2013 Thor Palazzo 33.1

[ournextstop]

We have been full time RVers for the last 5+ years but are transitioning to part time as we are buying a house near Jax, FL. We do not need/want the 42 ft DP we have been living in but do want to have a DP for part time RVing!
We have noted several Palazzos for sale.
They seem well built and do not feel as close as I expected after living in our current 42 ft DP.
I have found the forum for that RV owners group to be a useful resource so I am coming to this forum looking for any info on the Palazzo.
I have done a search and not found anything repetitive or serious that would affect the 33.1 which does not have a full body slide.
I have not had a Freightliner chassis or the Cummns ISB engine but don't know of any issues with them currently.
Again, I would appreciate any inputs or links you might care to provide. I did see in the literature that it has a 2kw inverter with auto genset start, but it does not say what brand it is. The unit we looked at today has a residential refrig (RR) and 4 6vdc batteries in the normal serial/parallel config. I am concerned the 2kw inverter and 4 batteries is not adequate for the load including the RR. This RR is not as big as the one in our 42 ft which as a bigger inverter and battery bank so the config in the Palazzo may not be an issue. Any comments about that would be appreciated/ We don't dry camp a lot but do for a few weeks every Winter while NAS KW! And we plan on continuing to spend part of the Winter in the Keys!

Bob & BJ
on the road to ournextstop

[Beacher]

The only "big" issue with pre-2015 Palazzo models are the Schwintek slides mechanisms. They have a very bad reputation for failure.

That one defect alone is causing significant numbers of owners to dump their recent purchases, (there are large numbers of late model gently used Palazzo's on the market).

In 2015 models a third rail, (3TRAX), was added to help support the weight. I suppose if you can retrofit the new third rail mechanism, it might be a great buy, if the price is right.

Besides that, everything else is generally pretty good, being that it's the top of the line for Thor motor homes on a well tested chassis, with good systems.

[EA37TS]

I periodically rally with a current and former Palazzo owners. The folks that currently own a Palazzo have had not issues with theirs. The former owners got rid of their Palazzo for 2 reasons. The first was they had the full wall slide which plagued all Thor models with full wall slides. Second they went up to a 42 foot coach to fit their lifestyle.

The 3Trax system that was mentioned in only being installed on Thor floor plans that have a full wall slide. You mention the one you are looking at does not have the full wall slide so it shouldn't have the same slide issues.

My coach has a Xantrex 1800 watt inverter, 2 6 volt batteries in series, AGS, and a residential refrigerator (pulling 7.2 watts). That configuration has not given me any issues to date. I will suggest that you determine which coach circuits are run through the inverter. In my coach the inverter only powers the refrigerator and the televisions.

The Freightliner chassis and Cummins engines are used on more DPs burning up the roads. I know that is the same configuration used by Fleetwood in their Discovery lineup.

[ournextstop]

Thanx to you both for taking the time to reply. I had seen the slide problem in some other posts and understood it was a "full Wall" issue. I appreciate the info and clarifications!
I am much less concerned about the Cummins, as I have had several, just not the ISB. My experience is with Sparatan and I except Freightliner to be just as good!
Thanx again for your help.

Bob & BJ
on the road to ournextstop