Montana HC 305rl wall moving

[Buster and Sandra]

We have a 2017 Montana HC 305rl and recently noticed a bulge in the lower sidewall when the living room slide was out. With my wife opening and closing the slide I can see it move several inches. I have found several other posts about this problem and have reached out to Alisha Howton at Keystone for warranty consideration even though we are way out of factory warranty. This has become a known issue with the lower wall weld breaking. She requested pictures and has instructed me to take to take it to a dealer for frame measurements. Here is my big question, we live in Burleson, Texas just south of Fort Worth and I am not sure about the dealers around here having the ability to fix this properly. I'm wondering if it is worth the 16 hour 1000 mile trip to Affinity RV repair in Goshen Indiana. I know from all the other posts that they are more than capable and will do a quality repair that should last the life of the trailer. We are basically retired and would use the for more than just the repairs. Any opinions or knowledge of qualified repair shops in my area would be appreciated.

[DQDick]

Based on the experience of others I know and trust, and considering the seriousness of the issue, I'd take it to Affinity and make sure it was done right.

[jeffba]

My dealer would not fix it.. Too big a job. It had to go back to the factory for repair. You can see about having them confirm the issue and then go to Goshen for the fix.

[Buster and Sandra]

Just a quick update.
We have an appointment for April 12th at Affinity RV repair to repair the broken wall in front of the living room slide. We have a ticket opened with Keystone and are hoping they will at least help with repairs, but, I realize our 305rl is four years old. Fingers crossed!
After repairs we are going to take our time headed home and see some of the country.
So for a small world story. We are from Burleson, Texas and when I spoke to a woman named Jonna at Affinity I told her we were coming from just south of Fort Worth, she said you mean like from Burleson? I said Yes! How do you know about Burleson? She said her family lived here for a few years in the mid-80's before moving back to Indiana. We talked for a bit about Burleson and I just kept thinking wow what a small world!

[Buster and Sandra]

Update for our 2017 305rl. We dropped our 2017 305rl off at Affinity Monday morning the 12th of April and pulled back out all fixed up on Thursday April15th at noon. We originally went in due to a broken wall in front of the living room slide , but, while on our way up to Goshen we noticed the wall in front of the kitchen slide was broke as well! Called Jonna with Affinity who updated our repair needs and she said no problem we can get it all fixed. When we dropped it off we were fully prepared to pay for all repairs and asked Affinity to go ahead and get started without waiting for Keystone to commit to anything. I had opened a warranty ticket with Alisha Howton even though we were way out of warranty and Affinity coordinated with Keystone once we dropped it off.
Wednesday afternoon Jonna called told us that Keystone had agreed to pay 14 hours of our 20 hour repair! We were shocked and very happy. Our repair out of pocket was 745.oo and we were more than pleased about that.
We had asked on several Montana Forums and everyone that replied said it was worth the trip to take it to Affinity. We were so happy we followed everyone's advice!
We met Rod (owner, I believe), Bob, Jonna, April and Brandon while we were there and they were all so upbeat and kind it was really refreshing!
So a big shout-out to Affinity RV Group for top notch repairs and to Keystone for recognizing even a 4 year old unit shouldn't have walls breaking!
If we need repairs in the future we will find a reason to head to Goshen and let Affinity repair our fiver!
Thanks also to all that responded on the forums.
Feels good to run slides out without worrying about something breaking

[Mikendebbie]

Wow - that’s great! Thanks for the update!

[Daryles]

Affinity is awesome!!!

[snownj]

Im looking at Grand Des and Keystone Montana. Always concerned about warranty issues. I now believe Montana 3231 is going to be our home!