First Five months with a 3910FL - Montana Owners Club

1retired06 · 11-11-2014, 02:09 AM

Over past 5 months, really shook the unit down, and now in Florida for the winter. Overall, seems well built, everything has worked, and we really like the unit. Some things that may be of interest to others with 2015 units:
-Round feet on the LCI levelers were finger tight, and two were ready to fall off. Tighted.
-Door design with new hinges poor. Installed a standard two-piece door latch
-Both AC/Heat ducting full of sawdust. Continue to vacuum out, and still coming back.
-Pantry shelving has no lip. Open the door and stuff falls out. Got some oak trim, stained to match the cabinetry and installed. Same problem with the shelving in the back closet, have not fixed that yet.
-Nice door to all the switches, but too dark. Found a small LED light, battery operated, that lights up everything when you open the switch panel door.
-Bedroom slide leaked. Found the bottom strip running front to back was loose and had not been caulked. removed, caulked, replaced.
-One of the two toilets will not hold water. Will likely replace with a dometic 320.
-Wife used one of the table chairs, as a footstool and broke the seat. Was able to unstaple the seat material and replace the foam board seat with 1/2 inch plywood and reassemble. In the process found the chairs to be greatly inferior in quality to the ones in our previous three units. Got the wife a footstool. Will likely replace the chairs with better ones.
-Fenders over the wheel wells, as well as the skirting were very loose. Screws vibrated out, particularly where the bottom skirting was supported. Replaced with larger screws and locktight.
-Backside of bed, where the floor meets the wall there was sufficient space where you could actually see down into the storage compartment. Not structural, so sealed up with foam insulation, and caulk on the inside of the storage area.
-Slam locks would keep coming undone. Installed washers under the latchs attached to the frame, raising them sufficiently for a good grab.
-Half Bath Door starting popping. Hinges has vibrated loose, and realigned and tightened using locktight.
-Extended crown molding through the entire front and bedroom. Did not look right to me stopping at the slide and not continuing.
-Thought the lifts on the cargo doors were pretty cool until I realized that you have to bend under them to get in there.
-Had the leveler popping. Added Fork oil, and no more popping.
-The door side slide was creeping open on me. Checked hydraulic lines and found several finger tight. Tightened them up, not sure if that was the actual problem, but no more creep.
-Floor slide (plastic) for one of the panel doors broke. Installed replacement added one more for each door, Home Depot.
All minor irritants, but thought might be of value to others.

**DQDick** · 11-11-2014, 03:29 AM

Thanks for sharing!s I'm sure you'll be a great help to new owners as they look for fixes to similar problems.

sambam · 11-11-2014, 03:34 AM

Good thing you're handy. How many trips back to the dealer does that translate to?

bigred715 · 11-11-2014, 05:12 AM

No excuse for any of those problems. Poor workmanship, and will continue since they don't care other than the bottom line to sell lots of units. The RV industry is pathetic in their quality control. We can't fault the Chinese when we accept the same quality crap from our own country.

bigskyjimmy · 11-11-2014, 05:21 AM

Yep join the leaking toilet club

,I did the same thing and replaced with a Dometic 310,and like you 1 broken dining room chair cushion from kneeling on it too hard(don't do that gang)replaced on warranty ,other than that it has been trouble free for me in the first 4 months of ownership and me and my wife are really happy with the 2015 and we had great luck with our 2012 as well

,seems like yours are pretty minor (SO FAR) ENJOY FLORIDA you dirty dog while I'm up here in the Rain ,cold and WIND(60MPH Gusts) on the WA State Coast

1retired06 · 11-11-2014, 08:16 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by sambam

Good thing you're handy. How many trips back to the dealer does that translate to?

zero

dfb · 08-23-2016, 03:41 PM

Kids today have no pride in their work... It's just to hard for them.

dfb · 08-23-2016, 03:43 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by dfb

Kids today have no pride in their work... It's just to hard for them.

as breaking bad's Jesse PINKMAN would say,,, HANG ON ********.....it gets worse. Every single time we have taken ours out, something has broke.

EDITED BY ADMIN FOR PROFANITY SINCE YOU WERENT REFERRING TO CANINES.

bigskyjimmy · 08-23-2016, 04:40 PM

Pretty Lame Digging up almost 2 year old posts and Come on man and you might want to get a handle on the double posts you are responding to you're own posts like you are talking to yourself

dfb · 09-06-2016, 06:51 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by dfb

Kids today have no pride in their work... It's just too hard for them.

jameswbarton · 09-06-2016, 10:53 AM

It would be nice to have seen some really truthful posts on this website before I bought my 2016 Montana HC37fFL. I am so glad I did not drive it off the lot to start full timing as I would not have made it from Frankenuth to Flint over the entire summer. Do you all "that are so positive" really think you are keeping a resale value high. I thought that I was buying a reasonable priced Quality Product with a good company that stands behind their work. The fact I have not been able to use it for it's intended purpose in the last 100 days since I drove it off the lot tells a story. I would not recommend buying one with a total lack of dealer and company support to my worst enemy. These are facts in the here and now and obviously for the last 2 years or more looking a older posts.

richfaa · 09-07-2016, 04:51 AM

The wise Rv buyer does the homework before the purchase. We were on this forum and others one year before we purchased our first 5th wheel. We live within 300 miles of the Ind plants and toured most all of them in that time.

Many here do not use the Montana as hard as others like us and many just do not have problems.I do not understand that but that is the way it is. The post and list of issues by 1retired06 IMO are typical of any Montana off the line.It was that way with our first 06 3400 and now with our 13 3402 Big Sky.Nothing changed in terms of build quality from 2006 to 2013.
We were well informed of the probable issues . We were also disappointed that we had them.Unlike you we received good service from dealers and Keystone.I also do not understand why many do not.

jameswbarton · 09-07-2016, 05:24 AM

What I do not understand is that two of the three dealers blame everything on Keystone and the selling dealer refused to fix the issues when keystone refused to pay them and lied to me on the phone several times concerning the status of the repairs.

Over the years I parked next to dozens of Montana owners and all of them had good luck with their units so I must assume that the newer units from 2014 and 2016 absolutely are crap. I was shopping for a Grand Design, a Jayco, or a Montana I had years of research and actually though General RV was a good dealer that I had been using for parts or many years.

If We had been friends when you recommended a Montana to Me that friendship would have been shattered. I read that Iretired had all those issues on purchase but did not ever take it back for warranty service so what does his positive Keystone comments mean. He choose not to deal with Keystone knowing it was useless?

Instead of arguing with new Montana owners that have bought a load of problems why not put some time into a searchable data base of good dealers. Put together a better PDI list. Quit telling those of us that got taken, that we are stupid and uninformed. We are out of pocket unexpected thousands and have not been as lucky as you!

I called the current warranty dealer today to see if my 5 weeks on order parts came in but they have not even when expedited through owner relations. Maybe I will go 40 miles and visit my RV in the dealers parking lot today.

How much free stuff do you get from Keystone for exhaustively building up their Quality?

I for one would like to go camping once before the snow flies in Michigan on a HC 375 FL that I bought on 2 June. So far all I have is a few nights finding problem after problem and trying to deal with a manufacturer who has no customer service.

bigskyjimmy · 09-07-2016, 02:52 PM

Your Assumption would be wrong that the 2014-2016 Montana's are all Crap If you are a Fulltimer like me that travels a few thousand miles a year and have meet A LOT of newer Monty Owners and I would say 90 percent are happy,right now I am next to a 2016 3820FK and he loves it ,so just because you got a Crap one and are REALLY POed and I get it but IT HAPPENS and that Sucks for you and I hope you get things fixed so you can Calm down .... Here is a thought How about for ONCE you post something that is not so Toxic you are a BUZZ KILL on this Forum Man

richfaa · 09-07-2016, 03:28 PM

If I thought I got free stuff I would be a Montana cheerleader.

"What I do not understand is that two of the three dealers blame everything on Keystone and the selling dealer refused to fix the issues when keystone refused to pay them and lied to me on the phone several times concerning the status of the repairs" .. Sounds like you got really horrible dealers but then again I got really good dealers. Since we are on the road a lot we have had good dealers in Quartzsite, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Florida when we needed repairs. We have had good service from Keystone and not had a problem with ordering parts. We have Camping connection in Florida on speed dial. We have never ,to my knowledge been lied to. We have also had a lot of problems just about everyone of them related to poor build quality.

You are having a really bad time James. I thought my luck was bad.

jameswbarton · 09-07-2016, 03:30 PM

Sorry the truth affects your tender sensibilities. I mean no offense.

I Fulltimed for years and bought the Montana to Fulltime in. So far I have not made it from Frankenmuth to Flint.

I know 3 others who have far worse issues with Keystone and or General RV than I do.

I may post something positive if it ever comes back from the last three original problem items, a window replacement, a blind replacement, and fixing two cables blocking the front slide seals. I do not know why it has taken 5 weeks to get parts and fix these relatively simple issues.

Your warranty list on the proceeding page is far longer than my list but You chose not to use Keystone Warranty to fix the issues. I obviously know why you fixed them yourself, judging by my experience.

BTW I am very calm and hopefully a lot of the readers will know how Important it is to do a full PDI and use a dealer that goes out of their way to keep his customers Satisfied. I used the wrong Dealer in using General RV in Birch Run Mi, I missed a few critical items on my 1/2 day PDI and have paid for it the last three months.

Your site has been very informative as I now know that I must check all the suspension and axle hardware with a torque wrench and grease all the bearings as soon as I get it back and I must have to seal the basement since most of you state air leakage which will effect heating it.

How many HC 375 FL's have your parked next to?

bigskyjimmy · 09-07-2016, 03:46 PM

Tender sensibility????? LMAO!!

you got a POS WE GOT IT a long time ago from you're endless ANGRY posts, it is obvious you are using this Forum as a form of Therapy for your Issues and I hope it is helping

jameswbarton · 09-07-2016, 03:50 PM

I'm so glad you are getting the point.

1retired06 · 09-08-2016, 02:57 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by bigskyjimmy

Your Assumption would be wrong that the 2014-2016 Montana's are all Crap If you are a Fulltimer like me that travels a few thousand miles a year and have meet A LOT of newer Monty Owners and I would say 90 percent are happy,right now I am next to a 2016 3820FK and he loves it ,so just because you got a Crap one and are REALLY POed and I get it but IT HAPPENS and that Sucks for you and I hope you get things fixed so you can Calm down .... Here is a thought How about for ONCE you post something that is not so Toxic you are a BUZZ KILL on this Forum Man

bigskyjimmy is absolutely right on reference Monty owners. We spend 9-10 months on the road, and the vast vast majority of Montana owners we run into are extremely happy with and enjoying their units.

jameswbarton · 09-08-2016, 04:51 AM

I got good news today. The Factory Called Me today. The window ordered on August 5th is due in to Goshen next week so I may get my coach back the middle of September. BTW I like you all have never met an unhappy Montana Owner but I now know 4 of us? Just my luck.

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