My Thoughts on the Palazzo

et2, He never said he was going to pay out of his pocket for the repairs to the rear end cap. I assume Thor will pick up the bill.

Some will take the loss, others won't. I traded my Coachmen after six months because I did not like the way gasoline coaches handle on windy days. I had given 50K down payment. So I assume I lost some money, but life is too short to worry about it. I am very happy with the Scenic Cruiser. Eleven years with only one problem which was a Huei pump, other then that is has been the perfect coach. So sometimes it is worth taking the loss.

AprilWhine wrote:

93mastercraft wrote:
If anyone is willing to give me 50 ~ 60K I will gladly get rid of the Palazzo today.

OP should eat the loss and attribute it to education. ;) Trade his Thor for an older model with superior build quality and quit moaning. He isn't hurting Thor, only himself and his family. How much would you pay for more years of RVing in good health? He's throwing them away by tilting the Thor windmill.

We bought a new DP in 2008 and were unhappy with the build quality. To be clear, it would have suited most people's purpose but we tend to travel more in a year than average. We took the loss and traded it for the bus in my sig in 2010.

He claims he can't take a $50k loss. Yet he's getting estimates for repairs. I don't quite follow this as it's still under warranty. If he's planning on incurring repair costs, it would probably have been better as it has been suggested to find something of better quality and take the loss now.

We've been in this situation and traded out. Life has been better since.

93mastercraft wrote:
If anyone is willing to give me 50 ~ 60K I will gladly get rid of the Palazzo today.

OP should eat the loss and attribute it to education. ;) Trade his Thor for an older model with superior build quality and quit moaning. He isn't hurting Thor, only himself and his family. How much would you pay for more years of RVing in good health? He's throwing them away by tilting the Thor windmill.

We bought a new DP in 2008 and were unhappy with the build quality. To be clear, it would have suited most people's purpose but we tend to travel more in a year than average. We took the loss and traded it for the bus in my sig in 2010.

I just wanted to give everyone an update. I had a paint and body shop repairman come look at the Palazzo this morning to give me an estimate for the cracked fiberglass repairs in the front. What I am about to tell y'all I hope you will not still insist this is the norm for new RV's. But he looked around the whole Palazzo for other issues. When he went to the back he noticed something that I noticed starting to happen a few weeks ago but did not think much about it, this is what he found.

There are small bubbles forming in the paint all over the rear of the Palazzo. After taking a closer look he said it appears that the gel coat is lifting from the fiberglass. He said the paint looks fine. However, the heat is causing the gel coat under the paint to lift. It will only be a matter of time before the paint on top chips and fails on the entire rear.

The only options available at this point are to replace the entire rear cap or sand the entire thing down and re-fiberglass and re-paint. Is this really the norm for new RV repairs? We have some serious paint and body issues now.

I just wanted to let the public know. I am waiting on a response from Thor to see what they will do. It's not like I am trying. I was going to wait and take the thing back to Elkhart. I honestly don't think it will make it that long.

Well! The guy is just trying to make the best of it. He is stuck with a coach that has many things that need to be repaired. Now I am sure that if he takes it back to the manufacturer that they will make that coach right. It is hard to believe that he has gotten two bad coaches, but it happens. He has to be patient and weed the problems out and then it probably will not have anymore for several years.

They are a nice looking coach. I have seen them on the outside and they look really nice. But reading about the cracks on the fiberglass? That is the worst quality control I have seen. I know that problems can come up. I remember the 2003 Monaco Dynasties had some outside walls that had hair like cracks all over the walls. The owner told me that the company was going to make it good and was on his way to Florida to have it repaired. He said the outside walls that were defective were manufactured by Dupont and sold to Monaco. So you can have problems with even the most popular coaches. The important thing is that they are willing to fix those problems. Cut the bickering between the two parties involved and proceed to try and get it corrected.

A lot of this is just not making sense. His words don't seem to match his actions. Maybe it's just me.

holstein13 wrote:
I noticed in one of your videos that you are upgrading your coach. Looks like you put on a new air horn and are making other improvements. Does that really make sense given that you are thinking of trading it in? Aren't you just throwing good money after bad?

I am trying to turn a lemon into a cream puff.;) The air horn is really something I can not complain about. Don't even get me started on that. The horn on my Goldwing was louder than the horn that came on the Palazzo. so I fixed that myself. The air horn only costs 35 bucks. I had everything else to hook it into the air system. The LED's I installed costs 27 bucks. I installed a rear duraflap to protect my Jeep, which I am sure I will keep longer than the Palazzo.

I noticed in one of your videos that you are upgrading your coach. Looks like you put on a new air horn and are making other improvements. Does that really make sense given that you are thinking of trading it in? Aren't you just throwing good money after bad?

Mr.Mark wrote:

93mastercraft wrote:
If anyone is willing to give me 50 ~ 60K I will gladly get rid of the Palazzo today. When I come to grips with the fact that I have to give up all that money I will walk into a dealer and give it to them on a trade to get out of it. This will most certainly happen when the Palazzo is out of warranty and the first time the large slide out fails is when I will have no choice but to get rid of it. That will be the end of this story.

For now, as long as I do own it, I will let my problems be known. If you go through my history you will see I've owned 4 different RV's since 2003. There was a lot of time in those years I didn't make too many posts because I never had any issues like this. I have shared my good experiences and bad ones. As long as I follow the rules of the board I don't see why anyone has a problem with my comments. I do hope that someone from Thor sees my issues here. For every single problem I have encountered, Thor customer service has been notified in writing by me. The issue I have right now is time and trying to figure out when and where I will be able to take the Palazzo for repairs. My plan is to take it back to Elkhart at the end of the warranty period sometime next year. I will have all issues addressed.

I hope the RVing community will get something out of this. Whether it's spite or insight that is for everyone to decide. If anything I can influence people to think long and hard about the choices they make. People can read this with a grain of salt. That is fine by me. What I do know is I have made my issues public and I have nothing to hide. I am just a hard working person like everyone else and the money does not come easy.

This Motor Home has been a life long dream. When I am not working (slaving for the man) this Palazzo is my escape, our families escape from the daily grind. How in the world can it be all that with all the problems we have had? I would consider this on the extreme end of the scale. I know all RV's have problems. Heck, I've been through 3 others and have had warranty work on every one of them. I get it.

Just curious why you would wait until the end of the warranty period to have things fixed. Make your list and take it back so that they can start working on it. If they have to paint it, the paint will likely match better while it's still brand new.

I wish you the best of luck, your video shows your true frustration and I hope that you can move forward and Thor will fix your issues.

MM.

Because that requires a trip to Elkhart IN. I don't have anymore vacation to take off to drive tit back to Indiana and wait the 1 to 2 weeks it will probably take. I am getting someone to look at the cracks this week. However, IMHO there is no where at least around where I live capable of fixing or repairing the things that need to be repaired. The mold issue, I am really torn about that one because after Thor told me all the things that needed to be taken apart, essentially the entire front left side, I am not so sure I want to own it after that.

Mr.Mark wrote:

93mastercraft wrote:
If anyone is willing to give me 50 ~ 60K I will gladly get rid of the Palazzo today. When I come to grips with the fact that I have to give up all that money I will walk into a dealer and give it to them on a trade to get out of it. This will most certainly happen when the Palazzo is out of warranty and the first time the large slide out fails is when I will have no choice but to get rid of it. That will be the end of this story.

For now, as long as I do own it, I will let my problems be known. If you go through my history you will see I've owned 4 different RV's since 2003. There was a lot of time in those years I didn't make too many posts because I never had any issues like this. I have shared my good experiences and bad ones. As long as I follow the rules of the board I don't see why anyone has a problem with my comments. I do hope that someone from Thor sees my issues here. For every single problem I have encountered, Thor customer service has been notified in writing by me. The issue I have right now is time and trying to figure out when and where I will be able to take the Palazzo for repairs. My plan is to take it back to Elkhart at the end of the warranty period sometime next year. I will have all issues addressed.

I hope the RVing community will get something out of this. Whether it's spite or insight that is for everyone to decide. If anything I can influence people to think long and hard about the choices they make. People can read this with a grain of salt. That is fine by me. What I do know is I have made my issues public and I have nothing to hide. I am just a hard working person like everyone else and the money does not come easy.

This Motor Home has been a life long dream. When I am not working (slaving for the man) this Palazzo is my escape, our families escape from the daily grind. How in the world can it be all that with all the problems we have had? I would consider this on the extreme end of the scale. I know all RV's have problems. Heck, I've been through 3 others and have had warranty work on every one of them. I get it.

Just curious why you would wait until the end of the warranty period to have things fixed. Make your list and take it back so that they can start working on it. If they have to paint it, the paint will likely match better while it's still brand new.

I wish you the best of luck, your video shows your true frustration and I hope that you can move forward and Thor will fix your issues.

MM.

X2. Why would you wait? Start working it out. If things don't get done demand a warranty extension. How are you going to sell it (trade it in) if the slide is broke? Who's going to buy it?? Are you going to wait until the warranty is over and flip the bill yourself? :h

Anyway, good luck and hopefully you'll find some peace and resolution.