Thor Magnitude RS36 - Selling after 4 weeks of ownership

[elbenson]

As many of you have seen, my experience with Thor has been nothing but problems and our final decision, while difficult to make, is to cut our losses now and sell it back. I have lost all faith in Thor design and customer support. I fully understand that all RV has issues, but wanted to lay out my experience in hopes that maybe others will learn from my very expensive lesson.

After spending 2.5 weeks and 6k miles in a coach you uncover / learn about what does or does not work for you family. Following are some of the realizations and things that I have come to realize about the Thor Magnitude RS36

1). Cab over bunk is not designed and attached properly. After 6k miles I have screws backing out pushing up the trim on the passenger side. Online, there are others that are seeing the same structural failures. It is evident that Thor is not improving the quality of attachment such as backer plates and better quality and number of screws. As an engineer, this really does not feel like the company cares about the safety and quality of their products. I guess since they give a 12 year structural warrantee you will be covered if Thor acknowledges this is a design failure.

2) The giant wall slide is not a robust design. I blew it off as people complaining, but it is real. Tons of weight, structurally very weak since they take out an entire wall and support structure. Also, never will I purchase a RV with kitchen (water, gas, water heater) on a slide. I also will stay away from big slides. It is hard to do when you are looking for bunk models.

I had sooooo many problems getting the lines pinched and getting hot water to the coach (they put the hot water heater under the sink. They put the fittings and elbows in very bad locations at the slide entrance area. Pretty much impossible to keep lines from kinking and would recommend re-running water lines to eliminate 90 deg elbow at slide interface. Every time I had to camp, I had to go fix the hoses to get water to the slide and water heater.

5) Sliding doors. All of our sliding doors did not function well. The bunk doors kept jamming. The bathroom door would not stay locked in open position and would slam close when driving.

6) Layout. Here are some items that I uncovered that I would have never though about during initial walkthrough.

a). No place to change. The entire bed to wall/cabinets is very narrow even with the slide out. It is impossible to change in the bedroom with the door closed (my Jayco trailer put a larger gap on one side of the bed and very narrow gap on the other to accommodate enough area to change.

b) Shower is very small when actually using the water. It feels plenty big when you stand in it, but where they place the faucet it forces you to take a step back, then it is very cramped. My wife and I are tall, a rectangular shower works much better for us (or something a bit longer in one direction).

c) You cannot have your kids watch the TV with the slides closed going down the road. I know, first world problems, but we bought the nice RV to be able to travel long distances with amenities. When traveling, slide is in the way of the TV, no one at the dinette can see it. Whoever is sitting on the coach can only see part of TV. This ended up being a much bigger deal than I originally thought.


Other issues:
1. Ford stabiltrac would give me an error once in a while. It would come on, and then clear itself eventually. Usually after you turned the engine on/off. No danger in driving with this error, but it removed the ability to use tow/haul mode which I like for driving as it downshifts more aggressively to help slowing the RV. From research the problem seems to be in the sensor at the rear axle as Thor stretched the chassis. Ford blames Thor and Thor blames Ford. Good luck getting it fixed as it never stays on long enough for someone to pull a code.

2) Heater vent placement. I want to find the "designer" (and I use that term loosely) and smack them upside the head. One vent in the bedroom goes to the back wall that heats nothing. The other 2 heaters are routed to the stairwell and would never get anywhere near as warm as the duct by the bed. I would never want to try to heat the coach in anything below 40 deg as it will not work. I would move the 1 heater to the other side of the bed to help heat the bunk area and bedroom. The other 2 vents need a much better insulated heat hose to prevent from losing all the heat. This is a terrible design and a big deal if you plan on camping in spring/autumn with cooler or freezing weather. We love the desert in the winter, so this is a huge dealbreaker for us.

3). Fuse breaker is not accessible with the slide in. They put the fuse and breakers facing the slide. If the slide is in, you cannot open the cover to access the fuses. I removed the cover so at least I could reach in and flip the breakers. This was needed as my AC/DC converter tripped the breaker and I could not get enough voltage to open the slide. Major design fail, and the breaker box needs to be placed 90 deg where it is on the side of the bed. There is plenty of space, so I don't know why they did it that way.

4) BIM is backwards in the Schematic and will not get the battery voltage high enough to extend the slide after pulling into a camp site. You have to play games to discharge the battery to get the BIM to trip to allow the alternator to boost the voltage over 13.2V

5) I found at a minimum of 20+ screws in the RV. Usually I would find 2-3 screws every time I retracted then extend the slide. I guess this is pretty normal, but they are likely to catch on the slide and damage the Vinyl floor.

7). The macerator toilet is nice (and seems to be in all nicer coaches now), but it requires the use of more water for every flush. With 2 adults and 4 kids, we filled the black tank in 2.5 days. In our Jayco with regular toilet, we could last at least 3.5 days with 20 less gallons for the black tank. This was very surprising for us. Our next rig we are looking at has 75 gallon tanks (Gray/black) as we really like boon-docking and no hook up camping.

As for customer support, after I was making no progress with the Customer Service desk, I reached out to Mr. Kime, the President of Thor Motorcoach on LinkedIn. Only after he sent an email to his people I finally started getting calls. Thor has a mobile support team, but they will not tell you that. I am not sure what it takes to get them to send them to you, but it wasn't multiple major system failures traveling across the country with your family on a brand new coach. I had tried to get into the Wakarusa facility as I was driving right by it. The service manager/adviser reached out and said he would not have time to work in it after the customer service reps continued to tell me just to stop in. After the President send messages, all of a sudden they had time, but by then I had already started heading west to get home and was 2 states away.

Eric

[kwplot34]

Sorry to hear you had so many issues with your coach and while on vacation, that just kind of ruins the trip for everyone. I don't blame you for getting rid of it Thor is really dropping the ball and I doubt that they get any better.
I have my appointment in November to hopefully get the structural issue fixed with my front cap, not holding my breath that Thor will stand behind their product and make it right.
Any idea what you might get next?

[txc2936@yahoo.com]

Did the THOR dealer take back the RV?

I see your model in the THOR Owners. That is alot of RV for 6 people, on a Class C Diesel.

I purchased the THOR 30.4 which is similar to the 32.3 without the bunk beds like your RS.

You might like the Class A motor homes for your needs.

https://www.thormotorcoach.com/build...ct-your-brand/

[elbenson]

The Renegade Verona or Valencia is on the top of my list. I am toying with the idea of a diesel pusher, but I don't think I want to give up the things I like best about the super C (improved driving, crumple zone, motor access, service options). I really want to find the longest lasting equipment I can. I know each of the parts that make the whole will have issues, but now just trying to figure out the best foundation that will be the best for the family for the next many years.

I really should have just spent the money first on the forever coach, but we did learn a lot in 6k miles that is changing how we approach layouts and must have features.

This time, we will be taking our time, no rush and make sure we get it right. It is only a mistake if you don't learn from it right


Eric

Originally Posted by kwplot34

Sorry to hear you had so many issues with your coach and while on vacation, that just kind of ruins the trip for everyone. I don't blame you for getting rid of it Thor is really dropping the ball and I doubt that they get any better.
I have my appointment in November to hopefully get the structural issue fixed with my front cap, not holding my breath that Thor will stand behind their product and make it right.
Any idea what you might get next?

[elbenson]

No, Thor barely wants to fix it. We are selling it back at a loss.

Eric

Originally Posted by txc2936@yahoo.com

Did the THOR dealer take back the RV?

[txc2936@yahoo.com]

Ah so sad.

I purchased a Class C Freedom Elite out of the box in 2020. I quickly moved to a CLASS A

1) Slide out, and leveling Jacks. I ensure i am level and the slide outs are clean. You must actually retract the slides prior to extending.
2) NO slide doors. The THOR 30.4 uses a folding door for the bedroom. I dont think you can have a sliding door on an RV without rattle.
3) TV are set to shutoff during driving. I added a independent Inverter to just pwr the TV and Refrig during driving.
4) NO bunk beds. I chose the 30.4 model for the bathroom. with the bunkbeds, there is no room, and i dont want an open bathroom to the walkway.
5) I have the retractable bed over the driver, however, i only used it once.

I think you might be better off with a CLASS A, with the 6 of you.. Good luck.

[ducksface]

This is the most/only reasonable op we've ever had about such a situation.
Reasonable complaints
Reasonable expectation about ridding himself of this discontent
Reasonable thought process.

Op managed to make all other complainers look even worse than we initially thought of them.

Thanks to the op for sharing.

Now:
Rent your next choice for a week of travel.

[chunker21]

Originally Posted by elbenson

No, Thor barely wants to fix it. We are selling it back at a loss.

Eric

Perhaps a saving grace is the market is still hot so you should be able to get rid of it with minimal $$$ damages. Might even get a decent trade allowance for something. If it were me it would NOT be a thor at all. Play nice, pump it up, make it shine. Maybe the dealer won't notice.

[Chance]

Originally Posted by elbenson

....cut....

This time, we will be taking our time, no rush and make sure we get it right. It is only a mistake if you don't learn from it right


Eric

Assuming there is a right one to get.

Sorry for your issues. Glad to see you are taking problems in stride, and have a solution that works for you. Having said that, I would be sick if an RV I purchased was so bad I had to sell that new. I think manufacturers are too often trying to create RVs they don’t have the talent to design and or build correctly.

[Hittntherooad]

Originally Posted by elbenson

As many of you have seen, my experience with Thor has been nothing but problems and our final decision, while difficult to make, is to cut our losses now and sell it back. I have lost all faith in Thor design and customer support. I fully understand that all RV has issues, but wanted to lay out my experience in hopes that maybe others will learn from my very expensive lesson.

After spending 2.5 weeks and 6k miles in a coach you uncover / learn about what does or does not work for you family. Following are some of the realizations and things that I have come to realize about the Thor Magnitude RS36

1). Cab over bunk is not designed and attached properly. After 6k miles I have screws backing out pushing up the trim on the passenger side. Online, there are others that are seeing the same structural failures. It is evident that Thor is not improving the quality of attachment such as backer plates and better quality and number of screws. As an engineer, this really does not feel like the company cares about the safety and quality of their products. I guess since they give a 12 year structural warrantee you will be covered if Thor acknowledges this is a design failure.

2) The giant wall slide is not a robust design. I blew it off as people complaining, but it is real. Tons of weight, structurally very weak since they take out an entire wall and support structure. Also, never will I purchase a RV with kitchen (water, gas, water heater) on a slide. I also will stay away from big slides. It is hard to do when you are looking for bunk models.

I had sooooo many problems getting the lines pinched and getting hot water to the coach (they put the hot water heater under the sink. They put the fittings and elbows in very bad locations at the slide entrance area. Pretty much impossible to keep lines from kinking and would recommend re-running water lines to eliminate 90 deg elbow at slide interface. Every time I had to camp, I had to go fix the hoses to get water to the slide and water heater.

5) Sliding doors. All of our sliding doors did not function well. The bunk doors kept jamming. The bathroom door would not stay locked in open position and would slam close when driving.

6) Layout. Here are some items that I uncovered that I would have never though about during initial walkthrough.

a). No place to change. The entire bed to wall/cabinets is very narrow even with the slide out. It is impossible to change in the bedroom with the door closed (my Jayco trailer put a larger gap on one side of the bed and very narrow gap on the other to accommodate enough area to change.

b) Shower is very small when actually using the water. It feels plenty big when you stand in it, but where they place the faucet it forces you to take a step back, then it is very cramped. My wife and I are tall, a rectangular shower works much better for us (or something a bit longer in one direction).

c) You cannot have your kids watch the TV with the slides closed going down the road. I know, first world problems, but we bought the nice RV to be able to travel long distances with amenities. When traveling, slide is in the way of the TV, no one at the dinette can see it. Whoever is sitting on the coach can only see part of TV. This ended up being a much bigger deal than I originally thought.


Other issues:
1. Ford stabiltrac would give me an error once in a while. It would come on, and then clear itself eventually. Usually after you turned the engine on/off. No danger in driving with this error, but it removed the ability to use tow/haul mode which I like for driving as it downshifts more aggressively to help slowing the RV. From research the problem seems to be in the sensor at the rear axle as Thor stretched the chassis. Ford blames Thor and Thor blames Ford. Good luck getting it fixed as it never stays on long enough for someone to pull a code.

2) Heater vent placement. I want to find the "designer" (and I use that term loosely) and smack them upside the head. One vent in the bedroom goes to the back wall that heats nothing. The other 2 heaters are routed to the stairwell and would never get anywhere near as warm as the duct by the bed. I would never want to try to heat the coach in anything below 40 deg as it will not work. I would move the 1 heater to the other side of the bed to help heat the bunk area and bedroom. The other 2 vents need a much better insulated heat hose to prevent from losing all the heat. This is a terrible design and a big deal if you plan on camping in spring/autumn with cooler or freezing weather. We love the desert in the winter, so this is a huge dealbreaker for us.

3). Fuse breaker is not accessible with the slide in. They put the fuse and breakers facing the slide. If the slide is in, you cannot open the cover to access the fuses. I removed the cover so at least I could reach in and flip the breakers. This was needed as my AC/DC converter tripped the breaker and I could not get enough voltage to open the slide. Major design fail, and the breaker box needs to be placed 90 deg where it is on the side of the bed. There is plenty of space, so I don't know why they did it that way.

4) BIM is backwards in the Schematic and will not get the battery voltage high enough to extend the slide after pulling into a camp site. You have to play games to discharge the battery to get the BIM to trip to allow the alternator to boost the voltage over 13.2V

5) I found at a minimum of 20+ screws in the RV. Usually I would find 2-3 screws every time I retracted then extend the slide. I guess this is pretty normal, but they are likely to catch on the slide and damage the Vinyl floor.

7). The macerator toilet is nice (and seems to be in all nicer coaches now), but it requires the use of more water for every flush. With 2 adults and 4 kids, we filled the black tank in 2.5 days. In our Jayco with regular toilet, we could last at least 3.5 days with 20 less gallons for the black tank. This was very surprising for us. Our next rig we are looking at has 75 gallon tanks (Gray/black) as we really like boon-docking and no hook up camping.

As for customer support, after I was making no progress with the Customer Service desk, I reached out to Mr. Kime, the President of Thor Motorcoach on LinkedIn. Only after he sent an email to his people I finally started getting calls. Thor has a mobile support team, but they will not tell you that. I am not sure what it takes to get them to send them to you, but it wasn't multiple major system failures traveling across the country with your family on a brand new coach. I had tried to get into the Wakarusa facility as I was driving right by it. The service manager/adviser reached out and said he would not have time to work in it after the customer service reps continued to tell me just to stop in. After the President send messages, all of a sudden they had time, but by then I had already started heading west to get home and was 2 states away.

Eric

Add to your must have is the toilet on the drivers side with the dump directly into the black tank. Many issues with it located on the passenger side with the drain pipe going over to the other side. Agree full wall slides don’t work well.

[txc2936@yahoo.com]

Eric,

I looked up your RV on the Owners Portal. Your RV is very pricey and should be perfect working order.

mhouston@tmcrv.com

Try Megan at THOR Motor Coach, she was very helpful in resolving all my issues.

[halfprice]

Originally Posted by WalterKK

Post deleted above

Everything you just said is BS. And why the attack on someone you know nothing about

Eric ended up buying a Renegade Valencia 38 bunk model.

Does he have more money than sence? Only he knows but what he did know is His thor was bad from day 1. What would you do??? Keep it and always have it in the shop being repaired and most likely not repaired correctly. And then after warranty keep paying to fix it and not being able to use it

He realized right away his mh would be a problem for ever. So he took the hit and got rid of the headache

And his kids can watch whatever they want while driving down the road. With his in motion satellite or winegard 2 connect and 3000 wt invertor that powers the entire coach except a/c they can do anything

Jery

[elbenson]

Looks like the post was deleted. I am sorry you feel that I like to waste money, but sometimes it is better to know when to cut your losses vs continue to throw more money down a losing condition. I was able to get into a new RV that has served my family far better than before. As you know looking for the correct fit for your RV is different for everyone. I just wanted to lay out all of the lessons I learned the hard way in hopes it would help others think about their wishes and wants.

FYI. Renegade actually set up the TV in a location it can be used from all areas that have seatbelts when driving down the road (unlike the RS36). We have put over 10k miles on our new Renegade Valencia and have been very happy with the change.

Eric

[halfprice]

Originally Posted by elbenson

Looks like the post was deleted. I am sorry you feel that I like to waste money, but sometimes it is better to know when to cut your losses vs continue to throw more money down a losing condition. I was able to get into a new RV that has served my family far better than before. As you know looking for the correct fit for your RV is different for everyone. I just wanted to lay out all of the lessons I learned the hard way in hopes it would help others think about their wishes and wants.

FYI. Renegade actually set up the TV in a location it can be used from all areas that have seatbelts when driving down the road (unlike the RS36). We have put over 10k miles on our new Renegade Valencia and have been very happy with the change.

Eric

Hey Eric
Good to see you post here. What other trips have you taken?? We are in Bryce now. Just finished 2 weeks in yelloestone and teton. Heading to zion and vegas next

Jerry

[Judge]

Originally Posted by halfprice

Hey Eric
Good to see you post here. What other trips have you taken?? We are in Bryce now. Just finished 2 weeks in yelloestone and teton. Heading to zion and vegas next

Jerry

Jerry….. I lost your number and was supposed to call you after my trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons last year! My apologies for not reaching out sooner but your post just reminded me of that!!!!

Sounds like you are doing some of our trip from last year…. and we are just going to miss you in Utah!

We are in Colorado until the 12th then heading to Salt Lake and then Panguitch to see Bryce, Zion and Capital Reef.

Safe Travel!

[halfprice]

Originally Posted by Judge

Jerry….. I lost your number and was supposed to call you after my trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons last year! My apologies for not reaching out sooner but your post just reminded me of that!!!!

Sounds like you are doing some of our trip from last year…. and we are just going to miss you in Utah!

We are in Colorado until the 12th then heading to Salt Lake and then Panguitch to see Bryce, Zion and Capital Reef.

Safe Travel!

To bad we are days apart. Heading to zion Thursday then Vegas on Sunday for 3 days

Jerry

[lwmcguir]

Originally Posted by Judge

Jerry….. I lost your number and was supposed to call you after my trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons last year! My apologies for not reaching out sooner but your post just reminded me of that!!!!

Sounds like you are doing some of our trip from last year…. and we are just going to miss you in Utah!

We are in Colorado until the 12th then heading to Salt Lake and then Panguitch to see Bryce, Zion and Capital Reef.

Safe Travel!

Cedar Breaks is worth a visit also if time permits

[Judge]

Originally Posted by lwmcguir

Cedar Breaks is worth a visit also if time permits

Thanks for the tip!

[RACarvalho]

I'll let it registered here in case someone new to RVs is reading this:

Your RV DEALER is more important than the brand you choose.
After 2 years of ownership our rig is almost defect free (I'll start to get depressed w/o anything to fix ) only thing left is the full wall system which will be solved within the next year one way or another (Vroom) BUT, our dealer service manager did tell me they found 46 (!!!) things they wanted to fix BEFORE PDI and delivery....
I could see a couple of things but they found 46....

So the lesson is:
Find a dealer that cares, preferable local/family owned business and buy the rig from a good dealer...

I'm not excusing Thor in any way, I'm just giving a tip on how to better handle the fact that MH will be build with problems.

[RobintheHood]

Eric, We feel your pain! We thought we were being smart… We started with a used Roo 22SS expandable pulled by my Mountaineer to make sure we liked RV over tent. Good but not enough room. Traded for a used Grand Designs 375RES pulled by an F350 Long bed dually. Great set-up but thought that at 41’ we were limited by spots we could get in, and my better half was a bit intimidated by the length. (I thought it was only big when backing up but had a camera and her to guide me.) I figured the F600 was about the same sight picture as the F350 so I thought I might coax her to try driving it. Silly me, I thought wrong. We were also seduced by the idea of getting up to retrieve a snack or use the head. (Ok, she was since I’m always driving anyway.) So we traded for a new 2022 Thor SV34 F600 pulling an F150 for mobility and extra storage. Camping with the Grands it is tight! Between that and Thor/supplier quality we spent a few hours at General yesterday looking at Mega C’s and A’s. No question that the Tiffen and Entegra Mega C’s are sweet as are their Class A’s. However, there is underwater, and then there is being at the bottom of the pool. I know we’ll never break even, and that RVing is expensive like boating or flying but for us, there is no way to go that much deeper financially and be able to sleep at night. So we’ll learn to love the SV34. Lessons learned:

I would never again buy new unless we hit the lottery. We can replace bedding etc. and do a lot to make new for the price difference. Also, we’d then let the first buyer deal with infant mortality and the dealer getting the coach sorted out. In 2020, 15-20K miles is nothing if maintenance has been done. It isn’t like the past where you could only expect 80K miles out of a motor.

Opposing slides make a world of difference. Our 5er had two sets of opposing slides and made the coach feel huge inside. We miss that.

Details matter. Cope and stick cabinets for instance. Thor is replacing all the door fronts in our coach because they were cut a 44 degree angles and have almost all split open. They have replaced three pieces of floor and will have to redo one. First time from slide catching the floor, and second one for same thing, but debris left under the vinyl. Putting the batteries under the steps that need maintenance is a stupid idea. Putting circuit breakers down there exposed to road mist and the environment is stupid squared and asking for trouble. During manufacture, labeling the lines that run to the vacuum break for black tank flush would save us headaches and Thor dollars – ours was installed backwards as many of yours were. Other issues (fridge quit and one roof AC won’t blow cold) are suppliers ubiquitous to the industry so it’s hard to fault Thor for those.

Put a week between PDI and delivery. Spend two hours on the PDI – maybe more. Tell the salesperson to go do something else so you can really take in the coach. Try all features of the AV system and use all water taps and drains. (Open drain trap on kitchen sink, missing HDMI cable going to back TV, and outside TV has no FM antenna.) The dealer will only really care until they get paid. Then it’s 5-8 weeks for an appointment.

But we live and we learn, and while hindsight is 20/20, unfortunately foresight isn’t. I like working with my hands, and I fixed cars in a past life and now work wood as a hobby so working through bugs will be annoying but manageable. I have two years before retiring and taking serious trips and should get the bugs worked out by then. The reality is 95% of the time it will be me, Gina, and the dog. I can sleep outside if she gets too crowded. It is camping so we should be outside anyway. Thanks for reading, writing this has been cathartic.

Be safe out there!
Robin & Gina