black water tank - Montana Owners Club

Doug and Anita · 03-23-2008, 10:38 AM

I have a cracked black water tank in my 2005--3295RK. I am having trouble getting one from Keystone which I do not understand. I have now waited almost 4 months and am sick of the smell in our Monty. Does anyone have any suggestions? The service guy replacing the tank under an extended warranty

said he has not been able to get one as of March 23, 2008.

Mrs. CountryGuy · 03-23-2008, 11:15 AM

Just have to ask, have you called Keystone yourself to see if this was EVER ordered???

Doug and Anita · 03-23-2008, 12:05 PM

Do you have a number for keystone? I will call and order it myself if I need to.

richfaa · 03-23-2008, 12:53 PM

Here is the number for the black tank vendor Travel Star Products, Goshen, Ind 574-533-0447 They are very near the service center. You are out of Keystone warranty so the vendor may be of more help to you than keystone.

scductman · 03-23-2008, 02:50 PM

Rich I called travel star when my gray tank leaked they said they did not sell to the public only to keystone and you have to order from a dealer. but you can call keystone my gray tank was 175.00$ the killer is my dealer gets 9hrs @ 95.00 per hr to change it. Fixed it myself. Good luck doug and hang in there. btw my dealer said 2 wks to get a new one. thats right because they changed one under warranty for me. bobby

richfaa · 03-23-2008, 03:23 PM

Bobby..That is exactly what they told me. I would rather leave Keystone out of the loop since mine is out of warranty. Our Dealer will order it from the vendor and replace it. We do have the extended warranty and it is a covered item. At the prices you mentioned that will cover 6 1/2 years of the cost of my 7 year extended warranty.

Mrs. CountryGuy · 03-23-2008, 03:49 PM

If I am reading this right, Doug and Anita, also have an extended warranty. That is not the problem, the answer they need is DID the dealer/service guy ever really order the part. ?????? Seems Anita could call Keystone to see if the part was ordered or not. ?????

Sorry 4 months seems like too long.

Who has the number for the parts department???

richfaa · 03-24-2008, 04:01 AM

Customer service is 866-425-4369 customer service, parts, the service center is all in the same building. Ask for team montana. A tip to all when ordering as many of us already know.The dealer when ordering a part through Keystone does it of course by computer .A confirmation notice and invoice is printed out I have seen that first hand on both sides of the order.Dealer and service center) Courtesy of George) Ask the dealer for a copy of the printed invoice. It is proof of order and all the information you need to track the order your self. 4 months is a long time...something is wrong.. We spoke to the black tank vendor a couple of weeks ago and they said they could send the tank to any dealer within a few days. I always like to talk to the vendor first.They may only ship to a dealer but they can tell you many things that will make the order process eaiser. And some of the vendors wll ship direct to you..IE: the blind vendor,Appolo oven vendor, Sealand vendor, Fantastic vendor. If you can cut out the dealer and Keystone you are in control and the process can be much quicker. Try it ..what can you loose

Doug and Anita · 03-26-2008, 07:52 AM

Mrs Country is right. After calling Keystone and Travel Star, I found out that the part was never ordered unless he ordered from a different vendor. Travel Star told me that the blackwater tank is a stock item and would ship in two days average. I am very angry that this guy has lied to me for 4 months. However, they will not sell to me and tell me to order through a dealer. I already did that. I guess I need find a new dealer.

richfaa · 03-26-2008, 09:44 AM

A Good example of getting that order invoice from the dealer or checking with Keystone to see if the dealer set the order and checking in with the vendor. A huge number of our ordering problems is the Dealer dropping the ball. Glad that you were able to resolve the issue.

danlinserv · 03-29-2008, 09:40 AM

Just went thru a grey tank replacement last week in Elkhart, Ind, the home of Monty. There are plenty of suppliers that have the tanks available. In fact, the maker of the tanks is right in Elkhart. It was explained to me that the Mfgr does not stock replacement parts very much but only keeps the number of tanks available for inclusion in the new manufactured rigs. You would have much better luck going thru a parts dealer OR the manufacturer itself. Check the forums here for the name of the tank mfgr right in Elkhart. I can get it for you if you really need it and can't find it. Good Luck!

richfaa · 04-18-2008, 08:28 AM

We also have black tank problems. Our black tank has a leak at the very top.We did a temp repair in Florida with the help of the vendor,,Travel Star products. We are now home and the leak is worse.. Learning from the experience of others today we first called our extended warranty service.,(Rv shield) they told us to find a dealer for repair..we went to our local dealer... Keystone but not Montana and we have a appointment for April 29th. We the called travel star products and asked them if they would ship directly to that dealer..they will..therefore avoiding Keystone parts..No disrespect to Keystone parts.. It just seems like a good idea.. Travel star said the tanks are in stock and will ship in two days.
Note that the local dealer is not a Montana Dealer..we did not purchase from them and they will take our Montana in without a problem. The 3400 is in the driveway otherwise known as "dry dock" for retrofitting, inspection, repairs and re stocking. The kitchen sink in the stick house just blew water everywhere..seals must have dried out in the 5 months we were gone.. Our service guy is on the way..we also have a "service contract" on the stick house.Keeps Helen out from under the kitchen sink doing plumbing things.
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Bill and Ann · 04-19-2008, 01:12 AM

Sounds like the same dealer I dealt with in Mission. I told them to get me a new black tank in Nov. I asked for overnight delivery (as recommended by Keystone service centre) I was told by Goodings in Mission that it was ordered. We left Texas the first week of April without the new tank. Waiting for the local dealer to get our rig in to order a new black and galley tank. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

richfaa · 04-19-2008, 02:25 AM

Bill..Try calling travel star the tank vendors 574-533-0447 they will ship directly to the dealer and they say in MOST cases they will ship in two days..Of course being North of the Border may involve sone delays but they may have a provider in Canada..
If you order through Keystone it goes..Dealer to Keystone to The vendor to keystone to your dealer.. We will cut out Keystone and go Dealer to Vendor to dealer.

awaywego · 04-19-2008, 03:52 AM

I ordered a grey tank direct from travel star direct. Used a local business tax ID number and they shipped it to my home.

richfaa · 04-19-2008, 05:06 AM

awaywego.. That verifies what Travel star said and the wisdom of bypassing Keystone.Our local dealer has had parts shipped directly to our home but the black tank is something I could not do myself and since the Service contract is paying the bill the dealer can handle it.

richfaa · 05-06-2008, 04:57 AM

Update on our Black tank leak.. Our Local dealer called this AM and our Extended Warranty(service contract) "Rv Shield" covered 100% of the repair less 50.00 deductible. That is Tank, plumbing, removal and installation of the underbelly (front two panels) replacement of the associated "artic Package" material and all labor cost.. Note that we paid 1014.00 for the 7 year contract 2 years ago and this single repair will exceed the cost of the 7 year contract and we still have 5 years left. Just a example for those who may be on the border line of Service contract or not....Of course you will not need it if nothing Expensive ever breaks. Oh they also covered the cost of replacing a leaky fitting on one of our hydraulic lines. Since the dealer is less than 2 miles from out driveway and the leak is at the very top of the tank the 3400 is in our driveway not at the dealer and we can use it if we need to. We stated our next trip was 26th of May and they see no problem in everything being done by then. Now I did speak in person to the tank vendor, the service contract administrator and made sure we were all on the same page and there would be no mistakes.. It cost me perhaps 6 phone calls and perhaps 1 hour of my time total..but it paid off..

Oh My shinny new Ford is in for a recall and a couple of flashes.

Doug and Anita · 05-24-2008, 02:59 AM

Our tank is now repaired after 6 months. The problem appears to have been that Keystone used several different tanks in the 3295RK and did not have a clue which one was in our unit. I eventially dropped the belly and peeled the travel star sticker with the model # and got my dealer to order the correct tank from Travel Star. I used a mobile service out of San Antonio and it took him about 8 hours to complete the job. It was much more complicated than I anticipated. I am really glad that I did not attempt to change the tank myself. That would have been a disaster. I would highly recommend Goodtime RV for mobile repairs in the Texas Hill Country, if needed. He will also install an "Allure" floor in my unit next week to replace the carpet. The job complete will cost about $850 which I thought was very fair.

captbanjo · 05-26-2008, 03:20 AM

We had to replace our cracked black tank this month. Seems like an awful lot of Montana black tanks are cracking, huh? We're in RI. The shipping took about a week and the whole replacement cost was $650.00. This figure seemed lower than what some other people cited... don't know why.

richfaa · 05-26-2008, 04:01 AM

Although I can not prove it I think my black tank was bad from day one. We never had it full enough in two years to have it leak as we dump most every day and do not boondock. We only found out when I let the tank over fill. With the belly down (3400) the leak was at the very top left hand side (door side)and appeared to be a small hole rather than a crack.I think it was a defective tank.??????? I could be wrong..

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