Hitch Pin Welds - Montana Owners Club

fla hobo · 12-07-2004, 01:52 PM

When we arrived at our RV Park for the winter, Ernie noticed that while truck was still hooked up........... that there was problems in the front of the camper inside. Up by the front closet the dresser had came apart from the dresser wall & down about a inch. Also the TV cabinet had cracks in the frame work & inside at the ceiling was cracked. Also a piece of wood inside the closet was down.
Well he knew we had some major problems........... when we were unhooked with the front legs down everything went back into place.
WE called Keystone right away. They had us call Lippert the people that made the frame. Thay had us take it to a Keystone dealer. Mark's RV at Fort Myers. They looked at it & said they wouldn't touch it & neither would another dealer as the damage was so bad. They said we needed to take it back to the factor & have them fix it. They even said that it was a possiablity that they would give us a new camper!!!!!!!!!!! I found that had to believe.
Called Keystone with what we were told & they of course didn't feel it was going to be replaced. That this could be fixed. We are taking this coming Monday to Ocala Tri Am Rv. There is also a Lippert factory there I guess. We are suppose to beable to stay in it while they work on it. Was told they would have it ready for us Tuesday so we can get back down here to go to work on Wednesday.
We will let you know how this all works out for us.
Keep us in your thoughts that this all works work GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!

RVBUDDY · 12-07-2004, 02:00 PM

Thanks fla hobo. Please keep us informed.

stiles watson · 12-07-2004, 02:10 PM

WOW!! That's big time problems. Hope all goes well and repairs are complete and enduring. I know this has to be very disconcerting. Hang in there---better days ahead.

fla hobo · 12-08-2004, 01:49 AM

It sure is.............. Right now I don't have alot of good to say about Montanas!!!! We'll see what I think after the repairs.
I wiil let you all know what happens.

Gene Chaltry · 12-08-2004, 03:09 AM

Yes. Please keep us informed. Hope everything goes alright for you. Good Luck!!

Montana_1985 · 12-08-2004, 03:41 AM

Never heard of this problem, but then again, I'm a newbee....
Good Luck and pls. post when u have a solution!

bob n pam · 12-08-2004, 01:26 PM

You are in our thoughts. I hope they fix everything "better than new".

rames14 · 12-08-2004, 02:47 PM

Fla Hobo -

I know that you are having a hard time believing it now, but I am sure when its over you will be pleased with how Keystone handles the issue. Based on the things I have read over the past six months, they really stand behind their product. Best of luck and keep us posted.

Montana_860 · 12-08-2004, 03:37 PM

It is unfortunate that they have to stand behind a product that could be done right the first time. I am closer and closer to taking a bath on my rig and owning something else. Montana shouldn't be having problems of this magnatude.

HamRad · 12-08-2004, 07:28 PM

fla hobo,
You have me thoroughly frightened! We have he exact same year and model Montana as you. I do hope you are able to get yours fixed quickly. Just a note... if it were me... I would NOT tow it anywhere! It would sit there until they came out and fixed it or a trailer or some sort of professional mover came and got it. Depending on just how bad it is broken you could easily break the unit into two or more pieces! That is just plain scary. Perhaps the folks you are dealing with do not understand the danger of towing the rig in its broken condition. I don't want to sound like Chicken Little here but what if that thing came apart while you are towing it to the repair shop? Please consider some safer process.

Ok.... rant out of the way! I will be watching very closely on mine for the first signs of that problem. As a matter of fact I talked with my brother ( who does all my mechanical work for me ) and we are going to pull the sheathing off the kingpin area and check out the welds in the area more thoroughly. By the way my brother is building a 5th wheel trailer for a friend of his..... You should see the frame structure they are building! Makes our stuff look really flimsy. I'll try to get some pics posted to give you an idea of what it looks like. Of course the thing is going to be so heavy you'll need a Class 8 to pull and stop it!

Has anyone else dropped the sheathing near the king pin to check out the welds? I seem to remember at least one post re: that issue but don't remember the details.... Let us know. I'll post the results of what we find next week sometime.

Oh, yeah... the reason he's coming down is to install some stronger gussets under the kitchen slide. The originals are very thin and weak... If you have ever opened that slide off level then you have probably broken them. I'm sure that is what happened to mine. But when he finishes I won't have to worry anymore. They will be plenty strong.

Good luck and do keep us informed.... this Forum is great for helping each other with this stuff.

HamRad

jerryb · 12-09-2004, 11:14 AM

I've not dropped the sheeting but I have looked at bare chasis when I was in Indiana, and they don't amount to much. The trailers must be engineered so that the strength comes from the side wall and roof because the frame looks barely able to support it's own weight.

fla hobo · 12-09-2004, 12:50 PM

I understand what you are saying about it being safe to tow to the repair place. I had stated that, & was told they felt it was safe to tow from here to Indiana. I was just gasped............ & hubby looked at me like stop it, so I did lol. Well we are not having to take it all that way so.
I am praying that things go well.

fla hobo · 12-16-2004, 02:49 AM

Well we made it back from Ocala, Fl. Tri Am was very organized & helpful. They took apart the under belly of the hitch area. There was no broken welds on the frame work around the hitch pin that was visiable. There was some broken welds along the side of the main frame, under where the side walls amount to the frame. All there is, is a thin piece of metal under the side walls that is butted up against the frame & welded in a few places. Nothing going across the 2 pieces of metal for support. Needless to say that is not the problem. They did temp. fix that by welding them again. The welder from Lippert, the service man from Tri Am RV & Us know there is reason why when we take the weight off of the front dollies & on to the hitch & truck, that the underbelly (where the hitch pin box is) goes up inside the unit a 1 1/2". That is the true problem. The welder from Lippert in Ocala said it needs to go back to the factory in In. They will need to take the front nose off & the passenager side wall off to find the reason for this. There is no way to see there the brokewn part is without doing this.
We called the place we bought the unit at & they are sitting it up that when they have a new unit coming in from IN. that ours will be taken back on the return trip. This will happen in April sometime or possibly May. WE will be without our camper for most of the summer I am sure.

WE are happy with everything that has been done so for. Keystone has been wonderful & so has Lippert to date. WE will keep you all updated as time goes on. I wished in had the pictures that the man from Lippert took so I could have someone post them here for me. If you have any questions or don't understand what is going on just ask & I'll try to explain better.

lightningjack11 · 12-16-2004, 03:07 AM

Fla hobo

Thanks for the update. Keystone is very lucky to have a customer with the patience you have. Hope it works out for you.

mobilrvn · 12-18-2004, 05:35 AM

Fl Hobo

Have friends who own a Carriage Lite and their frame broke, too. A design flaw where the factory drilled a hole in the frame to run wires. This happened in NM and they had to take it to CA to get repaired--their temporary welds held fine. We had a '94 Kit Road Ranger which was involved in an accident resulting in a broken frame. We towed it all over the US, Mexico and Canada while it was slowly coming apart--it took two trips to the factory a year apart to get it fixed (they were great and did it for free). Hope this takes a little stress off in having to tow your
Montana to the factory--just watch it carefully and you should come through with flying colors.

mobilrvn · 12-18-2004, 05:40 AM

Terrible getting old, CRS. As a word of advice while we're on the subject, we also had problems with our 5W hitch during the time we were towing our old Road Ranger with an unknown broken frame. The vibrations which we didn't feel, would loosen some of the nuts on the 5W hitch. Something we now regularily check before we go down the road.

Larry and Sharon · 12-20-2004, 10:57 PM

When we got to Dodge City Ks. on way to Az.stoped for night.The dresser drawers were on angle and in tv space ceiling is cracked.

I think the pin box cross member must have broken from side rail.
Sounds like the same as fla hobo.So am now waiting till find some answers.Bad time of year for brakedown

Montana_2180 · 12-21-2004, 04:02 PM

Hmmm,
is this going to be a chronic problem with this brand? I hope not!

Nothing makes me more nervous than this problem...

I'll be watching this closely...anyone hear of other 5er brands doing this?

And Larry and Sharon's is an '03 to boot! Man, that makes me nervous!

lightningjack11 · 12-21-2004, 04:07 PM

Afraid so. These problems are just not on Montanas. On the Good Sam forum I read about bad frames, bent axles, rims, and other problems.

fla hobo · 12-25-2004, 07:40 AM

Another update. A man from Keystone called the other day. They want us to take it striaght to In. They told us they would pay for our fuel from Florida to them & put us up in a hotel for a few days while they fixed this problem. We are to arrive there April 11th. they must now know they have serious problem with these units that a few years old.

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