Request for help Mountaineer 345DBQ Elec Failures

[fancherra]

Dear Fellow Mountaineers,

On Easter Sunday after addressing a previous plumbing issue in our brand new 345DBQ we experienced complete DC failures and adherent AC electrical dropout and failures in our 2010 Montana Mountaineer. We have written the following letter to our RV dealer to request immediate servicing but wanted to know if any of you had similar experiences with these electrical systems failures and/or warranty repairs or similar electrical issues as your Montanas are lived in, travelled in etc. We are now intending to be full-timers and the following concerns us seriously as to whether this RV is appropriate and sound enough for our needs in living in it while we await military relocation sometime within the next 1-2 years. We appreciate and will answer any responses or queries for more information and will do the same in kind for any Montana Club member presently and in the future. We emphasize that we love our Montana already and we just want to ensure that we keep it safe and sound and liveable so that we can travel with the serenity that it will be road worthy.

A little history is helpful. We bought the Montana on March 2, 2010 and towed it on March 6, 2010 to an RV park in MD where it has been on shore power since that time save one emergency warranty trip back to the dealer. The first warranty "check-up" involved the furnace return in the LR area not having been properly opened and the dealer got us in and fixed it. The venting fans in the two bathrooms both were defective and are awaiting replacement parts and installation under warranty.

The following excerpted letter details our electrical failure issues that commenced on Easter Sunday April 4, 2010. At approximately 15:00 hours on April 4, 2010 we experienced a series of ongoing electrical failures that continue unabated including the propane detector alarm going off, lights dimming, outlet failures, and then cascading electrical failures of both DC and AC power have followed. We have been compelled to run our Ton truck to obtain any power but the RV's battery will not hold a charge and has water in it which is suggestive that the problem lies in part with the converter and related systems. We are living indefinitely in this RV pending our military relocation this year and our household includes a 92 year old woman with health issues, my wife who has serious health issues, my 24 year old son and myself who is a Navy Engineer with many obligations to the national war effort so the worry is that while I'm on Base or on TDY that my family will suffer hardship from this latest warranty repair scenario. As the dealer is well aware I brought this RV in for emergency servicing on March 23, 2010 for a LR furnace return duct related failure. Additionally there are two vent fans repairs issues that are awaiting replacement parts under warranty and the hot water tank access panel had fallen off during transport to Reines for said servicing and it is also awaiting replacement parts and servicing including its replacement.

On Easter Sunday we returned from services to find that we have major DC electrical power issues with AC power failures dropout and involvement since about 15:00 hours. I first checked the battery level of water which was sufficient according to requirements in the owner's manual and utilized the tow vehicle power but that "bandaid" approach is only working minimally and the power failures continue. My family and I are very concerned about these systems' failures in our RV which at this time is our home and we need to make immediate arrangements with you for said necessary repairs that are of no fault of our making. This is clearly a warranty matter and is complicated by the fact that now four people and our pets will forseeably require housing in the interim period while this RV is repaired. Additionally I had taken one week's leave to set up the RV site as evidence by my large purchase of items of over One Thousand Dollars ("$1,000.00") from the same dealer's parts store on Saturday April 3, 2010.

I assured the named dealer in writing via certified mail and by E mail that everyone in our family has treated this RV with great responsibility and no neglect that would have occasioned this serious repair scenario. To complicate the scenario farther, my eldest Navy nuclear submariner son is coming home from a one year's deployment in the Asian corridor and we are scheduled the first week of May to go on the road up and down the Eastern Seaboard and need our RV to be sound and dependable for this important family gathering. Then we requested the dealer's immediate involvement in problem solving by requesting in writing their immediate attention and accomodation by setting us in for immediate servicing of our RV given that the RV has been hooked up to shore power in a stable recognized RV facility for 3 weeks now which means that this failure did not occur during travel or when we were utilizing the battery and/or a generator. Further, until this past Thursday, the family had only stayed briefly in the RV one weekend so we have not had the opportunity before to fully test out the integrity and soundness of the RV's whole major systems until now.

It is my understanding that once on shore power all the DC circuits are powered from the converter, not the RV battery and that AC power should not be affected at all from a DC power problem that originates only from the converter, but the electrical failures and dropouts are much more complicated, ongoing and comprehensive in nature than merely a converter failure problem on its face. The RV power systems are acting like the converter is not working at all and do not recognize "shore power" and they are wholly relying upon the RV's battery which will not hold a charge so we have two adherent system failures simultaneously. When you couple this with the AC failures you can appreciate why we need to know immediately what we are dealing with here and how long it will take to repair and replace these systems and/or fixtures to safely occupy our RV.

If any Montana Mountaineer owners have had similar or same experiences in their RV's I would be so very grateful to hear back from any of you as to how you addressed this serious type of repair scenario while you and your family solely lived in said RV. Do you think it is reasonable and appropriate for us to ask the dealer for accommodations for our family in a modest motel during the repair period (we think this is at a minimum reasonable given that the RV is brand new and under warranty).

Thank you to all who weigh in on this serious issue for our family.

Rick and Michelle