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.

[RE_Todd]

seal13il wrote:
I do seem to have issues when filling up the hold tank.... it keeps spitting out the water....is there a trick?

Water tank?? My 35SK seemed to have something blocking the fill the first few times. Make sure there are no kinks in your vent line, that's what seemed to be the problem with mine. As far as holding tanks, I have no problem filling them up!!

[seal13il]

so, 2 long trips behind us, 1 to socal and one to Moab, overall all went great with no major issues, going to Moab avg 9.5mpg while towing our SxS, I must say that the hitch setup is way up there on this motorhome LOL, I do seem to have issues when filling up the hold tank.... it keeps spitting out the water....is there a trick?

[mbacfp30]

Not sure on the part numbers...believe I posted them on here...will try to locate for you. I set them on the least firm setting.

[Sjohnst3]

mbacfp30 wrote:
Hello all,

I took some pictures of the shocks in case some of your are interested.

***Link Removed***

***Link Removed***

Best,

Did you use 25001-136a and 25001-171a? How many clicks did you set the adjustment knob to?

[mbacfp30]

I would say make sure all vital systems are working...leveling jacks, generator, etc. Other than that...go have fun. When I got mine I didn't realize there was a leveling jack leak...system did not work. Also, THOR crossed the hot and water lines so water heater never got water too hot. I was new to motorhomes and thought dealer had checked everything as I was told. Safe travels

[seal13il]

well, finally getting ready to go on our 1st trip , a week long SoCal LEGOLAND/seaworld/Disney, finally found out why no heating, looks like "sale witch"?, also noticed a chunk of rubber missing from rear tire....waiting on continental to respond..... any advice before our 1st "voyage"?

[RobbieH]

Ouch. But, good detective work! Glad you got it going!

[Sites]

Quick update on my charging issue. I replaced the Intellitec Isolator Relay Delay (http://www.nwrvsupply.com/product/00-00629-120.html), which is located just to the rear of the stairs, under the coach. It basically senses whenever the generator and/or the coach alternator is producing X amount of voltage. It then trips the solenoid which is located right next to it to allow the batteries to begin charging.

Anyhow, aside from the Xantrex monitor showing me that the voltage would not increase whenever the gen or engine was running, I got under the coach and listened for the solenoid to trip when they were; it never did. I confirmed that the solenoid was functioning by having the wife press the "Emergency Start" switch located next to the steering wheel; it did.

I replaced the isolator relay delay module (see link above) and it fixed my charging problem. As RobbieH pointed out, there are several things that can cause charging issues (or appearing to not be charging), so this is just another to add to the list.

Sites wrote:
About half-way through a camping trip this past weekend, I started having a house battery charging issue. When I run the generator, it powers all of the coach, but doesn't charge the house batteries. When I run the engine, it no longer charges the house batteries either. The Xantrex display panel voltage doesn't increase after the gen or engine are turned on.

Its currently pouring raining here, so I haven't tried plugging into shore power to see if that will charge them. I'll try that tomorrow.

Has anyone else had this happen? I've done some searches and it sounds like the battery isolator relay (bi-directional isolator relay or trombatta?) might be bad. That said, I have no idea where these are located on mine (2014 33SW).

Thanks,
Andy

[Sites]

Random observation I made last night. I haven't bothered doing any forum searches lately to see if there are people reporting 3Trax slide failures, so I decided to try looking last night. There have been literally no forum posts (at least that I could find) since around 2015 about Schwintek slide (original 2 track) failures on Thor RVs. I'm hopeful that the 3Trax might have resolved it for the most part.

[RobbieH]

Just behind the entry door there's a "basement" door. It houses the propane tank. If that valve isn't open, or if the tank is empty, no heat.

[seal13il]

RobbieH wrote:

seal13il wrote:
Robbie, I disconnected the 110 and turned the invertor off, left it for couple of hours, started the invertor, showed 12.8 and once plugged in it showed 13.1

So it's fixed now?

I think so LOL, now I have another issue....tried starting the heater and I have cold air coming through vents...I never used it..is there a "secret" switch I need to operate or a propane valve ?

[RobbieH]

McKenziek wrote:
Your comments are so spot on and inline with my experience its almost funny. I "downgraded" to a 2005 Monaco Diplomat that was not only better in every department, it was $20K cheaper. So happy I made the move.

We jumped from the Thor family to the Monaco family!

[RobbieH]

seal13il wrote:
Robbie, I disconnected the 110 and turned the invertor off, left it for couple of hours, started the invertor, showed 12.8 and once plugged in it showed 13.1

So it's fixed now?

[McKenziek]

RobbieH wrote:

bhplumber wrote:
We would rather have something older that was well maintained and has the bugs worked out vs getting one with less quality that is newer.

Now you know more about why I don't have mine anymore.

Don't get me wrong, we loved our 33SW when it was working. That said, we are about to be full-timers and there simply was not enough room in ours for the two of us and two border collies. So, the search was on. We learned over on the IRV2 forum to look for something used that was high-end when built. To make a long story short, we traded for a coach that was well over $300k new, and has all the options we wanted including AquaHot. It's built in the famous Roadmaster RR8S chassis, has a 400HP Caterpillar C9, and an Allison 4000 transmission. The quality of the cabinetry and such inside the coach is nicer than I see in most homes, it's all solid cherry.

The AquaHot system is pretty darn neat. It is basically a furnace like homes in the north have. It can be fired via diesel fuel or electricity. It has a tank of antifreeze solution which heats copper coils within the tank. It can be used for continuous hot water in the shower, and it also serves as the heater in the coach when the temps get too cold for the heat pumps. Or it can be used instead of heat pumps (the rooftop A/C units) if you want a quiet environment.

Also, the previous owner had a HWH AutoAir suspension system installed on the coach at a cost of $9300. This system makes changes to the suspension on the fly, so wind, road changes, etc. don't sway the coach. It's impressive.

Lucky for us, the salesman who took the coach in trade and traded us for our 33SW didn't know much about them and didn't realize the upgrades that had been done to our "new" coach, he way undervalued it.

If you buy something brand new, you'll spend a big part of the first year working out bugs. They don't QA them, they send you on your way then you go back and report the issues you've discovered. And from what I can tell, they don't build them like they did in the early and mid 2000s.

Your comments are so spot on and inline with my experience its almost funny. I "downgraded" to a 2005 Monaco Diplomat that was not only better in every department, it was $20K cheaper. So happy I made the move.

[Yosemitebobr]

Well this is not new, but it's new to me sense all the rain we had earlier this year. My heater vent (on outside) has the luvers going the wrong direction, so in heavy rain, it just funneled right into the heater compartment and flooded the circuit board - no heater. Eveyone was really great about it, I talked to Thor, they sent me the new cover along with the decals, I then talked to Atwood and they OKed a service center doing all the labor plus a new circuit board. Done within two days, after I got all the parts which took about a week and a half. I've been out of warranty for 3 months as well, but...the heater is good for two years.