Montana Update

[Bill Hill]

Hello All,
We finally took delivery on our new '05 2980RL yesterday from Mike Thompson RV in Fountain Valley, CA. We are both delighted and disappointed in the new rig.

First of all, the trailer is beautiful. We got the Desert Rose interior and we love it. It is spacious beyond our hopes and love the layout. As with just about any rig though, there are a few problems already that we'll haved to bring it back to be fixed. But let me start with the good news.

It appears that Montys are now coming with a KING SIZE bed standard. When we ordered ours at the Pomona RV show in October, the display unit had the queen size bed, no discussion about a king. We looked at some other brands that had kings available, but didn't like other features so we went with the Montana. In order to fit the larger slide out for the bed, Keystone took a little bit of room from the water closet and also removed the sliding double doors between the bedroom and lav/shower area, and put in an accordian curtain. Well worth the trade off as far as we're concerned. We're both average size, but with the dog looking for warmth at night, the king size bed like we have at home is wonderful. But guess what? Now our queen size Trava-Sak is worthless, and they don't make a king size yet. We'll have to use regular sheets until they come out with a king size. Of course this was all a surprise to us as apparently Montana doesn't notify anyone when they make changes.

The other change in the bedroom we're not sure yet whether we like or not. In the published floor plan the closet fills the entire width of the front cap, and the TV closet is angled between the closed and the (4 drawer) dresser across from the bed. When we walk into our bedroom, the TV cabinet is now at the far right side of the front cap (looking from the bath area) and swings out so it can be viewed from the bed. Underneath the TV cabinet is a large cabinet plumbed and wired for a WASHER/DRYER. It's our understanding that this is now going to be standard in the 2950, 2955, and 2980 models. Again, no advance notice of the change. The dresser is now a 6-drawer (which we think is better), but they have taken away the cabinetry over the bedroom window, which we think is a loss. Oh, and they now include the second TV for the bedroom, looks like about a 17-19", so we don't have to use our AC/DC 9" with the VCR, although now both TVs are 120V A/C so you have to have hook-up or a generator to watch TV. They did at least put a 12V outlet in the closet next to the TV so we can bring our AC/DC when dry-camping (although we got the rig gen-prepped, we won't get the gen-set for at least a year). I think that's it for the changes. Nothing that was a deal breaker, and a couple are actually in our favor, we just wish that they would have told us what to expect. This rig went into production less than a week after the show, so they must have known about the changes.

Other than that, there are only a few other issues. We ordered the central vacuum, and the factory FORGOT to put it in. A number of you have mentioned the lack of written procedures at the factory, and this seems to prove it. You would think they would have a punch-list for each rig to see that everything ordered got put in. The dealer will take one out of another rig and put in ours, the wiring is in place. The kitchen sink faucet leaks when the water pump is on and there are some scratches in the new composite kitchen countertop that they will have to buff out(Shari says to say that it looks like it's prone to scratching). The sofa was installed too close to the wall so it wouldn't open, but they fixed that immediately. The service tech at Mike Thompson RV also very quickly finished a welding job on our SuperGlide plate for the pin box so we could still drive it away Saturday evening, which was going out of his way to satisfy us.

As I said at the outset, we're both DELIGHTED and disappointed , but far and away we are delighted with our rig. Since this is our first 5er (but 4th trailer) I was a little nervous hooking up and driving home. But we did another 50 miles today with it and it feels great. The SuperGlide hitch is a wonder!

So now we are nesting, getting all of our stuff from the old rig out of the garage and into the Monty. Shari wants a shelf under the sink instead of the lazy susan and I have some hooks and towel bars to put in. I put foam insulation around the lavatory drain where it drops through the basement storage. I'm not worried about freezing, but thought it would help soften the blows from any shifting cargo. I put the rest of the tubing around the water lines where they come through the basement to the sink. I suspect I'll be doing more of that in the future.

Thanks to all of you who have shared your experiences and expertise on this website. Your corporate knowledge and willingness to share are truly wonderful. We are now itching to get out on our first trip, leaving 30 Dec for New Years in Prescott, AZ. (and thanks for making it all the way through this dissertation!)