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Old 03-03-2011, 09:01 PM   #21
Pat L.
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Well back to the original question: The Montana's are great units for what they are. Probably the best buy on the market for the money. I had a '05 3475 that we bought new and never had any problems. I stayed up on maintenance and pulled it some 35 to 40k before we traded it in on a new '10 36TKSB4. We took delivery in January and have not been able to use as the snowbirds have all of the CG's filled up here in SW Fl. until April 1st. I have had some bad issues with it and have not been able to get them resolved as of yet.
After reading many different Forums I am starting to feel like we made a bad mistake. We were lied to by the dealer on a half a dozen issues that will come back to bite them in the butt. All I see on the Forums is about bad engineering, bad brake issues, bad frame issues, bad insulated window issues and on and on. Most of the working components in most RV's are the same. ie: water heaters, AC's, refrigerators and etc.
The good part I have found with the Drv is it is a pleasure to pull and the added insulation is a big plus. My wife complained in Montana that she felt cold and in the Mobil Suites she gets hot. A very big plus. The side bath is nice but we had more storage in the Montana in the kitchen. The large closet just inside the door was great for storage as we did not have the washer and dryer.
I was needing to replace the check valve for the city water inlet and the black tank flush quit working. But all in all the Montana was a great unit.
I hope that the factory will get my issues resolved in a timely manner and I won't have to take it to Indiana.
The Mobil Suites are heaver so plan on beefing up your truck for the added weight. I will be adding Air Life kit to my '05 F350 CC KR as well as a 20K hitch. I hope that once we start using our unit we will love as much as we did the Montana. You have the coach that we were looking at to replace our other one.
If you want to direct e-mail me: plaurendine@yahoo.com.
Good luck and hope to hear from you.
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Old 03-03-2011, 10:10 PM   #22
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Rotaxman
I was only asking questions after you posting information. Thank you for the link and the information helps to explain the defective frame problems.
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Old 03-03-2011, 10:43 PM   #23
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Frames

Dan and Darlene,

No problem glad that we got it cleared up always happy to help when I can.

As always good camping
Joyce and Jerry
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Old 03-04-2011, 09:29 AM   #24
CherriandBob
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"After the formation of the SOITC most all of the cheerleaders went over to that forum known as the most dead forum on the internet. Which in turn made this forum a much better forum with a lot friendlier exchange of information. "

Just and FYI---I would guess that a lot of the so called "cheerleaders" still frequent this forum as well as that "dead" one referred to.
I think part of the problem is the attitude of people when they read a post and their need to interpret the mood of the writer. Sorry to get off topic.

To respond to the orginal post...Do your homework and go with your gut. We really like our suite, not to say there have not been problems. You have to look at the big picture. Generally you will see a small percentage of owners respond on any forum and most of those are members of multiple forums so if it seems you get an overwhelming response, some of those may be coming from the same source. Good luck with your decision and if you end up with a "suite" hope to meet you at a rally.
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Old 03-04-2011, 10:14 AM   #25
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I was under the impression that some of the Suite cheerleaders got off the road or bought MH's. LOL

Personally, even with problems, the Suite is a giant step above any Fleetwood or Pilgrim RV we've owned.
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Old 03-04-2011, 10:41 AM   #26
dalehandsome
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Hi Susan and Steve,
We looked at 5th wheels for a good two years before we purchased our 2010 Mobile Suites 38 TKSB3 #5334. Montana was one of our favorites until we came across the DRV line. Two major turning points for us that the Montana only had room for the combo washer and dryer and not the stackable or side by side (Important to my DW), and it did not have the leveling system (important to me). Our son has a Cardinal and I have watched him literally spend 45 minutes leveling it. At my age, I was not interested in doing that. Once we were able to put the two units side by side there just wasn’t a comparison. The build quality of the DRV, in our opinion, was far superior. We love the extra insulation in the 3 ½ inch walls, the double pane windows and the heavier frame. Right now we are doing 18 months of service for our church in Macon, Georgia and we are parked in a mobile home park ($200.00 per month) just off the freeway. We have neighbors, with other trailers, who complain about the freeway noise. We barely, if ever, hear it! We have been in our unit for almost a year now and have really enjoyed it and have had few problems. It is as comfortable as our former SB and it is really fun staying in our own place and not an apartment. We actually purchased this as a second home as we generally spend our winters in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico where we have a condo. We also felt that our DRV would have a higher % resale than the Montana since there are fewer of them around.

We met Jerry and Joyce (rotaxman) just before we purchased our unit. They live just a short distance from our son’s home in Kansas City where our unit will be based once we finish our mission. They are a delightful couple and Jerry has done some remarkable and beautiful customizing on his 2009 TKSB3. It is really unfortunate what happened with the camber problem. I remember back in 1980 we purchased an Audi 5000. It was the car of my dreams and turned out to be the car of nightmares. I still cringe whenever I see anyone drive an Audi, and yet I know they are a great car.

We finally settled in on two manufacturers. DRV and Cameo. Both were quality built and both offered space for the Wash Dryer units and both had automatic levelers. We made appointments for a tour of each plant. When we arrived at the DRV plant we were greeted by a TV monitor that said “Welcome Hansen’s”. We were treated to an extensive tour of the plant by Dan Tauer, who unbeknownst to us was vice president. We spent a little over three hours with him that day and a couple more the next day. When we arrived for our tour of the Cameo plant, they had forgotten that we were coming and quickly arranged for a tour with a salesperson from the local Cameo dealer. Needles to say the DRV factory tour experience was the turning point in our decision. I highly recommend a tour of the factory if at all possible.

Our unit was towed to its present location (1000 Miles) with our sons 2003 Dodge 3500 Diesel. I am not going to get into the weight issue here, I only want to mention that there were no problems and his comment was that it towed much nicer than his Cardinal. He also tows a 26 foot Chaparral boat and sometimes both his trailer and his boat.

The bottom line is the DRV line of 5th wheels are great units. Not perfect, but very nice. Good luck in your research. Below are a couple of links. One is our photography link in Puerto Vallarta and the other is our Blog for our mission. On the blog there is a tab that says “Our Mobile Suites 5th wheel”. Here you will see a few pictures of the inside of our unit. We did make a few changes, one of which was to move the fire place from side of the desk to the end of the island so we could put in filing cabinets by the desk. This also directs the heat from the fire place directly onto my wife which she loves. This fire place is a little smaller than the one that goes to the side of the desk but puts out the same heat. We have really enjoyed the extra storage created by the filing cabinets.

www.apvallarta.com
grumpagladma.wordpress.com

Take Care: Dale and Marian Hansen
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Old 03-04-2011, 02:00 PM   #27
hitchup
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dalehandsome
We finally settled in on two manufacturers. DRV and Cameo. Both were quality built and both offered space for the Wash Dryer units and both had automatic levelers. We made appointments for a tour of each plant.....When we arrived for our tour of the Cameo plant, they had forgotten that we were coming and quickly arranged for a tour with a salesperson from the local Cameo dealer. Needless to say the DRV factory tour experience was the turning point in our decision. I highly recommend a tour of the factory if at all possible.
A Factory Tour is definitely an eye opener. We also went to Carriage and then DRV back in July of 2008. We wanted to compare their high end Royal's to our Elite. The Carriage Tour was taken with a Cameo owner who was in for warranty work. He had been on the DRV tour the previous week. While David asked questions to the Carriage employee, the Cameo owner kept telling me how DRV compared. He couldn't stop raving about DRV's differences.

The next day on DRV's tour, we saw the changes on the 2009 Suites. We couldn't wait to get to our next project and order a new Suite. Also on the tour was the Cameo owner's friends who owned a Montana.

PS: Dale, Thanks for the link to your Suite. It's always fun seeing the custom changes. It gives potential owners fantastic ideas.
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Old 03-04-2011, 02:09 PM   #28
terry and jo
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I'll second Vickie and David's comment about your 38TKSB3. Y'all must be very short people, based on the size of those stockings.

Seriously, though they are good pictures and it's a good modification. The 46" TV might be a bit overwhelming, but hey, everybody has preferences.

Terry
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Old 03-04-2011, 02:33 PM   #29
dalehandsome
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Terry,
We love the 46" 3D TV. At first we thought it might be a bit over whelming, however, it is just perfect. We just lay back in our Lazy Boy love seat, turn on the fire and we are right there in the plushest theatre. We have been waiting for our old TV, in or condo, to go out so we could upgrade to a flat screen. It just keeps on running and running and running. So when we purchased the MS, we decided it was time to go for the gusto.
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Old 03-11-2011, 09:58 PM   #30
soos
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Hi,
my husband and I are also in the process of researching prior to buying a new 5th wheel. Our top 3 are Carriage Carri-lite, Hitchhiker, and Mobile Suites. Up until now, the MS was "the one to beat" but after reading this and other threads I am getting cold feet. one of the main reasons we want to upgrade, is a frame flexing issue we have had in our Everest.
We do plan on heading to all the factories before deciding, but I am not sure my husband would even consider a MS if there are frame issues out there.
Is there any evidence that they have fixed this issue, or are people still having frame issues with the newer models?

Sue
(sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread)
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Old 03-12-2011, 08:24 AM   #31
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Sue you shouldn't feel that you hijacked the forum. This is what it is designed to do, share valuable information to assist each other.

I have owned 2 custom camper vans, 2 towables, a class C and class A diesel motor home before purchasing our Mobile Suites. With each purchase, the quality has declined while the prices continued to rise. I sincerely believe in buying made in America but the quality of today's goods and services has declined over the years. (in my opinion) From what I have heard, DRV products have followed the same path. I had 3 pages of things to be fixed and it took 2.5 weeks in Indiana to get everything fixed. Having said that, I still believe that DRV products are the best on the market. Yes, I had problems but they were all fixed.

It also helps to have a good dealer. I shopped several dealers before picking International RV World. Dave Titus has been excellent to work with and extremely knowledgeable of the unit. I'm sure there are other great dealers as well along with some terrible ones.

Finding good repair centers can be a challenge as well. Paul & Kay Cross at Indiana Interstate in Lagrange, IN does great work. Don & Brandy at Land Yachts in Jupiter, Fl is another great repair shop.

Flexing frames - From my experience, flexing frames typically come from overloading the unit.

Lastly, ask repair shops that do not sell RV's to rate manufacturers. I did this for motor homes and Newmar and Tiffin were number one, hands down.

http://www.internationalrvworldfl.com/map_hours.asp
http://www.crossrv.com/
http://www.landyachtsinc.com/
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Old 03-12-2011, 09:05 AM   #32
hitchup
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Sue, we're in our 2nd Suite. No Flexing in either frame and lived in both 2 1/2 yrs. Only minor problems in each one. Far fewer in our 2009 than the 2006.

Keep in mind, this forum is really only a very small portion of Suite owners.

Vickie
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Old 03-12-2011, 12:26 PM   #33
Carny Bill
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Drv

We have owned an 04,06,09. Getting ready to order another one this summer. Only minor problems with any.
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Old 03-12-2011, 03:18 PM   #34
soos
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thanks all, for helping me calm down, a little. Some frame flexing may be from overloading, but not all. keystone has weighed our trailer several times; we're always about 800-1000 lbs under. they have tried, and failed, to fix the flexing several times. we're out of warranty but they are "owning" the problem. sue
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Old 03-13-2011, 07:27 AM   #35
bucky49
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Any trailer you buy you should have alignment checked. It may be the best $100+ dollars you spend. Axles can be bent from manufacture to road problems. Spring hangers can be misaligned from manufacture to bent on the road. Check tires for wear or mis alignment. also weight rating. Suites should have H rated tires, and they now are standard for 36 and up. We love our new home but with all rvs there are sometimes issues when new just like cars or stick built homes. Remember we run these things down the road, and they are built compareativly light. Hope you have great travels.
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Old 03-15-2011, 07:25 AM   #36
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Nomadgirl, I owned a traded my 03 Montana for my 06 36tk3 Elite, I was very happy with the service my Montana provided very very limited issues. I traveled all thru North East in extremely cold weather.The DRV is warmer in cold weather most definetly. We too took the factory tour, it was great.It sold us on the DRV Product, BUT, We have had many many issues with our DRV, not any frame issues but plenty of others, We could not afford a New unit so we bought ours used,at first our salesman told us not to purchase the warranty but changed his mind. We were Thankful for that, with that being said it has been used numorous times. We Love the DRV and still have it but are looking to possibly sell, Not because of the issues but I am no longer traveling for work.I WOULD buy another DRV but I would go over it with a fine toothed comb before my purchase, I live in Alabama so its not conveinent to travel to Indiana to Pauls shop, I have talked to them before and although I was not able to make the trip to Indiana have heard wonderful things about his work, If you purchase a DRV I would get to know him personally, Good Luck[/b]
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