Waiting to pickup Montana 3701LK 20th Anniversary

[dpetaros]

Hello to all. New to this Forum as we are awaiting delivery of our first Montana. Everything we've seen & read indicates we'll love it. As this is our first 5er, it's bound to be a grand adventure. We already have lots of questions so it's time to search the threads!

Dion & Julie Petaros
2018 Ford F-350 (6.7 Power Stroke) SRW
(Soon) 2019 Montana 3701LK (20th Anniversary Edition)

[K0LCB]

Congratulations! Welcome to our group!

[DQDick]

Welcome to the forum! May your new rig bring you many years of wonderful memories.

[TennTom]

Congrats and welcome to the forum.

[1retired06]

Welcome and safe travels

[BuilderBob]

Welcome to the MOC. from Washington St. Congrats on the rig & safe travels.

[Vet4jdc]

Congrats on the new rig. Now do yourself a favor and find a complete PDI list on this forum. When you do your walk-thru, take your time and follow the PDI list completely. Your dealer may want to rush you through but don't. Look over everything and make them operate EVERYTHING. Run the furnace, run the heat pump, run the AC units. Fire up the water heater. Open and close every door and drawer. Turn on the TV's, turn on the radio, turn on the fridge and microwave.

You can find posts on here where someone has gotten home with their brand new fiver and something didn't work. Don't be that person!

[jimandlaurie]

Congratulations on the new rig and welcome to this wonderful group.

[dpetaros]

Thanks to all for the welcome! And to Vet4jdc, I appreciate the lead to the PDI thread and document!

Dion

[Vet4jdc]

Originally Posted by dpetaros

Thanks to all for the welcome! And to Vet4jdc, I appreciate the lead to the PDI thread and document!

Dion

We used the document in January to take delivery of our 331RL. Best thing I did was make them operate everything. PDI took about 2 hours and 15 minutes. We found 4 things for them to fix before we left. That took another hour while we went to lunch. I have found a couple of minor things since we got it home but fixed both of those myself at no cost.

Good Luck!!!

[WhiteWolf20]

Congratulations to you!
After a year of looking, trip to Hershey, etc., we finally picked out our first 5er today and selected that same model! We have the same truck too - the lighter pin weight on this one made this the best choice for us.
We. Can't. Wait! So excited!

Enjoy the journey!
Erin & Larry

[dpetaros]

Hi WhiteWolf! Congrats on your new rig! Quick question. Another poster seems to think we’ll be overweight (gross vehicle weight) with this combo. Have you weighed your combined vehicle/rig? Our sticker says we should be ok.

[WhiteWolf20]

Dion & Julie, yes, we double and triple checked. This is one of the few Montanas with the lighter pin weight (probably because of the heavier kitchen in the rear). I wasn't buying a new truck (again) because of buying a rig bigger than the T.V. was capable of.

We took the recommended calculations of GVWR minus curb weight (includes passengers, crap in the truck, hitch) which leaves the pin weight that remains within the safe limit of the tow vehicle GVWR. The pin on ours is 2510.

It is also under the GCVWR if rig is fully loaded at 16400. That would mean you have almost 3k of "stuff" loaded in it.

Contacted Ford engineering, they confirmed we're good (and stated the GVWR is understated by some...)

Now, if we load that garage with all kinds of stuff, that will affect it. The only way you could know you are still good is to do the separate weigh ins at the scales.

I hope we all are right! I know we've done more calculating than 70% of what is going down the road based on what we see!

I cave a calculator I found that you can enter your vehicle info, hitch and rig weights and pin weights and it calculates and let's you know if you are in the safe parameters. Called GVWR-and-Payload- Calc. http://www.brandonreid.github.io/tru...ity/index.html

[dpetaros]

Thanks again Whitewolf! I weighed our truck this week and it came out to approx 8600 including hitch. Adding W, fur babies and minor snacks, I figure close to 9000. That leaves just about the 2510 pin weight in the specs. My concern is once the trailer is "loaded", the pin weight will increase. My plan is to weigh the combined vehicles, loaded, next weekend when we pick it up. The 3701 will be loaded out as we're moving our gear from the travel trailer we're trading right into the new 5er. I'll let you know what we find.

BTW the calculator link you posted doesn't seem to work anymore. Just FYI.

[Slugchick]

We bought same model
In June 2018..

Did full walk thru,video yup! we wanted dealer to hook up ice maker and show us the ice in preparation. Of our PDI. Good thing, cuz it was never factory hooked up and their mechanics had to pull out oven to get it going.. added about 2hours to the walk thru... we were fine, not driving away until fixed..
Also it was 91 outside and we told them to turn on the air prior to our arrival so we could check that too. All was good, we did the vent modifications mentioned here in the site..
We have had only minor warranty work and live our Montana.. enjoy it to the fullest, you earned it no doubt!

[dpetaros]

Thanks Slugchick! We'll watch out for the ice maker! What do you tow your 3710 with? Since you're a full-time, I suspect you're probably loaded more than we will be. Have you weighed your trailer loaded?

[Legind]

We have the same truck and 2019 3701LK. Agree with all.above. After two hours we still don't remember all the things our dealer told us. Lots of good YouTube videos to watch but I wish there were a full PDI video. Things we missed: storage under table a chairs. Plus why is it so hard to check water levels in the battery. More reasons still to learn.

[dpetaros]

Hi Legind! Which dealer did you get your 3701 from?

[Legind]

From Crestview in Selma, TX. We are happy with them, compared to some stories I read, but we’ve learned a lot since owning the rig. Very happy with our choice.

[jeffba]

Originally Posted by Legind

From Crestview in Selma, TX. We are happy with them, compared to some stories I read, but we’ve learned a lot since owning the rig. Very happy with our choice.

Crestview make CW look good. I wish all the best