ACE 29.3 Newbie

[justjohn57]

Hello,

We purchased our new ACE 29.3 in November after looking at a lot of models and kept coming back to that one. We are 59 and 60 and looking forward to spending a lot of time in it this year, but are complete RV newbies. We have it winterized now and are planning to take it back to the dealership this month to take care of a couple of issues we found during the PDI. Bought and installed an ADCO cover to keep it looking nice. Thinking of purchasing a dolley for our longer trips and a motorcycle carrier for the shorter ones. We have a whistle over 50 MPH I'm going to be looking at solutions for based on what I have learned in the forums here. Planning to have alignment checked soon and try the CHF and maybe a sway bar upgrade before a big month-plus trip we're planning in March. We're really looking forward trying out the RV lifestyle and considering FMCA membership. Any encouragement or pointers would definitely be appreciated as we begin this journey together.

John & Beth

[be happy]

We purchased our 29.3 in Oct. Really like it, only problem we have found is the bedroom door. Good Luck

[JamieGeek]

Congrats and welcome.

[Jegdrum5050]

Welcome to the forum and the RV lifestyle!! great way to travel and see our beautiful country!!

[Pappydude]

Originally Posted by justjohn57

Hello,

Thinking of purchasing a dolley for our longer trips and a motorcycle carrier for the shorter ones.

John & Beth

JustJohn57 what are you planning on towing with the tow dolly?

[justjohn57]

Originally Posted by Pappydude

JustJohn57 what are you planning on towing with the tow dolly?

We have a Honda Civic with a curb weight of 2700 lb that should work nicely. The dealership sells dollies with electric brakes and lights that should make it easy to connect.

[SuperD]

Congratulations on your new coach!!! Our Windsport whistled over 50 mph too, after I readjusted the hood for a better fit the whistle disappeared.

[justjohn57]

Originally Posted by SuperD

Congratulations on your new coach!!! Our Windsport whistled over 50 mph too, after I readjusted the hood for a better fit the whistle disappeared.

I've heard whistle attributed to 3 things so far:

• Windshield moulding leak
• Driver window
• Hood

My hood seems to fit just fine, but let me know what you did to readjust.

[SuperD]

The articulating arms that raise and lower the hood panel are adjustable. One side of the panel protruded about an inch more than the other. There are two adjustable bolts on each side, had to play with them a while to get the hood straight. Looks better and doesn't whistle now.

[Thor29.3inAZ]

Originally Posted by justjohn57

Hello,

We purchased our new ACE 29.3 in November after looking at a lot of models and kept coming back to that one. We are 59 and 60 and looking forward to spending a lot of time in it this year, but are complete RV newbies. We have it winterized now and are planning to take it back to the dealership this month to take care of a couple of issues we found during the PDI. Bought and installed an ADCO cover to keep it looking nice. Thinking of purchasing a dolley for our longer trips and a motorcycle carrier for the shorter ones. We have a whistle over 50 MPH I'm going to be looking at solutions for based on what I have learned in the forums here. Planning to have alignment checked soon and try the CHF and maybe a sway bar upgrade before a big month-plus trip we're planning in March. We're really looking forward trying out the RV lifestyle and considering FMCA membership. Any encouragement or pointers would definitely be appreciated as we begin this journey together.

John & Beth

Welcome to the forum and congrates on the 29.3!!! So you are experiencing the same thing from our coach. Now I'm 60 and you would think I can't hear much..... Well at lest thats what my wife says..... But it does have a whistle... Like a dog whistle... And it will change pitch with a cross wind. I had had enough and called Thor. The service guy knew right away what I was talking about. The grill is what is whistling. The square holes make the noise. Ours was crimped in the middle to take the shape of the front cap/air intake. He mentioned they have a fix by using a different shaped grill. Like expanded metal. We had to go thru the dealer for the warranty. Now it is all quite and still looks very nice.
The wheel alinement was also needed for our coach, so you should notice a difference. One thing to note also is, ask the mechanic to adjust the steering play while doing the alinement. It doesn't take much and will add in the prefect feel while going down the road.
I was unable to get the front sway arm to work on the CHF. But... I need to look again as someone here has the same coach and made it work. On mine it seems that the tie rod that connects to the sway bar was too short to move to the back position. The rear sway bar mod worked great.
I also installed a cold air intake from Banks. Gives it a little more torque but it also is a little loader. The jury is still out on wether I want to keep it on or not.
I was having a terrible time with 18 wheel trucks as they pasted. Found a vortex generator/s to help with this. AirTabs was recommended and after installing the roof and both sides found it helps quite a bit. I think they can work better if I relocate them to in front of the slide out seem. I still haven't heard back from AirTab to see if this will help. I also installed them on our inclosed box trailer that we tow.
Over all, it's a pretty nice coach. Plenty of room when the slide is out, fairly quite from the showroom and has great power climbing these AZ hills all over the place. Not to many problems from delivery but the biggest one we had, was the hyd leveling jacks had a line that wasn't tighten at the factory and gushed fluid all over a gas station when we restarted the engine. Oh and the rear axle seal leaked fluid all over the street overnight. There was so much fluid leaked that I was concerned to drive it to the dealer 45 miles away. It worked out ok though. Last thing to remember is the bathroom sink is connected to the black water tank, not the grey water. And if you have solid matter collecting at the bottom of the toilet, the sink might not drain properly. Don't ask me how we know this. I have never seen a sink drain into black water but there is a first for everything... right..??
So have fun out and about and enjoy your 29.3!!! We are!!!!

[Mr Sunshine]

Welcome to the forum and the RV community! You'll learn a lot from forums like this and from the folks you meet at campgrounds.
The chassis didn't need alignment, until the manufacturer built all that weight on it, and you add in your stuff to travel. Alignment is money well spent, suggest you put that high on your to-do list.
Happy trails!

[justjohn57]

Originally Posted by SuperD

The articulating arms that raise and lower the hood panel are adjustable. One side of the panel protruded about an inch more than the other. There are two adjustable bolts on each side, had to play with them a while to get the hood straight. Looks better and doesn't whistle now.

Thanks, but everything looks flush on mine. I can see why yours was a Whistling Dixie if it was that misaligned!

[halfprice]

John,
Welcome to the forum. You asked about FMCA well heres my take. Everybody wants your money to join them. I get tired of all the offers I get. After saying that I would strongly recommend FMCA. The main reason I joined was for the medical assistance they give. My wife wont and can not drive our motorhome. If I get hurt and can not drive us home FMCA will. They have some rules about this so look it up if its something you think is important. For that reason alone I joined. They have other benefits also.

Good luck and have fun with your new motorhome.


Jerry

[justjohn57]

Originally Posted by Thor29.3inAZ

Welcome to the forum and congrates on the 29.3!!! So you are experiencing the same thing from our coach. Now I'm 60 and you would think I can't hear much..... Well at lest thats what my wife says..... But it does have a whistle... Like a dog whistle... And it will change pitch with a cross wind. I had had enough and called Thor. The service guy knew right away what I was talking about. The grill is what is whistling. The square holes make the noise. Ours was crimped in the middle to take the shape of the front cap/air intake. He mentioned they have a fix by using a different shaped grill. Like expanded metal. We had to go thru the dealer for the warranty. Now it is all quite and still looks very nice.
The wheel alinement was also needed for our coach, so you should notice a difference. One thing to note also is, ask the mechanic to adjust the steering play while doing the alinement. It doesn't take much and will add in the prefect feel while going down the road.
I was unable to get the front sway arm to work on the CHF. But... I need to look again as someone here has the same coach and made it work. On mine it seems that the tie rod that connects to the sway bar was too short to move to the back position. The rear sway bar mod worked great.
I also installed a cold air intake from Banks. Gives it a little more torque but it also is a little loader. The jury is still out on wether I want to keep it on or not.
I was having a terrible time with 18 wheel trucks as they pasted. Found a vortex generator/s to help with this. AirTabs was recommended and after installing the roof and both sides found it helps quite a bit. I think they can work better if I relocate them to in front of the slide out seem. I still haven't heard back from AirTab to see if this will help. I also installed them on our inclosed box trailer that we tow.
Over all, it's a pretty nice coach. Plenty of room when the slide is out, fairly quite from the showroom and has great power climbing these AZ hills all over the place. Not to many problems from delivery but the biggest one we had, was the hyd leveling jacks had a line that wasn't tighten at the factory and gushed fluid all over a gas station when we restarted the engine. Oh and the rear axle seal leaked fluid all over the street overnight. There was so much fluid leaked that I was concerned to drive it to the dealer 45 miles away. It worked out ok though. Last thing to remember is the bathroom sink is connected to the black water tank, not the grey water. And if you have solid matter collecting at the bottom of the toilet, the sink might not drain properly. Don't ask me how we know this. I have never seen a sink drain into black water but there is a first for everything... right..??
So have fun out and about and enjoy your 29.3!!! We are!!!!

Wow, great advice that sure sounds like what mine is doing. We are also 60 but can still hear that dog whistle. Not sure yet how our Beagle is going to react when we take him along! Was yours caused by the crimp? I'll need to check and see if mine has that feature. I will call Thor and see if that's our problem.

I had a nice conversation with the alignment mechanic I'm going to use, who also owns a motorhome. He's a big believer in sway bar updates, but he told me he'd try the CHF and see if it made any difference first.

Haven't done any freeway driving yet but will keep the Airtabs in mind if I have the same trouble you do.

Researched the Axis/Vegas a lot before purchasing ACE, and it does the same thing with the sink draining into black water tank. It's a good way to fill it before dumping if you need to.

Thanks again for your input and maybe we'll run into you since we're planning a big trip to AZ in March to visit our kids. Can't wait to try out our 29.3 on an extended basis!

[justjohn57]

Originally Posted by halfprice

John,
Welcome to the forum. You asked about FMCA well heres my take. Everybody wants your money to join them. I get tired of all the offers I get. After saying that I would strongly recommend FMCA. The main reason I joined was for the medical assistance they give. My wife wont and can not drive our motorhome. If I get hurt and can not drive us home FMCA will. They have some rules about this so look it up if its something you think is important. For that reason alone I joined. They have other benefits also.

Good luck and have fun with your new motorhome.

Jerry

Thanks Jerry! My wife is a reluctant driver but during the drive class she did great. Another friend who has owned RVs for years strongly recommended the FMCA. We have a lot to learn and it looks like it will be very worthwhile for us, especially with the $15 first year discount.

[Thor29.3inAZ]

JustJohn; It was in part the bend in the grill. But even after I tried to fill the bent vanes, it still whistled. But after the new grill, all was well. So there is something in the grill that makes all the noise. And Thor was good about replacing it.

[RadioRanger]

Originally Posted by Thor29.3inAZ

The wheel alinement was also needed for our coach, so you should notice a difference. One thing to note also is, ask the mechanic to adjust the steering play while doing the alinement. It doesn't take much and will add in the prefect feel while going down the road.

Last thing to remember is the bathroom sink is connected to the black water tank, not the grey water. And if you have solid matter collecting at the bottom of the toilet, the sink might not drain properly. Don't ask me how we know this. I have never seen a sink drain into black water but there is a first for everything... right..??
So have fun out and about and enjoy your 29.3!!! We are!!!!

Hi, A question on the steering play. We got a 2017 29.3 this summer and the steering wheel is about 30 degrees out of center going straight down the road. So will be taking it in for alignment in the spring once we are driving it again.

Do you ask them to make the steering tighter? It seems like there may be a bit of play in that. Gotta go to the Ford dealer for that stuff.

I asked Thor about the drains. The bathroom sink goes into the black tank so you get a little more water in there to flush out the tank. The shower goes into the gray tank. I had thought my black tank was filling fast and was concerned that the shower was going into the black tank. Glad it is not. The black tank is not that big, but we did make it a week. I also had a sensor that was not working right on the black tank. So it was hard to tell if it was full or not.

We liked the floorplan on the 29.3 and look forward to the upcoming season!


John

[SuperD]

Originally Posted by halfprice

John,
Welcome to the forum. You asked about FMCA well heres my take. Everybody wants your money to join them. I get tired of all the offers I get. After saying that I would strongly recommend FMCA. The main reason I joined was for the medical assistance they give. My wife wont and can not drive our motorhome. If I get hurt and can not drive us home FMCA will. They have some rules about this so look it up if its something you think is important. For that reason alone I joined. They have other benefits also.

Good luck and have fun with your new motorhome.


Jerry

I second what Jerry says! I have been an FMCA member since about 1985, lots of benefits, GREAT magazine with lots of good articles, very much worth the money. I have given gift memberships to several friends when they purchased MHs.

[Thor29.3inAZ]

Originally Posted by RadioRanger

Hi, A question on the steering play. We got a 2017 29.3 this summer and the steering wheel is about 30 degrees out of center going straight down the road. So will be taking it in for alignment in the spring once we are driving it again.

Do you ask them to make the steering tighter? It seems like there may be a bit of play in that. Gotta go to the Ford dealer for that stuff.

I asked Thor about the drains. The bathroom sink goes into the black tank so you get a little more water in there to flush out the tank. The shower goes into the gray tank. I had thought my black tank was filling fast and was concerned that the shower was going into the black tank. Glad it is not. The black tank is not that big, but we did make it a week. I also had a sensor that was not working right on the black tank. So it was hard to tell if it was full or not.

We liked the floorplan on the 29.3 and look forward to the upcoming season!


John

Our steering wheel was off like you mentioned. The alinement helped a lot but it is still just slightly off. Not a big deal now for me. I did the adjustment, not hard to do. The steering box, located just under the drivers feet, outside in the engine compartment is where it can be done. A 3/4" wrench and a short flat screw driver gets it done. The wrench is for the lock jam nut. It's kinda a tight spot, why the short screw driver. The adjuster is facing towards the inside and there is a beam there (if I remember right, or it's the wall to the drivers compartment).
It helped in the throw of the steering wheel. Made it a bit tighter steering. So as not to have to swing the steering wheel so far to make a difference, if that makes sense. Ask the tech to do it. He should know how to (hopefully).

[mrw]

We own ACE 29.3 which had a whistle around 50mph. After consulting Thor they sent me a grill insert which fixed the problem. We truly enjoy ours and YES would purchhase again