New problems on Late 2006 3400RL

[Dean A Van Peursem]

Thought I would update the forum on some new problems that have shown their ugly face after our 1600 mile trip from WA to Apachee Junction, AZ.

1.)The super slide has settled a bit and is now making marks on the carpet and the upper ceiling seal is hardly making a seal any more but the droop that we had originally hasn't returned.
2.) The kitchen slide isn't opening all the way on the rear side. Didn't notice it until noticed a cold draft during the cold weather. The slide appears to be closing on the front side properly but a gap is left on the rear seal. Don't know if this is a new problem or has always been this way and we hadn't noticed it before.
3.) Several hinges have come lose on the kitchen cabinets. Screws are stripped. Pretty sure the screws stripped the wood at the factory due to over tightening. Using wood toothpicks and wood glue inserted in the holes and redrilling to repair. Another 2005 3400RL owner here in the resort had the same thing happen.

I'm really disappointed in the Montana factory quality. I think they are getting by with way too much poor quality construction considering what we went through during the PDI and the first few camping trips. I just cannot accept the fact that general RV construction quality is poor. A good reputable company would not produce products like this. Keystone needs to understand what ISO 2000 quality standards are all about. I expected much better.

Meanwhile we are enjoying our 3 month stay in AZ. Here are some pictures of the AZ scenery nearby. These pictures are of Canyon Lake which is a man made lake on the Salt River about 16 miles NE of where we are staying. We recently went on a dinner cruise which started at 5:30 and the sun was setting so there are some interesting shadows and light patterns. Also look for the Dahl Sheep, especially the two pictures of a single sheep way off in the distance silhouetted by the sun.

See pictures at:

http://public.fotki.com/deanvp/trave...akesalt-river/

[jrgwdenner]

Great pictures, Dean. Did you have to sign up for the cruise ahead of time?

Sorry you're having trouble with your rig and hope you can get the problems worked out quickly.

[BillyRay]

very nice pics.

[richfaa]

Dean..We are heading For Apache Junction today..Superstition Sunrise RV resort. We also have a late 2006 3400 (built April 18th 2006) and our slides have been trouble free..We did have a few stripped screws, many folks did and we had our "isolated incident". also Failed Apollo(vendor issue) and failed Fridge ckt board(vendor issue) .All in all the 3400 has exceded our expectations.Good example of how workmanship can vary from unit to unit.Be interested to see what your build date is.

[Dean A Van Peursem]

jrgwdenner:

We made our reservation one day in advance. Normally they require 3 days minimum but they were not very busy.

[Dean A Van Peursem]

richfaa:

You will be a mile or so North of us up Ironwood. I just had some of our guests in an RV from CA stay there for 5 days. Pretty nice place but big. From Sunrise you would take Broadway West to Ironwood turn left on Ironwood heading South until just before 60, turn right on 28th Ave heading west and then turn left into the La Hacienda RV Resort. We are in space 51, way in the back as you come in. You are welcome anytime. If a MOC member get together can be arranged we will attand.

[sreigle]

I'm sorry to hear about the problems, Dean. I think many of us have had the problems with the screws.

On the slides, that may be an adjustment needed or it may be something more serious. I'd suggest you find a Montana dealer when you can to look at it. Meanwhile, you might want to email MIMF. He used to be a Lippert employee (they make the slide mechanisms) and he maybe can help. Check in the membership directory and go to his profile. You should be able to email him from there.

Good luck. Let us know how it works out. And, most of all, enjoy your time in the sun.

[Dean A Van Peursem]

Steve:

Thanks for the tips. I have been to the local Montana dealer here - RV Traders - and asked them to take a look at it. They won't come out to where the RV is which is maybe three miles from their facility. I have to bring it to them to get anything done. They referred me to a private contractor who is authorized to do Montana warrantly work who will come to our site. Supposed to be here sometime Monday.

I must say I was very disappointed and not impressed at all with the RV Traders (Montana Dealer) service office in Mesa. 4 people sitting around doing nothing in a dirty smoke filled room. A really bad first impression. Not sure I want them working on my Montana.

Had a surprise visit today from a MOC member. Richfaa drove up unexpectedly and said hello. Recognized him instantly from his picture here on the forum messages. That was a pleasant surprise. Hopefully a MOC dinner will be arranged here in the East Valley.

[vickir]

Dean ... Be aware that if Keystone does not authorize the mobile service, you will be responsible for any service call charge. Keystone paid for parts and labor, no problem whatsoever.

We found this out the hard way ... we had no idea about this policy until we had to fork over $65

[Dean A Van Peursem]

Vicki,

Interesting. Nothing has been mentioned about a service charge during two conversations with the private contractor. I won't pay it if an attempt to charge it occurs without prior notification. But they are supposed to call prior to the visit Monday and I will ask if there is going to be any charge that Montana won't cover under warranty. Forewarned is forearmed. Thanks.

I really would like to avoid having to undo the current setup and bring it to a dealer to get warranty work done. Then with my really poor first impression of the closest Montana dealer here in AZ I might be between a rock and a hard place. We plan to head to Redmond, OR the first week of April and won't be staying in the Montana for a week while we are there. Maybe I should just delay the warranty work until then if we can find a Montana dealer in the Bend, OR area. Worst case, it can be done at home since our 1 year warranty doesn't run out until late May.

[richfaa]

Dean..Steve is correct on the service charge. Dometic will pay for the parts and labor for the ckt board for our fridge but we will have to pay the service charge, if any, for the tech to come out to the site to install it.Did you know that Rv traders has a branch here in Apache Junction..11111 E Apache trail.. I would sure like to be there when the service guy shows up. We have a service guy coming here at 9AM Monday.
We had a service guy in Havasu do some inventive billing that resulted in us paying no service charge.(Apollo oven)

[Dean A Van Peursem]

Richfaa,

I think that is the RV Trader facility I have been into which is right on the border of Mesa and Apache Junction with a Mesa address on Apache Trail. I haven't been into the main facility in Mesa on 2501 E Main ST. Maybe I am being too critical but I sure was turned off at the branch faclity and I was upset that they wouldn't do service at our RV location. We have had enough problems with our 3400 RL that my patience is very thin at the moment. We won't know when the private contractor is coming to our RV until they call Monday morning with a time window. I suspect I'm going to have several questions to ask when that call occurs. I suspect I could figure out how to adjust the slides myself but I am so irritated with Montana at the moment I want them to fix their problems that were caused by poor manufacturing quality. It just doesn't seem right for me to have to pay for their shoddy work. I paid a tidy sum for this RV and Montana needs to meet their obligations of providing a decent RV that I thought I was buying. My back is up! :-) The only way a manufacturer will improve their products is when the warranty costs become a severe burden. There is no way we owners should pay for their shoddy work. I get more angry as I write this.

I wonder if the same service guy coming to your unit Monday at 9:00AM is heading our way later? Might want to ask him! :-) I sure would appreciate your presence when we have the service guy out here. We are not experienced at this kind of stuff like you are. I may need someone to restrain me! :-)

[richfaa]

If the times work out we will be there....Here is what worked for us....we call Keystone customer service(team Montana) explain our problem and let them contact a dealer or repair facility to deal with your issue. If Montana does the contacting they will (usually) foot the entire bill as you, like us, are under Warranty. There is a procedure posted on the forum on how to adjust the slides, many have done it, but I like you will not do it..

[Dean A Van Peursem]

Richfaa,

I will get on the phone early Monday morning and get in contact with Montana regarding the Warranty work required. I haven't ever called them before so I guess it is time to do so. Hope I can find the right phone number. Maybe they will tell me not to have this private contractor do any work but I was told by the RV Traders service personnel that he was an authorized Montana service person for on-site work. The contractor contact told me that they needed to look at what was needed to be done first and then he would get the authorization from Montana TO DO THE WORK UNDER WARRANTY. I may be being led down the primrose path here.

I'll try to keep you informed when I know more.

PS: The independent contractor is:

Gene's RV
480 833-7210

If I remember right the target window was between 11:00AM and 2:00PM Monday. But the gal I was talking to at Gene's said she would call Monday morning to verify and/or establish a firm time window.

Monday might be an interesting day. Thanks for all your help.

[sreigle]

Dean, I think the warranty requires us to take the rig to the dealer unless perhaps that is not possible. Then they might authorize a mobile service and pay for the service call. I can't speak for Keystone, just how it has worked for us. We've had to uproot to go to a dealer a couple of times, too.

You should have a manual that came with the rig that shows basic adjustments of the slides (I think). But there is one tip that MIMF showed me at the Minden rally when I needed to adjust mine. Position the slide so it's maybe 18 to 24 (roughly) inches extended. Not all the way in or out. Now loosen and adjust the appropriate bolts. Then stand up and rock the heck out of the slide. Yes, it will rock the entire rig and scare the bejeesus out of you. It did me when Dale and his tech did this. This is how you get the slide to actually move to the new position of the stop bolts. Then tighten everything down and test for fit. I did this a couple of times on our prior Montana, after they showed me how.

If your memory is like mine, I'd suggest counting turns on the bolts and writing it down in case you need to get everything back how it was. The adjustment process was something I avoided like the plague until Dale showed me how to do it. Once you understand the process it's not difficult. You can probably figure it out by looking for the bolts that need to be loosened and those with adjustment slots. They're all towards the outside edge of the slide, near (and on) the big square bars.

[richfaa]

This is not a negative post but factual and meant to be informational. For 9 months the water flowed freely out of the Kitchen faucet of our 3400. Having said that ..yesterday it ceased to flow freely and was reduced to a dribble.After some investigation( water flow was normal everywhere else) we found that under the sink there are 3 hoses,,hot, cold and a short one that goes up to the faucet itself..the short hose , in our 3400, swivels back and forth as you direct the faucet from one bowel to the other...My guess is that the constant movement caused the hose to collapse in the middle restricting the water flow..as it was collapsed. Take a look or do some preventitive repair.

[Dean A Van Peursem]

Update on our current status of getting warranty repairs done on our 3400RL in AZ.. Gene's RV decided not to come out to inspect our problems. I had contacted the Montana service department in Goshen early Monday morning before receiving a call from Genes to finalize the visit schedule. Monatana informed me that Gene's was an authorized repair operation for them with prior approaval. However, if Gene's needed to charge a service call that would not be covered under warranty. I expected that based on previous discussions here on the forum thread. I finally accepted that as being something that was not going to be negotiated so accepted that even with a $60 plus service call it was better than undoing our set up here at the RV resort and having to deal with a unknown time at the RV Traders facilty.

So when Gene's called this morning I informed them that I had contacted Montana and Montana was anticipating the call from him to authorize whatever warrantly work that he deemed needed. Howerver, Gene then wanted to review my problem list with Montana before he came out. Less than an hour later he called back and stated that he didn't feel qualified to handle the slide problems and the number of items that needed work would cause multiple trips for him each requireing a service charge which I would have to pay for rather than Montana. He realized that was not going to be acceptable to me. I agreed. He then recommended I get the work done at an authorized dealer and volunteered to talk to the local dealer RV Traders, review with them all that was needed and have them contact me. I was satisfied with that and considered the way he had handled it as quite professional.

A few hours later I received a call from the main service office for RV Traders in downtown Mesa, not the location that I had stopped in at in the Eastern Edge of Mesa near Apache Junction. The caller was much more professional, had done her homework and suggested scheduling the warranty work when we departed here to head back home. However, she could not give me a firm time it would take and I understood that. But I needed to know how much time it was going to take so that we could meet our scheduled arrival time in Redmond, OR. After a lengthly discussion we mutually agreed that they should send someone out here to determine the extent of the work and what if any parts were going to be needed and then establish the time it was going to take to do the repairs. She now is consulting with her management to see if that can be accomplished. I can work with this kind of rational thinking and attempt to be considerate of our needs. At least from the conversations to date, the impression of the main facility is much better than what I formed of the branch facililty on the East edge of Mesa near us. So I'm now waiting on their return call to see what can be arranged and if they will have someone inspect our unit first. Ok, so that is going ok.

After thinking about this some more another alternative is starting to make some sense to me. We need to be in Redmond, Or on April 1st and spend a week there but won't be using the RV during that week. There is a Montana dealer nearby in Bend, OR about 15 to 20 miles away. It might make sense to have the warranty work done there while we are not using the 3400RL. And I can monitor things in Bend and if further problems show up on the remaining part of the trip back to NW WA I can have those resolved while still under our 1 year warranty period.

Will see how things work out. As far as I know now none of our current warranty repair requirements need to be accomplished immediately. Even though I would like to get them resolved just to close the books on them. I suspect I will have to make a decision on this in the next week or so. Th final chapter is yet to be written.

[MIMF2]

Dean,

When you get to RV Traders, you look up the service manager by the name of Neldon. Tell him that Dale said he was suppose to treat you right. If he doesn't tell him he will be hunted down!

Neldon is a professional! He will do everything within his power and reasonable to get this right for you. Slide room adjustments....unless something is wrong, he knows how to do 'em.

Dale

[Dean A Van Peursem]

Steve:

Thanks for the tips on adjusting the slides myself. I suspect that I could figure out how to do it successfully. But I will try to do so myself only if I am unable to arrange a dealer service call. I would prefer not to do the work that Montana should do. Still trying to put something reasonable together.

[Dean A Van Peursem]

Richfaa:

Thanks for the warning on the faucet hose. Our kitchen counter faucet was so loose it was almost unuseable. I've tried to tighten the nut up with my fingers without long term success. However, the tip you gave me the other day will probably solve the problem. Takes a special tool which I don't have, to do it right.

Also thanks for all the other tips and guidance you have so graciously given. The broken door seal on the Apollo half time microwave oven will probably get fixed when they send me the new part. Another irritant may go away as well now that I have discovered what the real cause is. Our screen door seems to sag over time so that it starts rubbing the door sill. I have adjusted it a few times and later the problem shows up again. Yesterday I think I figured out what the real problem is. The foam weather seal is not in the right place in the upper right corner and that stresses the top hinge and door angle bracket to push the top right corner of the door to the left causing the bottom left corner to bind. I'm going to see if I can move the foam in the upper right corner to where it belongs. Really sloppy manufacturing work. I have other weather seals that are in the wrong place too or have come loose on the garage doors which now don't even seal properly in certain areas. Must be a Monday RV. :-)