Montana Mountaineer Tailgate Clearance

[RovingReiley]

Hello Everyone! We are looking at a 2014 Mountaineer 310RET. Have a Forest River product that we are very disappointed in, looking at getting the retirement RV. Can anyone tell me if there is sufficient tailgate clearance when hitching up? We are running a 2014 F350 4x4 Diesel with the Offroad Package.

We would also appreciate any tips, recommendations, suggestions regarding the Mountaineer!

Thanks!

[gearhead]

We have the Montana High Country 305RL which is very similar. Yes, we have room to hitch with the tailgate down. I have to back into it fairly straight though. Maybe 4 inches of clearance. I have a longbed truck.
There are some issues to watch for:
The drivers side sliding door on the front closet will not stay latched. The angle on the strap is wrong. I got a wooden dowel to lay in the tracks. I hope that will work.
The shower door is a 3 piece slide. It has a cheap little latch. One of my doors shattered when I guess the latch came loose. Glass man is supposed to be here this afternoon. Yes, I have some wood corner trim to lay in the track!
I have been having refrig issues. Going back to the shop this week.
I have also installed a 5thAirborne pinbox, 4 new Maxxis tires, and a WalMart 2" foam mattress topper.
We have had it since June and slept in it twice. Leaving for a 3-4 week trip in a couple weeks.

[RovingReiley]

Thank you gearhead for the feedback! Especially the info on the door catches! Hope you get your fridge up to par! Have a great trip!

[grampscamper]

We don't have the Mountaineer but have a Keystone product likely built on the same frame. We have a 2013 Ford 250 with the camper package (350 rear springs). Ours sits level with 6-7" of bed clearance.
Love the layout of the 310. I think you'll be happy. I had the same problem as Gearhead with our shower doors. They came unhooked and came off the track. The handle broke off but didn't shatter the glass. I reinstalled the doors and used silicone to reattach the handle. I now use a pool noodle stuffed in the track to prevent any damage. Seems to work fine over thousands of miles.

[gearhead]

I was thinking a pool noodle would work too. Glass man is coming back in 2 days with the doors assembled. He says he has an idea for something to put in the tracks. We'll see. He's buying my take-off Towmax tires for his stock trailer. Yeah!!

[ksbowman]

Is there a possibility that you hitch is positioned to far ahead of your rear axle if you are having clearance problems?

[grampscamper]

I have the Ford/Reese hitch. With the tailgate down I have no problem hooking up as long as I'm reasonably straight. I think I would have to be on quite an angle to have a problem.
I also added a mattress topper as Gearhead did. Very comfortable now.

[gearhead]

Glass man charged $332 to repair the shower door. Supposedly $160 for the one sheet of "rain" glass. Probably spent 3 hours labor trying to figure it out.
Tomorrow for the refrig.

[jonbiker]

We have the 2014 Montana High Country 318RE. On the very first leg of our first trip the center glass panel in the shower shattered into millions of pieces. The latch held the outside panel but the metal fittings on the two inside panels slipped out. A shower curtain worked fine the rest of the trip. We bot the trailer last October, but our dealer replaced the shower panel under warranty. Crowder RV in Johnson City, TN is the best dealer I have every worked with. They go above and beyond on any work.

After buying the Mopar Adapter and using my old Husky 16K hitch, I finally got the Curt 16K hitch and base that fit the in-bed prep pucks. Only one piece to remove to get a clean bed and it has been the easiest to hitch and unhitch compared to my old hitches.

With the tailgate down I can still walk between it and the trailer. We love the trailer and I am extremely happy with the RAM, EB, and fuel economy.

[grampscamper]

Glass man charged $332 to repair the shower door. Supposedly $160 for the one sheet of "rain" glass. Probably spent 3 hours labor trying to figure it out.
Tomorrow for the refrig.

Wow!!!!! Sorry to hear about the cost of the repair on the shower door. Fortunately I caught ours before that happened. I now use a large pool noodle. I used a bread knife to cut it to length. I also cut slits in it where it meets the frame so it is nice and snug.
We had trouble with our frig and it turned out to be a poor connection on the battery. It took me a couple of hours to figure it out. The person that installed our battery at the dealer didn't tighten the ground lead enough.
Good luck with the repair.

[RovingReiley]

Thank you everyone! My husband picked up our 2014 Mountaineer 310RET this afternoon. (I am stuck at work :() He is very pleased with the people at Lloyd Bridges Travelland in Chelsea, MI!!! After having a not so great experience with our first RV at a different dealer this is a wonderful start!

He used the PDI found on the forum for his pre delivery check list. Which removed a lot of concerns for us. Sure enough the bedroom closet door didn't stay latched on the ride home. Thanks again for the heads up! Keeping an eye on that shower door! (got a noodle ready to go!)

Oh! He says it tows a world better than our Rockwood Ultra Lite 5th did and better turning radius, sits level with truck, he went on and on . . . LOL

[grampscamper]

Thank you everyone! My husband picked up our 2014 Mountaineer 310RET this afternoon. (I am stuck at work :() He is very pleased with the people at Lloyd Bridges Travelland in Chelsea, MI!!! After having a not so great experience with our first RV at a different dealer this is a wonderful start!

He used the PDI found on the forum for his pre delivery check list. Which removed a lot of concerns for us. Sure enough the bedroom closet door didn't stay latched on the ride home. Thanks again for the heads up! Keeping an eye on that shower door! (got a noodle ready to go!)

Oh! He says it tows a world better than our Rockwood Ultra Lite 5th did and better turning radius, sits level with truck, he went on and on . . . LOL

We had a Rockwood Ultra Lite 5th wheel before our present trailer. We had a number of issues with it but they were all looked after under warranty. We found our new one tows much better too. We had a number of issues with the Laredo but the dealer took care of us. We're very pleased. I honestly don't think there is much difference in quality between Forest River & Keystone. They seem to use many of the same components. It's important to find a good dealer and a floorplan you're happy with. It sounds like you've found both.
Yes I wouldn't wait to use the pool noodle. We were fortunate our door didn't break. It did jump off the track and break the handle off.
All the best with the Mountaineer.

[RAINEY]

I have a 2012 F350 short bed. As others have said with the tailgate down you need to be backing in fairly square to keep the tailgate from hitting. I have a slider hitch which allows for more room if needed.

[jbrad01q]

We have the Montana High Country 305RL which is very similar. Yes, we have room to hitch with the tailgate down. I have to back into it fairly straight though. Maybe 4 inches of clearance. I have a longbed truck.
There are some issues to watch for:
The drivers side sliding door on the front closet will not stay latched. The angle on the strap is wrong. I got a wooden dowel to lay in the tracks. I hope that will work.
The shower door is a 3 piece slide. It has a cheap little latch. One of my doors shattered when I guess the latch came loose. Glass man is supposed to be here this afternoon. Yes, I have some wood corner trim to lay in the track!
I have been having refrig issues. Going back to the shop this week.
I have also installed a 5thAirborne pinbox, 4 new Maxxis tires, and a WalMart 2" foam mattress topper.
We have had it since June and slept in it twice. Leaving for a 3-4 week trip in a couple weeks.

What kind of problem with the frig? We bought a 2014 Mountaineer 356 in April and have taken several trips and whenever the LP is on the temp in the frig rises. Last weekend it got up to 53 before we could get the electric to switch back from LP. It goes back to the dealer on the 15th for several issues including slides, generator, frig and losing all our fresh water out of the tank while traveling. Hopefully this can all be fixed.:(

[gearhead]

It's still in the shop. I talked to them this morning and was told they have replaced a thermistor and are checking to be sure that was the problem.
I think because it is in a slide it has cooling issues. The cooling fans have to direct the heat out the upper side vent rather than straight up through a roof vent.

[jbrad01q]

Thanks for the imput.