Montana Owners Club - Keystone Montana 5th Wheel Forum - View Single Post

jameswbarton · 03-11-2017, 07:37 AM

So I kept on asking Owner Relations on why they advertised 4 season capability that did not include freezing and asked abut why sales continued to falsely advertise the design capability. This is the last reply

"I apologize that you believe I've "sidestepped" an inquiry you had. The Zero Degree testing is completed in a controlled environment and is not rated with any factors of the outside environment, where you would be in fact using your unit. Water freezes at 32 degrees and that is why we've listed in our owner's manual how to extend your camping season in cold weather temperatures. Wind-chill will be a factor in to the overall temperature hitting the tanks and plumbing itself. We ask that you practice precaution when using the plumbing in temperatures which would cause freezing to the plumbing system."

My unit is back in the dealer in a last attempt to get it as it should have been on pickup day last June thanks to the approval of this representative. If you do complain enough in public they may eventually give in and assign someone to make it right.

We bought the unit for housing for the wife who was a travelling nurse and sometimes had to take contracts in cold climates so 4 seasons was very important. To fix my high country I had to spend many days isolating the area under the steps from the belly area. Instead of using valuable propane to heat the underbelly which certainly is not insulated, nor airtight. I ran an additional outlet and am using a marine heater with freeze functionality to forced air heat the belly. Had I had more ambition I would have changed all the floor ducting to insulated. If you really want to be in cold I suppose you could have the entire belly spray foamed. I also changed all the floor registers to ones that closed.

This appears to work fine for coach temperature but I did not test the plumbing systems in the Michigan cold winter. I suspect much more work like tank heating and adding more insulation above the belly pan cover may be needed to keep the plumbing from freezing. I no longer need to use the unit in the cold due to a heart attack taking the wife at Christmas so I am done trying to redesign a pretty lousy build.

03-11-2017, 07:37 AM	#15
jameswbarton Montana Fan Join Date: May 2016 Location: Massillon Posts: 437 M.O.C. #18658	So I kept on asking Owner Relations on why they advertised 4 season capability that did not include freezing and asked abut why sales continued to falsely advertise the design capability. This is the last reply "I apologize that you believe I've "sidestepped" an inquiry you had. The Zero Degree testing is completed in a controlled environment and is not rated with any factors of the outside environment, where you would be in fact using your unit. Water freezes at 32 degrees and that is why we've listed in our owner's manual how to extend your camping season in cold weather temperatures. Wind-chill will be a factor in to the overall temperature hitting the tanks and plumbing itself. We ask that you practice precaution when using the plumbing in temperatures which would cause freezing to the plumbing system." My unit is back in the dealer in a last attempt to get it as it should have been on pickup day last June thanks to the approval of this representative. If you do complain enough in public they may eventually give in and assign someone to make it right. We bought the unit for housing for the wife who was a travelling nurse and sometimes had to take contracts in cold climates so 4 seasons was very important. To fix my high country I had to spend many days isolating the area under the steps from the belly area. Instead of using valuable propane to heat the underbelly which certainly is not insulated, nor airtight. I ran an additional outlet and am using a marine heater with freeze functionality to forced air heat the belly. Had I had more ambition I would have changed all the floor ducting to insulated. If you really want to be in cold I suppose you could have the entire belly spray foamed. I also changed all the floor registers to ones that closed. This appears to work fine for coach temperature but I did not test the plumbing systems in the Michigan cold winter. I suspect much more work like tank heating and adding more insulation above the belly pan cover may be needed to keep the plumbing from freezing. I no longer need to use the unit in the cold due to a heart attack taking the wife at Christmas so I am done trying to redesign a pretty lousy build.