Aria 3901 – Initial Thoughts/Experience

[m1noel]

Originally Posted by Chesuncook1

Hello,

More on our Aria 3901.

Our plumber must have been on vacation when our coach went down the line. All of our faucets leaked and just simply needed to be tightened. Not a big deal except we had to cut a hole in the bedroom wall behind the picture to gain access. All the sink and shower drains leaked. The piping leaked again because it was loose but also the basket/drain assembly was installed in all 4 sinks with the cardboard that it was probably shipped with. Cardboard doesn't make a great gasket! All basket assemblies had to be removed and pre-installed with plumbers puffy. The water line going to the ice maker was just a cut off piece off pex tubing not hooked to anything. When we turned on the valve to the ice maker it flooded the coach with water before I knew what was going on. The outside plumbing bay was plumbed wrong and I had to tear it all apart and re-plumb as we could not get any water from the tank via the pump. I tightened the washing machine before trying it. While we are on water, the front cap leaked and had to be re-sealed.

The passenger side mirror almost feel off before I could find a safe spot to pull over and tighten the wood screws that are holding this heavy mirror on. I am planning drilling and replacing the screws with bolts.

We live in Maine where it gets cold. The entry door was cold but I noticed that it always noisy when driving as well. I removed the inside panel on the door only to find it had NO insulation, really Thor! I spray foamed it and put it back together. Also, none of the bay doors are insulated either. Not even the wet bay. This is a concern for us as we keep the coach in a heated building and do not winterize the coach and it could be below zero when we leave. I insulated the 2 wet bay doors also.

The rear of the coach (rear fiberglass cap) is designed to low and drags when going into some gas station/restaurants. Our coach was damaged when we lived and had to go to the collision center. I have welded up brackets and installed snow plow skid shoes in the rear to protect the rear cap. Usually, the trailer hitch is much lower than the cap and protect the cap. The Aria's rear cap and the trailer hitch are at the same height. Poor engineering!

I mention these things hoping it will help one of you.

We have had tons of stuff fall apart inside and not important to list them all.

My fingers are tied, that's all for now. Have a good night.

Hi,
I just got around to checking today. All of our bay doors are insulated. I don't know about the entry door though.
Mike

[Chesuncook1]

Wow! Thanks Mike. I am not sure why ours is so different. It was an earlier built one and from what I understand went to a show somewhere before being delivered. Maybe they had to rush it through. I put a lot of work into straightening things out before leaving Maine but everything is working OK now. We are enjoying it now in Florida for the rest of the winter. Thanks again.
Scott

[m1noel]

After having a few things finally fixed and getting to spend a little time getting to know the coach and how things work, I have to say that I am really pretty impressed with how well thought out and user friendly our Aria is. Yes, there were a few initial quality issues but overall I am really happy and think we got a lot for our money.
Mike

[CSR]

After nearly five months of patiently waiting for repairs on our shakedown list, our Aria is finally back in our possession. It was gone so long, I forgot how nice it is. The long drive home was easy riding!

Most of our issues appear to be resolved (pending trip to be sure). Unfortunately, we are still stuck with the notorious GFI tripping issue. Our dealer couldn’t get Thor to replace the inverter, even though our tech (an experienced electrician) agrees that the cheap inverter is the problem. I’ll have to call Thor directly to see about getting it resolved.

As Chesuncook1 previously mentioned, the fireplace shares a circuit with the water heater. The water heater has priority so the fireplace will shut off whenever the water heater comes on. Solution = Don’t run both utilities at the same time or rewire a dedicated circuit to the fireplace ($$$). As for now, we’re going to live with it as is.

[chughes]

I have had all the issues described, and most have been resolved. I did not know about the fireplace/water heater trick, glad I read it. My full wall slide stopped working after a month of ownership, but swapped out the motor, and all seems good now, hopefully. I do have a excessive wind noise of the drivers side front windshield, but only if wind is blowing in a certain direction. Has anyone else experienced this?

[m1noel]

Originally Posted by CSR

After nearly five months of patiently waiting for repairs on our shakedown list, our Aria is finally back in our possession. It was gone so long, I forgot how nice it is. The long drive home was easy riding!

Most of our issues appear to be resolved (pending trip to be sure). Unfortunately, we are still stuck with the notorious GFI tripping issue. Our dealer couldn’t get Thor to replace the inverter, even though our tech (an experienced electrician) agrees that the cheap inverter is the problem. I’ll have to call Thor directly to see about getting it resolved.

As Chesuncook1 previously mentioned, the fireplace shares a circuit with the water heater. The water heater has priority so the fireplace will shut off whenever the water heater comes on. Solution = Don’t run both utilities at the same time or rewire a dedicated circuit to the fireplace ($$$). As for now, we’re going to live with it as is.

Glad you finally got her back. Let us know how your trip goes.
Mike

[Chesuncook1]

Hi CSR,

Glad you finally got your coach back and most things were resolved. If you don't get anywhere with Thor or just get tired of fighting with them, remember, if you pick up an older GFI (Leviton 8899) and install it in the half bath your tripping problem will go away. We have been living in ours for 7 weeks now and the GFI has not tripped once. The new self testing GFI's WILL NOT work on a modified sine wave inverter. A screw up by Thor for sure. The pure sine wave inverter will work with the new GFI's I am told. One of the threads in this forum had a post where someone got Thor to replace the inverter to a pure sine wave and that also solved the tripping issue.

Good luck

[m1noel]

From the first time we opened the very shallow cabinet over the mid TV, we knew it should look like this...

[willwhig]

Originally Posted by m1noel

From the first time we opened the very shallow cabinet over the mid TV, we knew it should look like this...Attachment 9232

That's neat. What type of brackets did you use?

[m1noel]

Originally Posted by willwhig

That's neat. What type of brackets did you use?

Vicki found them online, I think it was from Hearthstone.

[m1noel]

Originally Posted by m1noel

Vicki found them online, I think it was from Hearthstone.

Oops missed it by that much... it was from Stonewolves.

[CSR]

Originally Posted by m1noel

From the first time we opened the very shallow cabinet over the mid TV, we knew it should look like this....

Great use of the space! Nicely done.

[m1noel]

We finally went out on our first real (dry) camping trip this last weekend. Everything worked as expected, except the outside entertainment center only worked when the generator was running, not on inverter. It took me a couple of days of pondering this when I remembered that our cook top does work on inverter and probably shouldn't. I pulled out the lower drawer and found that the TV, sound bar, and cook top had been plugged in to the wrong outlets. Now everything is working as designed. Also, when I pulled out the drawer I expected to find sawdust, hardware, loose stuff, etc. under there, but it was clean and organized. Made me happy! We used the generator AGS system and found that it worked great to keep the coach cool while we were out boating. It shut off during quiet hours and we still had plenty of juice in the morning until a while after the coffee pot started brewing, then the generator would kick on for 20 minutes to charge the batteries back up. It did not restart until afternoon when the AC asked for it, even though we had the coffee pot set to keep the coffee warm for 4 hours (we do have 400 watts solar). The awning worked well and did retract on it own when the wind kicked up. Overall, I am extremely happy with the Aria. We are going out again this weekend.

[DrTerriEdwards]

Hello, I enjoyed reading your ideas. We just got our Aria 3901, 2019. We are full timers, so this is our new home. We absolutely love this model and took our time choosing it. I needed an office space and found a great place in the bedroom vanity. Our biggest issue is with the AC units. We are in Oklahoma right now and in the afternoon, we cannot get below 88 degrees. The only solution we have come up with is running the engine for a couple of hours and using the cab AC as a third AC unit. We will also get sun screens put on the exterior as we want to go to New Mexico and it is warmer there. We are disappointed in the AC units, but we are enjoying the rest of the coach.

[CSR]

Hi DrTerriEdwards,

Welcome! Glad to hear you like your Aria. I'm not an AC expert, but it sounds like something may not be working correctly with one or both of your AC units. We are able to get our Aria 3901 to cool down to 72 degrees with an outside temp in the mid-to-upper 90’s with extremely high humidity. That said, it took 6-8 hours to achieve 72 degrees, but once we did, we were able to maintain the temp there continually for 2 consecutive days and nights. It might be worth having it looked at.

[tomdigate]

We have a 2018 3901 Aria and we had some loose connections on BOTH of our AC/Heatpump units. We didn't get cooling or heat from them. You might want to have your units checked out and make sure that the wiring is solid on the compressors. Once we had the wiring tightened up, we have no problems keeping our unit cool in the heat. I would love to see a photo of your office in the vanity area. Can you post a picture?

[DrTerriEdwards]

I chose the Aria 3901 because of the potential to have an office space. I work as an online university professor and I needed a comfortable place away from the main living area. Many coaches have a vanity area in the bedroom, but there is often a step of some sort in front of it that would prevent a chair from getting close enough for comfort. The Aria did not have this step and offered another bonus. The bed retracts to make it possible for others to move past my chair and get to the back bathroom. The drawers under the vanity hold office supplies and textbooks that I use. I am using the extra shelf from the closet to move the keyboard in and out. The desktop computer is sitting sideways behind the monitor and the portable printer is sitting next to it, out of the way. I bought a padded folding chair, though I have not needed to fold it up yet. I considered a permanent slide out keyboard tray, but so far, I do not see a need for it. When we roll, I put a pillow where the keyboard is and lay the monitor forward onto it. It is secure and does not move. I then work up front on my laptop during travel. Everything works for me, I am out of the main area, and I have privacy for phone conversation when needed.

[DrTerriEdwards]

Office pics.

[DrTerriEdwards]

We just got our Aria 3901, 2019, two weeks ago tomorrow. We are full timers, so this is our new home. We absolutely love this model and took our time choosing it. I needed an office space and found a great place in the bedroom vanity. We love the exterior and interior designs and there is plenty of space. We are also very pleased with the smooth ride compared to our previous coach.
Our biggest issue is with the AC units. They do not cool the coach to a comfortable temperature during the day. We are in Oklahoma right now and in the afternoon, we cannot get below 88 degrees when the temperature is in the nineties. The bedroom AC would only work on low and does eventually cool the bedroom at night. It tripped the breaker on High or on Auto. The living room one would only cool down to 88 degrees during the day and was only pulling 4 amps.
We let the dealer know of this issue within three days of the purchase. We took it in and they did some things and sent us back where we were camped. It only got worse. We went back in and they replaced the living room unit and did a few things to get the bedroom unit to run on high. Now, four days later, we are basically where we started. The AC, from 2 to 8:00 pm will only cool the coach about 10 degrees lower than the temperature outside. A person from Thor called about my complaint on this and said that I would need to get used to this and that I could not expect the AC to work like one in a home would. This is disappointing to say the least.
The only solution we have come up with is running the engine for a couple of hours and using the cab AC as a third AC unit. We will also get sun screens put on the exterior as we want to go to New Mexico and it is warmer there. We will also look into adding a third AC unit to the roof of the Aria. We are disappointed in the AC units and Thor’s lack of concern or customer support, but we are enjoying the rest of the coach.
If you are looking to buy an Aria, you should think about your summer temperatures and the temperature you plan to use your coach in. If you are in poor health or do not handle the heat well, this is a real problem. We are looking at putting thousands of dollars into this cooling issue since Thor is not interested in helping us. I hope this information will help you make a good decision for your family, as this is quite a large purchase.

[DrTerriEdwards]

How is your coach cooling this summer? We just got our Aria 3901, 2019, two weeks ago tomorrow. We are full timers, so this is our new home. We absolutely love this model and took our time choosing it. I needed an office space and found a great place in the bedroom vanity. We love the exterior and interior designs and there is plenty of space. We are also very pleased with the smooth ride compared to our previous coach.
Our biggest issue is with the AC units. They do not cool the coach to a comfortable temperature during the day. We are in Oklahoma right now and in the afternoon, we cannot get below 88 degrees when the temperature is in the nineties. The bedroom AC would only work on low and does eventually cool the bedroom at night. It tripped the breaker on High or on Auto. The living room one would only cool down to 88 degrees during the day and was only pulling 4 amps.
We let the dealer know of this issue within three days of the purchase. We took it in and they did some things and sent us back where we were camped. It only got worse. We went back in and they replaced the living room unit and did a few things to get the bedroom unit to run on high. Now, four days later, we are basically where we started. The AC, from 2 to 8:00 pm will only cool the coach about 10 degrees lower than the temperature outside. A person from Thor called about my complaint on this and said that I would need to get used to this and that I could not expect the AC to work like one in a home would. This is disappointing to say the least.
The only solution we have come up with is running the engine for a couple of hours and using the cab AC as a third AC unit. We will also get sun screens put on the exterior as we want to go to New Mexico and it is warmer there. We will also look into adding a third AC unit to the roof of the Aria. We are disappointed in the AC units and Thor’s lack of concern or customer support, but we are enjoying the rest of the coach.
If you are looking to buy an Aria, you should think about your summer temperatures and the temperature you plan to use your coach in. If you are in poor health or do not handle the heat well, this is a real problem. We are looking at putting thousands of dollars into this cooling issue since Thor is not interested in helping us. I hope this information will help you make a good decision for your family, as this is quite a large purchase.