When we got to Chattanooga, our sight seeing trip went into a holding pattern. We've been talking about the possibility of moving up to a new fifth wheel. The Sandpipper needed some exterior and interior work which I thought would cost us about $ 2,000. We've thought a newer, bigger rig would be nice but we assumed finding what we wanted would be in the neighborhood of $ 50,000. If we were to upgrade, there needed to be positive advantages; Johnna and I were reluctant to spend that kind of money just for something new and shinny. A new fifth wheel would have to improve our lives on the road substantially, or no deal.
We got to Chattanooga Wednesday, and on Thursday while walking Sheila, I stopped to ask a man about some feature on his fifth wheel that caught my eye. The conversation led from one thing to another, and he told me he had traded a motor home for his fifth wheel, a Montana. We've looked at Montana's before but they can be pricey. He said he had checked prices and found this dealer in Georga, about six miles south on I 75.
Friday we wandered on down, kicked some tires, looked at floor plans, decided on our favorite and told the dealer to wrap it up, if we could get rid of our current fifth wheel. No problem; the dealer, knew a wholesaler that would take our old rig and pay us close to blue book. That was that, Saturday, we bought the new Montana Mountaineer.
Friday we wandered on down, kicked some tires, looked at floor plans, decided on our favorite and told the dealer to wrap it up, if we could get rid of our current fifth wheel. No problem; the dealer, knew a wholesaler that would take our old rig and pay us close to blue book. That was that, Saturday, we bought the new Montana Mountaineer.
The deciding factors were: Larger kitchen area with more counter space, a shower that is usable, a 10 gallon hot water heater, bigger free floor area, at least seven by eleven feet, built in TV. I think the main features we both liked, were the shower and larger living area. With the increased living area, we could, at long last get our lap tops off the dining table.
I'm a bit frustrated at the lack of storage space, which seems to be less than the old 30 footer. But we managed to cram almost all our old stuff in someplace. I threw away things that we hadn't used for three years and some junk I figured we would never have a use for.
Some time I'll try to figure out whether we got a good or average deal. But for now, I'm thinking we did OK. Our out of pocket cost was $ 28,885.00 and we still have to pay Utah taxes. The manufactures suggested retail price for the unit, including the options, was over $ 60,000.
New home away from home.
The dealer said it would take until Wednesday to prep the fifth wheel. We were originally leaving on Sunday the 29 th, so we extended our stay to Saturday the 5 th. That would give us three days, after delivery, to get organized before resuming our trip. And we needed three days. Moving all our stuff from the old to the new rig was more work than I would have thought. Plus, $ 300.00 to $ 400.00 spent at Lowe's, Home Depot and Target, fitting out the new living space. And, oh yes, new tires for the truck. I was planning to replace them when we got home anyway, they had reached the wear strips and were only good for another 2000 miles or so.
In general, we're happy with the new rig. Fit and finish is generally good to excellent but I've noted at least one potential problem. The counter tops seem to be Formica with a strip edging; its the edging that will eventually chip and break. It was not trimmed flush with the counter top but sticks up 1/32 inch or so above the top surface, if you slide a pot over the edge it may chip.
The exhaust fan in the bathroom doesn't seem to work. I'll have to fix it.
The unit is equipped with a couch/ hide a bed with an air mattress. Under the couch, is a wide storage drawer. When I started to put two comforters and a spare blanket in the drawer, the draw front broke off, a combination of poor design and cheep material. The draw face is upholstered and attached to a face plate that was in turn screwed to the draw sides. When I put pressure on the draw front, the assembly screws ripped out of the face plate and the whole front fell off. I'll fix this when I get home. Not a big problem, but if all the couches are constructed the same way, some one has a problem dealing with mad customers. I told the RV dealer what happened and suggested he find a local cabinet maker to beef up the construction before he lets a customer leave the lot; this would avoid future replacements.
Every thing else seems ok; we'll find out as time goes on.
What's really nice, is the added space two slide outs add to the over all living room. Compared to the old RV, it's huge. This RV has a center kitchen, leaving the last 10 to 12 feet open for living space.
Looking into the living area from the kitchen. We have finally solved, I hope, the laptop work station headache with these neat rolling, tilting, and height adjustable, lap top tables from an Office Depot in Chattanooga. In the old rig, we both sat at the dining table with our lap tops. This promises to be much better.
What I see sitting at my laptop. We slaved for two days to get everything off the floor, but the counter still looks cluttered; I think having a place for everything, and clean counter tops is a futile endeavor anyway.
We ordered the old trailer customized from the Forest River plant in San Diego. Our main modifications were twin beds and a hard surf ice floor in the main living area. This trailer has linoleum in the kitchen area and bath room, with rug every where else.
The bead is queen size and almost fills the bedroom, leaving only room enough for a built in six draw chest of draws and a full width closet with sliding glass doors. There's about a foot between the bed and closet doors on one side, and the same on the other side, between the bed and bedroom pocket door. You have to twist and turn to get in and out of bed. I kind of liked the twin bed arrangement in the old RV. I'm not sure that option is available in this model; and, in any case, we would have to order it from the factory, which would take time; we waited over a month for the old RV to be custom made.
The mattress is one hard brick. After the first night, we went straight to Target and bought a 2 inch thick Memory Foam mattress topper. I had purchased a Memory Foam pillow some time back and liked it. The mattress topper did the trick, we've both had very restful nights since buying it. I toss and turn quite a bit at night but Johnna says she doesn't notice; as long as we both get a good nights sleep we won't complain.
Memory Foam was first developed by NASA to ease G-force during shuttle take off. NASA never used it in the space program but it was eventually used in medical applications to reduce pressure sores for bed-bound patients. It's a great material but a bit pricey. Since we've used it, I'll probably try to talk Johnna into a full thickness (10 inch) mattress some time in the future. A number of outlets sell them; Tempur-Pedic doesn't have an exclusive any longer.
Initially I worried about a significant difference in turning radius with a 35 foot trailer versus our old 30 footer; there doesn't seem to be any. The distance between the truck hitch and the axles is almost identical, so the extra five feet has little or no discernible effect on pulling the new RV.
So far it looks like happy trails with our Montana Mountaineer and Sunday we'll continue on to Memphis, our original goal before we were hit with new rig itch.