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I'm going to add my 2 cents worth to this discussion. We now have two years on our late 2006 3400RL and probably close to 10,000 road miles on it. We purchased a unit that supposedly was intended to be pulled behind a truck, on the road. Not a stick house, not a fabricated home, not a mobile home or Park model which are only intended to be moved from the dealer to a home site one time. We bought and paid dearly for a 5th wheel Recreational Vehicle. So it really gets my back up when I hear those who rationlize the problems they are having with their Montana's because they have abused their units by pulling them down the road. That is what we bought them for and that is what they were sold for and were supposed to be designed for. I just don't buy into that rationalization and think it is far too forgiving of the manufacturer. It also is rationlized as that is typical of all the RV's sold today. Well folks, that is the way it is going to be until we vote with our pocket books.
We have had more than our fair share of problems with our 3400RL and are currently going through a major one. Most of the ungodly amount of problems we have had to date, maybe all, have been due to just plain shoddy construction or basic poor design or both. Those are the facts with no rationlization. Many of the problems have been repaired under Warranty but not without numerous expensive trips to dealers on the West Coast and hours upon hours of wasted time and tension filled discussions. That isn't the way we expected it to be nor should it be. As long as we Montana owners are willing to rationlize this as: "that's the way it is in the RV industry" we have no one else to blame but ourselves. We have purchased our first and last Montana and probably our first and last RV. It has been an expensive lesson. The rewards do not adequately exceed the risk. So until we take the manufacturers to task nothing will ever get better. If "shoddy" is acceptable and rationlized then that is all we (others - we won't repeat our mistake) will ever get. We will try to keep our unit going as long as the expenses reamin within some reasonable bound, otherwise it will disposed of and written off as another one of those terrible and expensive learning experiences. An example: We have had to have every one of our slide cable carrier bands repaired since they all cracked and broke. This is an obvious design error. Has Montana or Lippert beelied up to the bar on this? Not at all. Why do we Montana owners accept this? Wake up folks!
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