Not to Happy with Thor or Ford

[marcdohc]

Not to Happy with Thor or Ford
Back in May of 2016 Thor sent a driver to my home in Mashpee, Massachusetts to drive the 2016 Challenger 37KT back to Indiana because the repairs needed were too much for CW in Berkley, Mass.
After repairs we're done we flew out to Indiana and drove the rig home. Some of the issues were the hydraulic system would come on in the middle of driving down the highway at speed. The windshield wipers would get tangled up. Problems with the heat. Various leaks in Windows, showers and sinks. It was another half a dozen things that I can't remember.
The main thing is that the coach drove down the road crooked. There's a few phrases for this issue, crabbing or some call it dog walking. This usually occurs after an accident, it's a giveaway that the frame is not square or the rear axle is not perpendicular to the frame.
When Thor had it last year in Indiana they sent the rig to Ford, Ford sent the rig to a company called Quality Automotive to fix the crabbing issue. The problem is due to the rear axle not being perpendicular to the frame. When the fix was being done I tried to find out the approach they were taking, Unfortunately they would not tell me. They did not eliminate the crabbing although they did get it much better.

Well, this January I noticed the handling had gotten very sloppy. I had a friend drive and I got behind the rig and could see that the crabbing had gotten just as bad if not worse than it used to be and that the coach had a lot of swaying in the rear. I called the Thor and told them about it. Knowing the issue was serious Thor sent a so-called expert to fly out the Massachusetts to check it out. He drove behind me and then he drove the unit. I asked him what he thought and his words were and I quote "It's Crooked"
Thor had me bring it to a local truck repair shop in Mass. They discovered that the leaf springs had been twisted to compensate for the crabbing and a had bent the shackles and blown out the bushings. This damage was the result of the technique that Quality Automotive used to try to make the axle perpendicular to the frame. They simply loosen the bolts Twisted the axle and then tighten the bolts putting more torque then the bushings and metal shackles could take.
Thor did pay to have this fixed, but not before they blamed the damage on me. I installed a super steer track bar to help eliminate the absurd amount of rear sway the coach had and they tried to say the damage was caused by the trac bar. The mechanic told me there was no stress on the bar this problem was created by the technique that was used to adjust the axle. Thor decided to add a leaf spring on each side two help stiffen up the sloppy handling.
Unfortunately now the ride is ridiculous, the rear end is two inches higher than the front end in this a ridiculous amount of body roll and sway now that the center of gravity is even higher. Thor has refused to pay the money to fix this problem that they've created.
Not only do I still have the crabbing problem, I now have a RV that every time I want to set it up I have to lift the front wheels off the ground to inches just to get her level. My wife refuses to drive in it because she doesn't feel confident in the drive as well as it makes her sick from all the body roll.
Thor says it's a Ford problem, Ford says it's an altered chassis. Dealing with Thor has been frustrating and unrewarding.
I consider this the worst purchase of my life. I read a lot of bad reviews about Thor, I decided that there probably were many happy people that never left reviews.
Marc DeNardo

[Effy]

I doubt there are Thor employees on this site. Maybe I am wrong but it's run by GS who owns CW so...

In any event, I apologize for my initial post, after re-reading your post I understand I was out of line and jumped the gun on a troll assumption. Please try and understand that usually when we see a post like that from a brand new member on an issue that's a year old, it's a sign of a troll trying to slander a brand or dealer. From your last post this is likely how CW and Thor view it as well. I have no affiliation with either.

I am sorry for my snarky reply to your post.

I do empathize with your situation and it seems that you have tried to work it out via Thor, the dealer and Ford and I hope you come to a satisfactory conclusion.

In any event, welcome to the forum and I hope you stick around. Lots of folks on here are a wealth of knowledge and you can stand to learn a lot.

[marcdohc]

My intentions was not to cause a scene. I just wanted to vent and share.
Thor called me today and said they weren't too happy with my post. After reading some of the responses I think they actually might be Thor's employees responses. I'm very glad that my story has reached back to them. Marc DeNardo $120,000 12-01-15 American Rv Grand Rapids Michigan.

[Effy]

soren wrote:

Effy wrote:
Some of you don't get it, so let me break it down for you in remedial terms so you can understand.

The only person on this thread that "doesn't get it" is YOU! Three members have called you out on your nasty, condescending response to the OP. You then offer a "let me explain this to you morons" piece of drivel, attempting to justify your unacceptable behavior. Seriously? Are you twelve?

As several of us have attempted to make quite clear. If you can't be civilized, please take your snarky drivel elsewhere. If you have nothing to add, keep you hands in your lap, and stop banging on the keyboard. If you think you need to insult others here, since you are superior in some way, get over yourself, because it's just a delusion you're having at the moment.

Dude grab a Snickers.

I grabbed one my self and realized you were right.

[soren]

Effy wrote:
Some of you don't get it, so let me break it down for you in remedial terms so you can understand.

The only person on this thread that "doesn't get it" is YOU! Three members have called you out on your nasty, condescending response to the OP. You then offer a "let me explain this to you morons" piece of drivel, attempting to justify your unacceptable behavior. Seriously? Are you twelve?

As several of us have attempted to make quite clear. If you can't be civilized, please take your snarky drivel elsewhere. If you have nothing to add, keep you hands in your lap, and stop banging on the keyboard. If you think you need to insult others here, since you are superior in some way, get over yourself, because it's just a delusion you're having at the moment.

[dougrainer]

I understand the OP's frustration. What I DON"T understand is why he has not involved his dealer in the process. Maybe he has, but your dealer(the one you gave thousands of dollar too) is the person to go to bat for you. HE should be getting Thor involved. He CANNOT deal with Ford, but Thor is the main component. THEY modified the chassis, and they are responsible for getting the chassis to meet spec. Thor(all OEM's) have a LOT of pull with chassis makers. Doug

[Tinstar]

Effy, I wasn't talking about you and I didn't mean to offend you. It was just a general statement about recent events. I didn't even read who the poster was or know who made the comments on this thread. I guess I look at it a little differently; I don't determine someone is a troll with one post but I understand your assessment. As far as yesterday's post, I figure the original poster left the forum after the welcoming he got and his post disappeared with him, but if you say he was a troll, then I guess he was.

[Effy]

I didn't like the tone of this post (neither did anyone else) so I deleted it.

[Tinstar]

Sorry you're having the problems. I can only imagine the disappointment after spending a ton of money on what you expect to be a nice motorhome only to find out you've got a lemon and no support from the manufacturer of the coach or Ford. If they don't step up, you may eventually have to let a court decide an outcome. I know nobody wants to go that route but it may come to that.

As far as the negative responses to your post goes; it's not just one that does that. There are several on here that are less than welcoming or supportive to new members if there's anything negative in their post. I don't know why but it seems to be more prevalent recently. I've seen lots of negative post regarding Thor over the years and like gemsworld said, some owners are hypersensitive.

[Community Alumni]

Some Thor owners in this forum are hypersensitive to negative Thor comments.

[CA_Traveler]

What I learned is that the OPs problem is the thrust angle. ie Axle not perpendicular to the frame. Mine is right at the maximum but OK. For Monaco rigs with no adjustment the fix is to cut off the attaching supports and weld them back on.

Marc, Hope you get this straightened out. :R

[rgatijnet1]

If the Super Steer track bar bent the frame so bad that they could not adjust the thrust angle, then a LOT of RV owners are in for a huge problem. Dealers like to use any excuse they can find to deny responsibility and correct their own problems.

[wildmanbaker]

Effy wrote:

hohenwald48 wrote:

Effy wrote:
Welcome to the forum.

You know you could always open up with "Hi, I am new here, I have such and such rig and have a questions/issues"

So what's he point of the post? Is this a slanderous first post, or do you need a shoulder to cry on?

Sorry I am a little leary of brand new members, first time posters who open up with guns blazing about a unit they bought over a year ago. Makes little sense, other than "my warranty is out now so I am going to make slanderous posts on various forums". Thinking maybe you could have joined here over a year ago when you first bought it. otherwise it's sort of troll-ish.
We just had one yesterday that got deleted.

And chassis issues are covered under Ford which carries a 3/36, not Thor.

What an unnecessary response. The poster has a legitimate issue and posted here looking for feedback and advice.

I have no specific advice to help the OP solve his problem. However, I hope he understands that Effy does not speak for most folks on this forum and I hope someone comes up with something useful.

Lighten up.

2 days ago a brand new member posted a fairly lengthy and slanderous email. While I won't go into the details of that it certainly smelled like a troll. Turns out I was right and his post and likely the profile deleted. Fast forward to today and it's very similar. There aren't too many new members that their very first post is opening up with both barrels blasting especially on an issue that's a year old. Why now? Why join and post now? Maybe it's legit and it's no big deal. but I see this happen on here pretty infrequently and when it does it's usually a troll. Maybe I am wrong, but I can tell you this; it's certainly not the way I would welcome myself to the forum. I am pretty helpful when I can be, so I take a jab at my take on this with a grain of salt. The OP even admitted it wasn't the best way for an introduction and I in turn welcomed him. I'm happy to entertain a PM if you want to talk about it further.

Effy, you were a little hard on the guy. You are not the only one that has fallen for a newbie post the turned out to be nothing. As for the comment that adding springs does not raise the motorhome chassis....WHAT? The actual problem may be that the chassis is actually out of square, and the MH was built on top of it, more than likely, welded to the chassis. The shop that tried to do the work, saw the problem and did the best they could to fix the problem, without major damage to the MH. Get it, MH built square, welded to chassis, that may be out of square. The chassis could be squared, but what would happen to the MH on top of it? Now I don't know, this just a guess on my part. Does anyone remember the 70's and 80's ford pickups that were soo far out of square, you could see the whole width of the front tire, outside of the rear tire? Come on... we are suppose to be helping people here, lets stop fighting and try. Newbies don't always know what they need to post, and how to post it, to get good answers.

[Effy]

rockhillmanor wrote:
What everyone here forgets or just doesn't know is the link to "this forum" appears on everything advertising and/or websites that Good Sam owns.

OP says he was dealing with CW. Which Good Sam owns. THAT is where the new members are getting the link to this forum.

AND the link to this forum is listed under the heading of needing help, bad service, contact etc.

Henceforth why they added all those new forum headings for Good Sam and Camping World to this form. AND why we see new members posting about bad service, needing help etc. because they are told to on the websites.

Only thing is they don't include what 'specific' forum they need to post to once they get here.
I.E.
Ask Markus
Good Sam
Camping world service
Camping world sales. etc.

This post would be best addressed if moved to Camping World Service. Where the OP will get their Good Sam Care Team, obligatory "so sorry, please pm us".

http://forums.goodsamclub.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/29313910.cfm

Makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the clarification.

[rockhillmanor]

What everyone here forgets or just doesn't know is the link to "this forum" appears on everything advertising and/or websites that Good Sam owns.

OP says he was dealing with CW. Which Good Sam owns. THAT is where the new members are getting the link to this forum.

AND the link to this forum is listed under the heading of needing help, bad service, contact etc.

Henceforth why they added all those new forum headings for Good Sam and Camping World to this form. AND why we see new members posting about bad service, needing help etc. because they are told to on the websites.

Only thing is they don't include what 'specific' forum they need to post to once they get here.
I.E.
Ask Markus
Good Sam
Camping world service
Camping world sales. etc.

This post would be best addressed if moved to Camping World Service. Where the OP will get their Good Sam Care Team, obligatory "so sorry, please pm us".

http://forums.goodsamclub.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/29313910.cfm

[Effy]

hohenwald48 wrote:

Effy wrote:
Welcome to the forum.

You know you could always open up with "Hi, I am new here, I have such and such rig and have a questions/issues"

So what's he point of the post? Is this a slanderous first post, or do you need a shoulder to cry on?

Sorry I am a little leary of brand new members, first time posters who open up with guns blazing about a unit they bought over a year ago. Makes little sense, other than "my warranty is out now so I am going to make slanderous posts on various forums". Thinking maybe you could have joined here over a year ago when you first bought it. otherwise it's sort of troll-ish.

We just had one yesterday that got deleted.

And chassis issues are covered under Ford which carries a 3/36, not Thor.

What an unnecessary response. The poster has a legitimate issue and posted here looking for feedback and advice.

I have no specific advice to help the OP solve his problem. However, I hope he understands that Effy does not speak for most folks on this forum and I hope someone comes up with something useful.

I didn't like the tone of this post (neither did anyone else) so I deleted it.