Got Our Montana Saturday..Happy Campers!!! - Montana Owners Club

Montana_2230 · 10-31-2004, 01:53 PM

We are now happy Montana Owners. A three hour PDI revealed no major deal stopping problems with our used 2001 model 2955RL on Saturday at Sun Coast RV in Ocala, Fla. We signed on the dotted line and brought the Montana home with us. Sun Coast RV seems like a great RV dealership. Our experience with them is great so far.

I know already I need a heap of practice for hitching/unhitching and backing the Montana. It tows real well behind the chevy and I am please with that. It's nice to know that this forum is here for any questions I might have. I am using a Reese kwick slide 16k hitch. It makes a little noise when I apply brakes real hard and then when I accelerate afterwards. The hitch slide is moving slightly forward and then backwards causing the noise. When I ease the brakes on , this noise and movement does not seem to occur. Talked to the dealer tech and he said it was normal.

The only question I have on the Montana is about the kitchen grey water holding tank..Anyone know the capacity of it and how do you dump it. My grey and black water dump pull valves are in the big storage bay. I found a pull valve between the wheels on the dump hose connection pipe side. I am assuming this is the valve to dump the kitchen grey water. Does it dump through the outside dump connection or does it dump into the grey tank?

I am sure I will have other questions to arise as we use the Montana, and I sure appreciate all responses.

Glenn and Lorraine · 10-31-2004, 02:02 PM

The gally tank holds 38 gallons and the pull valve you found is for the galley. Yes it discharges thru the same outside connection as the gray and black tanks.

You can get more info at http://keystone-montana.com/

And in praticular the 2001 at http://keystone-montana.com/showspecs.php?year=2001

The specs shows the gray water capacity as 76 gallons. Actually the 76 gallons is split between the gray water and the galley tanks or 38 gallons each.

sreigle · 10-31-2004, 02:36 PM

Glenn gave a good answer on the tanks.

Your dealer is correct that noise is normal slop in the hitch. Usually it means the truck brakes are being applied slightly before the brakes of the trailer or maybe the trailer brakes are not set quite aggressive enough. We have the same hitch and slider as you except ours is the older 15k classic with kwik-slide.

You didn't say which brake controller you have. It probably has two adjustments (except for the Prodigy). One will be for how quickly the brakes come on. That one you might want to adjust to come on a little bit sooner. The other adjustment is for how aggressive the brakes should brake. Might want to try adjusting that one a little, too. Between the two you might be able to minimize the movement and noise. You'll probably never get totally rid of it.

Good luck. Hope this helps a little.

I read a test of the new Ford SuperDuty with the builtin controller. The tester claims they tested with the builtin controller and an aftermarket controller. With the aftermarket controller they said it had the slop. But with the builtin controller, no slop. So I'm anxious to find this out for myself when we finally get to tow again after Christmas.

Montana_2230 · 10-31-2004, 02:47 PM

Sure appreciate the fast response's to my questions. I was really concerned about the hitch, but resting easy now. I have the Prodigy controller and will make some adjustmets to my breaking.

faeb and genb · 10-31-2004, 03:28 PM

Floridanomads the galley tank dump valve is in front of my tire on street side of R V. I think I have heard some on the forum say that they can't reach theirs when the slide is out. But you can get to ours easy.
Gene

stiles watson · 10-31-2004, 03:52 PM

Outstanding, you got it! Let the good times roll. I really hope it surpasses your expectations. I had an earlier post about my first shakedown cruise. I listed some mistakes I made and issues to avoid. It may be interesting to read as you start out. Happy RVing.

Northstar · 10-31-2004, 04:09 PM

Thanks for sharing your ideas. Great info to have. Happyrving....

Montana_2230 · 11-01-2004, 01:57 AM

My galley tank drain valve is located under the big slide. Got to thinking about it as I wrote this and I think I can use my awning rod to reach under the slide to pull valve open. I 'll try it a little later today. I did find that this unit had a bad A/C that would freeze up. The previous owner had the dealer put a new A/C in the unit.

The specs on the 2955FL say's that it is 31 feet 10 inches long on the outside. Dealer had it listed as 29 feet. I am assuming the dealer was using the inside measument.

Any comments on using one of those indicators on the front cap that look like an airplane instument leverer with the ball in the fluid? I would like some indication on how to adjust the trailer to lever side to side when I pull it onto a site. I do use a regular builders lever to do my final check. Or are there better ways to do the leveling?

Again my sincere thanks to all members of this forum. A great place for information in general and for the Montanas.

sreigle · 11-01-2004, 02:34 AM

That "level" on the front works just the opposite of a bubble level. The ball will go to the low side. I move around in a site a little to get that ball as close to center as I can. Failing to get it close I then use boards under the wheels on one side. I learned in this forum that a board under just one of the two wheels on a side will raise the coach half the height of the board. Good info to know. Very rarely do I get the ball exactly centered. I like to have it within 1/2 the distance to that first line, though.

Ours is mounted on the pinbox, not on the front cap itself. I'm not sure how you'd mount it on the curved surface.

On your Prodigy, on top is a button for Boost. That applies additional braking upon initial application of brakes. You might want to set that on 1 or even 2. Try it to see what works best for you. I had mine at 3 but our rig weighed in at 13,980 lbs.

Montana_621 · 11-01-2004, 03:53 AM

Congrats on your "new" Monty! You sound so excited and I'm sure you will be very happy with it. Congrats again.

Searchers · 11-01-2004, 05:34 AM

Floridanomads...I use a level of the type you mention which I had the dealer mount on the front cap. It's visible in the rear view mirror as I back into a site. For leveling front to back I also mounted a smaller level on the street side front corner of the Montana that can be seen while operating the landing jacks.

On my unit the awning rod can be used to operate the galley tank valve. I've also marked it to use as a clearance guide for slideout operation.

Chester · 11-01-2004, 12:35 PM

After a year of crawling under my unit to empty the galley tank I started using the awning rod. It works great!

Good luck on your new adventure.

rames14 · 11-01-2004, 04:07 PM

I've seen a number of mounting options for the big fluid level on the front. I used two self tapping screws to attach mine, then leveled the inside and finally did a final level on the fluid level outside. The big fluid levels on the pinbox are nice because you can see them as you're moving into your site, like Steve said. We have found that I'm usually a half a bubble off anyway.

sreigle · 11-01-2004, 04:19 PM

A good place to make sure you're level side to side when mounting and setting up that big level is to use a carpenter's level on the frame member directly under the front locker. At least that worked for me. I agree with Ron and Terrie, it's really nice to be able to see that level in the mirror.

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