Winnebago

[petew]

Went to an rv show recently and spoke with the salesman that sold us our Vegas, he sells Thor and Winnebago at his dealership.
We were discussing Winnebago vs Thor products. He made a statement about how nicely the new Winnebago class A's drove .
Specifically we were talking about the Thor Ace vs the Winnebago Vista.

Today My wife and I went to look at and drive a 2018 Winnebago Vista 27PE.

The fit and finish was very nice , a few less features than the Ace but much higher quality in some areas . Then I took it out for a drive.
It was brand new no fresh alignment according to the salesman and I observed that the steering wheel was off center.
Took it up on the highway and ran 65-70mph for about 10 miles , it was solid as a rock .

I was driving with one hand on the wheel , no wander and none of the flex that I noticed with my Vegas prior to adding the Sumo Springs , in fact it felt as good as my Vegas does with the Sumos and the Safety Plus .

I have to say I was impressed. Is this the same F53 chassis that everyone complains about ?
It also had 3 very nice tv sets with QAM tuners in them.

We may be jumping ship and leaving the Thor family

Not sure yet but considering.

[Pete'sMH]

Must be a Pete thing....we did the same thing this week. We traded our 2017 Freedom Elite 26 HE on a 2017 Winnebago Vista 29VE. We had no real issues with the Thor product but discovered, to our surprise, that we love touring. 8,000 miles in 7 months taught us a lot. Planning a month long snowbird trip for winter. Our new Vista drives well but so did our Freedom Elite. We looked at a couple of ACEs with similar features but when saw the Winnie we never looked back. All the best.

[revjeffrey]

One huge thing I really miss that our Axis does not have and was not an option Dual pane tinted windows our Minnie Winnie had. Parked in full sun at the track shade up no heat & no noise.

[petew]

There were many small things that impressed me.

All three batteries , coach and chassis, are under the step.

There is a "wet bay" that is well laid out , easy to get to everything, including the fresh water pump and it's sediment filter. Everything is labeled and neat.

In the electrical bay there is the shore tie cord and outlet. I noticed that the shore tie cord was plugged back into the 30 amp outlet.
The reason for that is it eliminates the transfer switch since it is effectively making you choose between generator 110 or power post 110.
Plug the power cord into the rv main receptacle the coach is on gen power.
Plug into a power post and you are on shore power.

This eliminates the need for a transfer switch and is one less thing that will break.

I could go on . Point is there is attention to detail present in the coach that doesn't appear in my current rig.

[Pete'sMH]

You also will find that documentation with the Winnebago is much better. Owners manuals and related information is MUCH better. The info packet is 2 or 3 times as much. Good helpful info and not just generic.

[revjeffrey]

And you get all the remote controls with it, 😂 in a very nice storage bag.

[Mr Sunshine]

One great thing I can say about Winnie, they can produce parts for every RV they ever made. Need a sink for a vintage Brave from the early 70's? They have the mold and can make one. This was a concern with our last coach, whose manufacturer was no more. Their factory tour in Forest City, Iowa, is impressive.

We looked hard at a Travato before buying our Vegas. We chose the cheaper Vegas because it had more room and more storage inside and out. So far, at 20,000 miles, we feel that we made the right choice for us.