Part 3-4 weeks and 5 days how things are going
Four weeks and 5 days ago we took delivery of the new Montana 5er. This is part 3 of my report on how it’s been going.
-Changes or alterations to the original design of the 5er to make life a little easier-
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this specific model was the placement of the main control panel and the house lights switches.
Light switches are on the walls, except for the main lights in the living room and kitchen area. The switches are in the panel, located high right inside the front door. Granted there is a motion sensor light when you open the door, but the actual light switchs are near impossible to find, being in a row with other switches. Kitchen: top row, far right. Living room, Second row, second from the right. Hitting the switches, you may flip on any number of outside lights, or the slides or the electric or gas switch for the water heater before you actually get a light on. Oh, there is a very blinding motion sensor light that comes on when you open that panel door, so bright and blaring right at you, you can’t see anything.
The first thing I did was put black tape over that bright light. The second thing I did was put little reflective, glow in the dark stick on stars where the two switches actually are. This still did not make it easier, it’s just so tall to reach and you have to open that panel door every time you want to turn the lights on and off.
I purchased a 2 gang light switch from my local dealership and did a bit of creative rewiring and installed two switches lower, and outside that cabinet door. End result? Works great! No problems now. I did have to tear that cabinet apart and figure out how to run wiring around the microwave, drill a couple holes, clean up tons of original construction saw dust, and then reassemble everything. The end result, the new switches look factory and those holes are completely hidden behind the false panel in the cabinet. Most important, the light switches work great!
In the phot below, you can see the panel door open with the switches. You can also see how tall that top and second row is. You can also see my glow-in-the-dark stars.
Below that, I the middle of that outside panel is the new dual switches. Below that I added a key rack, and on the cabinet below, you can see our yellow and pink “doggie buts” coat hooks. We put them in to hold the dogs retractable leashes. We have 2 dogs.
FYI, in the top panel you see a white light in the upper left corner. That’s the motion sensor light. I left that little bit uncovered, and covered the rest, so it does shed a little light, just not blinding, slapping you in the face as soon as you open the door.
So, we also had a similar problem in the bathroom. The light switch is located on the opposite side of door from where it should be. The door is a pivot door, it swings in the middle. I added a new light switch on the opposite side of the wall, in the hall way, and made it the live switch, and got a second switch to keep the original look in the bathroom, but it’s disconnected. End result! Much, much easier finding the light switch in the dark and no fumbling around the back side of an open door.
Hallway with new switch:
Bathroom with the light switch no longer wired:
Problem:
Cabinet doors kept popping open when in transit and when opening slides, the cabinet doors would hit the slides. This is never good. Solution: Child proof locks on the cabinet doors that are adjacent each of the slides. There were 10 cabinet doors all together:
Not in any photos, the camper came with an awning strap. I purchased a second one to use on each end of the awning. No, not to extract the awning, as it’s electric, but to use it to pull the awning down after it’s extracted. The awning is so tall, I can’t even reach the arms to pull it down. I definitely cannot reach the know to tighten them in the down slope position. The straps make all the difference in the world.
Here’s a photo to give you an idea just how tall those awning arms are, and reaching that knob without a ladder is impossible for us short people! FYI, that’s my 5 year old grandson standing on the picnic table:
Since we’re looking at this photo, we also purchased a new ground mat, the brown one, because I ended up cutting the second blue ground mat we had to make runners for the back door.
Additions:
For convenience, I added some coat hooks in the kitchen area to hold wet dish towels.
Purchased a new 30 amp surge protector and a 50 amp surge protector. 30 for when we do not have 50 amp service, like at home for the moment; and 50 for when we do. I am planning on installing a 50 amp outlet at home. I’m having difficulty finding the one I want though.
Added a compartment door holder clip to hold open the little door for the black and grey tank valve handles. I can’t believe they didn’t put a holder there. It was very awkward holding the door up and trying to pull handles at the same time. This solution was so simple, and I had 5 or 6 of these in my RV junk drawer from previous campers.
And one more item added new, rugs and runners:
And to bring my 4 week and 5 day trilogy to a conclusion, I’ve had great success backing the new 5er into the driveway, campsites, and anywhere else. I’ve been practicing in open parking lots and have it down pretty good now. Adding the 4 foot ladder has made it much easier accessing the back of the truck and reaching things.
I disconnected the ice maker in the refrigerator so no water will go in, and I practiced a “wet” run running RV pink-stuff antifreeze into the system with plain water. I also figured out how to use the black tank flusher by running water from the shower outlet into the black tank flusher. You’ve go to admit, that’s pretty slick.
Also, I have a love-hate relationship with my water heater. I keep forgetting to flip the electric buttons (inside and outside), or there are bugs caught in the gas chamber tube, or I’ve forgotten to flip the water heater by-pass off and back to normal flow… like duh! That one took 2 days to figure out because I missed flipping the valve back after practicing winterizing with plain water.
There are two things that turned out to be absolutely true about my pre-conceived ideas of 5er’s when I was a TT owner. One is steps. They do have steps! And two, they have taller ceilings, which means they take more propane to heat the space. And these turned out to so true and I see no way to change this.
So, there is it is. It’s been a buy month!
Happy camping folks!
-Changes or alterations to the original design of the 5er to make life a little easier-
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this specific model was the placement of the main control panel and the house lights switches.
Light switches are on the walls, except for the main lights in the living room and kitchen area. The switches are in the panel, located high right inside the front door. Granted there is a motion sensor light when you open the door, but the actual light switchs are near impossible to find, being in a row with other switches. Kitchen: top row, far right. Living room, Second row, second from the right. Hitting the switches, you may flip on any number of outside lights, or the slides or the electric or gas switch for the water heater before you actually get a light on. Oh, there is a very blinding motion sensor light that comes on when you open that panel door, so bright and blaring right at you, you can’t see anything.
The first thing I did was put black tape over that bright light. The second thing I did was put little reflective, glow in the dark stick on stars where the two switches actually are. This still did not make it easier, it’s just so tall to reach and you have to open that panel door every time you want to turn the lights on and off.
I purchased a 2 gang light switch from my local dealership and did a bit of creative rewiring and installed two switches lower, and outside that cabinet door. End result? Works great! No problems now. I did have to tear that cabinet apart and figure out how to run wiring around the microwave, drill a couple holes, clean up tons of original construction saw dust, and then reassemble everything. The end result, the new switches look factory and those holes are completely hidden behind the false panel in the cabinet. Most important, the light switches work great!
In the phot below, you can see the panel door open with the switches. You can also see how tall that top and second row is. You can also see my glow-in-the-dark stars.
Below that, I the middle of that outside panel is the new dual switches. Below that I added a key rack, and on the cabinet below, you can see our yellow and pink “doggie buts” coat hooks. We put them in to hold the dogs retractable leashes. We have 2 dogs.
FYI, in the top panel you see a white light in the upper left corner. That’s the motion sensor light. I left that little bit uncovered, and covered the rest, so it does shed a little light, just not blinding, slapping you in the face as soon as you open the door.
So, we also had a similar problem in the bathroom. The light switch is located on the opposite side of door from where it should be. The door is a pivot door, it swings in the middle. I added a new light switch on the opposite side of the wall, in the hall way, and made it the live switch, and got a second switch to keep the original look in the bathroom, but it’s disconnected. End result! Much, much easier finding the light switch in the dark and no fumbling around the back side of an open door.
Hallway with new switch:
Bathroom with the light switch no longer wired:
Problem:
Cabinet doors kept popping open when in transit and when opening slides, the cabinet doors would hit the slides. This is never good. Solution: Child proof locks on the cabinet doors that are adjacent each of the slides. There were 10 cabinet doors all together:
Not in any photos, the camper came with an awning strap. I purchased a second one to use on each end of the awning. No, not to extract the awning, as it’s electric, but to use it to pull the awning down after it’s extracted. The awning is so tall, I can’t even reach the arms to pull it down. I definitely cannot reach the know to tighten them in the down slope position. The straps make all the difference in the world.
Here’s a photo to give you an idea just how tall those awning arms are, and reaching that knob without a ladder is impossible for us short people! FYI, that’s my 5 year old grandson standing on the picnic table:
Since we’re looking at this photo, we also purchased a new ground mat, the brown one, because I ended up cutting the second blue ground mat we had to make runners for the back door.
Additions:
For convenience, I added some coat hooks in the kitchen area to hold wet dish towels.
Purchased a new 30 amp surge protector and a 50 amp surge protector. 30 for when we do not have 50 amp service, like at home for the moment; and 50 for when we do. I am planning on installing a 50 amp outlet at home. I’m having difficulty finding the one I want though.
Added a compartment door holder clip to hold open the little door for the black and grey tank valve handles. I can’t believe they didn’t put a holder there. It was very awkward holding the door up and trying to pull handles at the same time. This solution was so simple, and I had 5 or 6 of these in my RV junk drawer from previous campers.
And one more item added new, rugs and runners:
And to bring my 4 week and 5 day trilogy to a conclusion, I’ve had great success backing the new 5er into the driveway, campsites, and anywhere else. I’ve been practicing in open parking lots and have it down pretty good now. Adding the 4 foot ladder has made it much easier accessing the back of the truck and reaching things.
I disconnected the ice maker in the refrigerator so no water will go in, and I practiced a “wet” run running RV pink-stuff antifreeze into the system with plain water. I also figured out how to use the black tank flusher by running water from the shower outlet into the black tank flusher. You’ve go to admit, that’s pretty slick.
Also, I have a love-hate relationship with my water heater. I keep forgetting to flip the electric buttons (inside and outside), or there are bugs caught in the gas chamber tube, or I’ve forgotten to flip the water heater by-pass off and back to normal flow… like duh! That one took 2 days to figure out because I missed flipping the valve back after practicing winterizing with plain water.
There are two things that turned out to be absolutely true about my pre-conceived ideas of 5er’s when I was a TT owner. One is steps. They do have steps! And two, they have taller ceilings, which means they take more propane to heat the space. And these turned out to so true and I see no way to change this.
So, there is it is. It’s been a buy month!
Happy camping folks!
