WE'RE NEW WITH LOTS OF QUESTIONS!! - Montana Owners Club

Montana_5864 · 06-03-2006, 04:40 AM

Hi Everyone,
We are definitely wet behind the ears but have made a decision to sell the home and hit the road full-time

.
The wife and I are from Florida and the heat

and health issues helped us decide to give up the block/stucco life style and head for the open roads. With more mobility to enjoy different climates, sceneries, less maintenance and last but not least, LIFE !!
We were at an RV show and were impressed with the Montana. Of course, every dealer that didn't carry the Montana told us not to buy it. Not a very good rig

That's why we're here. They say if you want the truth go straight to the horses mouth!

We have researched the Cedar Creek & Cardinal (Forest River) but would like as much input as you can give on the Montana.
We did purchase the TV. A 2005 Dodge 4x4 Dually Crew Cab with a 5.9 Cummins Turbo Diesel, 4-speed Automatic and a 4.10 gear ratio. It's a long bed and has a Fold-A-Cover bed top. We have been told we put the cart before the horse. Now I guess we have to find the right cart for the horse we have!
That's our story and we're stickin' to it!!

Much Appreciated, Monti & JoAnn

ols1932 · 06-03-2006, 04:50 AM

Welcome,
We've had our Montana for six years and have been very happy with it. I always beware of those dealers who sell other products and denigrate other makes. All the RVs have their advantages and disadvantages. The Montana is a well-priced unit and Keystone has been extremely good at backing their products.

Orv

Charlie · 06-03-2006, 05:31 AM

You have taken a great step in the right direction. Your choice for the horse is a good decision as the Dodge will make a good TV.

On the trailer....as a previous Cardinal owner and a present Montana owner, there will be issues no matter what brand of trailer you purchase. In short there is no perfect trailer on the market. My choice for the Montana was decided by the floor plan and options that were available at the time, mainly Montana was the leader in providing a king size bed. I think that most of the manufactures now provide a king bed.

I had the Cardinal for eight years and there were problems with it, none that were not resolvable. I have had the Montana for 15 months and there have also been problems with it. At present with the help of a good dealer these problems have been solved and I am very happy with the Montana.

There is one item in your statement that I hope will not disappoint you when you hit the road. I do not full time and think that some of those that do can give you an idea of what to expect when you hit the road, but I think you will find the "less maintenance" will not necessarily be so. There are a considerable amount of things that you will have to do to keep your rig's performance top notch.

Lstierw · 06-03-2006, 07:01 AM

I agree with Charlie. We like our Montana for what it has to offer us and my wife liked the 3670 model for it's open livig area. No matter what you buy, you will probably have some issues. The few problems we had were easily fixed. We have had our Monty about a year and love it.......Les

ols1932 · 06-03-2006, 07:01 AM

I believe the "less maintenance" statement alludes to no more lawn mowing or snow shoveling. We have maintenance on our rig just like we had with our stick house. It's just a different kind of maintenance: wash, wax, get the bugs off, check tires for abnormal wear (be sure to properly inflate them), check lugnuts before travel, etc.

Orv

lightningjack11 · 06-03-2006, 07:03 AM

Welcome Monti and Joann,

All the basic equipment in a trailer is basically the same in all trailers. The steel frame is made by Lippert but they also make the frame in a lot of other trailer. The Montana is built on the Lippert frame with supplied vendor equipment and the inside decor is all Montana design including the aluminum frame that is connected to the steel frame.

You will find Montana probably in the medium price range. Don't try to compare expensive Tetons to Montana. Montana is built more for best bang for the buck and relatively light towing.

On this forum the administrators allow both good and bad to be posted so you can search for all the troubles and be aware of them. But Keystone has always seemed to honor serious problems even out of warranty. I purchased mine used and Keystone still performed an expensive frame upgrade for me. All of this before the forum started.

So if I ever go full time, never say never, I will purchase the 3400.

My Monty was built in Oct 99 and I have put 40K plus. This year I will only put about 6K more on it(light year) I have never cancelled a trip due to a problem but you must maintain any of them.

Good luck on your selection. I love getting out in mine.

Parrothead · 06-03-2006, 07:17 AM

Montana has been the number 1 seller for several years (5 I think). We love our Montana and have had no major problems. The few we have had were supplied equipment. The first 9 months we had the unit I lived in it full time. So it has had plenty of use just not miles. It is like a small luxury apartment. If you read some of the posts here are the forum, you will find Keystone does very well at taking care of their customers. You won't find this with all manufactures.
Happy trails.....................

DarMar · 06-03-2006, 08:09 AM

You have arrived at the right place for advice for both good and bad. Most of us are very pleased with our Montanas and after owning several brands previously I know the next TV will be another Montana for sure. Odds are you will have problems to solve along the way but they don't build a perfect unit out there anywhere. This is the best of what is out their for your buck. As an added bonus, you have all these GREAT Montana owners here to solve any problems that do arrive.

Mac · 06-03-2006, 08:47 AM

Monti & JoAnn,

Most of us are a little biased here, but I think you'll still get a lot of honest opinions. We've never had a "higher end" unit like the Montana before we bought ours last fall but we have been trailering and camping for years, our last 5ver was a Dutchmen and there is no comparison. We did look at the Cardnial too but kept going back to the Monty. And, it would be kind of neat for Monti to own a Monty!

mac

JH Sechelt · 06-03-2006, 09:07 AM

Welcome Monti and Joann,

I agree with Mac, Your name ( Monti ) tells the Story, as most of us call our units " Monty"
We've had ours for 6 months and really enjoy it. The few minor problems we have had I fixed myself with the help from all the people using this forum.

J&D

Driftwoodgal · 06-03-2006, 03:35 PM

Monti and Joann,

We will take delivery of our 3400RL next Tuesday. This board and the people on it have helped out so much. Thanks everyone!!! We presently own a New Vision that we will trade in on the Monty. My husband is an insurace adjuster so he hauls his office behind him. I found myself chuckling at your post about having the horse before the cart. We bought our used New Vision before we had the horse to pull it.

You have several dealers in your area. I would suggest that you research the boards. One poster had a Monty that leaked and had problems getting a dealer close to you to fix it. I am not sure if it was Keystone or the dealer that was the problem. Check under sixcampers posts. There is a dealer near Fort Myers that had just about ever floor plan that Montana has. When we visited my brother in Fort Myers Beach we went searching for the perfect RV. It was really nice to be able to see the different floor plans and all of the different color schemes. Here is their website http://www.northtrailrv.com/index.htm

We have looked at Fifth Wheels for about five years and finally chose the 3400 as our dream rig.

Armed with information from the boards I gave my salesman a list of potential problems with our Monty and also did a pre PDI before they started the make ready. The service manager will be doing our PDI and knows that I will be very picky about things. The dealership that we are buying from have been very positive about the things that I have brought up. All of the things on the list were things that the service mangager has seen before. Keystone has agreed to fix all of the items that I have a concern about.

Montana_5864 · 06-03-2006, 04:50 PM

Wow! Thanks everyone for your great response to our post!! It's really nice to know there are folks out there who welcome and share your thoughts and experiences so openly and friendly.
We have been on other forums where people make us feel inferior. Because we are new potential full-timers, they either talk above us or they just ignore our post when we ask specific questions about their rigs. It's feels like they think we're on the forum to demean or discredit their units when all we want are honest replies about what they own!! Good or Bad!!
In just the short time being here, we have found people talking (in detail) about the problems they have or had with their units and even more people sharing how they solved the problem and what steps they took to get it repaired.
It's definitely good to know the common problems people have so we can make that perfect PDI list or at least sound like we know what we are talking about when we're ready to put our order in.
That dealer down in Fort Myers sounds like a great idea and well worth the trip to see various models and features.
Thanks Monti & JoAnn

sreigle · 06-03-2006, 05:50 PM

Monti and JoAnn, you are doing the right thing in researching before buying. I am a bit behind on reading this forum and have not read all the replies. I hope I am not just duplicating what others have said.

First of all, in my opinion your truck will easily handle any Montana. Second, the other brand fifthwheels you mentioned are good brands. I don't think you could go wrong with any of those you are considering. However.... Montana is the number one seller in North America for the last five years in a row. A brand can lead in sales for a year or two but to continue to be the top seller and to command top prices for used rigs, well, there has to be a reason for that.

As for us, we bought our first new Montana in January, 2001. We ordered a new one in 2003, taking delivery in July of that year. We still have that one and if there's another fifthwheel in our future I cannot imagine it being anything but a Montana. We've been fulltiming in this one for three years and two months and still think we made the right decision.

Whatever you decide, I hope you get many years of enjoyment from it.

Chaser · 06-03-2006, 06:34 PM

We are also "leaving home" to live in our "home on wheels full time", and we are on our 2nd Montana, as well...Take a tablet and pen with you - jot down things you see you liked and didn't like, because we found it's like buying a car, and you forget which model have the favorite color, best layout, best price for what was offered, many things. Compare several - go back and look twice or more if you don't feel sure of one model, outright.

Feel free to come back to the Forum if you find one you particularly like and want additional information - you won't be dissapointed.

Good Luck

CHASER
Mike & Evy Orlob
3400rl
Dodge Ram 3500 (love it)

Driftwoodgal · 06-03-2006, 06:49 PM

Steve,

Keystone needs to hire you as a salesman for their product. After looking at alot of Fver's we kept coming back to the Montana. We first saw the 3400 in 2004 and we kept looking. We are back to the 3400 in 2006 so I guess we should have just bought it then

Cajama15,

We looked at just about every model, make, and floor plan that was out there before making our final decision. I must say that the warranty backing of Keystone has played a major part on our purchase of our Montana. If you don't have a service department on a product then you are stuck with your original purchase. We looked at RV's for so long that I think I knew more about the products than the salesman did.

We looked at more expensive rigs as well as less expensive ones. We came back to the Montana because of the weight issues and also the eye appeal. I really wish they would have put a one piece shower in. I hate the white tile thing that they have. If they had a one piece shower we would have purchased one earlier. I guess Keystone out waited me!

When I started to look at our rig from the pre PDI point of view I paid a closer eye to the detail of things. If I had to do it all again I would have looked at all of the types of fifth wheels with the same check list. I still think that I would come back to the Montana as my best money for my dollar.

stiles watson · 06-04-2006, 02:17 AM

Well, we didn't have a PDI. We didn't investigate deeply into other units. We didn't know about the MOC Forum. We visited one dealer and liked the Montana. I found an add on the internet of a Montana Big Sky at what seemed to be an extraordinougarily good price. We traveled 300+ miles to see it. We found a pristine, like new unit with 8000 miles on it. And bought it then and there. It has turned out to be an excellent buy of a more than expected unit by a total rooky. All I can say is that a blind hog can find an acorn now and then. Oink!

padredw · 06-04-2006, 04:10 AM

I will have to join my friend Stiles (the head hog!

). We first began to notice Montanas in campsites where we were staying in our Jayco Eagle. We looked at models at some local dealers, but they never had the model that really suited out needs.

Then, one day quite by accident we came into Panama City, Florida on a different highway from our usual route and there we happened upon the lot of a Montana dealer. It was Sunday afternoon and no one was around, but we did find a place to park our RV across the street and spent a relaxing half hour looking at the many different models on the lot.

We spent the night at our favorite, Saint Anderews State Park, where we had reservations and decided the next morning to drive back all the way across town to the Montana dealer's lot. We were greeted by a fellow Texas native, Danny Fitch, who helped us and allowed us to take our time and look at all the RVs on the lot which we were interested in.

OK, cut it short, by noon on that day (Monday) we had made a deal with Danny at RV Connections. That afternoon we moved our belongings out of the Jayco into the Monatana and did not accept Danny's generous offer to spend the night on the lot, but insisted that we had one of the most beautiful campsites in the world so he allowed us to take the Montana out to the park even though we had not completed the legal papers.

On Tuesday we drove the rig back over to RV Connections, completed the legal papers and were on our way home to Texas before noon.

Like Stiles we had really not done much research. We surely did not place an order for certain exact specifications. We had never heard of a PDI. And with one small exception have never had a problem with the 2955 Montana over the four years and 40,000 miles and 227 nights we have spent in it.

None of this is to disparage the careful "shopping methods" so many members of the forum have described, but it is to share honestly a very different approach to the whole matter. Either way there is no guarantee that the experience will be without problems; and either way can turn out pretty good. OINK

boat391 · 06-06-2006, 03:23 PM

Monti and JoAnn The wife and I owned a 31 foot Komfort also made by Keystone out here on the west coast loved it till one day we stopped at a RV show close to here never heard of a Montana but did look at it just see something a little different so to speak The cool thing was that the Keystone Factory Rep Charles Wade was there and we got to talk to him one on one for about 1 and a half hours we had no Idea of buying nor did he try to sell us he just ansered all my question up front and with honesty he told us to get to this forum and read and ask questions so from that we went home looked at the komfort and made our minds up 2weeks later after reading all the poats we brought or new 3400 home Charles told us when it was going to be delivered to the local dealer went down took a look and locked it up that day no one else even got to look inside so I hope you find the right coach for you but for the Money this was Our best Investment good luck looking forward to hearing you are our newest member

Searchers · 06-06-2006, 03:51 PM

Tim, How did you make out at the Red Bluff boat drags?

boat391 · 06-06-2006, 05:16 PM

lol did great that is the boat did the driver needed a little more practice went out in the second round with a red light hate those things lol but all in all was a great weekend the montana was the place to be after the races had alot of racers take a good look at it and some very good comments I did meet a couple after the race on the way home with there monty at a rest stop just stopped to tell me about the forum didn't get there names but really cool people Igave them my name and hope to chat with them here one day thats the great part about the new monty getting to meet all of you great folks

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