Itasca SunStar vs Coachman Pursuit vs Thor Ace

My opinion and that is all it is. I have owned a Sunstar33T and a Sunova35J, both were bought largely due to the bunkhouse layouts. I did look a number of used units. I remember looking a another BH unit at the dealer next to the one we bought from. They had the slides out, but the levelers were up. Looking at the unit the slides were sagging! The interiors that you see depend very much on what the buyer thinks will sell in his market. Our 35J has a fairly light interior with carpet only in the cab and rear bedroom. Light colored flooring in the main area. It is relatively quiet, has dual pane windows.

One selling point that Winnebago/Itasca have is that they make most of their body parts in house. I was also impressed with the cage construction. I don;t thin that it would survive a roll-over but that it has the strength to support its weight while on its roof is pretty darned good.

There are some fit and finish issues, albeit minor. Given a clean sheet I would have moved a few things a few inches, but all in all it is not a bad coach. I have made a few upgrades. Put a hose holder under the genset, a spare tire carrier on the hitch, A 5-star engine tune. I'll be making minor suspension changes this spring. Between the two in 6 yeas I have over 40k miles about 2/3 towing a Jeep Liberty. I get 6.4 MPG average over 22k mikes in this unit.

I would change a bunch of things if I could, the cargo doors would be front hinged, not top hinged. the compartments under the driver side slide would not be hung on the slide.

One thing we all have to remember is that yes, we are spending 100K plus but we aren't spending 200k, there are a lot of things on a 200-300k that you don;t get on a 100k unit, no different than a Caddy vs a Cruze. I'd like day-nite shades, a roller screen shade in the cab, air ride, air brakes, a rear engine diesel. BUT I have the 150K or so that I can use to travel with vs parking it in the driveway.

X5or6 on Winnebago. They build a very good coach. I have had two of them.

aboeck3 wrote:
I just purchased my 2nd Itasca/Winnebago. First was a Suncruiser 37F,new one is a Meridian 36M. Both are great, well made units. Something to consider is how stable is the company - Winnebago is the only RV manufacturer to have never filed for bankruptcy, and has no outstanding debt. Very stable company. I like them so much I purchased 100 shares of Winnebago a while ago.

as I recall, many years back they had some hard times and some of the employees had to get stock instead of $$. of course they all retired as millionaires when they bounced back.
bumpy

I just purchased my 2nd Itasca/Winnebago. First was a Suncruiser 37F,new one is a Meridian 36M. Both are great, well made units. Something to consider is how stable is the company - Winnebago is the only RV manufacturer to have never filed for bankruptcy, and has no outstanding debt. Very stable company. I like them so much I purchased 100 shares of Winnebago a while ago.

Itasca Sunstar, Winnebago knows how to build them!

jrc6747 we just purchased the Coachmen Pursuit 31BDP this last month. We will be taking a trip in the next month or so down to FL for its first trip. We had been looking at the FR3, ACE, and Storm. The wife did not like the dark colors in the FR3 and the Storm, and I did not like that the ACE I looked at had a 16,000 GVW. We just so happened to go to a RV show with the twin grandsons and when we walked into Coachmen Pursuit 31BDP the wife said this is it. She liked the layout that was similar to the FR3 but with much lighter colors. The unit had the 18,000 GVW and all the options available on it except full body paint. It did have the option Tan colored Glass finish so it was not the base white with decals.

We picked up the unit and took it home and found a few things. Nothing major and a few might have been caused by people at the show. Dealer has taken care of most things and waiting on a few parts. I am sure we will find a few things on our trip.

Find what you like. Because not one will have every single thing you want on it.

Effy wrote:
Of course these are all opinions but I think some of it is kind of funny. Before we bought our coach I went through every manufacturer's offerings. Some of the brands that folks tout on here as superior build quality I thought were really cheap. Newmar and Tiffin come to mind. Walked though a bay star and stuff was literally falling off of it, cheap blinds, broken bin hinges, no slide toppers etc. A tiffin had plastic everywhere, and frankly I just didn't care for them - still don't, and I took careful consideration to the "fine" details in a vista. Same printed on luann veneer, same staple and glue, same unfinished edges to pieces, dark brown carpet and dated interior design. I mean I really struggled to find these "this brand is sooo much better than that brand" qualities. Perhaps I am missing something. Mind you this is before we set our sights on any coach so it was totally open minded and un biased. I drove a lot of coaches, walked through hundreds of models etc. And frankly I just didn't see all this superior quality some brands have over another. I just didn't. They are all slapped together with cheap materials and bad QC. All of them. To me, to say one is far more superior to another, I say invite me into your coach and I'll pick it apart just like any other brand. Not trying to be a jerk but I think a lot of pride goes into these reviews and it's funny how everyone thinks what they have is the best. Objectivity is a hard find on this forum. Frankly if you are looking at fit and finish on any entry coach you are splitting hairs. ALL OF THEM have cheap stuff and all of them have their issues. There is little to set them apart from the 5 years of research and hundreds of coaches I have been in. But again that's me. I am sure a lot of you have the best and I just missed that one. Not saying mine is the best, it fits what we wanted, but I landed on it because we liked it and I simply could not find the persuasive build quality everyone seems to be talking about.

I didn't notice any other coach at the Tampa RV show in which the entire wardrobe wall wobbled like a piece of thin aluminum. Anyhow, I know what I'm driving and it is an OLD entry level Fleetwood that is dated but damn solid. I'm not bashing the ACE from a position of self superiority. I thought it was just one of the worst put together and cheapest interior quality coaches I saw at the whole show. I had no bias. I also agree that the super thin cheap plastic dash on the Tiffin product was kinda shocking.

You really like your ACE and that's great. It's good to find the right coach for one's personal wants and values.

Thor has a new coach that looks very interesting, The Axis. You might want to take a quick peek.

Of course these are all opinions but I think some of it is kind of funny. Before we bought our coach I went through every manufacturer's offerings. Some of the brands that folks tout on here as superior build quality I thought were really cheap. Newmar and Tiffin come to mind. Walked though a bay star and stuff was literally falling off of it, cheap blinds, broken bin hinges, no slide toppers etc. A tiffin had plastic everywhere, and frankly I just didn't care for them - still don't, and I took careful consideration to the "fine" details in a vista. Same printed on luann veneer, same staple and glue, same unfinished edges to pieces, dark brown carpet and dated interior design. I mean I really struggled to find these "this brand is sooo much better than that brand" qualities. Perhaps I am missing something. Mind you this is before we set our sights on any coach so it was totally open minded and un biased. I drove a lot of coaches, walked through hundreds of models etc. And frankly I just didn't see all this superior quality some brands have over another. I just didn't. They are all slapped together with cheap materials and bad QC. All of them. To me, to say one is far more superior to another, I say invite me into your coach and I'll pick it apart just like any other brand. Not trying to be a jerk but I think a lot of pride goes into these reviews and it's funny how everyone thinks what they have is the best. Objectivity is a hard find on this forum. Frankly if you are looking at fit and finish on any entry coach you are splitting hairs. ALL OF THEM have cheap stuff and all of them have their issues. There is little to set them apart from the 5 years of research and hundreds of coaches I have been in. But again that's me. I am sure a lot of you have the best and I just missed that one. Not saying mine is the best, it fits what we wanted, but I landed on it because we liked it and I simply could not find the persuasive build quality everyone seems to be talking about.

The Thor ACE looks amazing and has good floorplans but the build quality on the ones I checked out at the RV show was appalling. Some people seem not to mind... MPG is not any better than full size coaches (At least as impartially tested by a magazine). The Black tanks are rather small for a motorhome (Even for a TT). I've noticed some say they drive like garbage. The toilet is high but then again, so is ours. You can just put a little riser in front of it if really needed.

The Vistas at the same show really impressed me. I didn't check out any Itsca's but they should have similar build quality to the Vista. I also didn't look at any Coachmans so cannot comment on them at all.

Reliability of the chassis should be about the same on all of them of course.