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AMPD's avatar
AMPD
Explorer
Jan 16, 2026

** BUYER BEWARE ** KEYSTONE MONTANA 5th WHEEL - THIRD CATASTROPHIC STRUCTURAL COLLAPSE

** BUYER BEWARE **  To ANYONE looking to purchase a KEYSTONE MONTANA 5th WHEEL, please BEWARE!!  We have experienced our THIRD CATASTROPHIC SUSPENSION FAILURE on our Keystone Montana 3790RD 5th wheel which involved the leaf springs snapping for the THIRD time, which then caused the second axle on the unit to be forcefully jammed up into the the chassis causing significant damage to the underbelly of our unit, along with CUTTING OUR BREAK LINES causing us to lose the brakes on our trailer while going down an overpass on a highway.  We have been informed by the repair shop that we are EXTREMELY lucky there was not a fatality and that if they repair it, the chances of it happening again are EXTREMELY high and just a matter of time until there is a fatality with the unit. We tried reaching out to Keystone RV and Thor Industries via letter, and all we received was an extremely rude call from the VP of Service Operations, Garrett, telling us our request for assistance was not warranted and that our letter was an "extremely unrealistic expectation and will not happen."  He also said that Keystone RV will NOT financially assist in anyway and that we are "absurd" for even asking.  Keystone is also fully aware that I had a PICC line in my arm for IV medication and we were stranded on the side of the road for over 6 hours because of their manufacturing defects.  We are still stranded, and have been for almost 2 weeks, in the town we were passing through when the incident happened because the repairs are now up to $10,000 and with the safety warning of taking it back on the road, we are extremely concerned.  We just want to make sure ANYONE LOOKING TO BUY A KEYSTONE MONTANA 5th WHEEL is aware of what happened to us and the absolute NIGHTMARE we are dealing with because of the terrible manufacturing of our KEYSTONE MONTANA 5th WHEEL.  Please travel safe y'all.

Fifth Wheel
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thorindustries
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15 Replies

  • QCMan's avatar
    QCMan
    Nomad III
    Jan 23, 2026

    I will restate: has the unit ever been weighed loaded?

    • Grit_dog's avatar
      Grit_dog
      Navigator III
      Jan 22, 2026

      Good question. But there’s more to this or it’s THE oddest occurrence of the year. 
      No one SNAPS 3 complete sets of leaf springs because they got 3 separate yet equally defective springs. 
      And the OP hasn’t bothered to provide info that might help find the cause or possibly implicate them in some improper procedure. 
      This is just another dumb rant.  May not even be real. 

      • AMPD's avatar
        AMPD
        Explorer
        Jan 22, 2026

        Hence the reason we’re super pissed off and lucky to be alive because it IS real and did happen!  And the mention of the buyer beware because Keystone uses Lippert for parts and that’s where ALL the previous leaf springs have come from.  That’s why we’re so pissed about this because it keeps happening, hence the mention of defect.  Also, no need for jerk off comments, especially if the warning doesn’t pertain to you.  Simply trying to do a buyer beware for people looking to purchase a Keystone Montana.   Thanks for the response though.  Have a great day.

  • Grit_dog's avatar
    Grit_dog
    Navigator III
    Jan 18, 2026

    I answered the first question. Your RV is somewhere between 5 and 11 years old. 
    You’d have better luck asking your congressman to cover the cost than the mfg. As they haven’t had any liability or warranty for you in what could be a decade. 

  • Grit_dog's avatar
    Grit_dog
    Navigator III
    Jan 18, 2026

    How old is your RV? 
    And 3 sets of snapped leaf springs is not only extremely rare but unless the previous 2 fixes were under warranty then this actually is not a mfg issue at this point at all. Actually not a mfg issue unless the 3rd failure happened under warranty. 
    This sucks it happened to you for whatever reason (maybe even caused by you unknowingly) but your rant would have much better context if you were less emotional about things unrelated and more succinct about the sequence of events for each of the occurrences. 


    • AMPD's avatar
      AMPD
      Explorer
      Jan 18, 2026

      It was both leaf springs on the 2nd axle.  We have pictures where it shows them literally snapped in half and just hanging there.  The equalizers were damaged, then the force of it all jammed the axle upward and wedged it into the frame, then you can see the brake lines were severed in two as well.  It damaged 3 of the 4 new tires as well as the side of the rv above the tires.  Horribly scary & we are just beyond grateful we are ok.

      • StirCrazy's avatar
        StirCrazy
        Moderator
        Jan 21, 2026

        how did it dammage 3 tires?  and what brakelines?  do you mean brake wires? 

        the other issue is your fight isn't with montana (keystone)  at all, the frames are made and warentied by lippart, alsolippart supplies the frams for about 1/2 the rv industry.  I have never heard of a failure like this before so it is interesting, but freek accidents happen, but if this is the third time it has happened to you, what are you doing that is outside the norm that could be contributing?  are you driving off road, or realy rough roads?  overloading, or hundreds of other things, you may not even know your doing.

    • AMPD's avatar
      AMPD
      Explorer
      Jan 18, 2026

      I did file a report with the NHTSA last week reporting the issue.  Thank you for the recommendation. 

      • Grit_dog's avatar
        Grit_dog
        Navigator III
        Jan 21, 2026

        That should help with sleeping better but that’s about it. 
        Any other insight into causes?  I mean the likelihood of 6 defective springs from 3 sources vs overloaded and maybe way out of level are greater. 

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