Screen Room

[Laurie&Paul]

Hi, my husband & I just purchased a 2025 Keystone Montana 3901RK. We want to purchase a screen room to attach to the awning. Does anyone have one that they would recommend, or know of one that would fit properly?

Thanks!

 

[DutchmenSport]

Welcome to the forums and congrats on purchasing your new Montana.

I can't give you any information on attaching a screen room to the awning. When we purchased our first hard sided trailer we considered it. But several things discouraged us from going that direction.

One: The height of the awning itself makes it very hard to install. The screen has a rubber strip, like a rubber band that slides in the grooved track in the awning roller. The height makes it near impossible to work with. Our Montana's awning is even higher. Ladders are absolutely required and a second person is a must also.

Second: The walls of the "room" cannot be rolled up with the awning. The awning, when rolled up, will be horribly fat and bulky. Traveling with an awning like that is a disaster waiting to happen by being destroyed by wind.

Third, in the event a storm comes up, especially high winds, the awning absolutely cannot be left out. Way too many people have experienced having their awnings ripped completely off, arms bent, and the awning material fabric torn because of wind when the awning was left out and they were gone. It's a very sad story when that happens. Whenever you physically leave the camper's location, you ALWAYS want to pull the awning in. That may become a pain in the arse putting the room on and taking it off every time you want to leave the camper and do something else.

Fourth, if you have the extra room attached to your awning and a storm comes up quickly, you'll have to remove the room with the wind howling and the rain pounding down. It will be a nightmare getting it down. Meanwhile, your awning is being blown up and down and all around. Wrangling the thing in a sudden outburst will be an impossible job and most likely, before you can actually get the awing retracted, it will be damaged, or the arms will be bent.

Fifth, most electric awning motors cannot handle the extra weight from the extra room material, even if it is a mesh material and you plan on rolling the room up with the awning.

Your better solution is to purchase a conventional mosquito netting type of shelter (tent) that you can set up anywhere and place it under your awning. If a wind comes up, the shelter will withstand a lot better without having to take it down, and the awning can be retracted without any delay.

 

[Mikendebbie]

I agree with DutchmenSport.
In the late 90s I had a Coleman popup and we bought a Coleman Screen Room accessory.
It zipped to the awning, maybe some velcro also. It was only 8' wide (same as our canopy) and it was heavy, and I rolled it up and put it in a bag the size of a big duffle bag. Stuff under the screen room still got wet because rainwater ran under the awning and thru the enclosure. I'll bet the bag weighed 40-50 lbs. It took an hour for wife and I to set it up and an hour to take it down. If we broke camp after a rain, the thing was wet and I had to lay it out at home to dry. The bottom edge was always filthy.

I tried a search of this forum, IRV2 and Keystone forum and did not come up with many threads on the subject. I did find that Camping World sells a Carefree of Colorado room and a Solera RV Awning Room for $1100 to $1200.

As Dutchmen mentioned - these modern cantilevered awnings have very little resistance to wind uplift. I bring my awning in when there is a "sneeze" of a breeze. Some folks tie the outer corners down to the ground, but I would not trust that to keep the awning secure. 15-20 years ago all awnings had legs that folded out along the ends and could be staked to the ground. Those were better/more secure than these new electric powered cantilevered ones, but NOT fool proof. My popup awning had legs we staked to the ground and we also staked the bottom of the screen room down at ~2' on center thru built in loops. The top edge of the popup was maybe 7' off the ground and I could reach the attachments. You will need a ladder to reach the top edge of your Montana.

I'm sure if you search long enough you will find folks that love their screen room. Back in 1998, I think the screen room cost $350. We sold it with the popup sale. I think many more folks use a sunscreen attachment to the end of the awnings like this...

 

[RMcNeal]

I have one of the sunscreen attachments like Mike shows above. It's great for blocking sun and even for a bit of privacy, but doesn't do much for insects.