Montana vs Cardinal - Page 2 - Montana Owners Club

sreigle · 04-01-2006, 04:32 AM

Excellent choice! Congratulations and welcome to MOC!

I saw your mention of Durango so checked your profile and see you are from Farmington, NM. We were not too far from you back on 3/14 when we overnighted at Cortez. We drove over to Durango for a looksee and dinner. Beautiful area. We will have to go back when we can spend some time there.

Montana_5621 · 04-01-2006, 04:42 AM

Glad you were able to enjoy some of the Durango area. Hope to see you on the road sometime!

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by sreigle

Excellent choice! Congratulations and welcome to MOC!

I saw your mention of Durango so checked your profile and see you are from Farmington, NM. We were not too far from you back on 3/14 when we overnighted at Cortez. We drove over to Durango for a looksee and dinner. Beautiful area. We will have to go back when we can spend some time there.

Mac · 04-01-2006, 07:10 AM

I live in Colorado and don't get down to Durango enough, it would be my ideal place to retire and live but I think you have to be independently wealthy or own a business or something to be able to live there. Very pretty area though and just across the border you have beautiful places in NM as well.

mac

MIMF2 · 04-01-2006, 07:58 AM

Al,

Trust me when I say, the Montana WILL give you more bang for your buck than a Cardinal will. I am not showing any partiality here. In my position, I'm not supposed to.

Dale
MIMF
MIMF2

sreigle · 04-02-2006, 06:32 AM

In case you are wondering, MIMF works for Lippert, the company who builds the frame, landing gear and slide mechanisms, etc.

dsprik · 04-02-2006, 05:09 PM

We too were looking at all brands for several months. When Cheryl walked into the Montana 3400RL it was like a lightning stike. Done deal. We have looked at a few other brands since - the last one was a 38' Dutchman Grand Junction, which I kind of liked (seperate full bathroom, but smaller living area because of that), but she just shook her head. She must see something. I am extremely biased because of this forum (family). Cheryl is not on the forum, so she is "untainted" (???). There is just nothing else out there that has hit her like this did.

This goes against her nature, as evidenced by when we shopped for a 10 year diamond ring for her (no, I do NOT pick those things out myself - I just buy em after she decides. Tried it the other way way - didn't work...), and everytime she thought she really liked a particular ring, I talked her into checking out one more jewery store. This continued, and she kept changing her mind, until we found a really nice diamond ring (that I liked the price of). She has NOT done this with her Montana. She has locked down tightly on this one, and I can't shake her. That's why I say that Montana must have something special going on.

Wrenchtraveller · 04-15-2006, 05:28 PM

Cardinal was my other choice but I am real big on stairway safety. See my post on the MARS forum.

Anyway, something that makes a stairway safe ( besides a handrail ) is that the steps are the same from top to bottom. Cardinals have a wooden storage box for the bottom step and the other two are carpet steps.

One thing Forest River does is give bigger payloads by having 6000 pound axles on the same size model as my 2955RL. The 5000 pound axles I have make for a fairly skinny payload but it is enough.

Last but not least, we felt the Cardinal felt like an RV, the Montanas feel like a home.

RC and Samantha · 04-15-2006, 06:15 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Wrenchtraveller

Last but not least, we felt the Cardinal felt like an RV, the Montanas feel like a home.

I have to agree with Don & Donna, ours feels more like a home.

Personally I was not impressed with the Cardinals we saw when we were shopping. Now that was back in 2002 and I certainly didn't see all of the Cardinal models, maybe they have changed. I do think you get a greater bang for your buck with a Montana. If we were to ever buy another fiver it would be a Montana do be sure.

Patty

sreigle · 04-20-2006, 02:01 PM

Don, I had the impression 6000 lb axles were the lightest axles used on the Montanas. Have you checked to make sure yours are 5,000 lb? I have been wrong before so would appreciate hearing if you are sure of the 5,000 number on the new 2955's. Thanks.

OntMont · 04-21-2006, 05:38 AM

This kind of "off topic" I suppose, but I recently saw an Open Road opened up for body repair, believe me, under the skin, there is no comparison between an Open Road and a Montana, I don't know about Cardinal, but I will repeat what I have told others: "If you can possibly get to Goshen and Elkart in N. Indiana; take the plant tours and see for yourself what goes into each brand".

richfaa · 04-21-2006, 08:22 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by OntMont

This kind of "off topic" I suppose, but I recently saw an Open Road opened up for body repair, believe me, under the skin, there is no comparison between an Open Road and a Montana, I don't know about Cardinal, but I will repeat what I have told others: "If you can possibly get to Goshen and Elkart in N. Indiana; take the plant tours and see for yourself what goes into each brand".

Amen to that..We have been to the Cardinal , Coachman, Jayco, Nu-Wa
plants and 3 of the keystone facilities. This is where you see the difference in Rv's.I know this is not possible but I would not a RV without having first toured the plant...

2-in-the-woods · 05-08-2006, 03:30 AM

We have an 2001 Cardinal 32' with 3 slides which we have enjoyed fulltiming in. We have had no problems in the six years we have had it. So needless to say it was a good unit for us. We have just ordered a 2007 Montana 3500. We are excited about this purchase and hope it will fill the needs our Cardinal did.

Broome101 · 05-08-2006, 10:04 AM

Tell me why you chose Montana over Cardinal this time, layout? Cardinal has a new model out that we feel in love with at the show, full size bunks that slide out in rear room with it's own sink and toilet, plus you can close the kids off when trying to talk with adults. Nice rig.

2-in-the-woods · 05-08-2006, 04:28 PM

We chose the Montana 3500 because of the floor plan mainly and close to home for service center.

Kimmrg · 05-14-2006, 09:29 AM

Congrats on choosing the 3475. We have been fulltiming for over a year in ours and we love it, even with two large goldens packed in with us. Safe travels.

Bill and Bobbi · 05-16-2006, 02:11 PM

Good luck and happy times in whatever you decide on! The Cardinal was our 2nd choice but we felt the Montana 3400rl would be "the one" and the last we buy for a long time. The funny part of the deal was that my wife didn't like the sofa in the Cardinals -the seat back was at a funny/uncomfortable angle for her back. Why pay the bucks only to have to find another sofa right away? Congrats!

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