First post on this site:
So the coach is "new" to us, bought it 6 weeks ago with about 9000 miles on it from a private party. The previous owners admitted a few minor problems and we got a good price. Since I work for an rv manufacturer, I wasn't too worried about minor problems, except that I only had a few weeks to get it ready for our maiden voyage, Oregon to Central Nebraska and back in 9 days. Here are the main issues we've faced:
* Plumbing leaks: I had to remove both fittings at the bottom of the fresh water tank and reseal them with teflon paste. The previous owner told me of this issue. He didn't say anything about leaking knife valves (both were leaking) and the grey drain had a leak where it went through the storage compartment plastic. I pretty much re-plumbed the entire knife valve area because I can't stand leaks in that area (gross). This got done before we left on our trip.
* The batteries were majorly shot - replaced them. Not the fault of Thor, of course, wish the previous owner had told me.
* Oxidation on exterior: With the help of some 3M Perfect-It 2 gelcoat cutting compound and about 12 hours of work, we brought the finish back on the front and the driver's side, where the oxidation was the worse. It still needs some work, but that 3M stuff is amazing. We used a 10" electric buffer to speed up the process.
* On the second day of our trip in Moab, Utah the drain flexible drain connection from the galley diconnected it connects to the elbow down to the grey tank. Fortunately, the plumbing is easy to access under the refrigerator. It's a long story, but this problem is covered on this forum which helped quite a bit. The elbow into the tank is not glued, it's clamped to the tank, making it possible to turn the elbow. Over time the elbow shifted position, creating too much of a kink in the hose, so the connection broke. I eventually got a hopefully permanent fix by replacing the connection parts and screwing in a wood block to prevent the ABS elbow from shifting. This was definitely our worse problem.
* Window pane pulls. We had the metal piece that you pull to open the slider windows come off on two windows. This is also well documented here and fixing accordingly, going to try a thin bead of clear silicone. I can get the pieces back on, but they just come back off later. Hopefully the silicone will work.
* We've had other small issues like pieces of molding loose, and I had to replace a few of the cabinet door struts. The cable tv connection doesn't seem to work. The antenna works, but I don't have continuity from the outside cable connection to the internal cable. I'm not sure how to attack that problem.
So that's long winded but shows that we had a variety of problems, but the ACE ran great, and no problems with the appliances or slideout mechanism, which is a relief. The leveling jacks work good despite being a Lippert product
My next project is to try the cheap handling fix. We drove 3040 miles, and about 2600 was through high winds and thunderstorms. It handled ok, but I'm interested in seeing the difference with the CHF.
Thanks to everyone who's contributed on this site, it's been very helpful in identifying problems and fixing them.
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