Rich (richfaa) does a "pre" PDI - Montana Owners Club

richfaa · 04-28-2006, 01:51 PM

Spent 5 hours today at the dealership on a Pre-PDI.The official PDI will happen May 3rd. This was a find problems to be fixed before the PDI..PDI. First.. The rear ladder is moved to the other side of the camper away from the Power receptacle. The front of the bedroom closet is cedar lined, both good things.All of the water tanks came from the factory filled so this 3400 traveled 170 miles over turnpikes, State roads, county roads , rail road tracks, Nothing fell off and every drain drained properly and the gage's read full when full and empty when emptied.They said the last two Montana's have been delivered with full tanks..(could someone be reading this forum) The blue coiled hose(seriously) there is really no "outside shower) it is a outside faucet like the one at home it is in the docking station..The blue hose is a multi use hose. I like the outside faucet concept much better.It can be a shower if you want it to be... The Red key IS a battery disconnect,Turn on the 12V light in the docking station, turn the red key..the light goes out..battery disconnect.

Any how the camper was in the rear lot where the transporter dropped it last week.They pulled it up in front one of the service bays, put in a battery, hooked up the power, opened the slides and said ..it's all yours..yell if you need something. I started on the roof and worked my way down then around the outside of the camper then under the camper then in the camper.I pushed every button, hit every switch. Operated both TV's, the A/C, furnace. Opened every drawer and cabinet, tried to yank the doors off, checked for alignment of cabinets and drawers. the counter tops were perfect. Checked every item on my 31 item hit list. Guys I found exactly zero problems. I was so depressed driving over there thinking of what I might find and I left 5 hours later(no lunch) I brought a brown bag, a very happy camper. Now there are some things I do not like on the unit but they are not problems..Just things I do not like.Like the FM/ TV thing..it is true.. I did check on doing the extra outlet in the compartment and the extra SAT/Cable outlets but after talking to the service guy I decided that it was within my area of expertise to do it my self.

They had the Mir-Ryder hitch pin and the 2 nd A/C ready to go and I am having went covers put over the Bathroom vent and the one near the shower...A vent cover on the fantastic fan is a BIG no-no..The fan worked perfect also.We will do another 5 hour official Dealer/ Rich/Helen PDI May 3D. Then drag this thing home..Oh..You know I drive all kinds of busses including the big 44 foot tour busses..and this 3400 is BIG... I am thinking a bigger truck... It was a very good day..Nice work Montana....

Fordzilla · 04-28-2006, 02:18 PM

Glad to hear everything went well. I think your truck will handle the 3400 fine. But it is never hurts to look. Now begins the longest week of your life. Waiting for May 3rd to go pick it up.

Mac · 04-28-2006, 02:37 PM

Rich,

I KNEW we'd make a Monty person of you after all! Seriously, I know you did a lot of research, I hope this confirms your decision, at least to this point.

mac

JH Sechelt · 04-28-2006, 04:41 PM

Really sounds like a great day Rich.
Tell me, when you turn the the red switch to off and the trailer is plugged in to 110v
does the rest of the the 12v stuff run off the converter ? or is everything 12v turned off?
Sure does sound like a good start for a great relationship.

J & D

SKOOBDO · 04-28-2006, 04:55 PM

Again Congratulations! The real PDI should be a breeze then...the worse part is over. You still may want to consider having the dealer install a second Fantastic Fan (with rain sensor) in the shower area....it will really pull out the moisture from the shower....and also when the sliding door is closed it will cool off the bedroom area a lot better when a window is crack without using the A/C...IMHO....and they probably have one in stock...my dealer did. Have fun on May 3rd...you only have a few more days! Good Luck! Allison

Dustytuu · 04-28-2006, 05:06 PM

Great news about your Monty. Congratulations and enjoy!

virgil47 · 04-28-2006, 05:24 PM

How simply marvelous to have you in such a great mood. Want to talk about a used Freightliner M2?

dchafer · 04-28-2006, 07:43 PM

congratulations Rich and Helen on a great choice. We simply love ours. Welcome to the world of 3400RL.. IMHO they are the best layout for full-timing and entertaining which we do a lot of both. Glad to hear that you PDI'd that rig in and out. you were much more thorough than we. I think we just fell in love with it. We did do a lot of searching and found a few things that needed fixin' but we have one of the best dealers in British Columbia. It sure is nice to know that there is help out there if needed.
Enjoy and maybe someday we can compare rigs.
Diane and Dennis.

harleyrider · 04-29-2006, 12:01 AM

In an un-perfect world it sure sounds like you got a perfect pre-PDI.Very happy for you guys.Its really nice when things go as you would hope they would.Congrats on your perfect purchase.

Glenn and Lorraine · 04-29-2006, 01:26 AM

Sit back and relax, the 3rd will be here before you know. And just when do you intend to spend your first night in your new Monty?

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!

indy roadrunner · 04-29-2006, 01:38 AM

Rich and Helen - congrats and now I feel better about my 3400. So far it has been an inop flashlight and that is all I have been able to find. I was wondering if I was blind, stupid or what. Sure does add to the confidence level to back up to it - hook and head down the road. Wasn't it nice of them to put a mirror on the front by the pin box so you could comb your hair and the misses could put her make up on while hooking up? They just think of everything to make our life more enjoyable.

jrgwdenner · 04-29-2006, 01:54 AM

You had an amazing dealer to work with, I'd say. How accomodating of him to set you up so you could do your search.

richfaa · 04-29-2006, 01:56 AM

John..Don't know about that because to simulate storage conditions I removed shore power. Skoobdo,The fantastic fan in the shower area is a good idea. There is a fan in the commode room. Wonder why they did not put a similar fan near the shower. One could be added at a small cost??? We are thinking. Our first camping trip is scheduled for the weekend of May 12th but we will do some driveway camping to further test all systems. Virgil, Can't tell you how many used frieghtliners we looked at, just never found one that was right and within our price range.. We are not concerned about the Ford pulling the Montana but I sure would like to have a little better stopping power. Could never understand the number of big Class A rigs out there without air brakes..one of the reasons we did not buy one. Oh ..we were also unable to check the Ford TBC braking system as I did not have the truck with me

steves · 04-29-2006, 02:34 AM

Richfaa, I think you will be impressed with the Ford controller and the stopping power when towing the Montana. I was on my round trip to Florida. I put the controller at 7.5 and it worked very well. Good-luck!

richfaa · 04-29-2006, 02:51 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by steves

Richfaa, I think you will be impressed with the Ford controller and the stopping power when towing the Montana. I was on my round trip to Florida. I put the controller at 7.5 and it worked very well. Good-luck!

Pulling our @7500lb Terry last summer we had it set on 3.5 and that was plenty.We were concerned about trailer Brake errors that have been common because of improperly wired trailer brakes. We did notice some hanging wires to the brakes on our under the camper inspection. 7.5 will be a good starting point for us...Thanks for the info.

Montana_2913 · 04-29-2006, 04:19 AM

Sounds like everything went really well. That is terrific news! We are happy for you - here is looking at many years of enjoyment in your new camper!!!!

Dave e Victoria · 04-29-2006, 04:30 AM

Three May. Only four more days. Enjoy

patodonn · 04-29-2006, 06:47 AM

Glad it all went so well!! you invested a great deal of time and research into getting everything ready. Because of your efforts and advance info on possible problem areas, I wonder if the Dealer didn't go to some "extra" efforts to make sure everything was A-OK before you got to it.

Interesting question above from JH Sechelt...what 12 volt item(s), if any, will the converter operate from "shore power" if the battery is disconnected? If you get the chance, check it out. I GUESS "nothing", but, who knows??

The "real" PDI should be a "snap". Great prep work on your part!

Are you going "full time" soon? Looking forward to crossing paths. We are in Santa Fe for the next two weeks, then Colo. Springs for a week or so.

Drive safe!!

Best Regards,

richfaa · 04-29-2006, 07:32 AM

Helen retires in Nov 1 06 and we will be spending the winter in Lake Havasu, Arz, Yuma Arz and the RGV. Full timing, although not likely, is not out of the question. We are going to long time for a year or so and see how that suits our lifestyle. I do not want to sound to over enthusiastic about the pre-PDI as there are still some things we could not check out but the outcome far exceeded our expectations. Things will still go wrong down the road but it was our goal to have everything work properly and no major faults before we left the dealer lot and that looks very good. We will be at the Fall National and the GL regional..hope to see you at one of them.. By the way I have a Garrettt GTI 1500 leaning here in the corner..Have not found any treasure yet...It will be in the camper.

Mac · 04-29-2006, 09:22 AM

PJ,

Where you going to be staying in Colorado Springs? I live just about 40 miles north in Castle Rock.

mac

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