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Old 03-18-2018, 07:22 AM   #101
Mosnowman
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Love our 2018 3721RL...I would by another Montana

I tend to be somewhat of a cynic though I try hard not to be. If I had a lot of problems with my specific camper I would also raise a lot of noise about it so others know about it, and also in hopes someone who makes it, reads the negative posts. When you invest this much money you should absolutely expect a near problem free product. I feel for you guys that have these major problems.

Here’s the cynic in me related to the original question about buying a Montana again..quality workmanship in every single brand is non existent. Workers used to take pride in their work, and I don’t believe there are that many now that do. They are waiting for the whistle at the end of the day. You will be hard pressed to find a majority that are putting in any extra effort. Not really sure what happened to work ethic in general, but in my opinion, you now have to roll the dice and hope your Fiver was built properly. I think this applies to every brand on the market today.
 
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Old 03-18-2018, 09:23 AM   #102
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Originally Posted by Mosnowman View Post
Love our 2018 3721RL...I would by another Montana

I tend to be somewhat of a cynic though I try hard not to be. If I had a lot of problems with my specific camper I would also raise a lot of noise about it so others know about it, and also in hopes someone who makes it, reads the negative posts. When you invest this much money you should absolutely expect a near problem free product. I feel for you guys that have these major problems.

Here’s the cynic in me related to the original question about buying a Montana again..quality workmanship in every single brand is non existent. Workers used to take pride in their work, and I don’t believe there are that many now that do. They are waiting for the whistle at the end of the day. You will be hard pressed to find a majority that are putting in any extra effort. Not really sure what happened to work ethic in general, but in my opinion, you now have to roll the dice and hope your Fiver was built properly. I think this applies to every brand on the market today.
Worse when there is no end of day whistle. Just get so much done quickly and go home to milk the cows.
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Old 03-18-2018, 10:15 AM   #103
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Like I have said. We have quite a few fivers. This Montana was the most expensive. Out of all that we have owned, this Montana has had the most issues mostly from Low Quality Parts as far as exterior moldings, No fender supports that make the screws come out and the fenders Flap when Traveling, the use of the Continued Defective Thetford TOILETS and Montana's refusal to go with Dometic, Very Low Quality Carpet that Wears extremely fast. Our 14 year old KZ New Vision Ultra STILL LOOKED NEW!!...The money I gave to Thor was NOT DEFECTIVE, I EXPECT THE PRODUCT PURCHASD TO NOT ONLYLOOK NICE, BUT OF HIGH QUALITY..OR AT LEAST HIGHER QUALITY.
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Old 03-18-2018, 01:36 PM   #104
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I would like to thank for Mosnowmen's comments as he stated it is the only reason I post on this website. Being a camper/rv's since the 60's in a cox popup and then buying my own in the 70's and then a Apache popup. The experience has stayed with me since and nothing is worse the having trouble with your camper and then not getting the support of the seller and the manufacturer makes it a thousand time worse. So people should know the problems and not have people diminishing the seriousness of the situation.
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Old 03-18-2018, 04:56 PM   #105
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Got back from a three week plus trip. Stayed in 12 different campgrounds. Had the opportunity to visit with 6 owners of Vanleigh Vilano's varying in age from 1 yr old to 4 yrs old. Two were previous Montana owners. All six gave nothing but glowing reports about minimal problems at PDI and any problems were promptly and efficiently handled by Tiffin. Love my Monty but when it is time to say goodbye the Tiffin products will be #1 on my list to look at.
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Old 03-18-2018, 07:00 PM   #106
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Got back from a three week plus trip. Stayed in 12 different campgrounds. Had the opportunity to visit with 6 owners of Vanleigh Vilano's varying in age from 1 yr old to 4 yrs old. Two were previous Montana owners. All six gave nothing but glowing reports about minimal problems at PDI and any problems were promptly and efficiently handled by Tiffin. Love my Monty but when it is time to say goodbye the Tiffin products will be #1 on my list to look at.
As a former Tiffin class a owner I looked at the Vanleigh. Great fit/finish and workmanship. Price difference negated that. Few floor plans to choose from and none were close to what we liked, wanted, or needed. Went with Montana and happy. We have had it about 8 months and 110 nights. Few minor problems the dealer took care of. Nearly all components/appliances are the same.
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Old 03-18-2018, 07:05 PM   #107
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We have a 2010- 3150RL. When our Monty was new in 2010 we did go through frustration trying to get manufacturing issues repaired, but it was not as bad as the quality issues I hear about on newer Monty’s and lack of quality I saw at RV shows. Therefore I will not buy another Montana until Thor/Keystone “wake up” and start manufacturing a trailer with quality. I also will not buy a SOB unless it is built with a quality process. Instead of buying a new 5th wheel that results in quality issues I will invest Dollars to repair/update our current 3150RL. I guess the only way RVers will force manufactures to stop manufacturing products with quality issues is to stop buying Substandard Workmanship.

My 2 cents worth.
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Old 03-20-2018, 03:22 PM   #108
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The quality with the Grand Design I traded in for this Montana was much better, I would probably go back to a Grand Design. My current Montana is def not made as well as my older 2004 that I had.
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Old 03-20-2018, 03:35 PM   #109
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The quality with the Grand Design I traded in fore this Montana, I would probably go back to a Grand Design. My current Montana is def not made as well as my older 2004 that I had.
This GD did not even make it home from the dealer..
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Old 03-20-2018, 04:27 PM   #110
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This GD did not even make it home from the dealer..
I really wish you would stop showing that picture. I have nightmares about that sort of thing LOL........

One thing about it though. With a 5th wheel you can still tow it home even with that kind of damage. About the only thing that will stop you from at least getting it home is if the wheels fall off.......That's not the case if you have a motorhome! You pay three times or more for a motorhome, the maintaince is three to four times more and if it ever breaks down on the side of the highway good luck getting it towed without damage!
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Old 03-20-2018, 05:16 PM   #111
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HAHAH Damn, that's terrible.
Hey im not saying they are all great out there, because I have heard horror stories about tons of different manufactures.
I went back to a Montana because I had one before, but it def is not built the same as the older one I had. Im not saying I don't like it, because I do, but I am disappointed in some of the things they do now.
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Old 03-20-2018, 08:40 PM   #112
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Poor quality control is one thing, but the arrogant indifference Keystone shows it's customers is infuriating. We have had our HC in at least 4 times to fix a balky #2 slide (motor cuts-out when extending and retracting). The first repair was to add rollers under the slides. This cured the problem the first time we took the trailer out, but it quickly reverted to its old habits. Back to the service department, who told me Keystone would not authorize any further repairs. I called Keystone. They asked if the problem was fixed; I told them it worked for a short period of time, but then the slide started to stall when extending/retracting again. Their response was "well according to you it was fixed, so we have no further responsibility" i asked to speak to a supervisor, "I am the supervisor" she said. I asked to speak to whoever was over her head, and was refused.

Dealer had Keystone send out a replacement motor, and replaced it and billed my extended warranty. Slide still did not function properly. Took it back to the dealer. This time, the dealer contacted BAL, the slide mechanism manufacturer, who was surprised that Keystone sent a replacement motor having a "very old" obsolete part number (my trailer was manufactured 3/16). A new "improved" motor is being sent to the dealer, which hopefully will fix the problem. So not only did Keystone use a substandard part to build my trailer, they sent another substandard part to replace it, and refused to honor their warranty within the one-year time limit.

This is only one of the many issues I have had with this trailer. If I ever purchase another 5th wheel, it WILL NOT be a Keystone product. Don't know if any other manufacturer's products are any better, but i will take a chance before going back to Keystone.
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Old 03-21-2018, 07:33 AM   #113
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We have not dealt with Keystone customer service directly for awhile. We did have tank failures and hot water tank issues during the one year warranty period all of which were dealt with by our dealer with Keystone approval. We purchase extended warranties for issues after the one year warranty and have had no problem dealing with several problems via our extended warranty.IMO the quality of assembly has not improved since our 2006 3400 the same issues are still being reported.
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Old 03-21-2018, 08:29 AM   #114
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We are in our second Montana. I agree with so many of the posts people have put out. There is no perfect coach out there. Who you choose as your service center is very important as customer service has slipped down. Our experience with trying to get support from Keystone as the manufacturer has not been a pleasant one. No support or satisfaction. We basically have given up trying to get help from them. Many issues cropped up in the first year as we road travelled but all issues have now been fixed and our Montana (2014 FB3900) has served us very well. As mentioned, the quality of newer Montanas does not seem as good. Quality control before they roll them out seems almost non-existent. They expect the dealers to catch things.
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Old 03-23-2018, 12:03 PM   #115
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We love our Montana but are not happy with our the service department. Like anything- we have had a few issues that the service department drags its feet on.
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Old 03-24-2018, 07:02 AM   #116
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Recently bought new 2018 HC Keystone sent me a survey about customer satisfaction. The only problem so far has been with collapsed a/c return ducts which the dealer repaired. I asked why they have not changed their manufacturing process to eliminate the problem as I know they are aware of this as it has been a problem for several years and I requested an email answer to this question. No answer to date
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Old 03-24-2018, 04:45 PM   #117
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For the life of me, I cannot understand the mentality of a manufacturer cutting corners by employing slip-shod construction and quality control practices, and then having to later-on pay the dealers to fix problems that never should have left the factory. Besides the fact that it would be cheaper/easier to build it right the first time, imagine the lost "repeat customers" due to down-time and surly customer relations.

And I can only assume that Keystone does not even care enough to actually monitor these blogs to see what they are doing wrong. As I've said before, at some point some Japanese (or Chinese) company is going to enter the market with a better product at a cheaper price and blow these guys out of the water. I hope I live to see it.
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Old 03-24-2018, 08:13 PM   #118
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I have had 2013 295 Mountaineer and had been blessed with fewer issues than the average owner. It's not just Keystone its everyone. the entire industry is more interested in bells and whistles than in putting the rigs together correctly. Its an epidemic in the industry just take a critical look at any new rig at any RV show, the basic construction mistakes that you can see if you look critically incredible. What so funny about that is that if I where a dealer delivering a rig to a show I would make sure at least the obvious stuff worked. My wife and I got locked in a massive class A at a show in Richmond because the door lock was broken. We finally had to crawl out the escape hatch.

I have been RV'ing for 40 years and I do believe the quality of RV' in general has gone down hill markedly in the past 10 to 12 of those years. What I would like to see is an independent web site that did reviews of RV's like a Consumer Reports for the RV industry.
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Old 03-25-2018, 07:42 AM   #119
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The average RV user will use their RV depending on the area of the country about 60 days a year. These are Recreational Vehicles .IMO they are built for those folks. The less you use them the less problem Full timers live in them 24/7/365. We as long timers live in them 240 day a year or more. We have posted before that we had 4 RV's before we purchased our first Montana all used for week end camping and if lucky a two week or less vacation. We put more miles on our first Montana in two years than we did all of the previous RV's over many years and had way more problems. In regard to the RV's at a RV show. Helen and I worked many RV shows for dealers everything worked when they were set up.Hundreds of people going through a RV at a show will do much damage even using the bathroom. In Northern Ohio the Camping season is about May to September many CG's do not open till mid April . We did 7K miles plus the first year out in our 06 3400. I doubt if we did 7K miles total in our previous campers in over 10 years.
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Old 06-05-2018, 09:48 PM   #120
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NO.. Purchased a new Montana High Country 330RL.. Love the layout, but way too many workmanship issues, with little or no response from Keystone.. On a long trip in Alaska, and Just today three new problems. cropped up.. Going to sell when we return home. Suffer the loss.....
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