New to Forum, soon new to Thor

[joekarla05]

Hello,

New to the forum, and if everything goes ok, I will be a Thor Hurricane Owner- but am getting concerned the more research I do, the more "disasters" I see. I am not new to RVing, but this would be my first foray into a Thor direct-owned RV, vs a Subsidiary (had a 2018 Jayco Alante that I sold during the Pandemic to make a profit on my depreciating assets). So I am aware that all units have problems and that no brand in "unique" but man there seems to be a disproportional amount of Thor issues.
I am planning on hiring an RV inspector, and the coach is a 2017 with only 2200 miles, yes 2200, not 22000. Garage kept, brand new tires just installed, so it has the appearance of being taken care of, but who knows nowadays. Put me at ease... I will be keeping it stored indoors- unheated, but inside whenever not in use etc.
Am I overreacting?

From Iowa- looking at a 2017 Thor Hurricane 34J

 

[ducksface]

Three things;
Rvchecklist is an app.

How have you determined thor has more problems than others in a proportion that should cause pause?

 

[The Rookie]

I think every case (rv) is different but, not to long ago I bought a 2017 windsport 29 with ~30k miles. RV inspector’s reported no significant findings. The only thing I’ve had to fix was the step gear box. When we bought it, we were hoping that it already gone through it’s growing pains and anything that didn’t work had long been repaired. We have had no regrets.

 

[joekarla05]

Yes, the large wall slide seems to have a recurring issue, with the motors being undersized and burning up at an accelerated rate.
Reported lots of water leaks with the 34J particularly on the Windshield and the slide area.
Electronics seem to be iffy in all the hurricanes.

Thoughts? The unit only has 2200 miles on it, and I fear that it has not been "shakendown" much at all. The genny only has 34 hours on it- basically a brand new unit.

 

[ghnl]

I think most of the horror stories are from folks who buy a new RV and expect the dealer to sell them a 100% ready to go rig and to expeditiously fix any issues that arise. Unfortunately many (most?) RV dealers just do not do a good job of prepping a new RV for sale and an even poorer job of after the sale service.

The happiest RV owners are the one who do their due diligence, find the floor plan & chassis that best suits their needs and are willing to do much of the after-the-sale fiddling that many RVs seem to need.

We bought our Thor ACE used, it was the floor plan we wanted and buying used lets the first buyer take the big hit on depreciation. Being a dedicated DIY'er I've fixed the few things that needed fixing and remodeled some things to make it even betterer.

 

[dkoldman]

Hello,

New to the forum, and if everything goes ok, I will be a Thor Hurricane Owner- but am getting concerned the more research I do, the more "disasters" I see. I am not new to RVing, but this would be my first foray into a Thor direct-owned RV, vs a Subsidiary (had a 2018 Jayco Alante that I sold during the Pandemic to make a profit on my depreciating assets). So I am aware that all units have problems and that no brand in "unique" but man there seems to be a disproportional amount of Thor issues.
I am planning on hiring an RV inspector, and the coach is a 2017 with only 2200 miles, yes 2200, not 22000. Garage kept, brand new tires just installed, so it has the appearance of being taken care of, but who knows nowadays. Put me at ease... I will be keeping it stored indoors- unheated, but inside whenever not in use etc.
Am I overreacting?

From Iowa- looking at a 2017 Thor Hurricane 34J

Yes you are, drive up to Forest City and get you an RV and no worries. Being from Iowa you should not have these problems :whistling:

 

[joekarla05]

Winnebago has been a consideration

Yes you are, drive up to Forest City and get you an RV and no worries. Being from Iowa you should not have these problems :whistling:

Winnebago has been a consideration, but I have not had much luck finding what I want floorplan-wise in the mileage and age without going substantially over what I want to spend. They do a lot of inhouse creation, but the mechanicals are still being supplemented by some of the same companies, it seems.

 

[Lt Keefer]

A Thor is what you make of it. My previous coach was a Fleetwood. In the 15 years I owned it I only had to do routine maintenance. Things like tires, brakes, fluid changes. In the 6 years of owning my Thor, I have had to do a lot more repairs in addition to the 22 items that needed fixing as delivered by the factory. My take away is Thor uses inferior products to go along with their inferior construction practices.

 

[Mark54]

Hello,

New to the forum, and if everything goes ok, I will be a Thor Hurricane Owner- but am getting concerned the more research I do, the more "disasters" I see. I am not new to RVing, but this would be my first foray into a Thor direct-owned RV, vs a Subsidiary (had a 2018 Jayco Alante that I sold during the Pandemic to make a profit on my depreciating assets). So I am aware that all units have problems and that no brand in "unique" but man there seems to be a disproportional amount of Thor issues.
I am planning on hiring an RV inspector, and the coach is a 2017 with only 2200 miles, yes 2200, not 22000. Garage kept, brand new tires just installed, so it has the appearance of being taken care of, but who knows nowadays. Put me at ease... I will be keeping it stored indoors- unheated, but inside whenever not in use etc.
Am I overreacting?

From Iowa- looking at a 2017 Thor Hurricane 34J

7 yrs old with 2200 miles is a huge red flag.
Where was it stored? (grassy field is the worst)

Was it started and run weekly/monthly for 15-20 min and driven at all in that time?

You need more than an RV inspection if it hasn't been maintained as above.

And if it was cared for- what about: Maintenance records? last oil change?, gas treatment annually?, All fluids flushed and changed, full LOF, new coach and chassis batteries, etc etc.

Then there's mice...

 

[dkoldman]

Winnebago has been a consideration, but I have not had much luck finding what I want floorplan-wise in the mileage and age without going substantially over what I want to spend. They do a lot of inhouse creation, but the mechanicals are still being supplemented by some of the same companies, it seems.

Floor plan is #1 factor. Listen to pros and cons from others on what they like and don't like, but don't take their advice. By what what you want. I know it is not always possible, but I try to get it right the 1st time. We have had 1 house and 1 RV and have no plans to move or by another RV, we have all we want.

I couldn't resist your Iowa tie, ironically we first wanted to buy a Four Winn Class C that we saw online at a dealer in Oklahoma, the same dealer had two locations in the Dallas area, so the wife and I took one Saturday just to go see one for the 1st time. When we got there, not only did the dealer NOT have any Four Winns, they said they were not a TMC dealer? I was so confident of what I saw online, so I argued, I thought I had proof on my phone, but I was wrong, City. They were a WBGO dealer. Turns out their sister location north of the Red River was in fact a TMC dealer but we were not going to Oklahoma. So guess what, we looked at what they had on their lot which were WBGOs, my mom always says the Lord works in mysterious ways. We spent a lot of time in the RV model, fantasizing and dreaming in the exact same model we would eventually own, but it was TWICE the freaking cost of what we were looking for & expecting to spend at the time. We would spend the next 2 years looking almost exclusively looking at TMC's ( ACE 29.3, Windsports & Hurricanes) all over the country, until one day our current coach fell in our lap. We had to go to Florida to get it. Yes we paid more than our original budget, but we nailed it. What I found amazing the dealer we bought from in Florida sold both TMC & WBGO.

Good luck in your pursuit, you have to keep a keen hawkeye in your pursuit, and don't let the dealers cyclone you over :coolsmiley:

 

[professorkx]

2021 Magnitude SV34, and it’s been pretty solid…now has over 20,000 miles so we used it a lot.

Known issue before I purchased was the inferior slide system from Lipert. Since it was known, I had already planned to spend the $6,000 to have Vroom fix the ticking time bomb. It actually failed 2 months or so before my appointment, but we just used the unit without pushing out the slide until our Vroom appointment.

Stupid issue easily fixed:
- power cord had an intermittent failure. Amazon cord solved the problem. Dealer could not figure it out…I figured it out in 15 minutes with a meter. Thor Dealers are useless.
- kitchen sink drains leaked. Plumbers putty and 15 minutes fixed, as well as tightening all the drain joints that were not even hand tight. Thor uses a rubber gasket instead of plumbers putty.
- Fan in Kitchen wired wrong. Two Thor dealers couldn’t make it work, and one rewired to pull air in instead of push air out, so Thor paid a dealer for a different brand to fix it. Thor dealers are useless.

Issues never resolved, so I live with them:
- inverter throws a code when switched from battery to shore power or generator. Means the AGS doesn’t work, nor does the front TV plug. Replaced inverter myself with same result. Three Thor dealers have tried to fix…failed and the last one just stopped taking my calls after having the unit for three months. When I get motivated, I will dig into the wiring of the inverter and fix it, as I think the inverter is tied to the front tv plug and has hot and ground switched wherever it connects. AGS would be nice, not a big deal since I switched to LiPo batteries and 600 watts of solar. Looking at upgrading to 1200 watts plus 600 watts of portable solar this winter while in Arizona since we dispersion camp a lot.
- front shade doesn’t work right…stutters. Going to try 303 spray. If it doesn’t work, no big deal, it stays open and we cover the front window with a windshield shade in the heat of the day and really cold outside temps.
- black tank backflush is installed backwards so doesn’t work. It’s behind the shower faucet, so will fix this when I swap faucets next summer. Not a big deal that it doesn’t work since we have macerator toilet and outside drain.

My point is that there will be issues, and you have to either be ready to live with them, pay to have them fixed or fix them yourself, as Thor dealers are not going to be useful. I’ve used 4 Thor dealers for service under warranty and they were all useless, and some made the problem worse. Fortunately, I am able to fix most things myself or find a source to fix them right and just pay for the repair myself.

Even with the above issue, this has been our favorite rv, in large part due to the F550 4x4 chassis. I suspect this will be our last unit in life since I am spending $35k this winter to make the unit more capable off-road.

Good luck with your new unit…and enjoy it even if it has flaws.

 

[HMCSW]

Hello,

New to the forum, and if everything goes ok, I will be a Thor Hurricane Owner- but am getting concerned the more research I do, the more "disasters" I see. I am not new to RVing, but this would be my first foray into a Thor direct-owned RV, vs a Subsidiary (had a 2018 Jayco Alante that I sold during the Pandemic to make a profit on my depreciating assets). So I am aware that all units have problems and that no brand in "unique" but man there seems to be a disproportional amount of Thor issues.
I am planning on hiring an RV inspector, and the coach is a 2017 with only 2200 miles, yes 2200, not 22000. Garage kept, brand new tires just installed, so it has the appearance of being taken care of, but who knows nowadays. Put me at ease... I will be keeping it stored indoors- unheated, but inside whenever not in use etc.
Am I overreacting?

From Iowa- looking at a 2017 Thor Hurricane 34J

Just make sure the inspector inspects and operates every system. We do not post "Hey i took a trip and everything went great". Thor has the majority marketshare so just that alone means they have more opportunity for failure. Also, it seams the Rvs built in late 2020 -21 COVID rigs have the most issues.

 

[joekarla05]

Storage etc

7 yrs old with 2200 miles is a huge red flag.
Where was it stored? (grassy field is the worst)

Was it started and run weekly/monthly for 15-20 min and driven at all in that time?

You need more than an RV inspection if it hasn't been maintained as above.

And if it was cared for- what about: Maintenance records? last oil change?, gas treatment annually?, All fluids flushed and changed, full LOF, new coach and chassis batteries, etc etc.

Then there's mice...

It has been stored indoors and I have requested maintenance records etc.
It has new tires, will be getting 2 new batteries and oil changes etc. The inspector will test the fluids as well as a 600pt inspection. It is not cheap, but he is an NRVIA certified inspector etc. and a grand now could save me 20K later.

 

[phalexander]

Don’t take the horror stories too seriously. Yes there ARE some seriously problematic units and you certainly should expect some repairs and adjustments to be needed in the first several thousand miles. But if you’re “handy” and don’t mind fixing things you’ll probably be fine. If you need someone to fix stuff for you I strongly recommend you find an independent RV repair shop. Dealers are there to SELL and only do repairs and service because they have to. Sometimes their “techs” are untrained and poorly motivated. An independent repair shop is in business just to fix things right and quickly. And unlike cars warranty work can be done by non dealers. I’ve had 5 motorhomes and my Thor was the most trouble free of the bunch.

 

[mguy]

Hello,

For any type of RV, you need to be handy to own one, if you're not a handy man, prepare to put your hand in your pocket!

 

[Jubilee Life]

My wife and I purchased a Hurricane 34j in 2022 and have been living in it full time since then. I have had to rework the electrical system and in the process I've eliminated as much of the automatic stuff that I can. I'm still having a problem with the house batteries, but I suspect that is due to using lead acid without shutting the system down. Overall I love this floorplan and after taking a factory tour of Newmar and Thor last summer, I have decided that if I purchase another RV it will still be a Thor. I have never had confidence in dealers fixing issues so part of my plan is to do maintenance on my own. I believe that all RV owners should learn to be handy because putting a home through a 7.0 earthquake every time to go somewhere will cause issues.

 

[RLK3]

I actually have a 2017 Hurricane 34j and have had minimal issues with the coach after our initial shakedown. Windshield never leaked until I cracked it when I hit a pigeon. Had to be returned to the shop a couple of times for leaking thereafter but now seems OK. The only real issue that I had was smoking coming from the wiring harness under the sink. Turns out that Thor used screw type connectors that got loose and hot. I redid the harness with crimp connectors and problem is solved. Note that the fabric on the couch and captain chairs is now starting to fall apart and my coach is garaged, so be aware that it might be time on your coach as well. I realize that each coach is different but wanted to share that I am very pleased with ours.