Repairs, gettin em can be painful & stressful SIGH - Montana Owners Club

CountryGuy · 07-30-2005, 10:34 AM

2 parts and rather long:

1.) We originally had the Peguin A/C unit, the one that leaked, replaced under warranty by Keystone, last September. Wellllllllllllll, while in Iowa, running the A/C 24/7, it developed a noise, a banging noise. It could be heard several campsites away. Al climbed up top, removed the shroud and determined that the fan motor was bad, too much play in the shafts (I think I got that right). So, he spends a bunch of time calling repair shops in the Elkhart area, finds a well recommended fellow to do the fix. This guy even has PARTS! TWO motors for that A/C in his shop at that moment. We make an appointment. The appointment ended up being the last day of the really horrible heat/humidity in that area. I had to really fuss to keep the dogs cool all day when we could not be in the unit. But, that is another story.

So, this repair guy climbs up there in all the heat and replaces the fan motor. We went to lunch and for a ride while he was working on it (see part 2 of this post for what we did while we were out riding around). We come back, he informs us that the unit is fixed, the A/C is running and cooling. We go to have a look and OOOOOPSSSS, the fan motor, yes, the new one, is not working, and in fact, has burnt up.

He climbs up there and takes the replacement off, and puts on new fan motor number 2. We go for another ride. Back an hour later, and the same announcement, fan motor is replaced, running the A/C, now on, etc. Been running about 20 minutes. We go back to the unit, go inside, contemplate hooking up Montana and GMC and WHAMMOOOOOOO, the second new fan motor does the same thing the first one did, heated up, burnt up, no worka!

Now, there are no more new fan motors left in the shop. He has to order more, will take 1.5 days to get, at the earliest.

We decide to go over to Elkhart Campground, spend a few nights, and Carol gets to go to Shippshewana for dinner at the Blue Gate and shopping! Carol does not mind the delay (snicker snicker). Campground is nice, the weather broke, the nasty humid stuff was gone, and the days were bright, sunny, breezy, mid 70 to 80's, pleasant. Under these conditions waiting is NOT a bad thing!

At least not for me, Al is in pain, worry pain.

The fan motors do not arrive in 1.5 days, Al is stressed, Carol is relaxing. Fan motor does arrive the next day, one hour 10 minutes after climbing on the roof, the new one is in, and we are cooling once again. We run the A/C for a couple of hours and (knock on wood), it does not fail.

2.) Many of you know we have the Isolator on Montana. Some of you will also remember that we have frankly stated although we love the thing and will never tow again without something like it on any 5th we ever own, that we have had a weeeeeeeeeeee bit of trouble hooking up ever since Isolator was installed. We determined that our concerns were that we would high or low hitch and we had to be very careful not to rip the teflon pad to shreads while backing in. Al wanted that teflon pad, I wanted to take it off and throw that frisbee away, long way away. (Al and I are a team when hooking and unhooking, I do part, he does part, we work at it together, it is our way.) Well, on the way into Elkhart the other morning for the repair listed in part 1 of this post, we are tooling down I 80/90 (The Indiana Toll Road) heading into Elkhart. Lots of "haulers" out there, one passes us, empty, obviously heading in from a delivery and looking for a new load. We look at his hitch which is uncovered, and see this orange thing! Turns out it is a teflon pad that attaches TO the hitch, not the kingpin. In fact it is cold welded or is that spot welded, onto the hitch, a rather permanent installation. We had never seen one of these before, never heard about it, if you have one, you can skip the rest of this post! HA HA. Well, why we were out driving around, keeping the yorks cool why part 1 of this post was being worked on, we drove over to a hitch place Al wanted to look over. He wanted to see if they had the goods to install a receiver on Montana for those bikes (see lots of other posts on that subject, sigh). Well, he goes in the office, and not 2 minutes later pops his head out and shows me that orange pad! They sell them there, think it was about $33.00. He says, we are having one put on right now, they can do it NOW. I pull the truck in to the bay, and the installation is done. We pay, Al goes out to look at the installation, and they put this silly thing on so crooked you cannot believe it. I was figuring he might have a stroke, poor boy! He said, "I cannot believe you put that on like that!" He was ticked. They said, we will redo it. In less time than it took to do it the first time, they took it off, and put on another one, this time straight.

Short part of long story, both repairs/improvements eventually did get done, but both were a painful episode for Al. OH, and he was so disgusted with the hitch shop he will not consider them to do the welding and work required to put the receiver on Montana.

RV saga's just never end! Never a dull moment as they say!!!

Countryfolks · 07-30-2005, 11:45 AM

Carol; Do you happen to have some kind of brand name or model number for that orange pad? Sounds like a good investment if I can find it somewhere else.

Skip

CountryGuy · 07-31-2005, 02:20 AM

Skip,

Tried to respond last night, would not post, oh, well, here we are!

I cannot give you that info, they did not give us the packaging and the receipt only says, teflon pad. The packaging did say something like, Professional.

Last night I tried to find online, and I came up empty.

Al says, go to a good hitch shop, and, we will take a photo later and post so you can see.

rlwhit · 07-31-2005, 02:44 AM

CountryGuy, Why is it different to hook up that Isolator? Ours came and is the wrong model. They will try again.

Montana_70 · 07-31-2005, 02:45 AM

Carol,

"RV saga's just never end". I could feel you pain reading your post.

I just spent 3 weeks living in a rental unit, moving out in the rain and mud, trying to live my normal workday life while Miss Montana was at the factory. I am home now with many fixes and improvements and hoping my problems are over, for a hiatus anyway. Keystone replaced my AC and thermostat and it seems to be working well. They did some other things, like put in a brand new slide box in the bedroom, replaced the carpet, replaced the Quest with a Zenith (last week was the first time I have ever heard a sound out of my sub woofer)

replaced the fantastic fan and made other minor adjustments I had requested.

I have been following your search for the perfect bike carrier system. I too have been searching. I bought one rack to hang on the ladder, but when I took it out of the box and saw all that plastic, I thought, no I don't think so, and returned it. When I had to run from Francis last year, I ended up leaving my 1975 Schwinn Collegiate at the Park with a nice lady. When I got settled after Jeanne blew through, I was so heartsick over my Schwinn that I drove the 120 miles round trip to get it. I need a bike rack!

I am not clear on your comments on the teflon and the hitch. I have one of the white teflon disks on my king pin and have never had a problem, so I'm not sure why you are unhappy with this setup. Maybe I have a problem and don't know it. Could you tell me more about why you do not like the disk or direct me to a thread where you have already explained this?

CountryGuy · 07-31-2005, 03:45 AM

rlwhit and fla native

Lets see what I can do to explain this. We did have the round white teflon disk. It worked JUST fine! When we took delivery ohhhh, back over 2 years ago, we saw and experienced just how easy it is to rip one of those disks to shreads. Long story, it had something to do with the hitch not being installed correctly, went to Elkhart area to get this hitch installed, installer came highly recommended by Pullright, but believe it or not, he put one part of it on upside down. Oh, sure, you might be able to hitch up one time, but the next time, you would not be hitched, and we all know what happens next, Montana and GMC have a unhappy meeting at the bedrails. OUCHHHH Anyway, we were practicing hitching and unhitching when we took delivery, this is our first 5th. Wanted to be sure we could manage when we got home. Second time trying to hitch the teflon pad shreaded to pieces, and we discovered there was something very wrong. Service people managed to discover the problem, took hitch apart and put back together, etc, and we had no further problems with the teflon pad, hitch or hooking up.

THEN, we got Isolator. Again, as I have said a number of times, would NEVER have another 5th without some kind of air pin. HOWEVER, because of the nature of the Isolator, having a shock in there as well as a air bag, the king pin and that entire area of the pin no longer sit at the same angle as a permanent, non moving pin does. It actually tips down. This changes the hookup procedure a LOT! I usually back up the truck and Al makes the adjustments required to get the king pin in the locks of the hitch correctly. Before Isolator, I could pretty much line er up, and Al would adjust the height and I would run the truck back, as long as we were CLOSE, the hitch would correctly engage and teflon pad would be intact. After Isolator it became a bit of a hassle. He would adjust and readjust the height of Montana (king pin). Up, down, up, down. I told him, get a flash light so you can see better, and get rid of that teflon pad, cause the concern of ripping it to shreads seemed to be the biggest part of the problem. If ya can run that truck back (within limits, OF COURSE!!!) then the angle of the Isolator is not such a problem. He did not want the grease situation. He was quite sure of that!

I felt the angle combined with the teflon pad, and not wanting to shread it, was causing us grief and taking a lot of time to hookup. It was worth it when we were underway, but it was adding a time factor that was irritating.

Now, with this permanent pad attached to the hitch, we don't have to be quite as "deadon" with our measurements. We are back to getting CLOSE, and are now able to run up on the hitch a bit. Don't misunderstand, you still have to get those jaws around that king pin, no high or low hitching allowed! But, in just a few times of use, we feel the problem with the teflon pad that hangs from the king pin is gone and the time frame to hookup has been reduced! Makes us happy! Tee hee.

Oh, and there is no chance of losing the teflon pad either. It is permanently attached!

Of course, the jury is out as to how we will feel about this orange pad in coming trips, and how will it wear. It is too new to know if we will continue to enjoy using it! But, when you look around and find several haulers using it, you have to think, hmmmm, maybe??????????????? We were willing and ready to give this a try.

fla native, as far as the bike rack, if you have a long bed truck (sorry, I am not sure if yours is or not), you should be able to get ONE bike on the back of LadyRam and not hit Miss Montana. Someone else did that (sorry forgot who it was), and they said they had no trouble making turns. We can put the tail gate down when hooked up and even make a pretty tight turn with the tail gate down and not hit Montana with GMC. Not sure we could get 2 bikes back there and Al was reluctant to cut the bike rack (they don't come cheap) and then find out it just would not work. I think the front hidden hitch would even be OK with one bike, two just look and feel HUGE out there in front! HA HA. That said, it looks like Al is gonna get some practice at that next week on our run over to the lake, cause the front hidden hitch is what we got for now.

Sorry this is so long, hope ya all understand what I was trying to say, before and after photos of the pin and Isolator would be a great way to show ya all what I am trying to stumble over with my words, but don't have a before photo. Maybe that is something that could be worked out, someone else take a photo of the standard pin, and we could try to compare them??? That and some more coffee for yours truly, and the world is good!

Montana_70 · 07-31-2005, 04:11 AM

Thanks, Carol.

I'm clear. I don't have an isolator at this point, so I'll stay with my Teflon pad. I don't have a hitch with "jaws" so unless I'm at a really weird angle hitching and locking in are fairly easy.

I have thought about the bike rack on LadyRam. (long bed) One on the front is just too outside my comfort level. On the back maybe. I will have to look into it before too long.

I'm really hoping to make it through Aug and Sep and not have to run and face the "what to do with my bike again" question. The stress level rises every time I am watching the weather and the weather person starts making that circular motion over the screen with their hand where a "New" system may or may not be developing and organizing into something with a real name.

CountryGuy · 07-31-2005, 04:38 AM

We hear ya! My mom is in Ft. Lauderdale, so we kinda keep a eye on things down there too. Any chance in an emergency, you could put that bike in Miss Montana?? We have done that before in a previous TT. At least that way you would not have to leave the bike behind??

Montana_70 · 07-31-2005, 07:03 AM

Yes, I have put it inside before. Not a very pleasant experience and it was raining so hard and I was packing so fast to head south with Francis on the way, I just could not deal with one more thing. This is why I do need to come up with something permanent on the outside.

I was thinking of revisiting the ladder rack, especially since I only have one bike, and I do see plenty of 5th wheels with bikes on ladder racks. The problem is I was checking out the ladder and back after she got home last week, at the prompting of another Monty owner in the park. To my, utter dismay, he pointed out these small hairline cracks starting to form in the fiberglass where the ladder is attached and around the tail lights.

I thought about doing a search on the forum to see if this problem has come up. My neighbor says it's happening on his and the local dealer will have to keep it for severals days to repair. (insert Scream here)

I sure wish I would have seen those BEFORE it went back to the factory. Right now I focus in and out on it. It's just too painful to think about for too long.

CountryGuy · 07-31-2005, 10:37 AM

Hairline cracks, ohhh, boy, think I will have a lookeesee in that area.

Certainly hope that the other repairs live up to the highest standards possible.

sreigle · 07-31-2005, 02:26 PM

BJ, the ladder mounts on the Montanas are very, very strong. I could (and have in other posts) tell you a story that totally convinced me about that. We had our ladder rack with TWO adult mountain bikes onboard for over 20k miles. Never a problem with the rack or ladder. Mounting and demounting them was a bit of a pain but never a problem with the rack and ladder.

Carol, does your receipt for the orange disk show the brand or maybe a model number or name we could search for?

Also, if I were a hauler I'd have something like this permanently mounted disk. Otherwise I'd have to carry the disk and mount it to the kingpin of each rig I deliver. Sooner or later I'd forget it and have to buy another. Also, taking them on and off would weaken the fingers that hold it to the pin so I'd still be buying new disks frequently. The permanent one makes sense in that situation but I'm also interested in it for our use.

CountryGuy · 07-31-2005, 02:35 PM

Steve,

Will try to locate the receipt, my ole memory (you know ole memories) says there was nothing like numbers on it.

We will work on the photo and stuff for ya all tho. Just been busy trying to put out fires here at the ole stickhouse homestead and get back out on the road by Sunday! Yeee haaa, here comes the lake trip!

Carol

MIMF · 07-31-2005, 03:26 PM

Good evening,folks. I've got that orange pad you are talking about on my 16,000 pound Reese. I had it mounted when the hitch was initially installed in my truck. It is a "lub" plate. It elliminates the need to grease anything. Besides, grease hampers the ground connection to the frame for your lights to all work. All that grounding is done thru the king-pin, the jaws and the frame of the truck. I got wise to that years ago when I got the brilliant idea that I would grease the 5th wheel plate to reduce drag while turning. I back under a coach and could not figure out why the lights were dim and acting funny. Needless to say, I ended up wiping off the grease and using gasoline to clean the plate. I did then a short time later get led to the orange teflon pad and have stuck with it ever since on the two or three 5th wheel hitches thru the years I've had. By-the-way, they have all been Reese's.

As far as hooking up, here is what I do. I back up to the king-pin. Just before they engage, I get out and make absolutely sure I am lined up. I don't want to push that coach with the foot pads on the groun and bend the legs. I also plug in the 7 prong connector. I also get an eyeball on the fifth wheel and the king-pin to see if it needs to be lowered or raised. I set the height of the king-pin box so that as I back up, it touches the teflon pad just below the king-pin hole in the 5th wheel plate. That way as I back under the coach the weight straightens out the 5th wheel horizontally and pushes down slightly on the truck and at the same time the jaws "slap" and lock. At that point, I walk around and visually inspect to make sure the jaws are closed. Then, I flip the lock and put the pad-lock in place. Now, the landing gear foot pads are still down, the 7 prong plug is in the recept, so I get in the cab, put tranny in gear, manually pull brake leaver to the left and let my foot off the brake pedal. If the truck doesn't move forward because the brakes on the coach are holding me in place, then the jaws are engaged around the king-pin and locked. I do this even on occassion when I am required to hook up to other 5th wheels that have the round white teflon pad all ready stuck onto the king-pin. At that point I raise the landing gear and check all the lights and it's ready to go. Now there is two teflon pads and I have never had a problem with hitching high!

CountryGuy · 07-31-2005, 03:39 PM

MIMF

THANKS for coming to my rescue here !

Where did you purchase yours??

Oh, and here is a ladie's thing for ya, the LUBE plate is orange and so is the shock on the Isolator. We are color coordinated! HA HA HA HA HA

Carol

Montana_70 · 07-31-2005, 03:50 PM

Steve,

I had to smile when you said, "If I were a hauler I would have one of these". Each time I have had to have Miss Montana "hauled" to the factory I had a missing teflon disk from my Kingpin upon return. Each response was, "Oh, I didn't need it, it must have blown out of the back of my truck". Now, I guess, I know why they took it off. Why they just tossed in the back of the truck is another question.

Do you think my ladder is go to go for bike racks even with the hairline cracks forming where it's attached?

Montana_2785 · 07-31-2005, 05:34 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by MIMF

[...] Besides, grease hampers the ground connection to the frame for your lights to all work. All that grounding is done thru the king-pin, the jaws and the frame of the truck. [...]

Dale, sorry but I have to disagree with you here. The 7 pin plug has a ground line in it. If you were getting your ground through your hitch, then you had a wiring problem somewhere.

Erid

sreigle · 08-01-2005, 08:23 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by fla native

Steve,

I had to smile when you said, "If I were a hauler I would have one of these". Each time I have had to have Miss Montana "hauled" to the factory I had a missing teflon disk from my Kingpin upon return. Each response was, "Oh, I didn't need it, it must have blown out of the back of my truck". Now, I guess, I know why they took it off. Why they just tossed in the back of the truck is another question.

Do you think my ladder is go to go for bike racks even with the hairline cracks forming where it's attached?

Ours was missing when we left the Keystone Service Center. They took it off for their purpose. I saw the plate tied to the pinbox on other rigs but apparently they forgot on ours. Since the disc last several years I didn't notice it missing until 650 miles later. I had to do some scratch and paint repair on my hitch after that. Fortunately I had a spare plate in the basement.

As for the ladder, if you have hairline cracks where it mounts I think I'd be very cautious about putting anything on the ladder, including me. Your rig is new enough I think I'd contact Keystone about fixing that first. Just my opinion, Fla Native.

MIMF · 08-01-2005, 01:50 PM

AL,

All of mine were installed by Dan's Service Center on Cassopolis Street on the North side of Elkhart. They are next to the toll road over-pass. I don't recall what they cost but, it wasn't much.

Eric,

In this day and age, you are mostly correct. But 12 or 15 years ago when I was hauling these things all over the US, we were dependant on the ground to the coach going thru the frame of the truck as I described. I should have specified that when I made the statement. Sorry!

CountryGuy · 08-01-2005, 03:30 PM

Here is the photo, sorry it took so long:

Montana_2785 · 08-01-2005, 05:53 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by CountryGuy

Here is the photo, sorry it took so long:

Cool, However:

Manufacturer name?
Model number?
product name?

In short, what the blazing bleep do I ask/google for?

Thanks!

Eric

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