see what you get.

[grampachet]

Our 2008 has original tires with over 10,000 miles and only problem was running over a truck mud flap and puncturing two tires at less than 200 miles.
After these were repaired we have had no problems. Our matteress, original, sleeps us very well. We are very eased with our choice.

[Lee F.]

We love the pillow top king mattress that came with our 2011. I expressed my concerns about the Chinese tires to the dealer and he swapped them out for Maxxis tires for free prior to delivery. I had Maxxis tires on my last rig and never had any problems. I've been unable to find anything other than positive comments about them in my research.

[waynemoore]

Just my 2 cents. I have a 2010 Montana Mountaineer. Bought it new in 2010. Have about 12,000 miles on it. I lost a tire last December while driving to Southern Ca. I was on I-40 just east of Ludlow. Of course being out in the boondocks I changed it myself. (That must have been a site to see). I drove on in to Ca and set up to have ALL the tires replaced on my way home. At the tire store America’s Tires I was told that the Goodyear Marathons on my rig were made in 2008. The new ones I make sure were made in 2011, 3 were made in the 33rd week and one in the 38th week of the year. All that being said here is what I learned. 1. check the manufacture date on the tires when you buy your Montana. For the price of these rigs one should at least get fresh tires. 2. I replace marathons with you guess it with marathons. So I will be doing this all over again in 12,000 miles. Then G614 are going on my rig then. 3. I had no damage to my rig because I have a tire temp and pressure monitor system on the rig. I saw the pressure drop to 66 lbs and knew I had a problem. That just paid for the system. I do hope this helps others as I have learned so much from this forum

[Sinterior]

Our 2011 came with a pillow top mattress, and we put a 3" memory foam on top, and like it better than our new bed at home with a combo memory foam/gell combo topper.
I haven't a problem with the Marathons, going back to 2004 on other fivers, but hearing about so many problems, will change them out, probably with Maxxis, even though I have a TPMS.

[richfaa]

We have had 5 Rv's and all the mattresses IMO were junk. We donated the one in our 06 Montana to charity before we ever slept on it. we also did not have any problems with our Chinese tires althogh we changed them out after @ 10K miles.

[steelpony5555]

Ok I'm another brand new Montana owner, someone please tell me to stop worring too. I am not worried about the mattress. We already have a memory foam topper, but the mattress in the Montana must be an upgrade cause it seems good to go. I already knew the graphics are worth the paper they are printed on and I am ok with that. The Marathon tires I already knew were gonna be trash canned as soon as I roll of the lot. Gonna change them out for the BF Goodrichs I have had on my current trailer for the past 4 years with no problems. So, so far so good. But now I am worried bout the water and waste tanks. We travel a lot and stop at the occasional Walmart to overnite, so we need water and need the waste tanks while traveling. I have read numerous posts on how the tanks are prone to split and leak because Forest River did not put in enought support. I am used to my Alpenlite which has a 100 gal fresh tank and 50 gal waste tanks and have traveled many miles with them full or at least half full with no problems. So is this a hit or miss problem or is it fairly common? I don't really want to have to drop the under belly just to put in some strapping. Then there is the problem of the black tank flusher and something about a pressure relief valve inside the wall?????? And not to mention that the Montana Artic pkg isn't worry 2 cents according to some folks.. So is there anything I left out. So please tell me why I just spent the last 2 months looking for and then purchasing a Montana?? I realize that you will hear the bad before you hear the good stuff, but just seems there are some real issues here.

[snfexpress]

We have had two Montana's - our first was a 2006 3400RL, built in 2005 that had the black and grey tanks suspended by their lips; our second is our 2009 Big Sky 340RLQ which has the tanks suspended by their lips, but they are in a different position and the lips appear to be much thicker. So far, knock on wood, we have not had problems and we boondock and Wal-dock a lot! We often run with a full tank of fresh water and have traveled with our black and grey tanks half or more full.

[HOOK]

If at all possible be sure to drain your black and gray tanks before travelling as water weighs 8 lbs per gallon. The water movement adds stress to your tanks. This is true for all brands. I think you are not hearing as many of the well satisfied customers as those with problems. Most of the complaints on here are just to ask for help and are not terribly unsatisfied customers. IMHO, I think most of us truly are happy with our Montys, I know we are. Larry PS We returned from a trip today and DW said she thought she slept better in Monty than Stick.