Thor ACE 30.2

[FreddieMac]

Good afternoon. My wife and I have decided we want to purchase a good entry-level class A coach. We have 4 kids ranging from age 12 to 5. We attended a show this weekend and saw the Thor ACE 30.2 for the first time. We were looking at a Fleetwood Storm before we saw the ACE. Would anyone be willing to share their stories about the ACE? How is the product and service? Any suggestions for things to look for as we move forward with the purchasing process?

[JamieGeek]

Search around here there are a few people with that model. There does seem to be a few serious complaints about the ACE models, especially the ones with the large slideout like that one has.
If you go to a dealer to look at one have them exercise the slide: Make sure it moves smoothly and doesn't bind (for starters). If you ultimately decide to go with one go over it with a fine tooth comb before taking it home.

It does have a nice floorplan, though.

[FW28z]

Thor (as well as other manufacturers) have been going to a six motor Schwintek slide on some models, especially on the full room slide outs (the previous ones had 4). You can tell by looking at the aluminum "toothed" rails on the sides of the slide room.

The 6 motor slides will have three of those aluminum bars on both the front and rear, while the 4 motor slides will have two. Not sure if the 6 motor slide is offered on the new ACE 30.2 models or not.

Some full room slide outs have had issues, and whether or not the additional motors will fix it or not remains to be seen, but at least it's probably better than the 4 motor slides.

If I were to buy a motorhome with a full body slide, I'd only buy the model having a 6 motor version. On the other hand, I wonder about the integrity of having such a large hole in the side of the coach - roof support wise, and I would be a lot more comfortable having two smaller slides. But that's just me.

On the other hand, that is the problem with technical people, we tend to over analyze things.

[flyfishpa]

I can only speak to the ACE 30.1 but the wife and I looked for over a year and we are well please with this unit. ALL MH take some level of care and up keep !!!! Do not get into Motor-Homeing on this LEVEL and expect a 200k unit. The Ace line is built on a reliable chassis with reasonable quality and with children...a certain amount of wear-ability. In the Service they called it KISS...Keep it Simple Stupid. We came out of a higher dollar Chevy P30 and for my money ACE does a nice job!. Now I might change my mind after a 12 week road trip this summer with three KIDS !!!
Good Luck

[ArrrV]

Picked ours up a few days before Christmas. We LOVE the floorplan, and in October Thor made several improvements to the fixtures that make it even better. Packs the most punch for a unit under 32 feet. Have had no issues with the slide, but do not like the angled toilet sewer line, as RV TP tends to just sit and build up at the bottom. Solution is to keep a watch on it.
Only major issues are that dash A/C cycled on and off from day one, HDMI cable defective, and may need to insulate cap. Count on adding some steering aids (Safety Plus or similar, rear track bar or similar) as with so many people you may be carrying more weight than other owners and these devices really help make the unit more comfortablen to drive--seeing as how you are driving a house down the highway!!! As an engineer I kept a detailed list of warranty repair items, kind of disappointed that our list was so long-- most are small and cosmetic (sagging trim, shower leak, reset doorstops, TV splitter issue, etc). To the best of my knowledge, Thor has agreed to all the requested repairs; we are scheduled to get the remaining repairs completed in two weeks. By the way, I had similar issues on my first new coach (Fleetwood), so while I feel that Thor QC needs improvement, Fleetwood was not significantly better.
Our first trip out we had 4 kids (8,two 11 year old's, and a 13 year old) as well as our ginormous dog. We had plenty of room and did not feel crowded. We added some mods to make our life easier, and overall are happy. Looking forward to our three week trip this summer!!!!
Look around for the features you want (option list is very short), pricing is flexible, and make sure you have access to a good authorized service facility. Good luck.

[thor293]

We just bought the 29.3 Ace with fll wall slide. As with every RV we have ever bought there are things you are going to have to fix or spend time without your unit while you let the dealer do it. Most are stupid things, leaking sinks thwt have t be sealed with Plummer purty, crooked trim latches misaligned and if you look behind any of the fake partitions you will find all dust and wire stripping and pieces of wall they holesawed. All typical stuff. Always check all the water connections under the sink and on the water heater as they are almost always loose. Just be through and keep check in probable places for leaks till you have owned it for a while.

[FW28z]

Originally Posted by thor293

leaking sinks that have t be sealed with Plumber's Putty

They are still doing that?

They put putty under my sink to seal it in 2011. I have to pull the sink and remove it and silicone it. Another project on the list.

I figured they ran out of silicone so they just grabbed some putty. But now, I am thinking they have every cost figured out to the penny, and plumbers putty is probably cheaper than silicone (even though it is not the right stuff to use), so that is what they used.

Why do it right when you can do it cheap...

[West]

It's probably a bit late to add on to this thread but I recently purchased an ACE 30.2 and I noticed my slide having trouble moving and a couple times made a popping noise. I checked the motor tracks and sure enough a few of them were stripping out. It's in the shop right now being repaired. I really hope this isn't going to be a continuos problem. If anyone else has had this issue please let me know.

[West]

Here's a picture of the front track