I just saw the Thor Ace 27.1 and would like to encourage everyone to buy one so the industry makes more RVs with a king bed in a shorter RV.
I think Thor is really on to something with the Ace line. We talked to the rep. because we had a couple of issues with the Ace. One was the low distance to the ground. We are barely clearing our driveway with our Winnebago Brave, which sits much higher, so were pretty certain we couldn't get up with the Ace as it sits much lower. The rep. said they hadn't had any problems with current buyers. However, we think they may be a self selected group who don't mind a low sitting RV as they stay on mostly flat roads. We off-road on forest service roads and we have a slight uphill to our driveway that isn't long, low, RV friendly.
We also found the front seats too hard for our liking but the rep. thought he might be able to get the softer Windsport seats so there may be a work around for that. However he emphasized they wouldn't match which we would be OK with with us, as long as they were comfortable.
I loved the L-shaped dinette! Sort of like a couch and dinette all in one as you can stretch out on the long side. The table was a very good size which I also liked as some of the U-shaped dinette shrink the table down quite a bit. I found the foam on the dinette lacking but I think one could have it reupholstered with nicer foam if that was the only issue.
The killer wonderful feature though was the KING size bed with a reasonable amount of room on the sides for entering and exiting. It also had a good amount of storage on the wall opposite the bed, although they put what appears to be the water tank in the lower left cabinet (while sitting on the end of the bed), if I'm not confusing it with another floor plan. I can't remember if the water pump was in that cabinet on this floor plan. It was in there for the Thor Windsport 29X and I was concerned about the noise.
The other thing I liked about the KING size bed was that it is lower to the ground and a more normal height than you see in alot of shorter RVs. This works well for us as we have a short legged dog who could more easily jump on it.
In terms of interior storage it seemed very generous. I particularly liked the pull out pantry next to the fridge.
The shower was passable. It has the curved out plastic so not as big as what we saw in the Windsport which has a more square shower. I think the Ace 30.1 also had the more square shower.
We also like the Windsport 29X but no king bed and it is 30' 10" long vs the ACE 27.1 which is 28' 7" long.
In terms of storage the 27.1 ruled! It has 93 cu. ft. in exterior storage. The 29X lagged with 62.3 cu. ft.
The double sink in the Windsport works better for us because we travel with the dish soap and sponges in the dish basket on one side and use the other for hand washing etc. But I think maybe if you cut out a new hole and redid the plumbing you could switch to a double sink. However, I didn't look under the sink to check out the room for this.
I would be interested if the sliding doors rattle when driving for those who own Thor RVs.
I also really liked the 30.1 but without the king sized bed I quickly forgot it once I saw the 27.1. It appears Thor dropped the 29.1 floor plan for this year as it was not in the brochure. The 29.2 is a very nice floor plan but the bed is too high for our dog so we didn't really consider it.
Concerns for the 27.1 Ace also included a very wide pillar between the front windshield and the side windows. It seemed very odd to have such large blind spots built in.
Another concern with the Ace line is that they all smelled heavily of chemicals and glue. The Windsport did also but for some reason the Ace's were particularly fume laden. I don't know how long it takes for them to out gas so we may never be able to buy a new one. We will likely be limited to used units at least a few years old to allow for the out gassing.
So has anyone else seen it? What do you think? They were showing a couple of sold stickers in the window and I'm betting the 27.1 becomes one of Thor's best selling floor plans.
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