Some recent mods to my Axis 24.1

[JamieGeek]

Originally Posted by sportcoupe

Jamie, the OP was able to get a Lectric XP inside the rear storage of the 24.1.

Yup saw that and he posted it after my reply.

I believe I did try to fit the Rad mini in either door (my 2014 doesn't have the rear door, just the ones on either side) and it wouldn't fit in either side.

Its a pretty tight fit folding it up and fitting it into a SUV/CUV as it is.

[petef]

That is a lot of weight hanging on the ladder, all the bumps and ruts in the road will put extra force on it.

[2015axis]

Originally Posted by DavidEM

I have said this before but it bears repeating:

I believe that the Thor Axis 24.1 is a superb design, but lousy execution. I have spent at least 50 hours, maybe 100 figuring out problems and fixing them. When I am all done (and I am getting close), I think I will have a perfect motorhome for us.

David

David great to here you are spending time fine tuning your Axis, I too have spent endless hours and $$$ tuning up ours.
Not sure if you have tackled the Grounding issues yet but one of many that stuck out to me was under the MH next to the Battery Box Thor literally welded a bolt to the frame and terminated several grounds using cheap crimp style end terminals and bolted them all together, unprotected from the elements. Ours from driving up the Alcan HWY was one clump of mud, long story short I replaced with soldered ends and terminated in a weather proof box.
well good luck and we are looking forward to monitoring your progress.

Pat

[Bill Johnson]

Originally Posted by 2015axis

David great to here you are spending time fine tuning your Axis, I too have spent endless hours and $$$ tuning up ours.
Not sure if you have tackled the Grounding issues yet but one of many that stuck out to me was under the MH next to the Battery Box Thor literally welded a bolt to the frame and terminated several grounds using cheap crimp style end terminals and bolted them all together, unprotected from the elements. Ours from driving up the Alcan HWY was one clump of mud, long story short I replaced with soldered ends and terminated in a weather proof box.
well good luck and we are looking forward to monitoring your progress.

Pat

Lucky you didn't have a Jayco like mine on the E450 chassis the rear grounds were just self tapping hex bolts that broke off and the wires were just hanging there the connections were the same thing used on a home grounding rod, wires totally exposed and just a bolt tightened against the wires. Everyone builds junk now

[2015axis]

Originally Posted by Bill Johnson

Lucky you didn't have a Jayco like mine on the E450 chassis the rear grounds were just self tapping hex bolts that broke off and the wires were just hanging there the connections were the same thing used on a home grounding rod, wires totally exposed and just a bolt tightened against the wires. Everyone builds junk now

I hear you brother,, you just don’t get the Bang for your buck like you use to. The other electrical head scratcher for me at was the generator cable, they had that routed through the frame skid loops and dangling below the frame in some locations. Real easy fix cut 4 foot of excess cable and rerouted. the quality control inspections must be after Beer thirty!

Pat

[Bill Johnson]

[DavidEM]

Originally Posted by petef

That is a lot of weight hanging on the ladder, all the bumps and ruts in the road will put extra force on it.

You are number 13 .

David

[2015axis]

Originally Posted by DavidEM

You are number 13 .



David

All I can add pertaining to the ladder is keep an eye on the mounting screws, I removed our ladder but in the process found many of the self tapping screws were snapped off a thread or two deep so the screw head was still in the round mounting plate. Just FYI.

[Bill Johnson]

Originally Posted by DavidEM

You are number 13 .

David

They are just trying to help. Like a 30 pound weight around your neck is heavy but jump off a roof like we did as kids with a 30 pound weight and it would probably break your neck, it's the sudden stop that hurts. Read any article on rv ladders, they are not to be used on a regular basis. Only as necessary, just think some tire/wheel combo weigh around 100 pounds think with that bouncing will do after years of use. The screws will loosen and the caulking will give way the wall will delaminate and the wood will rot. People are just trying to help. It might be different if the tire was on the bumper but I don't think it would help

[DavidEM]

Hey guys:

I heard all of your concerns on another post where I went through the various options for storing a spare tire, concluded that the ladder would work, offered some data on why it would work (the tire weighs less than 1/3 of what I do and the bouncing loads will never get to 225 lbs down force, the ladder has four mounting points (none have shown loosening) and one of them is on the top of the coach so down force on that one will be pulling the ladder against the roof).

So lets leave it alone. I have been sufficiently warned.

David

[Jason977]

Originally Posted by DavidEM

You are number 13 .

David

I guess you can count me as 14... It doesn't sound like you'll be convinced to take it off, but please let all of our concern encourage you to be very diligent checking on the ladder attachment points. I would definitely lift up on the ladder periodically (with more force than the weight of the spare) to look for any loosening of the fasteners down at the bottom. It's going to be hard to keep an eye on the top part since you can't really climb the ladder now. In addition to the attachment points, I would expect potential failure points to be at the rungs where the main members are drilled.

Good job on the other mods. I think the most interesting threads here are where people are willing to tear into RV and make it better.

[sportcoupe]

Not a ladder but a steel bumper. Those welds are probably stronger then screws into wood.

[Jason977]

Originally Posted by sportcoupe

Jamie, the OP was able to get a Lectric XP inside the rear storage of the 24.1.

One mod I have high on my priority list is to redo the under-bed storage on our 24.1. We pretty much always have the bed made up in king-size configuration which makes the drawers and under-bed cubbies basically useless. I'd like to redo that whole structure to make the bulk of that space "basement" storage, which I think would be more useful.
Someone here redid the space to mount lithium batteries where the under-bed drawers are, I should revisit his thread.

The main thing this will accomplish is give us a place to store our zero-gravity chairs. Sometimes we hang them on a hitch-mounted bike rack where they get filthy, sometimes we bring them inside, where it gets the inside filthy. Both less than ideal.

Really my ideal solution would be something similar to what the Ekko has, an elevated rear bed that allows for cavernous outside storage. This would require a new outside door to fully take advantage of the space, but I'm not sure I'm willing to go that far yet.

[DavidEM]

This was the subject of a separate thread and within a few hours of posting it, WW posted a pic and a link to Amazon where I could buy the missing hardware.

And after what must have been 15-20 emails back and forth to Thor Warranty Support (my dealer was no help) I finally got a resolution. I won't name the person I spoke to but he/she has a very limited understanding of RVs. But he/she finally agreed to reimburse me if I bought the missing components from Amazon.

Davis

[DavidEM]

Well we have been camping 2-3 times since I started this thread and using our new Axis now seems routine. Most critical problems have been resolved and I am now in a routine maintenance mode. Little things pop up and I take care of them within a few days/week.

What is left in the grand scheme of things is pretty trivial: the Axxera dash display that falls apart and no power to the dash cigarette lighter sockets.

Like I said I may just epoxy the display in place and fugetaboutit, or let the dealer fix it. I have some trepidations about his fix.

The dash power is another vexing problem. It will probably take pulling the dash apart and/or removing sheet metal from the front to get to the Ford engine room fuse box. I will give the dealer a shot at this one. Maybe when he pulls the dash apart he can fix the Axxera display.

And yes I do check the ladder for looseness every time we go out. So far so good.

FWIW most of our camping requires driving on rural, hilly 50 mph roads to get there and for that driving I am averaging 11 mpg. For flat interstate driving which I did on a long trip several months ago I averaged 12+ mpg at 60-65. Handling is great as well. So I am a big fan of Ford's new V8 engine and upgraded E350 chassis. I did have a Check Advancetrac error on the long trip which hasn't reoccurred in a thousand miles or more. Hopefully......

David

[DavidEM]

I now have either fixed everything I think was wrong with my new Axis, have a solid plan to deal with it or said fuggetaboutit and moved on. Two remaining issues I still have to deal with and the plan for resolution:

Sofa legs- If you read all of the above or the separate thread on the subject, my Axis came without legs for the sofa table and the oval table between the front seats. Thor finally sent me the leg for the oval table having sent me the legs for the sofa table a few months ago. I now have to order the top socket (for some reason Thor couldn't supply those) and screw it in and I will be finished with this frustrating glitch. Like I said above, I think I am nearing 20 emails back and forth to Thor warranty support.

Dash cigarette lighter outlets dead- I have finally narrowed the problem down to the connection between the outlet's cable and the Ford fuse panel inside the engine compartment. I am not going to try any further to make that work because access to that fuse panel is horrible and any warranty claim would probably start a pissing match between Thor and Ford.

So I am going to run a separate cable directly from the chassis battery to the outlets. This will let me run big 10 gauge wire and put a 20 amp fuse to protect it. The only downside and it is as much an upside as downside is that the circuit will always be on, ie it will not be ignition switched. I can live with that as there is almost zero chance of leaving something plugged in to that circuit for days at a time and run the battery down. And the advantage is that I can use it with the ignition off like for powering my air compressor.

The check AdvanceTrac light signal coming on hasn't recurred for a couple of thousand miles, so I am going to forgetaboutit. Fortunately this is a solid Ford problem and I have 4-1/2 years of warranty left and maybe more because it is a potential safety problem

Our dry camping DC use is 25-30 amp hours every 24 hours. This will let us camp for four nights and stay at 50% or above with our 200 Ah AGM batteries. I don't ever see needing more.

Some other tricks I have figured out:

One concern I have had is how to recharge my e-bike's batteries as well as the lithium battery packs for my electric chainsaw. The solution is to use a cheap 150W plug in inverter to power the various battery chargers. The chainsaw battery pack uses about 5 amps DC to power its charger and it works great. I haven't tried the e-bike charger yet but I think it will pull 10-15 amps DC. That is a big reason I am happy with a dedicated circuit from the battery with a 20 amp fuse- I don't have to worry about blowing the converter fuse that powers the bedroom outlets.

Here are several routine tricks we have learned from camping:

1. We use the wax fire starter cubes made by Weber for starting our campfire.

2. We rarely purchase wood. I can almost always find downed wood nearby and it is legal to use it almost everywhere we have camped, NPS campsites being the exception. With our electric chainsaw and splitting axe it makes for fairly easy campfire wood. And the exercise does me good.

3. We rarely use the built in fire ring at campgrounds and almost always use a portable steel fire ring. It has a nice mesh cover so you can leave it smoldering with no risk when you go to bed.

4. I use a cheap Weber propane grill for most outdoor cooking. Small and fits nicely in the front passenger side compartment.

5. I stuff the freezer compartment full of ice cubes bagged from our home fridge. That keeps us in ice for drinks for most of a week.

6. The partial opening windows on our Axis don't give the ventilation we had with full opening windows. The Fantastic Fan set on medium (draws about an amp) mostly compensates.

7. My wife buys thin throw away checkered plastic table cloths and uses a set of clips to tie it down to the picnic table. A tiny bit of class in the woods and it gets thrown away after camping so no clean up.

8. For days when it rains we hole up in the Axis with me on the front sofa and my wife in the passenger seat turned to face the sofa and our dog sitting in the driver's seat so she can look outside. Nice, comfortable room for all.

David

[Philo Gemstone]

Dash cigarette lighter outlets dead- I have finally narrowed the problem down to the connection between the outlet's cable and the Ford fuse panel inside the engine compartment. I am not going to try any further to make that work because access to that fuse panel is horrible and any warranty claim would probably start a pissing match between Thor and Ford.

If you remember my tale of woe (cab AC dead on arrival, Ford declined to fix because of the body design), I'm here to report that my authorized RV repair shop (at a dealer that had no Thor products on their lot) fixed it, no questions asked. It was a disconnected wire, and it did take several hours to reconnect.

So far, very pleased with that particular dealer and Thor warranty service.

[DavidEM]

It has been more than a year since my last post and I really haven't found any new problems that need fixing since then. But let me report on a few unresolved things discussed above:

I finally figured out that the dash 12V outlets were shorted by the radio falling (see below). The fuse is in the front of the engine compartment but impossible to reach witthout removing the front hood. So I disconnected the hot wire and ran a new one directly to the battery through a 20A fuse. Works great now.

The falling radio/display was finally fixed by doing a number of things: epoxying the radio to its monting bezel, installing wires across the back of the radio and steel tape to the sides to stiffen it all up and a sponge on top to dampen out vibration. Has been a couple of thousand miles with no failure.

I now have more than 5,000 miles on my ladder mounted spare tire. No problems so far.

The Onan 4000 wouldn't crank a few months ago. Took it to a Cummins Service Center and they replaced the electronics board. That fixed it. It would have cost about $1,000 if I was out of warranty so was glad I still had a few months left on Onan's 2 year warranty.

Looking forward to an uneventful 2023 camping season, yeah!!!!

David

[happy]

Very nice to hear that your fixes are fixed and you are liking your rig.
Also great to hear about Philo's warranty fix.

[mriro@aol.com]

I have the 2023 V8 Axis 24.1 built on the 2022 E-350 cutaway chassis and am trying to find a Roadmaster or Safe-T-Plus steering stabilizer. The threads talk about the E-350 chassis with the V10 engine, however not able to locate one with the V8 engine.

The two steering stabilizer manufacturers and eTrailer identify the stabilizer and install kit for the V8 chassis for model years 2021, 22 or 23.

Ideas anyone? Thank you! - Jim