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Old 12-14-2019, 07:24 PM   #1
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Brand: Still Looking
State: Texas
Posts: 1
THOR #17565
Hello All...

I am an experienced RV Traveler regretting having sold my last RV. The last few days my wife and I have been shopping. We came across the Thor A.C.E. and I fell in love with it.
Would love to hear more from ACE owners. The one we saw was 2018. We have to tow our Santa Fe Sport on a dolly. Wishing we had given more thought to the car buying when we thought we were out of the RV business.
Please offer any advice ... especially on the ACE.

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Old 12-14-2019, 08:55 PM   #2
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: Freedom Elite24FE
State: Texas
Posts: 542
THOR #12434
Welcome to our group! I can’t tell you much about the Ace.
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Old 12-15-2019, 05:10 AM   #3
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: Palazzo 33.2
State: California
Posts: 252
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What model A.C.E. are you looking at? We had a 2015 A.C.E. 29.2 which we enjoyed but what started as a few minor annoyances became more frustrating after a couple of years (example - got tires of shuffling sideways past the foot of the bed to get in to bed, or having your feet dangle when sitting on the john, because it's up on a pedestal, and the jack knife sofa is useless!), so it's important to try everything out to ensure it "fits"
Other things like engine noise and rough ride drove us to our DP.
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Old 12-15-2019, 11:38 AM   #4
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Brand: Jayco
Model: Precept 31UL
State: Tennessee
Posts: 148
THOR #14508
Hey, Warren -

We have a '17 A.C.E. 29.3, bought last Feb. We've taken it on a few short trips (+/- 100 miles), and one down to New Orleans, and a loop of each coast of Florida to the Keys and back. Our toad has been a '13 Xterra, but we just bought an '18 Wrangler Unlimited with automatic transmission, as the Xterra has a manual transmission (required to flat tow), and the wife doesn't like driving it.

Anyway, experience with the 29.3 has been very good overall. Its handling was pretty squirrely until I did the "cheap handling fix" described elsewhere in this forum, and I'll be adding a steering stabilizer before our next trip, which will improve it even more. As you do your research, you'll find much more info about all the handling issues, all of which can be addressed.

Whatever you end up getting, you'll no doubt make changes to personalize it to suit you. So far I've swapped out the microwave for a convection microwave. The previous owner added a second A/C unit in the bedroom, but was wired into the circuit breaker; as the coach is only 30 amp, only one A/C unit could be run at a time, so I rewired it to a separate line which plugs into the campground's 15/20 amp outlet (assuming there is one...).

Next up is the addition of a cabinet door under the forward facing seat of the dinette to match the rearward one, as the only access is by lifting the seat. I may also fit that area with a drawer for even easier access. Then I also plan to add cabinet doors to the four cubbyholes above the driver and passenger area. I'm also going to modify the pantry to include two more pullout shelves, as it's pretty hard to access the back of the storage area there.

Might remove the overhead bed, or at least the rear half of it, as we don't really plan to use that; grandkids can sleep on the dinette or in a tent when we take them. And we may get rid of the jacknife sofa and get a couple of recliners.

Road/engine noise can be a bit intrusive, but insulation is also on my list..

Anyway, you get the idea. For me half the fun is making this our own. And I'm a DIY-er, so it's ~relatively~ inexpensive (HA!). This forum has been a great resource for us, so post your questions; you'll get plenty of useful advice (and commiseration when needed!).

Have fun with the search!
Mickey
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Old 12-15-2019, 02:45 PM   #5
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Brand: Still Looking
Model: Tiffin Wayfarer 24 BW
State: New York
Posts: 22,195
THOR #8860
We sure are glad that you showed up...
Once you get some of that "campsite sand" in your shoes: it's pretty tough to stop.
Congratulations, and welcome back!
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Old 12-15-2019, 03:09 PM   #6
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: Palazzo 33.2
State: California
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I forgot to add that we also did as MRichaud did and did the Cheep Handling Fix to our A.C.E. which really helped the handling AND installed a 5-Star Tune to help power and shifting, AND ordered custom theater seat to replace the sofa, AND had to fix lots of gaps around the engine dog house cover.
We also swapped the two 12v house batteries for four 6v (reconfigured the box a little), added a whole house inverter and 400w of solar. Those things helped our dry camping experiences. The only other thing I would have liked to have done would be to build a bottom vented and insulated closeout to the generator, because it was too loud to be around when running.
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Old 12-15-2019, 03:38 PM   #7
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Model: Tiffin Wayfarer 24 BW
State: New York
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Outstanding mods!
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Old 01-01-2020, 07:08 PM   #8
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: ACE 29.4
State: Pennsylvania
Posts: 59
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A Thor ACE Owner

Quote:
Originally Posted by WarrenPrice View Post
I am an experienced RV Traveler regretting having sold my last RV. The last few days my wife and I have been shopping. We came across the Thor A.C.E. and I fell in love with it.
Would love to hear more from ACE owners. The one we saw was 2018. We have to tow our Santa Fe Sport on a dolly. Wishing we had given more thought to the car buying when we thought we were out of the RV business.
Please offer any advice ... especially on the ACE.

We purchased a new 2016 Thor ACE 29.4 and we LOVE it. We already have over 10K miles on it with no problems. We dealt with a very good dealer. Never sorry that we purchased it. We give it a 5+ star rating.
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Old 01-01-2020, 07:11 PM   #9
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Model: Tiffin Wayfarer 24 BW
State: New York
Posts: 22,195
THOR #8860
Who was your Dealer?
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Old 01-01-2020, 07:17 PM   #10
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: ACE 29.4
State: Pennsylvania
Posts: 59
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Dealer

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Who was your Dealer?
Tom Schaeffer's RV
1236 Pottsville Pike
Shoemakersville, PA 19555
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Old 01-01-2020, 07:39 PM   #11
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Model: ACE 29.3
State: Oregon
Posts: 57
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Ace 29.3

Ditto on everything MRichaud said. We also love our ACE and have done a few mods, but the CHF is a must, which you can do yourself. We have almost 20K on ours and another big trip planned starting in March. We've also lived in it for months too.

One note of caution. Plan a small trip for starters and work up from there. We had a LOT of issues with ours the first year, including stuck slide on our first trip out! All were taken care of my Thor or our dealer. I always scheduled appointments with dealer and stayed there while they worked on it so they usually got everything fixed the same day. Since then we've only had a few little things go wrong.

Hope you have a great time in your ACE!
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Old 01-01-2020, 07:55 PM   #12
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Model: Georgetown 30x3
State: Idaho
Posts: 223
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WarrenPrice View Post
I am an experienced RV Traveler regretting having sold my last RV. The last few days my wife and I have been shopping. We came across the Thor A.C.E. and I fell in love with it.
Would love to hear more from ACE owners. The one we saw was 2018. We have to tow our Santa Fe Sport on a dolly. Wishing we had given more thought to the car buying when we thought we were out of the RV business.
Please offer any advice ... especially on the ACE.
I almost bought one last month. Couldn’t reach a deal on my trade so bought Georgetown at another dealer. It is on the same chassis and about the same size. It had no issues pulling my Cherokee.

I test drove the ACE 30 something and found it handled fine.
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Old 01-01-2020, 07:56 PM   #13
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Model: Georgetown 30x3
State: Idaho
Posts: 223
THOR #17441
Quote:
Originally Posted by justjohn57 View Post
Ditto on everything MRichaud said. We also love our ACE and have done a few mods, but the CHF is a must, which you can do yourself. We have almost 20K on ours and another big trip planned starting in March. We've also lived in it for months too.

One note of caution. Plan a small trip for starters and work up from there. We had a LOT of issues with ours the first year, including stuck slide on our first trip out! All were taken care of my Thor or our dealer. I always scheduled appointments with dealer and stayed there while they worked on it so they usually got everything fixed the same day. Since then we've only had a few little things go wrong.

Hope you have a great time in your ACE!
How did they handle stuck slide?
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Old 01-01-2020, 07:56 PM   #14
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: ACE 30.3
State: California
Posts: 16
THOR #15932
I am writing as we're camped on a bluff in Newport Beach, CA where it's sunny and 65 degrees.

We're in our 2019 A.C.E. 30.3 that we bought new last July.

We're quite happy with our purchase.

We have the model with the outside kitchen - VERY useful having an extra small fridge and hot and cold running water.

We bought the model with two roof-mounted air conditioning units. I would HIGHLY recommend this over a single a/c. As part of the package, they included a 50 amp service and a larger generator.

We really love the floor plan, especially having the TV raise and lower into the kitchen counter. This one also had one of the largest counters for this sized coach.

We wanted a shorter RV to be able to get into CA State Parks more readily. (It's 30'.)

The new 6 speed trans with the V10 Ford tows our Honda CRV with ease.

As have numerous others, I did the CHF and am in the process of insulating against engine noise. Be prepared to fix some factory boo boo's like sink drains not connected properly and loose wires.

No this isn't a perfect RV, but wow, for the money and the features, we think it can't be beat.

PS - Take advantage of the Thor Owner's Resource web pages. You enter your vin and EVERY manual is there. In addition, there are LOTS of videos from the various manufacturers on operation and troubleshooting.

https://www.thormotorcoach.com/owner-resource/
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Old 01-01-2020, 08:03 PM   #15
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: ACE 32.1
State: Texas
Posts: 1
THOR #17611
Having issued with my Thor Ace 32.2 2018

Quote:
Originally Posted by WarrenPrice View Post
I am an experienced RV Traveler regretting having sold my last RV. The last few days my wife and I have been shopping. We came across the Thor A.C.E. and I fell in love with it.
Would love to hear more from ACE owners. The one we saw was 2018. We have to tow our Santa Fe Sport on a dolly. Wishing we had given more thought to the car buying when we thought we were out of the RV business.
Please offer any advice ... especially on the ACE.
My wife and I purchased our 2018 Thor Ace 42.2 in May of 2019. It was new. We have had problems from the beginning. The A/C in the dash does not work. The TV would not pick up any Tv Stations, the DVD does not work. The Radio in the dash does not work, the on board control panel always shows that all of our tanks are full even after I have dumped. I have had it into a dealership for repair. They had it for over a month and only repaired one item out of eleven (11). I have to take it back to them on my return home this month for repair. I am thinking about taking a trip on the RV to Thor’d factory and have them address all of the remaining issues. Check out everything on the RV before you sign on the dotted line.
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Old 01-01-2020, 08:16 PM   #16
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: A.C.E. 30.1
State: Nebraska
Posts: 76
THOR #3161
Quote:
Originally Posted by WarrenPrice View Post
I am an experienced RV Traveler regretting having sold my last RV. The last few days my wife and I have been shopping. We came across the Thor A.C.E. and I fell in love with it.
Would love to hear more from ACE owners. The one we saw was 2018. We have to tow our Santa Fe Sport on a dolly. Wishing we had given more thought to the car buying when we thought we were out of the RV business.
Please offer any advice ... especially on the ACE.
We have been happy with our 2016 ACE 30.1 but a couple of things u might want to see if u can deal on. Ours have Seiki TVs which don’t have qam tuners. Up until this year it hadn’t need a big problem but our winter campground upgraded their cable system to digital(?) and the TVs couldn’t access it. My husband just replaced all 3 which wasn’t a huge financial hit but to get them to work with the pre-existing wall mounts was problematic. If TV is important for u, it might be good to see if they can be swapped out before purchase if it has similar TVs. The second is the imitation leather is deteriorating significantly after only 3 years. We are going to replace the sofa with recliners partly because the fabric has deteriorated so much. We are going to have to recover our captain chairs within the next year for the same reason.
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Old 01-01-2020, 09:29 PM   #17
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
State: New York
Posts: 3
THOR #16758
We have a 2105 ACE 30.2 that we bought used this past summer. The previous owner did some nice upgrades, I have only driven it over 200 miles one time but the handling and braking response as well as acceleration were pretty good. (No toad) The test comes next week when we leave from northeast to Florida towing wife's Cooper. Wish me luck and I will report back my findings good and bad.
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Old 01-01-2020, 10:04 PM   #18
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
State: Montana
Posts: 15
THOR #4727
I am happy for the folks that have had a good experience with their ACE products. We have found ours to be a total disaster! We have experienced 10 different leaks, internal (plumbing) and external. Two of the leaks resulted in floor and back wall damage. We purchased it used with 2000 miles so there was no warranty. It was very cheaply constructed and the craftsmanship was deplorable. Plan on putting a significant amount into the steering and suspension so it will stay on the road if you do purchase an ACE as it is not set up for a motor home. How they get away with this I do not know. Some folks will only buy a used unit so someone else has already fixed all the problems.
Good luck and have fun with whatever you buy!
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Old 01-01-2020, 10:48 PM   #19
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Brand: Still Looking
State: Ohio
Posts: 19
THOR #16558
Thor ACE

Quote:
Originally Posted by WarrenPrice View Post
I am an experienced RV Traveler regretting having sold my last RV. The last few days my wife and I have been shopping. We came across the Thor A.C.E. and I fell in love with it.
Would love to hear more from ACE owners. The one we saw was 2018. We have to tow our Santa Fe Sport on a dolly. Wishing we had given more thought to the car buying when we thought we were out of the RV business.
Please offer any advice ... especially on the ACE.
I bought 2019 Thor ACE 30.2 new ,nice coach ,but here is a few things you should check before you buy yours , my issues. Drain from kitchen sink was not glued came apart water leak around it had to glue it, shower door seals keep coming off opening the door ,tv tight against windows couldn’t get blinds down ,under the bunk beds in slideout is a black bag and outside seals when extending leaves giant opening clear through to outside ,screen door was warped ,the coach leans 1 1/2 inch lower on driver side than passenger side and that’s with slideout in ,Thor put a lot more stuff on that side could be the problem I’m going to have it check out ,and a few more little things , other than that rides good and pretty quiet
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Old 01-01-2020, 10:55 PM   #20
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: ACE 29.3
State: Alaska
Posts: 28
THOR #6077
We have a 2017 ACE 29.3 and have driven it twice from Atlanta, Georgia to the California coast as well as lots of places in Florida. I'm very happy with it and would buy it again, but they've now dropped our favorite floor plan.

Numerous things go wrong, most of ours pretty minor. Just remember, you're house has things going wrong and this one moves and creaks and bends and flexes. Learn to do as much as you can on your own or find a good service to do it.

I love the floor plan of the 29.3 with the dinette on the passenger side. That's the side that faces the lake! We chose buying new instead of used due to the perfect floor plan for us and the much larger windows.

The size of our unit is perfect for our needs as we normally camp in smaller campgrounds and only use RV parks as a necessity when a state park isn't nearby. This does mean giving up some space, but we find it completely comfortable for the two of us. If you are into TV (we aren't) the Seiki are really cheap and as has been pointed out can't read QAM tuners. In three years, we've only been in one state park with cable, so it's just not an issue for us.
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