New Montana inspection

[Dgeisser]

Hi
I started the thread to buy or not to buy. (thank you for your comments ) After doing more research my wife and I decided to buy! We will pick up our new Montana 3120RI on Monday! We are interested in comments on inspections. What I figured to inspect was all appliances , TV, stereo, microwave,, Hot water heater and refrigerator on propane, all the fans and air conditioners, pull every drawer and door open and closed, the same with the Facets, fold out the sofa bed and check the theater seats, check the dining room table and chairs, The vacuum, open and close all windows, the leveling of course, tire pressure , open and close all basement doors,I’m not sure how you would check holding tanks? All lights to include running lights. So I’m wondering if I missed anything, also we are going to camp near the Curtis trailer dealership so if we have any problems the next day we can return as we are driving here from out of state.
Thank you for Any comments
Dave and Judy Geisser

[Carl n Susan]

What you need is a Predelivery Inspection (PDI) checklist. Here is a link to one of the better ones I have seen. Refer to Post#3 in Thread https://www.montanaowners.com/forums...ad.php?t=72800


Be sure to not sign off on the paper work until all the problems are resolved. You have much more leverage before you buy than you do after.

[1retired06]

Have purchased three Tagalongs and six fifthwheels over the years. We always park on the dealer lot for a night or two and have been provided electric and ability to fill the tanks. Have never been refused. We don’t pull out of the dealership with unresolved issues. Even with that, we have missed things.

[Daryles]

DONT SIGN ANY THING UNTIL YOU SEE THE TITLE OR THE MANUFACTURER CERTIFICATE OF ORIGIN ( new vehicle).
Especially if you are out of state. We bought ours out of state (CW). Asked about the title from 3 different people. They all told us the same thing. "All you need is the bill of sale and you take that to your local DMV license office and they make a new title".

WRONG!!!
DMV wouldn't title the RV without a manufacturers certificate of origin.
TOOK 2 MONTHS TO GET THE Manufacturer certificate of origin from CW.

Also see if you can stay overnight in the dealership parking lot. We did. Test everything.

[DQDick]

Use a checklist, but don't let them rush you and try and check everything. On our first montana we found the landing gear cracked, not something on anyones list. Also make them show you where the drain for the kitchen sink is. It's usually coming out of the frame near the tires and not with the other ones in the convenience center.

[432bartman]

Somethings I would double check on. Make sure the A/C runs on auto, low& high, set a temp and see that it kicks on and then goes off, and then comes back on. Check all the blinds, slides for operation (Not digging into the floor), and definitely the fridge running on propane and then to electric (Make sure the freezer freezes). Check the operation of the auto leveling and any leaks around the hydraulic fittings. Congratulations on a new rig. Hopefully you'll get many years of happy RV'n.

[DutchmenSport]

Changin' Gears (Click here is packed full of great and timeless information about anything RV. They have many different check-lists, but the pre-delivery one (link above) is pretty good. Print it out and make your own notes before and during the inspection.

Congrats on your new camper.

But a word of warning... more than likely you will find almost nothing apparently wrong during your walk-through. Things begin to shake apart and fall off and break after the camper has been on the road bouncing around. Case in point:

My Montana appeared to be flawless, with the exception of a couple issues pointed out and agreed to fix on the spot. All well. Drove home, set up, and began to open the bedroom slide (in the rear of the camper, and I heard a "crunch!"

Cabinet door came open in transit and was in the way of slide and .... you guess it, ripped the cabinet door right off and bent up the hinges so bad, I had to replace everything. I called my dealer and they quickly said it was MY error. I should have checked the slides inside and out before extracting! REALLY ... your door came open in transit! Shouldn't it have stayed put! The cabinet was completely empty too. I fixed it myself and the put child safety catches and bungee cords on everything.

First trip out to Kentucky, 3 days after delivery! Closet rack and shelf completely separated from the wall and fell. It had only 4 small screws holding the entire shelf, cloths bar and evrything in place, and those screws were in 3/8 inch luna board with styrofoam insulation. It took 2 attempts and I rebuilt the closet .... myself ... from the bottom up with supports, from the floor up. Never fell again after that.

So, you see, there are issues you'll never see ... like 7 months after delivery, we were in Kentucky and I went to put blocks under the jacks to level up. And then discovered the wrap around side that goes under the trailer, all those screws holding on the aluminum under the trailer and broken through the aluminum and the entire side of the trailer was just dangling. I fixed that one myself also, by removing all the screws and getting the biggest damnedest washers I could find in the state of Kentucky and used about 5 tubes of Liquid Nails and reattached all the under skirting back to the trailer frame. I hope and pray I never have to remove the colorplast because it's now Liquid Nailed to the frame along with that under skirting.

So, not mentioned on any check-list .... crawl UNDER the trailer and check every screw and bolt to make sure they are not loose!

And my list can go on and on with things that didn't unearth themselves until after some use ... like when the wind blew real hard, the skirting directly under the bed room bed slide out would pop horribly. it took a couple months to figure out what was causing it, and the fix was to run metal supports inside the aluminum siding, like the bow on a bow and arrow, causing extreme pressure on the aluminum so it wouldn't move any more in the wind. It worked. i fixed that one myself too.

So, just beware ... things will not be unearthed until the camper is actually in use, and then, even that, make take a few months.

I had lots and lots of issues, and almost everything I fixed myself. At one point I was ready to dump the entire trailer because i fixed so many things on it. Then finally we had a successful trip where nothing broke, then another, then another. After about a year of fixing, patching and improving, things stopped coming loose or falling apart. And we've now had a second year with this same camper ..... so far ... absolutely no new issues.

What am i saying? PDI will not unearth every issue. Some things won't unearth themselves for a few months. Do your best to inspect, but don't be shocked when that first "thing" falls apart or fails! It will happen, even when you've done your best PDI effort.

[Vet4jdc]

We used the PDI list from this forum. It took us about 3 hours from start to finish. We found 4 things that needed attention before we were satisfied. Take your time and be thorough.

[lewy64]

like dutchman said things happen, had the same thing happen to my closet shelf. Also same with opening slide on my older trailer, door popped open and got crunched. Always verify that all obstructions are fixed before opening/closing them slides.

[dfb]

Originally Posted by DutchmenSport

Changin' Gears (Click here is packed full of great and timeless information about anything RV. They have many different check-lists, but the pre-delivery one (link above) is pretty good. Print it out and make your own notes before and during the inspection.

Congrats on your new camper.

But a word of warning... more than likely you will find almost nothing apparently wrong during your walk-through. Things begin to shake apart and fall off and break after the camper has been on the road bouncing around. Case in point:

My Montana appeared to be flawless, with the exception of a couple issues pointed out and agreed to fix on the spot. All well. Drove home, set up, and began to open the bedroom slide (in the rear of the camper, and I heard a "crunch!"

Cabinet door came open in transit and was in the way of slide and .... you guess it, ripped the cabinet door right off and bent up the hinges so bad, I had to replace everything. I called my dealer and they quickly said it was MY error. I should have checked the slides inside and out before extracting! REALLY ... your door came open in transit! Shouldn't it have stayed put! The cabinet was completely empty too. I fixed it myself and the put child safety catches and bungee cords on everything.

First trip out to Kentucky, 3 days after delivery! Closet rack and shelf completely separated from the wall and fell. It had only 4 small screws holding the entire shelf, cloths bar and evrything in place, and those screws were in 3/8 inch luna board with styrofoam insulation. It took 2 attempts and I rebuilt the closet .... myself ... from the bottom up with supports, from the floor up. Never fell again after that.

So, you see, there are issues you'll never see ... like 7 months after delivery, we were in Kentucky and I went to put blocks under the jacks to level up. And then discovered the wrap around side that goes under the trailer, all those screws holding on the aluminum under the trailer and broken through the aluminum and the entire side of the trailer was just dangling. I fixed that one myself also, by removing all the screws and getting the biggest damnedest washers I could find in the state of Kentucky and used about 5 tubes of Liquid Nails and reattached all the under skirting back to the trailer frame. I hope and pray I never have to remove the colorplast because it's now Liquid Nailed to the frame along with that under skirting.

So, not mentioned on any check-list .... crawl UNDER the trailer and check every screw and bolt to make sure they are not loose!

And my list can go on and on with things that didn't unearth themselves until after some use ... like when the wind blew real hard, the skirting directly under the bed room bed slide out would pop horribly. it took a couple months to figure out what was causing it, and the fix was to run metal supports inside the aluminum siding, like the bow on a bow and arrow, causing extreme pressure on the aluminum so it wouldn't move any more in the wind. It worked. i fixed that one myself too.

So, just beware ... things will not be unearthed until the camper is actually in use, and then, even that, make take a few months.

I had lots and lots of issues, and almost everything I fixed myself. At one point I was ready to dump the entire trailer because i fixed so many things on it. Then finally we had a successful trip where nothing broke, then another, then another. After about a year of fixing, patching and improving, things stopped coming loose or falling apart. And we've now had a second year with this same camper ..... so far ... absolutely no new issues.

What am i saying? PDI will not unearth every issue. Some things won't unearth themselves for a few months. Do your best to inspect, but don't be shocked when that first "thing" falls apart or fails! It will happen, even when you've done your best PDI effort.

Same here!. Cabinet door near slide opened during travel. We were opening the slides and the large kitchen slide facia grabbed the cabinet door. Not only did this destroy the door, but the slide out went sideways and stripped the gears..The stainless steel fridge doors are placed in such a way that they got dented being where they placed the island. Keystone does a lousy job on running wires, cables, and hydraulic lines..looks like a bunch of drunk monkeys ran them..

[Dave10]

Judging from the comments, I see the RV industry is still not trusted for build quality. That is the reason one should mechanically handy if one wants the RV life they can afford. Reliance on dealers is very expensive.

[RTR 4Life]

I agree100% with the gentleman who said to park the unit on the dealers site and live in it for at least 3 days. They can provide power and potable water. My 2019 was delivered to me sight unseen (mistake).
Be sure to check all water fittings and valves. When I purchase my next rig I am going to send/pay a 3rd Mobile RV technician to do a complete top to bottom inspection. My rig had issues on the roof that I found out the hard way.
Good luck

[Rhortie1]

I have the same rig with legacy package and the only problems that I found so far after 5 months of full timing in it are the tire valve stem nuts were lose to the point that one tire was loosing air while on the Interstate. The other problem was the cable connections in the wet bay were all loose behind the cable/sat bay connections. You have to remove the screws to check them if your TVs or radio doesn’t have any reception. Couple of minor things but no big deal.

[alaskaman]

Check all fenders. We had some screws not installed & if you were to drive down the road, they could get damage.

[Kcuddeback]

Does anyone pay the dealer for what is called “Dealer Prep”? It’s $1900 from CW on a new Montana. Sounds like it’s the same thing as the PDI, if I’m going to spend 3-4 hours doing this myself why pay them?

[greische]

I am reading all these comments and scratch my head. You are basically putting your house on wheels and pulling it down the road at 60 mph. How can you expect things not to shake loose or cabinet doors not to open. You have to make sure everything is secure and things will still open. Try riding in the trailer just inside a campground at 10 mph and see how much it moves. Then translate that movement at 60 mph. There are dealers that do stellar PDI before delivery and ones that clean them and sign you up for a return visit 30 to 60 days later. I have always said if you are buying an RV, you need a tool box and some mechanical ability whether it is a $500 used unit or a new $500k unit.

[greische]

Originally Posted by Kcuddeback

Does anyone pay the dealer for what is called “Dealer Prep”? It’s $1900 from CW on a new Montana. Sounds like it’s the same thing as the PDI, if I’m going to spend 3-4 hours doing this myself why pay them?

The $1900 PDI at CW is normally waived if you finance with them. They get paid what is called finance reserve from the banks they deal with based on the amount of the loan. To give you an idea on PDI, a fifth wheel PDI should take about 3 hours. At $125 hr labor rate, that is $375 plus propane and bottles and the battery. Total cost is about $600. Most dealers that is part of the cost of the deal. That is how CW advertises such low prices. They tack the $1900 on after the sale price is negotiated

[DutchmenSport]

Oh, do you REALLY want to purchase from Camping World? Go to RV.net and start reading the Camping World sub-forum. This is their forum (Good Sam, Camping World, Gander Mountain, Coast-to-Coast, Moto rHome magazine, Trailer Life magazine). Read through the Camping World sub-forum and then you'll be informed.

[Rhortie1]

When my wife and I bought ours we got pricing from 3 different dealers and would only accept “out the door “ prices. We didn’t get a price from CW because of too many bad reviews and horror stories from some of their customers. We did go to the RV show in Hershey, PA and CW was there. We were speaking with one of the young salesman and he wanted us to sign a hand written document that stated we would buy our RV from them “no matter the terms” ! I just laughed at him and ask if anyone ever really signs anything like that ? Lol Then we left

[GreG L.]

My experience was a little different. I had mine built instead of buying off the lot, added every option except paint. I sent the dealer a 3 page walk through a week before it came in letting them know that was what I was going to look at and needed 3 to 4 hours to do it. My walk through started underneath on a creeper I brought with me and ended on the roof. Not sure if they did anything before I picked it up but it took them 2 weeks to prep it for the walk through. I picked mine up in CA so it was on the road for several days bouncing around to get there.

Since I picked it up I had a TV issue I had to replace because they say 90 days warranty, wanted a 4K anyway, and they replaced and a leaky leveler, that's it in 9,000 miles in the last year. I expect more will go wrong but only time will tell. I did purchase an extended warranty and yes I know there are many opinions on that, but I look at it like insurance if I never have to use it, it was money well spent.

On a side note, this is not like buying a car, I have a list of things to check all the time, inside before I open or close the slides, tire pressure every time we leave and anything else I can think of or I see here on the forum, I add to the list.