Please check this safety issue on your coach

[99dart]

Originally Posted by CMilford

Here’s a thought. Thor sells to a customer who places a significant emphasis on original cost. The entire RV industry shares that problem. The result is increasing pressure to make cheaper and cheaper products.

The cost of a well made RV is probably prohibitive. I’m guilty. Price for the coach part was very significant. I paid extra to get a high quality truck (Mercedes Sprinter). I believed the lies the Camping World salesman told me when I could have inspected the details of the coach and seen the poor quality construction and cheap labor. I could have asked for a wiring diagram and shopped elsewhere when learning there was no wiring diagram available.

I could have done a lot of detailed checking but I did not. I got excited and believed the nice guy who sold the RV to me. Thank God it burned to the tires in my driveway. No one would have survived that fire.

WOW! So glad you weren't sleeping in it when it went up! That's terrible!

[davidspixx]

I did ask for a wiring diagram, got 4. Of all the connectors and pin numbers, no wires were labelled. I did get one diagram that was useful of the vehicle showing where the main distribution box circuits went. Unfortunately I'm sure it was only for one model of one year. As one Thor tech said when I gave him my Vin number. Oh, You are an early adopter!


I also got a plumbing diagram. It had a few errors, but I figured them out. Like the Low Point Drain (NOT).
David

[D and C Kincaid]

djc290, Thank you, Thank you, Thank YOU!!!! for posting this along with some pictures. We have had several "electrical gremlins" on our 2017 ACE 29.3. One was finally tracked down by Sacramento CW, who found a bare wire that was causing many of our lights to stop working whenever it was exposed to water, as in driving in any sort of rain conditions, which shorted out a fuse and lost us our running lights, tail lights, dash lights, and I don't remember which other lights. Problem seems to be resolved on that front. However, we have had another issue off and on since last summer, which was when the unit was only a few months old. Under any sort of heat conditions, and particularly when running the genny to run AC while driving, we lost all power to our coach when we shut down. The battery use/store switch would not function, there was no solenoid click, but the batteries were showing 13 amps when tested with a meter. Within a couple of hours of cooling off, the use/store switch would resume function and all seemed well. Except of course that it would happen again, but would not happen for the kind folks at Anderson CW. Then came cooler weather, and as we took a couple of winter time / early spring trips, all seemed to work just fine. Then in late June as it got hot again, our first trip showed the same problem upon returning home. Only this time the switch would not start working again once it cooled off. The only way to get the use/store switch to turn on was to plug in to shore power. Assuming various problems we replaced both the solenoid and then the switch, and continued to have the same problem. Both hubby and I have noted a faint electrical smell at different times, but could never track it down, and it always went away fairly quickly. I was going to call Thor on Monday to help track down the problem, but saw your post on Saturday. We just looked and found some very similar issues to what you showed pics of. I took pictures, but am not sure how to get them onto the site. Anyway, found a completely melted red piece of twist wire cap lying on the bottom of the transfer switch case, and found the rest of the cap with a lot of exposed wires up in the top of the case. YIKES!! We will get repairs effected in the next couple of days. In the mean time the coach remains with shore power disconnected, and battery terminals disconnected until we can get parts etc. Again, thank you for sharing. I think we have located the problem.

[djc290]

Does anyone know how to get THORS attention on this issue - not looking to get legal involved - just want it resolved properly.

[99dart]

How appropriate this is at the bottom of the page. Wildfire Safety Tips: Camping During Wildfire Season

#1) Don't buy a Thor!
#2) Don't park in the forest!
#3) Be aware of that burning smell...it's your Thor!

Anyone else got one!

[D and C Kincaid]

Originally Posted by djc290

Does anyone know how to get THORS attention on this issue - not looking to get legal involved - just want it resolved properly.

Not sure if this will help, but thought about calling customer service and telling them what is happening. Perhaps if a lot of us called it might get noticed?!?!?

[tuckerfolk]

I'll call in. I will also get electrical drawing from them too for mt rig. Windstar 34p. 34P layout is no longer offered.

[D and C Kincaid]

Originally Posted by djc290

Does anyone know how to get THORS attention on this issue - not looking to get legal involved - just want it resolved properly.

OK, so I called the customer service number this afternoon to talk with someone about this issue. He gave me this email address to send information to. He said to send name, last 8 digits of VIN, a brief description of problem and findings, including time frame and symptoms if any, and pictures of findings. (in this case the melted burned wires.) The customer service guy that I talked to assured me that the problem would come to the notice of the people who can address it if emails are sent to this address. The address is: warrantysupport@tmcrv.com.

[Jeff van]

Originally Posted by Jeff van

While your under the bed go through and tighten all the screws on the inverter and terminal bar.
I found many lose or never even tightened at all from thor.
Almost burnt my main shore power input as well lost 6 battery before finding the problem.
Today I fired up the refrigerator and it literally blew up.

Just wanted to touch base after doing some research, the refrigerator we have in our ACE is a NORCOLD N611, there are many recalls out on the web.
Check and see if yours is on this list so you don't end up like us or worse.

[Usedtobered]

Checked out the transfer relay on my 2017 24.1 Vegas. Here are photos of what I found. This relay was found under the pass. side bed. Is there a cover I need to remove to check the connections?

[ComputerChips]

Hard to say from your pictures. That black box may contain the transfer switch relay. The relay has stranded pigtails that are spliced to the #10 solid wiring from the genny and from the shore power and to the breaker panel. All splices need to be checked for signs of overheating, loose connections etc.

[LBrown]

Had a connection in the water heater relay box burn up last winter. Fortunately damage was limited to holes melted through the relay box. I had no knowledge of the transfer switch until I read about it on this forum. I checked it today and found two of the three wire nutted hot wire connections in advance stages of self destruction. The one that lay against the plastic cover of the transfer switch box had nearly melted through it. And all of this is under the bed!!! Thor has created a very dangerous condition. Like all of you, I've put up with a lot of crappy work on the part of those who build the coaches we pay good money for but this is beyond what we should be expected to accept. Someone is very likely to get hurt.

[thor293]

I went though my coach a month or so ago and removed all the wire nuts and used screw connectors. Thought I had covered everything till I decided to add a heating element to my AC, while changing the control box I found 3 more wire nuts that I replaced.

Another item you should look at is the propane lines, I found one of the connections coming off the propane tank that was only hand tight.

[mcr1010]

Originally Posted by Usedtobered

Checked out the transfer relay on my 2017 24.1 Vegas. Here are photos of what I found. This relay was found under the pass. side bed. Is there a cover I need to remove to check the connections?

Yes you need to remove the cover. I removed the center drawers to gain more access to the box. I had to unscrew and remove the box to remove pig tail and wire nut connections and connect the solid wire (Romex) directly to the lugs on the switch. You can do this by bending a semicircle (clock wise) in each of the solid wires with needle nose pliers and connecting to lugs directly.

[Metalman]

I wonder if those stranded jumpers (pig tails) were installed to reduce the strain from movement and vibrations on the terminals?

[ComputerChips]

Yes the stranded wires are to keep the fragile plastic relay block terminals from breaking loose due to vibration or brute force of mashing the cables into the box. Those who eliminate the stranded section may wind up with other problems. There is a new type of transfer switch coming out now that is built to receive the solid conductors directly.

[Maxjr758]

Could some of you post pics of the inside of the switch, pigtails, wire nut connections, mentioned throughout the post. Maybe a series of pics to show the steps involved in correcting this dangerous condition.

[ComputerChips]

When there is a poor connection between the two wires that are spliced the wire heats up. Just like a fuse in a cicuit, the weakest link will heat up and in the case of a fuse it will burn in half and stop the flow of electricity.
In this case the splice is not a fuse but it will act the same as it is the weakest link. The wires will "cook" and the insulation will turn color or char. The wire nut's plastic "covering" will melt and drip off like a wax from a candle. If the heated wires are touching anything else it may burn them too. I imagine if we were watching it may get Red Hot. Eventually the poor connection will burn in half just like the fuse. In the process people sometimes smell that odor we all recognize as an electric device burning up. It can cause a fire to start if the heated wires touch something that will catch fire. For me, the stranded wire's insulation "roasted" for several inches. I purchased a dryer cord from Lowe's and cut off one of the wires of the correct color with the factory end already crimped on. Then I replaced the roasted wire and did a better job of splicing that wire back together with the solid conductor wire it was supposed to be connect too. And I checked all of the other splices for problems too.
Attached is a random image of our type of transfer switches. If you Google RV transfer switches you will find many more. Some for 30 Amp some for 50 Amp etc.

[Metalman]

I have never been comfortable with non-metallic electrical boxes, because their integrity can be compromised by high heat. I do not like the use of wire nuts in any moving vehicle. There are various types of splices that can be used in place of wire nuts. Some cannot be taken apart and have to be cut apart, but they are not subject to the same problems as wire nuts.

[Usedtobered]

Originally Posted by mcr1010

Yes you need to remove the cover. I removed the center drawers to gain more access to the box. I had to unscrew and remove the box to remove pig tail and wire nut connections and connect the solid wire (Romex) directly to the lugs on the switch. You can do this by bending a semicircle (clock wise) in each of the solid wires with needle nose pliers and connecting to lugs directly.

Thank you, just took off the cover and discovered that this is the relay I was looking for. Connections made with wire nuts. To access it completely I am going to have to remove the bed frame top, will see then what condition the connections are in, will probably switch them over to crimped solderless connectors, to avoid connecting the romex directly to the box eliminating the stress on the plastic box connections as stated in other posts.