Alpine vs Montana

[1retired06]

Does anyone know the differences between an Alpine and a Montana. We saw several Alpines at a local RV dealership, and were impressed with them. Construction looks the same, at least from the outside.

[Art-n-Marge]

I believe it's materials used. The Alpine uses lighterweight stuff. Compare the GVWRs for similar floorplans and I think you'll find Alpines are lighter and have lower GVWR and shipping weight so that they can carry pretty much the same cargo. Your assessment about the exteriors seems pretty much what I recall. Does anyone remember if this was one of the model lines to use "Helium Technology". I always imagined that helium was injected into the frame, but that's not true (I think).

It was rumored when they came out, the Alpine was the replacement for the discontinued Everest line. I believe the Everest line was the lighter weight version of the Montana from those years back. Other than this little knowledge from years ago, that's all I know. I've always wondered if that was true then why change the name, except that I think there was some time that the Everest was away and the Alpine was introduced and I'll never know what the Marketing folks use for reasoning behind name changes.

[DQDick]

Could be different now, but when they first came out several of us who were waiting at Camp Keystone took the tour and viewed some rigs. Our general feeling was they were lovely inside and out but the mechanicals wasn't up to the Montana standard. We thought they were great for a weekend camper, but wouldn't make a good full time rig. Since then I've seen several examples that made that point and we are aware of several friends who like theirs and feel we were wrong. So at this point I would say the jury is out, but we'll stay with Montana.

[JandC]

Art is pretty much on target. When we recently traded for our new Montana we were looking at an Alpine. If I recall most of them may have had full body paint, or at least the one we looked at did. The "fit and finish" of the Montana was hard to beat no matter what other brand/model we compared it to.

[DonandBonnie]

Wonder why Keystone has the Alpine above the Montana in their website listing of luxury 5th wheel's?

[K0LCB]

Alpine before Montana? Alphabetical

[DonandBonnie]

I guess alphabetical makes sense. I would have thought that top billing would go to the higher quality unit.

[Artemus Gordon]

I believe there were mixed signals sent out. My dealer said it was designed to be "above" Montana. Even the Web site inferred it was to be a Luxury model. Then the language changed and Alpine took on a different market position. It all never made much sense to me. I attribute it to the "smartest guys in the room syndrome"! "What were they thinking"? Remember when VW wanted to get in the luxury car business and built the ill fated "Phaeton"! $95,000 VW. Then in a true eureka moment, someone said, , "oh we forgot we own Bentley"! Yeap smarter guys making decisions....

[WeBeFulltime]

I walked through an Alpine...not impressed.

[jfaberna]

When I toured the Montana factory I asked the guide who was a regional salesman about common elements between the 5Ws. He said the engineering and manufacturing teams were separate and there was a lot of friendly competition between them.

[Captain Joe]

I always viewed the website as showing the cheaper, less optioned, coaches first and then getting more detailed as you went down the list.

[richfaa]

IMO they are about the same. Built near each other, same workforce, same vendors same build quality. I would choose on the floor plan.