stew9483 wrote:
Has any of you bought the Thor ACE model 29.4? Just wondering what your take is on this Class A RV. Might be a future purchase of ours. My wife loves the BIG front one piece windshield with the overhead bunk that comes down. Give me your thoughts. Thanks in advance.
We've had our 2013 ACE 30.1 for over 4 years now and love it. In fact, as I type this, we're 3000 miles away from home in the middle of a 7200-mile wonder-trip through Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Olympic, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier, and a whole slew of other places. (Oh, and we've visited family who were nice enough to add a new grandson as part of the inducement for the trip.) Like some of the posts above, we found the 30.1 floorplan the best for our preferences, but in terms of the product line, we have been very satisfied with the ACE, it's features, it's quality, and Thor's support. Surprisingly, even though the 30.1 is on the teeny end of the Class A spectrum, we've found it to be very livable even on an extended (2-1/2 month) trip for two adults and two dogs. Although we've taken grandchildren with us from time to time, the unit is probably too small for more than two adults. I agree the ACE is an "entry level" coach, but for us that mostly meant giving up a bunch of features that we didn't want anyway (like fireplaces, washer-dryers, and granite floors). Having said that, though, we did have to do a bunch of upgrades and mods to add in some features that we
did want, like we replaced the crummy Jensen TV with a Visio, replaced the crummy Jensen stereo with an Alpine, added front speakers, added Fantastic Fans to the vents in the living room and bedroom, replaced the mattress, and so on. We also made some suspension improvements. All of that was a few thousand dollars to move those aspects of the coach up out of the "entry level" bare-bones feature set.
You'll find there's something of a cottage industry of Thor-bashers. Like most things, some of those criticisms have a basis in fact, so be sure to do a very careful pre-delivery inspection. (Which is necessary across all brands since there are lots of horror stories of units getting to a dealer with a long list of serious punch-list items.) But based on our experience, I'm glad we ignored the Thor-bashers and went with what we liked.
Incidentally, driving cross-country I'm stunned at how many ACEs we've seen (as well as ACE knock-offs, like the Forest River FR3 and the Winnebago whatever-it-is). Looks like Thor has really found a sweet spot in the market.
Hope that helps. Keep us posted on your decision.
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