problems with their rv - Montana Owners Club

Montana_4325 · 08-05-2005, 10:40 AM

Hi everyone,

We have a brand new 2005 Montana. We have had it a year in a couple of days. Has anyone had any problems with there unit? We have had a lot of problems with this unit and everyone just acts like its normal. Can anyone give me advice on what to do? Out of the almost 12 months that we have had it we have had brake problems- which the dealership did not belive us- and that took 10 months for them to find the problem and fix. We have had 2 of our 3 slides leak, 3 windows leak and our black tank has holes and cracks in it- which does not pose for a very nice time outside of the RV. It has taken us a month to get the black tank from Keystone they say. If anyone could help us or let us know of someone that can help please advise.

Thanks,
Brian and Stephanie
voltageknight@yahoo.com

steves · 08-05-2005, 10:49 AM

Suggest you contact Keystone directly and see about getting repairs done at a different place. Customer Service # is 574-535-2100

bob n pam · 08-05-2005, 11:23 AM

First of all, welcome to the forum. You will folks with answers to most of your questions here. Ours is a 2001 model and we did have some problems in the beginning, but nothing really major, just extremely irritating. Keystone was always really good about covering everything under warranty.

Pam

RVWheels · 08-05-2005, 12:44 PM

voltageknight,
Welcome to the MOC. I'd suggest you just start reading in the various areas of the Forum to see what is where. Or start off with a "search". That will find specific info that you may be interested in. All of the items you mentioned are things that have been discussed at least once if not many times.

Enjoy you stay with us.

RVWheels/MOC admin

gungho · 08-05-2005, 02:02 PM

I will give you a direct reply- YES! My last coach we had 7 years and never had a problem with it. Our new and repaired many times Montana we have had since Jan. Have had 12 items repaired at dealers under warrenty in the first three months and i have fixed close to that many myself. Poor quality control and equally poor dealer work.

Parrothead · 08-05-2005, 03:33 PM

On the other hand..................there are many of us who have few problems, think our units are wonderful and have very good luck with Keystone.
Happy trails.........................

RADHAZJOE · 08-05-2005, 04:41 PM

I concur with gungho. We have been living in this thing full time since 1 June 2005. The form, fit, and finish are horrific. It truly was put together by druggies. We still do not have a functioning fantastic fan. Fortunately, by reading this forum, our dealer was able to do preventive repairs, etc. for the dangerous items. We love the layout, etc. but man, I am an engineer and I have been challenged daily by this and that. I have kept a log and if things don't settle down soon, I will seek legal redress.

richfaa · 08-06-2005, 02:53 AM

Radhazjoe..Good plan...

lightningjack11 · 08-06-2005, 06:13 AM

Wow! I strongly recommend seeking help through Customer Service or Jeff Rank if necessary. My experience with lawyers is once you get one your direct communication with Keystone will be lost. Besides the lawyer won't do you any good unless you can show that Keystone has refused to help you. Don't rely solely on the dealers Sometimes they don't want to be bothered. Send registered letters to customer service if you have too. My bet is they will help you. Lawyers should be last resort and could be an expensive one.

To tell you the truth I felt the same way once. I purchased a used Montana without warranty and found out the Montana Dealer did not perform a Safety Advisory upgrade on my unit. My first response was to get a lawyer but I held off. After about 3 trips to the dealer they finally admitted there was a safety issue. But I was put off. Contacted customer service directly bypassing the Florda rep and it went directly to Jeff. My unit recieve the very expensive upgrade within a week free of charge. If I had selected a lawyer route it would have been a huge mistake.

richfaa · 08-06-2005, 06:55 AM

Lightningack is correct about the lawyer as the last resort.He did say he was keeping a log, collecting data like a good engineer so he will have the "evidence" should he need it..However..I would go directly to Keystone as suggested..Tell you the truth the PRIMARY reason We are going to purchase a Montana over other comparable brands that we felt were just as good..or bad..as a keystone product is because of Keystones willingnes to correct your problems..Folks on this forum can provide names and phone numbers..give it a try. As far as quality and workmanship go in the RV industry in my book they all get a "F",,however Keystone tries to do better,They try to keep on top of the issues and they will satisy the customer..Now this is from someone who DOES NOT yet have a Montana but is the very reason we will buy one..

Glenn and Lorraine · 08-06-2005, 08:27 AM

Next month we will have owned our Montana for 2 years. In October we will have been fulltiming in our Montana for 2 full years. In those 2 years we have had but one problem with our rig and that was a sagging shower door which I was able to finally fix myself. After nearly 2 years of living in this rig I am totally convinced that the Montana is the absolute BEST BUY FOR THE BUCK!! No if's and's or but's about it, it is the BEST!!!

My suggestion to you and anyone else having problems with their Monty is to..

#1- contact the dealer and try to work through the problems with them.
#2- if the dealer can't/won't help than contact Keystone customer service via the telephone at 574-535-2100 and calmly explain the situation. Do not waste time with emails
#3- if customer service can't help you, which I seriously doubt, than using the same phone number contact Jeff Rank. I can almost promise you that you won't get through to Jeff but if you leave him a message and he will get back to you.
#4- forget the lawyers.

sreigle · 08-06-2005, 01:34 PM

I have to agree with the others. We've been very happy with our Montana and have been living in it fulltime for over 28 months. It was 3 years old last month. We are particularly happy with Keystone's response to the few problems we've had.

If you call Keystone, one thing I'd recommend is to be calm and polite. They are humans, too, and I found they are very reasonable although don't expect them to do things out of warranty as an automatic response.

campbud · 08-07-2005, 12:45 PM

We have had some problems with ours but hubby has fixed them(he likes to do it himself if he can...he doesnt like anyone messing w/his Monty! LOL) Our dealer is ordering us a new shade and we are taking one of the recliners in for replacement. We havent had any major problems, we have had ours for 6 months.

Garin1 · 08-29-2005, 02:59 AM

You know,, it does not really matter what name is on the front.I have heard people berate a brand of vehicle because they had one lemon out of how many????. Remember,, anything made by man can and probably will break. How we react to these little challenges is an indicator of the kind of people we are. So far, I have found that RV people are the best out there and if given a chance will jump at the opertunity to help. As for Keystone, they seem to bend over backwards to help thier customers.

sreigle · 08-29-2005, 04:31 PM

Well said, Garin1.

ronstan · 08-29-2005, 04:44 PM

We must have had a great dealer because the few minor problems we had were fixed by dealer. They even put new brakes on it because they would lock up sometimes and squeal. Not sure what that was but I was real satisfied. I would buy another Montana. Probably this one will last me as long as I camp.

drhowell · 08-29-2005, 05:26 PM

Just a couple of thoughts on the issue of lemons. We recently went through a lemon law case in CA on a 1992 Ford Explorer and won a full refund of the purchase price. Lengthy process and you need to document, document and document.

During conversations with our Lemon Law lawyer she explained how many RV type vehicles she had done cases on and it is amazing. Even Monoco and Prevost so it doesn't matter what you spend they can all be lemons if the dealerships or manufacturer does not stand behind them and fix the problems.

My 2001 3280RL has its problems but I knew they were there when I bought it used and expect to have to pay to have them fixed. But if I buy new I will expect the dealer and or Keystone to stand behind their product and I will accept nothing less no matter how far I have to go to make them perform. I will exhaust every option before taking legal action. But,if it takes legal action I will be prepared to go there. DOCUMENT! DOCUMENT! DOCUMENT!

And by the way the Lemon Law requires the company to pay your legal costs over and above any settlement you receive. My Lemon Law lawyer only takes cases they can win and you pay nothing up front or in the end. They only get paid if they win the case so they try very hard on your behalf. It is a slow process, ours took 8 months to get to mediation but we were very very satisfied.

richfaa · 08-30-2005, 04:11 AM

drhowell..You are my kind of guy..I will be doing exactly that when we get our new 3670.You are correct anything can be a lemon.There is a huge prevost here in town with a HUGE lemon painted on the rear with a lemon by prevost sign under the lemon. If more folks would hold the manufactures accountable instead of doing the "oh well that's to be expected" routine and doing nothing , perhaps, just perhaps..things would be better.Wife is real good at taking notes and the trusty digital camera will be at the ready..Hope everything we do is wasted time...but just in case???? Oh..we to were involved in a Lemon case with a Chevy some years ago..Was time consuming and lengthy..but we won..

drhowell · 08-31-2005, 05:42 AM

Thanks Rich. Interestingly the lawyer says about 90% or better of their cases are settled in the mediation step and never reach court. I think people have a fear of court and do not want to sue. If you have a good case, and the threshold is actually very low as to what is a good case, you will win something in the mediation step. It costs nothing but a few minutes of your time to go online and find a lemon law firm. They have online forms to evaluate your case and they will contact you if it looks winable.

Montana_3598 · 09-01-2005, 05:32 PM

Our experience with RV's or vehicles in general is that once you purchase, take a couple short runs in it and document all the gotchas. Take it back with a laundry list and have 'em fixed.

Pretty much an expected item. Our dealer here in Grand Rapids, MI has been great (American RV). Our unit is now 3 years old, and they just worked with the manufacturer(s) to REPLACE a bad A/C unit that's been giving us fits since we got it. Just gradually got worse - Dometic replaced it under warranty. The new unit had an unbalanced fan and the dealer didn't like the sound of it, so he replaced the fan too on his own. We had some grease seals break in the axles, the ones that broke were extended warranty fix and the two that didn't I was charged a very reasonable fee for what is generally a maintenance item.

I've found the key is to work with the dealers, be patient (some problems aren't easily found), but be firm. Mine has been very fair and worked very hard to keep us happy.

We too had the squealing brakes issue when we got ours new. All I did was mention it as part of our original "hit list" and they replaced the pads with a different brand on their own, stating that it really wasn't a problem, but it was annoying and they understood. No charge.

Hopefully you will be able to get all your issues resolved in a fair and equitable fashion. Remember, an RV is best described as a hole in the road you pour money into...

Best of luck!

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