Possible New Montana (and fridge question)

Montana has been number one in sales for a long time. But since Thor took ownership I suspect your going to hear more problems. Residential refer? Go for it unless your planning to spend a lot of off grid time. Then the residental refer might be an issue.

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Montana sells about 4-5 Thousand 5er's a year a good chunk more than anybody else so yeah they will have a few more complaints or a lemon here and there ,I have owned 3 Monty's a 2004 a 2012 and my 2015 all have been great with just minor issues,right now next to me in the resort is a newer Montana Rear Den and he loves it as far as the residential fridge I WISH! I missed it by 3 months on my early 2015:S

I would never get the residential fridge. I dont believe the manufacturers intended them to be installed in rv's. With the residential refrig, you have to cable the three or four doors/drawers down each time you travel. I don't know how a service tech could ever repair some of these units as I have seen them installed with islands right in front, peninsula's right in front. I would not want to move cabinetry/ disconnect plumbing and wiring if the refrig needed to be pulled out of the cabinet for a repair. Your rv has to be equipped with two batteries to keep the refrig running on an extended time disconnected from 50 amp service, that makes me uncomfortable as we take big long road trips.

Montana and a bunch of other manufacturers are now offering an 18 cu ft Norcold RV refrig which runs electric or propane. It's a large four door side by side unit, some come with an ice maker as well. Very sharp unit with plenty of shelves and interior storage.

I will stick with Norcold or Dometic for my rv refrigerator needs. I have never had a problem with either, and I have owned four fifth wheels over the last 16 years.

We boondock often so I kept pouring money into my NoCold 1200...Even a Armish cooling unit. Finally gave up and did a DIY installation of a 21 cuft Whirlpool. Two batteries will run it for 30+ hours before needing to recharge as it only draws 96 watts when running... less than half the time.

For boondocking you want two batteries and with the home refrigerator I'd want four. Going residential is the best thing I've done to my MH in 13 years.

Wife and I bought a Montana 3790RD in June of 2015, we are getting ready to start our third camping season with it. I've had no issues with it outside of minor dealer inflicted problems. Seems they broke two things and fix one that wasn't really broke. I finally smarten up and fixed the issues myself and stay away from the dealer.

I pull it with a 3500 SRW along with an auto-slide hitch. The RV pulls very nice.

We chose the RV refer so we could keep items cold when off AC power. I think the residential refer is for folks that have permanent camp sights, at least that is what our salesperson told us.

Pulled out my Norcold 1210 3 years ago to replace with residential fridge. World of difference....would never go back to rv fridge.

Another vote for the 3-way RV Fridge, besides they weigh less. Good Luck and Happy Camping !!

Heartland had a thing on Facebook about which type of fridge is best for your needs. But as AP said, residential fridges are more suited for folks who are plugged in most if not all the time to shore power. Personally, I'd opt for the RV fridge cuz at least it will operate on gas if the power goes out.

md_procouple wrote:
Another vote for the 3-way RV Fridge, besides they weigh less. Good Luck and Happy Camping !!

A Norcold 1200 weighs 215 pounds. A Samsung RF18, commonly used in rv's, weighs 231 pounds but has 6 more cubic feet of space. Yes, it weighs more but I think the 16 pounds is well worth it. We have had both and the residential is by far our preference. No boondocking for us so it works well. Our Samsung is on its 6th season without a hiccup and has been towed for over 35K miles that includes some very rough roads.