Thor Forums

[Cwray]

Sorry to hear about your punch list. I, too, am an owner of a 2019 34J. I got mine in end of July last year and had an equally long, but different, list. It took me all RV season and into this year to get all of the items resolved.

After the first trip this year, the kitchen drain pipe under the slide broke. It’s a bad design, common to the 34J’s. There’s another thread around here on that topic. After our second trip, the slide got stuck 2” in from full extension, and I had a bear of a time getting that thing in so I could drive it back to the dealer for that warranty work. It sits there as I type this, awaiting to be looked at and resolved.

I wish the freedom, fun, and family togetherness that we experience using this thing wasn’t so great and addictive. Otherwise, I’d walk away from RV’ing. But I can’t. I’m hooked.

My recommendation:
1). Write down this list and present it to your dealer to get it worked. Let them know that you will be managing/reviewing progress directly with Thor as this gets worked on.

2) Establish a date/time where they would have completed their initial assessment and submitted it to Thor to get authorized to work on the items. They should be able to tell you how long “in queue” it will take for them to get a first look at your rig

3) Call Thor directly, give them your last 6 digits of VIN, and ask the CS rep (Tom, I believe), to read off all the work that they’ve authorized to be done on your rig. You have a right to know, and the dealer won’t get reimbursed a penny without pre-authorization.

4). Check off each item you are expecting to be done and write down their pre-with codes for each item. There will undoubtedly be missing items. Also, note which parts have been shipped out and whether or not the dealer has signed off an accepting them. (This is the key part, as there will most likely be finger pointing on not getting parts to work on your rig)

5). Go back to your dealer with all this information and hold their feet to the fire and calling in missing work, and how long it will take to complete jobs now that they are exposed by having proof they have all the parts needed.

6). Get agreement on when the work should be done and set expectations that you will call back after that time if you don’t hear from them. Also let them know that you will revisit any of the above steps with Thor for “missing work items” or “missing parts”. Tom, at Thor, is very friendly and has always offered to get on the phone with us while we are at the dealer to remove any doubts about status of claims or shipments. Let the dealer know that you’d be happy to do that for them if they still seem like their hands are tied due to Thor for some reason.


Should you have to do all this? Hell no. But does it work? It does for us. It’s been very frustrating, and my wife is out of patience. Much like yours, she rightly points out how this type of QC from a manufacturer & obvious reluctance on the dealer’s part to make things right before you buy these massively expensive things is not right.

And yet, here we are. Plenty of soapboxes to stand on if you want to. Other than personal venting, I don’t see it doing any good. Lots of folks here are willing to lend their experience and knowledge to help you resolve issues yourself. I’ve greatly benefited from it over the last year, and I hope I can contribute a tiny bit where I can.

FWIW, I haven’t seen Thor be worse than any of the others from peoples stories at RV parks. For every brand that I hear “such-n-such is crap!” I’ve run into a person who swears by that brand. I hear tons about how Winnebago has the best customer service and quality. And yet in my first RV stay, I was next to a $300K Winnie DP who’s driver was on his way back to Indiana. He had major issues (estimated to be $70K worth of work) and they were jerking him around (Winnebago wouldn’t authorize the dealer to fix it). He retained a lawyer, threatened to sue, and now was headed back to stay there for the couple of weeks to allow them the time to fix it.

Welcome to the community, know that we’re all here for ya, and take some solace in knowing that in spite of all the crap your dealing with—in the end you’ll have a richer life for doing the rv thing. :-)