Would you buy another Montana

[4dabirds]

We were looking at the Vilano 370GB and ended up with a new 2018 Montana 3820FK Legacy Edition because we just couldn’t get the price down on the Vilano down into the high $60s we were willing to pay - 6 months earlier before their popularity increased we were there but didn’t pull the trigger. Then a dealer in our area trying to establish themselves worked hard to earn our business bringing the price on the Montana down to $47k. We compromised on bathroom size and the placement of the washer / dryer in a less convenient spot, but most everything else about the unit ticked our boxes in terms of functional spaces, and the price, at about $30k less than we could get the Vilano for, is what closed the deal. Having used the unit 9 times in the last 6 months, once over a period of 4 days in extreme cold, snow, and high wind, I would say we are both very surprised and very happy with its performance. The weather was down into the single digits, with 50 mph winds (so negative numbers with wind chill) and the heaters, tank heaters, and insulation did their job amazingly well. We had a Cruiser before this with a 4 Season package and while we loved it, there is no way it could have handled the weather we found ourselves in that week. Meanwhile, the Montana was completely unphased. To us, this says a great deal about our actual build, and while only time will tell if the unit as a whole holds up, we would definitely look to Montana when it’s time to replace the rig.

We have had just a few issues with the unit in terms of build. Looking through the forum, they were issues many other folks have had as well, so it was easy to understand both how to fix them, and what to expect. Dealer warranty service has been ok as long as we point it out and explain the issue, they have been willing to take it to the company and advocate for repair / replacement. As someone else stated, it feels as though you the owner need to troubleshoot the problem down to its root cause, and then the service people will do the work. That’s not just with warranty work, unfortunately, that feels like a workforce and training issue these days.

Service through our dealer has been pretty good compared to some of the Camping World horror stories I have heard.

Looking at the brand purely from a quality standpoint, as others have said, the High Country units do suffer some. We have friends with a HC that have had slide issues and the entire unit just feels like it is a little lesser quality even though they spent a little more on their unit than we did. Because of their experience, we would likely not look at the HC units at all in the future.