Thor Super C (Chateau/Four Winds) improvements and mods

[Sites]

Hey folks,

I purchased a 2014 Thor Chateau 33SW last August and right from the start I experienced the new RV owner blues. In short, after driving back to San Diego from where I flew out to purchase it in Texas, it spent its first 3 weeks in the shop with about a dozen issues, ranging from minor to major.

That said, aside from all of the issues, now that I've resolved most of them either through warranty or just fixing it myself after the local Thor service dealer either did a half-assed job fixing a problem, or just flat out didn't fix it after it sat in their shop for weeks, I like this motorhome. I wanted something fairly nice and that could reasonably tow 10k+ LBS, since I have a desert prerunner truck and several motorcycles to trailer out with the family. Dynamax's were nice, but out of the $$$ range I was willing to invest on a first MH. I also looked as used medium duty chassis Super C's (older Show Haulers, etc.) but anything close to $100k was too dated looking and generally VERY used. So I saw the F550 chassis based Thor 33SW and bit the bullet.

After owning it for about 7 months now, my impression is that Thor came up with a great layout and mated it to a good chassis, but as a result of both production line quality assurance issues and the general feeling that everything beneath the surface was designed to speed up build time, there are many improvements that can be made by owners to make this coach better. And frankly, should have been done at the factory before shipping off to the dealer! 🙂

The reason I'm starting this thread is because I've noticed a few other Thor Super C owners on here and other forums, that have all mentioned having similar issues (house water pump leaks, front fuel tank filling issues, front hydro jacks too low from the factory, poor house battery capacity, etc.) I've also noticed a few very cool modifications and improvements by others on here as well, such as relocating the house batteries to one of the storage compartments and switching to a bank of four 6v batts. I figured it would be useful to try and centralize the communication of issues encountered, how to resolve them and suggestions to improve the coach.

I've done a few already and will post one of them shortly. Hopefully other Thor Super C (33SW, 35sk, 35sg, Etc) will chime in as well.

[RobbieH]

writchie wrote:

I happen to live 20 miles directly west of where Thor makes all of these coaches. I noticed that most of you live in far off places like California, Texas, etc. Given the problems that you all have encountered with your coaches, do you think that the "fixes" would have been much easier and much faster if you had better dealer help & knowledge available or had the ability to take the coach directly to Thor like I could do??

The dealer tried to fix mine four times. Only after my lawyer filed lemon law on mine, did Thor step in and fly in a technician. Once I had someone from Thor's factory fix it, it has been fine. He found many issues that the dealer caused during previous repairs such as not properly mounting the rollers.

[RobbieH]

mbacfp30 wrote:
RobbieH,

Do you have big foot or Lippert leveling Jacks? Mine has Lippert.

Lippert, I'm 99% sure. But, I'll go out later today and double check them. I'm curious to know absolutely for sure myself now. I do know I have the Lippert auto level system, maybe I just made an assumption on the jacks!

[DonnieSJR]

My two cents suggest that any coach is a bit of a project and there are issues with just about all makes and models, from the very expensive to the less expensive. I chose the Super C for specific reasons like the chassis and towing power. I would say since all RVs have some issues, it comes down to how the manufacturer and dealer deal with those issues. For the few issues that I have had like jack system failure and water pump issue, I was able to reach out directly to Thor and received a note or call back with in an hour. I actually have had a really good experience with Thor's tech team, more so than my dealer and I live in Florida. I am sure there are other experiences out there, good and bad, but this is my experience so far. I have a feeling, but not sure, that Thor would still direct you to your dealer, especially, if warranties etc. were in play.

[writchie]

Thanks to all of you for 34 pages of very interesting reading on the Thor Super C. I have been contemplating about whether or not to purchase one of these units or not. I had previously read elsewhere about the slide issues on some of the previous model years, so I would definitely opt for a 2015 or 2016.

I do have one question for you all ...

I happen to live 20 miles directly west of where Thor makes all of these coaches. I noticed that most of you live in far off places like California, Texas, etc. Given the problems that you all have encountered with your coaches, do you think that the "fixes" would have been much easier and much faster if you had better dealer help & knowledge available or had the ability to take the coach directly to Thor like I could do?? I don't mind doing the little fixes myself within my capabilities, but I really don't like hearing these stories from you all where your coach spends 60, 90, or 120 days in a one year period sitting in a shop waiting to get fixed. But all these places you must deal with ... Thor, Lippert, MOR/ryde, etc ... are basically just a trip across town for me. So ... do you all have any opinions on whether or not you would expect my "down-time" to be considerably less than what you all have had to go through??

Seems to me from reading the posts that you all have had regrets at one point or another but that once you figured out fixes for the various issues then you all seemed to end up pretty satisfied with the coach and its overall value given its abilities. Sound like a fair assessment for most of you?? Thanks!!

[mbacfp30]

RobbieH,

Do you have big foot or Lippert leveling Jacks? Mine has Lippert.

[RobbieH]

mbacfp30 wrote:
Also, do you store your coach with the leveling jacks down (enough to take pressure off of coach)? I leave mine up...all these line problems got me thinking about that.

Best,

I'm not the original poster, but I store mine with the jacks down so we can open the slide. We use it as a guest house quite a bit. I haven't had these problems, and hope I don't!

[mbacfp30]

Also, do you store your coach with the leveling jacks down (enough to take pressure off of coach)? I leave mine up...all these line problems got me thinking about that.

Best,

[mbacfp30]

I hope everyone is doing well. Now have 11,700 miles on the rig and all is good except a few issues. My leveling jack return line has swelled again and both rear hydraulic jack lines were leaking. However, since this has been an ongoing issue...THOR has stepped up and covered these again under warranty (18 months). Found a good shop so hoping jack lines will calm down.

Also, noticed my Onan Diesel generator drips a little coolant at (as far as I can see) the coolant drain cap. Doesn't leak when running or when sitting for extended periods of time...only after it has shut off...drips 5-7 drips (slow, slow leak) after first 15 hours after running. I flushed and replaced drain cap and washer early to fix the dripping, but it didn't. Park my rig under shade on concrete...so easy to pick up leaks, etc. Anyone else having this problem?

My battery and solar upgrade has been put on hold as I purchased a tow car. Mounted the tow bar on the car...planning on finishing car wiring and SMI braking system this weekend. Love the rig even with all the problems.

Tim

[McKenziek]

I still love my setup you posted above. With my 420W solar bank I have no problems dry camping with the rezzie fridge. Especially since I run the gennie for a few hours every morning to make coffee and the wife to do the hair.

[Sites]

Yosemitebobr wrote:
I have 4 Interstate 6v, I couldn't get the same cost from Trojan. I like the frames shown above, perhaps I'll make something of the same. I also have 400w solar and it keeps the batteries in top shape, even with the residential refrigerator. I let it go all night a lot and it seems to keep it up with certain things we taught ourselves, like when in the refrigerator get out as fast as possible and limit the opening and closing. Yes, I have a generator, and it will be used on those cloudy / rainy days. But we can go for a week before having to work in a charge from the generator or shore power, and if we are in a spot where I can't or don't want to use the generator, I have two extra solar panels I can add for a total of 600w. I should say it's only the wife and me.

Where do you have the 4 interstate batteries mounted now?

[Yosemitebobr]

I have 4 Interstate 6v, I couldn't get the same cost from Trojan. I like the frames shown above, perhaps I'll make something of the same. I also have 400w solar and it keeps the batteries in top shape, even with the residential refrigerator. I let it go all night a lot and it seems to keep it up with certain things we taught ourselves, like when in the refrigerator get out as fast as possible and limit the opening and closing. Yes, I have a generator, and it will be used on those cloudy / rainy days. But we can go for a week before having to work in a charge from the generator or shore power, and if we are in a spot where I can't or don't want to use the generator, I have two extra solar panels I can add for a total of 600w. I should say it's only the wife and me.

[Sites]

Well, with a wife and two kids, and lots of dry camping, I love the size of the residential refrigerator.

On a related note, I'm having a metal fabrication shop make me a set of aluminum dual battery box racks to mount in the storage compartment. I'm picking them up Saturday morning and going to try to install them this weekend. Depending on how they work out, I'll post pics and pricing if anyone else is interested in being able to run 4 Trojan 6v batteries in the Thor Super C.

[thethrillofspee]

My favorite modification to my 2014 33SW was to remove that power sucking residential refrigerator and put in a propane RV refrigerator. Now I can dry camp for extended periods without fighting keeping the batteries charged. All I do is dry camp, so this worked out great for me.

[Sites]

Just bumping to see if anyone has any suggestions for mounting 4 batteries in the storage compartments? I picked up a pair of the NOCO dual 6v battery boxes (like shown in the pic below), now I just need to figure out how to secure them in one of the storage compartments like one of the other Thor Super C owners posted on this thread several months ago. I like this seemingly simple mount, only if I could figure out where to buy it, rather than having a fabrication shop make something custom.

Here is the pic of how the other owner mounted his on this Thor:
[/img]

[Sites]

Not too big a deal. We've done a few dry camping trips to the desert this season and I'd like the generator to not have to auto-start multiple times per night. I upgraded from the factory batteries to group 29's about a year ago and they have been drained to completely dead several times since (while in the shop when the slide was getting fixed mainly), so I'm sure they aren't holding a charge like when they were new.

There was a pic on page 2 of this thread with 4 Trojans and id like to find out where he bought the storage compartment racks. Since the storage compartments on our coaches are fairly flimsy structurally, I need to hang a rack(s) from the ceiling of the storage compartments. All the off the shelf slide out racks mount from the sides or bottom. If I need to fabricate something that's fine, I'm just trying to avoid making this install more difficult than it needs to be. Heh.