2019 Cougar 369 BHS

[chuckster57]

Welcome to the forum, congrats on your new purchase and I too hope it is a long trouble free ownership. That said:

By my signature you can tell I work on these marvels. I don’t care if you bought a $7,000.00 entry level single axle trailer or a $478,000.00 43 foot class A motorhome, they pretty much have the same appliances. Your BEST move is to establish a positive relationship with the service dept and mgr. any GOOD dealership will have all defects addressed BEFORE delivery, mind you we are all human and I have missed some cosmetic things.

The failures noted above is the RARE exception to the rule, and if you notice the items that failed are NOT manufactured by Keystone. Your doing right by checking everything before leaving with that huge grin, and I have shown the check list I have to put my name on to say everything was checked. Not all dealers will QC their techs work so I would search here for the PDI check list and take it with you.

Make sure your dealer knows you intend on checking off everything on the list as the tech may not be allocated that much time. I get 1 1/2 hrs to show you everything and if your a previous owner that good. My 2012 Copper Canyon has been trouble free and yes I would buy another Keystone product.

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by ronheater70

My previous two products were Forest River.. (2017 Shasta Flyte and a 2018 Cherokee Limited 304bh) I had zero issues with the shasta, I had one blown fuse with the Cherokee and one issues with a slide switch. Relatively minor. However reading some of the stories on the fR forum you see stories as you have posted. So yes there is Good and bad and it's always the roll of the dice. Based on some stories not sure why anyone would plan to purchase any rv. But then there are people who have years of great service and are very happy. I hope I am one of those.

Your attitude is commendable as is your awareness of the situation with RVs. Most come out just fine, some with minor issues and some (relatively few) with major issues. The post you reference is not the experience of the majority, and, those problems are encountered every day in every other make of trailer, Keystone or not as Chuck pointed out.

Make sure you do a thorough PDI; check it ALL out. Pull the drawers, check the glides, check the drawer bottoms (are they ready to fall out/slip) and on and on. I would put Keystone up against any brand for fit and finish at the same price point. I'm not affiliated with them, and as I said, we just found their floorplans work for us, the quality has been acceptable (as good as anyone else) and the pricing is generally more than competitive.

Put that big grin on the inside......do the PDI and make sure everything is as perfect as you can be assured of, sign the papers, put that big grin on the outside and go find a campsite!! Good luck, have fun and tell us how it goes!

Oh, I had mentioned I don't have InCommand but as far as the 100% temps; we have them all the time when the trailer has been closed up and we are getting it ready to go, same for below 40 (but not generally). That is something I would want to investigate but they did say there was a fix for it. In one of my recent visits looking at the Keystones I told them I preferred the rocker switches (which I thought might still be an option) and was told that InCommand was THE way Keystone was going so I guess we'll have to figure them out.

[LHaven]

Originally Posted by ronheater70

I don't know that I have ever been in a camper hear where it was 100 degrees.
I'm not sure of the below 40 though.. Just have to wait and see if Im in those situations, but as you say there is a fix for it if it happens.

It's 103° here right now, and in the winter, the nights get below 50° for about a month. (Discovered by experiment that 50° was the cutoff temp for the heater problem.) Luckily I was able to get mine fixed free under warranty, so if you have a 2019, don't put it off.

[ronheater70]

Originally Posted by LHaven

Not clear from your posting if you are still tolerating this "inherent issue." It is fixable and the cause is well known -- a bad Dometic HVAC gateway unit.

I read through that, and Im sorry if I missed it. I do see the mention of a service bulletin, but I do not see a Bulletin number or anything relating to it that I can review to see if I have the fix already. Would I call Keystone or would I call the in command folks, etc? Wonder how expensive the unit is, may be worthy to just bite the cost and pay a mobile tech to install if I ever have issues.

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by ronheater70

I don't know that I have ever been in a camper hear where it was 100 degrees.
I'm not sure of the below 40 though.. Just have to wait and see if Im in those situations, but as you say there is a fix for it if it happens.

Was in mid 80s in a sunny parking lot when we did a walkthrough inspection Only had 30 amp service so just the 15K front air was running and the trailer seemed quite cool.

Today the temp in northern Michigan was 88F. I unlocked the Cougar (it sits beside the garage, in the sun) to get some fishing equipment I had left in the trailer after our last fishing trip a week ago. It was 105F on the digital thermometer hanging on the wall, just inside the entry door.

[Apalinto]

Welcome to the forum. We've owned quite a few RVs and our last two have been Keystone, a Premier TT and last December a Cougar 315RLS. I feel that Cougar is a very good product both structurally and features wise.

One thing I did when I first got my rig was place all my owner's manuals in a giant binder and then I read through them all (but I am retired). I learned so much

My driver's side slides are the cable type, go straight out and only project 2 feet. I have found these type to be very trouble free. The passenger slide is huge, projects three feet and also tilts out and then down, so this one is on large geared struts and I am going to have to go to school on that one because it just seems more involved than the cable type.

The Dometic Brisk Air II replacement shrouds are about $90 at campingworld.com and are available in arctic white.

So far I am happy with InCommand system. I have had to pair the phone app a few times but other than that, I like the ability to use my phone. I rarely use the wall mounted panel.

The dual AC on the "Racetrack" technology is very efficient. I believe another member of the forum mention that the duct sharing can be overridden by manually opening vents on the unit in the bedroom.

A funny story, we were camping in Monterey in May and we had a couple of birds fly up under the access port underneath our convenience center and build a nest inside!

Make sure that the lines feeding your sinks are tight! On our maiden voyage our bathroom water lines leaked right into our basement! They were just not tightened all the way!

This forum and it's members have been so helpful. Good luck with your new camper.

[LHaven]

Originally Posted by ronheater70

I read through that, and Im sorry if I missed it. I do see the mention of a service bulletin, but I do not see a Bulletin number or anything relating to it that I can review to see if I have the fix already. Would I call Keystone or would I call the in command folks, etc? Wonder how expensive the unit is, may be worthy to just bite the cost and pay a mobile tech to install if I ever have issues.

I don't have a service bulletin number. I would recommend you call your dealer or repair professional and inform him that there is a Keystone service bulletin out on the Dometic HVAC gateway module with those symptoms. He should be able to find it.

[ronheater70]

Just two pics after getting it home. I will say that i have several hundred feet of wooded driveway to back down, With my tradional pull camper it was realatively painless even at 38'. This one took me almost 40 minutes to get down and set up because im not used to the pivot point. I actually had to cut a few trees down along the driveway to make it easier.

So the Incommand HVAC issues, is it INSIDE temp that triggers the threshold, I would presume so. So once the ac is on then its fine, it just doesnt want to kick on when its 100 degrees inside? Im in the woods at the house,so under shade during the hottest parts of the day. I have never seen any of our previous campers reach 100 degrees inside even in low 90 degree temps. The furnace the same way?

I love the room in the master bed compared to our cherokee. The cherokee had a slightly wider Bunkroom though. But the girls always complained about getting too hot, so hopefully with that airconditioner in their bunkroom, we can set it on dump and cool it quickly in there then shut it and run it through the ducts and everyone is happy! SO both units should be kept at the same temp?

I'm impressed with the slides. They are incredibly quiet. The Cherokee always operated fine, but it would creek and groan going in and out. As was mentioned above, I think the 3 slides on the elft are cable, but the onr dinette slide is Gear.I still need to reseach manual operation of slides and jacks in case of emergency,

Anyway, the tow home was uneventful. I have a 6 speed manual G56 in my 2018 ram 3500. With 10K I could pull in 6th all the way to the beach including acclerating up some minor hills. With about 12K pounds I feel 95% of my towing will be in 5th gear at about 2200 RPMS or so around 65 MPH..

Noticed a little of the chucking everyone talks about, but not bad.
I have the B&W companion hitch, I hope that was a good choice.

[Tonkatoy77]

Did your trailer come with a standard 1621 pin box? I am swapping mine out with a MORryde rubber pin box tomorrow, and taking off on a trip on Wednesday. I’ll let you know how it feels when I get back on Sunday.

[ronheater70]

Originally Posted by Tonkatoy77

Did your trailer come with a standard 1621 pin box? I am swapping mine out with a MORryde rubber pin box tomorrow, and taking off on a trip on Wednesday. I’ll let you know how it feels when I get back on Sunday.

I honestly dont recall! I seen some with the MORyde setup on them, I know mine is not one of them.

[Tonkatoy77]

Originally Posted by ronheater70

I honestly dont recall! I seen some with the MORyde setup on them, I know mine is not one of them.

I got back from our trip yesterday. The MORryde pin box definitely helped with chucking. It didn’t eliminate it, but it made the chucking less harsh. The only thing I didn’t like is I had to make a pretty quick panic stop, and with the delay in the trailer brakes, it fell like I got rear ended when the box slid forward. Under normal starting and stopping, it was very smooth.

[ronheater70]

Originally Posted by Tonkatoy77

I got back from our trip yesterday. The MORryde pin box definitely helped with chucking. It didn’t eliminate it, but it made the chucking less harsh. The only thing I didn’t like is I had to make a pretty quick panic stop, and with the delay in the trailer brakes, it fell like I got rear ended when the box slid forward. Under normal starting and stopping, it was very smooth.

Im heading out for a first camp.. about 1.5 hours away, on Thursday. I just realized I have a nearly full fresh water tank, not sure how full but Im probably hauling an extra 500-600 pounds or so as it sets. Im not sure what effect that will have on the ride after letting that out.