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]

Here are the pictures of the new ride. I'll get the wife's fisheye and get some pictures of the bedroom. It is HUGE!

[RobbieH]

mbacfp30 wrote:
Congratulations on the full time. Thanks for sharing all you have learned. Be safe and hope you stay in contact with us.

Of course I will. 🙂 There are some good folks on this thread, and I feel I still have a lot to share regarding what I learned about my 33SW. And I would miss the discussions regarding the 33SW if I went away.

By the way, if anyone needs a 3Trax system, I am going to put this spare system for sale I guess. The company I traded at did not want it. It's still new in the box.

This new Class A has a Roadmaster chassis. It is all airbag, and auto-levels as you go down the road. The difference in handling is shocking. No top-heavy feeling, no pulling from one side of the road to the other when the road heaves or the wind hits, nothing. That said, getting used to "driving a windshield" is going to take a while. It is a very different experience. And even with the big engine, it is nowhere near as quick off the line as the 33SW.

Oh, and regarding "full time". In the Dallas area, house values have skyrocketed due to companies moving here from other areas of the country. We are going to sell the house and move to central Texas, what we call the "hill country". We are going to build a barndominium or "barn house" on some acreage. We will start with a cover for the RV, with a full bath and room for storage. The RV will be our home while we build the rest of the house. But before that, we will have to move down there and live in the RV in an RV park until we find the land we want. Land is selling really quick down there, so we have to be there and ready to spring when the right place pops up.

I'll post some pictures as we move along. I'll put some pics of the new RV up soon, too.

[mbacfp30]

Congratulations on the full time. Thanks for sharing all you have learned. Be safe and hope you stay in contact with us.

[RobbieH]

Oh, by the way, my gear rails are still clean and the slide is still working much better than before I greased it.

[RobbieH]

mbacfp30 wrote:
Thanks. Did you ever get your roof leak fixed? Take care.

It turned out to be the condenser coil on the front roof unit was dirty. Once I cleaned it, the leak went away.

Now, all that said, I'm sitting here waiting on my wife, as we are on the way to trade in the RV. As much as we have liked it when it was working right, we are going to full-time and it does not have enough room for the two of us and two border collies, plus a lot of times we have my 18 year old daughter with us.

We are moving to a Class A with three full-depth slides, with a 400HP Cat C9. With 1150 ft lbs of torque at 1400 RPM, I think it'll tow my Jeep and trailer just fine.

I hate that we lost as much money on the trade as we did, but when we bought our 33SW, there was nothing else in the same price range, new or used, that would tow my 7,000 load, so the new 33SW was the way to go. Now those units are down in our price range, and we were able to work a trade.

There is going to be a lot to learn on the new one. Air brakes, air bag suspension, so much different than our Super C, which was much like owning a big pickup.

While we were looking, we looked at the newest Thor Super Cs. It looks like quality is way up. Also, the fridge is moved to where the shower is in our 33SW, which makes the walkway much wider and roomy. The shower is moved to the back, which seems to make sense. And with two slides in the bedroom, there's much more room to walk around back there. I like what they've done on the new models.

But our new Class A will have far more room than even the largest Super C. We even looked in a Freightliner based one, and it wasn't any bigger than our 33SW. In reality, I liked our 33SW better than the Freightliner based one.

[Yosemitebobr]

I also have the 33SW, but I had a leak in the water pump almost a year ago, and when I found it (at that time) it was a lose connection, and my converter was right next to the pump as yours is. Well guess what, it shorted out the converter. I moved the converter after that to a higher location and out of the way. You might want to check into that yourself.

[mbacfp30]

Thanks. Did you ever get your roof leak fixed? Take care.

[RobbieH]

I'll keep an eye on the tracks to see if they do collect dirt and dust and report back.

[mbacfp30]

Yes. Didn't bother to do any research on slide after I was told that by Lippert tech support.

[RobbieH]

mbacfp30 wrote:
Interesting. Their argument was it attracts dust/dirt, etc. I am a firm believer in lubrication advantages vs dust accumulation risks...but didn't do anything on that yet. Thanks for sharing your Intel.

I wondered about the dust issue myself. You know a lot of RV owners are that way about the cover over the slide, some think they trap and hold dirt without a way to clean it, but others say it's protective.

[mbacfp30]

Interesting. Their argument was it attracts dust/dirt, etc. I am a firm believer in lubrication advantages vs dust accumulation risks...but didn't do anything on that yet. Thanks for sharing your Intel.

[RobbieH]

mbacfp30 wrote:
Thanks for the info...glad the slide is ok. Lippert recommended no using any grease/oil on slide...so I haven't done anything as of yet. Will look into it now. Thanks for sharing.

That's interesting, because the Thor guy they sent here to put on the 3Trax system did recommend it, as did MHSRV. Who knows, it seems nobody really has any idea how to maintain these things and keep them working.

[mbacfp30]

Used baby pounder on the seals.

[mbacfp30]

Thanks for the info...glad the slide is ok. Lippert recommended no using any grease/oil on slide...so I haven't done anything as of yet. Will look into it now. Thanks for sharing.

[RobbieH]

Hey all,

I thought my slide messed up again today, but it was due to me having one of the bedroom drawers out on the floor and it was binding it. Anyway, problem averted, but while I was at it I lubricated the rails, something I've put off for far too long. Oh boy, it made a huge difference on mine! I should have done this long ago!

Someone recommended this to me, so this is what I used. I'm very happy with it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000P1E7ZS

While I was at it, I also lubricated the seals. This stuff is expensive, but if it saves my seals it's worth it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NJ6EZ8
I found it at a store somewhere for around $10. I don't remember where, it could have been at an RV store, or a campground.