Picking up new Montana 3854BR this week

[flybouy]

This is very typical of the issues that arise when purchasing from a distant dealer. The OP is a 1,000 miles away from the dealer he purchased from. To drive a 2,000 mile round trip twice would not be cost effective. The money spent in travel and lodging could easily exceed the cost of the repair.

I'm a sceptical type personality so I firmly believe that many dealers would sell a less than perfect trailer to someone that they know will not likely come back for warranty work. It's a lot like getting a speeding ticket. You can have a group of 5 cars running 15 mph over the limit and a police officer will pull over the one with out of state tags. They know the likeliness f spending a day in court with them is slim. JMHO I'm not saying this is OP's experience just what I believe to be a "common practice" by some dealers.

[nellie1289]

The professional skepticism here is truly unreal. This is why these forums are complete dogcrap half the time. You ask for some friendly opinions on a possible fix and you end up with lectures about dont drive here, dont drive there. Every dealer is out to screw you...that they are trying to sell me a defective unit that is a 2021 built only six weeks ago, with a small crack 13 feet off the ground they are trying to hide, blah blah blah. These are mobile units ,I have a warranty, someone is going to fix it. I also have an existing relationship with the local dealer with a proven track record of other service on a unit I bought from them that wasn't warranty. It is 3 days old. People are on the move all the time in these things with issues, Good lord. And on top of that the local dealer told me five months for a unit, well we wanted one now.

I will ask one more reasonable question does anyone know if this is a keystone 3 year structural warranty item too?

ON edit looks like its covered for 3 years.

Effective for keystone recreational vehicles manufactured on or after September 1, 2017.

The limited structural warranty covers your rv for a period of three (3) years from the date of purchase by the original owner. Transferable during the warranty period. The structural warranty COVERS DEFECTS IN MATERIALS AND WORKMANSHIP ATTRIBUTABLE TO KEYSTONE RV MANUFACTURING AND ASSEMBLY OF THE STRUCTURAL PORTION OF YOUR RV. Structural coverage includes:



main steel frame
steel frame outriggers & cross members
skeletal framing (wall studs, floor joists, roof rafters)
exterior sidewalls (laminated & non-laminated)
roof (laminated & non-laminated)
roof material installation
floors (laminated & non-laminated)
front & rear walls (laminated & non-laminated)
all slide out boxes & applicable structural components
fiberglass front caps** (paint fade, cracking)
front cap windshield installation

[chuckster57]

Originally Posted by nellie1289

Seems to me keystone would likely blow up these sort of dealerships for doing this to customers.

RV industry isn’t like the automotive industry. Dealerships are not “franchises” or “company owned”. Except for geographical limitations ANY RV dealer can sell ANY brand/line they want, and I will argue that no they don’t have to service what they didn’t sell. I have been at dealerships for the past 9 years and the ONLY manufacturer that required a non selling dealer to service was Tiffen, and then it was limited to 5 items per visit.

There isn’t any money to be made doing warranty work, the factory decides the labor rate ( way less than shop rate), determines how much labor they will pay, and will deny it all if no pictures and appropriate documentation. There is a dealer near me that won’t even do warranty work on units they sell. They will put you off until factory warranty is up, and then either you pay or hope the extended warranty covers it.

[chuckster57]

Nellie: I surely hope your local dealer steps up and takes care of you. I don’t believe anybody on this forum can state weather or not it’s under the 3 year structural warranty. I will say that there are more DIShonest dealerships, and that’s one reason I left the dealership environment.

Do dealers deliver units with problems like yours? YES, I have seen it, taken pictures to cover my rear if it goes to court...in the end the dealership’s objective is to make money.

Let us know how this plays out.

[purebred]

[QUOTE=flybouy;419780]This is very typical of the issues that arise when purchasing from a distant dealer. The OP is a 1,000 miles away from the dealer he purchased from. To drive a 2,000 mile round trip twice would not be cost effective. The money spent in travel and lodging could easily exceed the cost of the repair.

With everything that's going on now I have to agree with the above statement. Seems like a no brainer to have it fixed where you're at now. I'm not you but I would try local dealerships in your area to see if it could be fixed asap. If you can't come to an agreement then I would just byte the bullet and fix it yourself. There is a couple times I avoided warranty and just fixed the things wrong because of the warranty/dealership fiasco. Most times I try to fix it myself but once I paid someone who actually had a sail switch in his truck for my furnace. The dealer 2 miles away refused to send someone out to look at it so it was a no brainer for me. I was out for the labor but so what. There is no way I would drive another 2000 miles for that small crack. I hope you get an answer from a local dealer and hopefully it is determined what caused it and then fix the dang thing.

[JRTJH]

Well, has anyone read the Keystone Owner's Manual ?????

There is a "clear, concise section" addressing "How To Obtain Service" (It's on page 8 of the 2021 Keystone Owner's Manual) and states:

"HOW TO OBTAIN SERVICE
To obtain service please refer to your Owner’s Manual where Keystone recommends that you first contact your local selling dealer for warranty service. If you encounter any difficulty obtaining warranty service, please contact the Customer Service Department at Keystone, P.O. Box 2000, Goshen, Indiana 46527. Telephone Number (866) 425-4369 (www.keystonerv.com - Customer Service Link)."

I'd offer this "bit of advice" :

The above paragraph does not suggest that an owner "go from dealership to dealership begging for help"... It does instruct the owner to contact your local selling dealer" (the place where you bought the trailer). It goes on to state, "If you encounter any difficulty, to contact Keystone Customer Service" and provides an address as well as a phone number....

To the OP: nellie1289, rather than getting upset at member's posts and instead of calling forums "dogcrap" (a term I personally find very obnoxious considering you want help from the forum to reach a solution to your problems), why not "cut to the manual" and call Keystone tomorrow morning???? The phone number (866) 425-4369 is your best solution, if you're at all interested in following the manufacturer's recommendations to get your trailer repaired under "THEIR" warranty provisions.....

[purebred]

I believe in post 22 he stated he was going to contact his local dealer. They already have a part ordered for his leaking ram. I'm sure he has more options other than a 2000 mile return to dealer. Amazing

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by nellie1289

The professional skepticism here is truly unreal. This is why these forums are complete dogcrap half the time. You ask for some friendly opinions on a possible fix and you end up with lectures about dont drive here, dont drive there. Every dealer is out to screw you...that they are trying to sell me a defective unit that is a 2021 built only six weeks ago, with a small crack 13 feet off the ground they are trying to hide, blah blah blah. These are mobile units ,I have a warranty, someone is going to fix it. I also have an existing relationship with the local dealer with a proven track record of other service on a unit I bought from them that wasn't warranty. It is 3 days old. People are on the move all the time in these things with issues, Good lord. And on top of that the local dealer told me five months for a unit, well we wanted one now.

I will ask one more reasonable question does anyone know if this is a keystone 3 year structural warranty item too?

ON edit looks like its covered for 3 years.

Effective for keystone recreational vehicles manufactured on or after September 1, 2017.

The limited structural warranty covers your rv for a period of three (3) years from the date of purchase by the original owner. Transferable during the warranty period. The structural warranty COVERS DEFECTS IN MATERIALS AND WORKMANSHIP ATTRIBUTABLE TO KEYSTONE RV MANUFACTURING AND ASSEMBLY OF THE STRUCTURAL PORTION OF YOUR RV. Structural coverage includes:



main steel frame
steel frame outriggers & cross members
skeletal framing (wall studs, floor joists, roof rafters)
exterior sidewalls (laminated & non-laminated)
roof (laminated & non-laminated)
roof material installation
floors (laminated & non-laminated)
front & rear walls (laminated & non-laminated)
all slide out boxes & applicable structural components
fiberglass front caps** (paint fade, cracking)
front cap windshield installation

I won't address your uncalled for comments. You need to deal with your dealership and they will deal with Keystone and you can get what you get. THEY will decide, however they want to, if it's structural or not - you won't have a lot of input.

[nellie1289]

Sorry if i have offended anyone, didn't mean to. Good news is I talked to my local dealer who services and sold me other trailers, Curtis Trailers in Portland. They have always done me right and i will keep going to them for this reason. I only say their name as I like to call out good dealers for others who may be in this situation and lets support those types of businesses. They are happy to take it in and I sent them pics and they are ready to order parts etc.

I also talked to the Billings Dealer, they also are willing to help me with claims if it comes to that. Good folks.

Will post later when the repair is done they say based on the location should be an easy fix.

[purebred]

Originally Posted by nellie1289

Sorry if i have offended anyone, didn't mean to. Good news is I talked to my local dealer who services and sold me other trailers, Curtis Trailers in Portland. They have always done me right and i will keep going to them for this reason. I only say their name as I like to call out good dealers for others who may be in this situation and lets support those types of businesses. They are happy to take it in and I sent them pics and they are ready to order parts etc.

I also talked to the Billings Dealer, they also are willing to help me with claims if it comes to that. Good folks.

Will post later when the repair is done they say based on the location should be an easy fix.

Good for you. It sure looked like an easy fix.

[wiredgeorge]

Dang.... I was just getting ready to pile on too but it looks like Nellie's trailer will get fixed. This is by a dealer who didn't sell the camper to him. A couple folks need to be given a 15 yard penalty for piling on and Nellie likely didn't use the best judgement calling dog crap on forums. Sometimes certain words seem to be counter productive.

[chuckster57]

I am happy to hear that your local dealer is stepping up, it is the exception to the rule!! Let us know how it turns out.

[rhagfo]

Originally Posted by chuckster57

I am happy to hear that your local dealer is stepping up, it is the exception to the rule!! Let us know how it turns out.

This is the major dealer in the Portland area, has two locations on in Portland's east side, and one in Beaverton. They are currently expanding the service department in the Beaverton location.
Very forward thinking dealer, we rented storage space from them at the Beaverton back in 2008, very reasonable rate, if I wanted to work on the trailer, could us their power, and parts department was 100 yards at most from our Trailer. Then we got notice they were dropping storage, as they were loading up their inventory seeing the upcoming recession, and manufacturing cut backs. They did load up inventory, and now days this location has three additional lots loaded with RV's.
I still shop their parts department, great people to deal with.

[purebred]

Originally Posted by wiredgeorge

Dang.... I was just getting ready to pile on too but it looks like Nellie's trailer will get fixed. This is by a dealer who didn't sell the camper to him. A couple folks need to be given a 15 yard penalty for piling on and Nellie likely didn't use the best judgement calling dog crap on forums. Sometimes certain words seem to be counter productive.

Yeah George the squad sticks together on this forum. Ridiculous to think you would drive a 2000 mile trip for a 1 inch crack. Common sense works wonders.

[Javi]

Originally Posted by purebred

Yeah George the squad sticks together on this forum. Ridiculous to think you would drive a 2000 mile trip for a 1 inch crack. Common sense works wonders.

I can guarantee that if had been me, that I would have first called the selling dealer to see how he wanted to handle it, but if not satisfied I would easily drive a thousand miles for satisfaction. I will also admit that besides being from a state where driving a couple of hundred miles to meet friends for dinner and then driving home afterwards is pretty normal... I'm also a stubborn vindictive a-hole.

[purebred]

Originally Posted by Javi

I can guarantee that if had been me, that I would have first called the selling dealer to see how he wanted to handle it, but if not satisfied I would easily drive a thousand miles for satisfaction. I will also admit that besides being from a state where driving a couple of hundred miles to meet friends for dinner and then driving home afterwards is pretty normal... I'm also a stubborn vindictive a-hole.

Good for you. Sorry I don't agree with your way of thinking. I believe in common sense. Seems pretty logical to me.

[Javi]

Originally Posted by purebred

Good for you. Sorry I don't agree with your way of thinking. I believe in common sense. Seems pretty logical to me.

Yeah... me too

I woulfn't buy a trailer with a crack in it... and if I did.. I'd not want it, even if they FIXED it... every time I walked by it, I look up to see if it was cracked again.. Nope that ain't like a broken window or busted tail light.

[chuckster57]

At this point, the OP has chosen his course of action. Let’s leave it at that and wait for the outcome instead of arguing...makes no sense.

[wiredgeorge]

Chuckster, would a dealership have someone with the skills to fix a crack in the fiberglass and then touch up the paint? Sounds like autobody shop stuff and not sure that an autobody shop has techs that work fiberglass. Just curious. Watched a youtube video and it doesn't seem like making a repair is really that hard but it does require fiberglass and painting skills.

[chuckster57]

Depends on the dealership. One dealership I worked at had two locations and a dedicated body shop at one. Last dealership I was at used a mobile guy for small repairs.