Thor Ace 29.4 vs. Fleetwood Flair 30U

While our RV was in the shop we killed time RV shopping at a dealership across the street. They had a Thor Ace 29.4. I couldn't believe it but it looked like they designed this RV just for me. It had a number of things I was looking for but had not yet found in a floor plan.

These include:

• King bed that does not fold up when slides are in.
• King bed that is not too high for dogs to jump on.
• Shower with higher shower head and enough room to turn around without hitting the walls. They accomplish the latter with a shower curtain that is stiff plastic and bends out on an arc tract.
• Full size dinette with comfortable foam that does not collapse when you sit on it.
• Sofa for the dogs to ride on that is not on a slide out.
• Plenty of foot room for the passenger's chair.
• Good tank size.
• 30 ft or less size.
• Decent ground clearance for going up our driveway.

Negatives were:

• Closet appears cut off by bed when slides are in but I need to verify this as I did not check it out at the time and am just interpreting the floor plan in the brochure.
• Exterior kitchen eats up storage space.
• Exterior TV probably is taking up storage space but hard to tell. This RV appears to be designed for tailgating and we would want to use it for camping.

When Thor Ace came out I eagerly watched the floor plans evolve and was hoping for something like this. I also was a bit concerned with the quality I was seeing but in the 29.4 that we looked at the quality looked pretty good. However, I need to verify this by looking at it more closely. I am going to try and find one nearby to view. I would also want to drive it to check cabin noise and handling.

Considering a new RV is so hard. Should we go smaller? Should we get a diesel? Ours has worked so well, drives so nice and has been customized to suit us. Do we want to do that again? Or should we just stick with what we have. Advantage of ours is we know it really well. All the seams are Eternabonded. The mechanics are in good shape. We do alot of remote site camping so get scratched by a branch, run into a cone? Slap on some Eternabond and move on with your life. Taking a new one where we go might not be a good idea.

Edit: Just saw on-line the Fleetwood Flair 30U so going to look at that also.

Edit2: Got to look at both the Thor Ace 29.4 and the Fleetwood Flair 30U. Overall the Ace workmanship seemed alot better. To compare:
AC - Flair wins.
Flair has 2 ducted roof airs and the Ace only 1.

• The Flair has the ability to aim some ducts at the sofa where the dogs would sit.  Flair also has oddly small dash air vents. Didn't run them so don't know if they are effective or not.

• The Ace has the side of the AC unit pretty much over the sofa so no ability to provide air to it.

Dinette - Ace wins.

• ACE has a very comfortable dinette seat with good thigh support, good foam and a good angle for the back cushioning
• Flair has oddly uncomfortable seats. The back has too much rake to it. The seat cushion is too short and has no thigh support.

Bathroom - Ace wins.

• The Ace has a high shower head because of it's larger dome. It has an arced out stiff plastic shower curtain that gives good shoulder room. 
• The Flair's bathroom is horrible. The shower is a safety hazard as there are three sharp metal rails on the bottom for the sliding doors to go in. If you accidentally step on them you are going to the emergency room and likely will cripple yourself for life. The step down from the shower to the floor is a huge drop which makes stepping on the rails or tripping over them even more likely.

Generator - Ace wins.

• I have no idea why but the Ace generator started smooth and quiet. You could barely tell it was going.
• The Flair generator was rough at start up and sounded like someone forgot to bolt it down. Really made the RV sound/feel like poor workmanship. 

Cabinet Space/Placement - Flair wins.

• Flair had a coat closet near the door and some cabinets angled to be able to be opened when the bedroom slide was closed.
• Ace has no where to put coats and no access to the wardrobe when the bedroom slide is in. 

Usability with slides in - Flair wins.

• Surprisingly there was alot more hallway space with the slide in on the Flair. Two people could get by each other easily. Plus see the above on cabinet space/placement.

Door Placement - Flair wins.

• Because I plan to put my dogs on the sofa I like the Flair having the sofa behind the front seat with the door midway in the coach. 
• The ace has the door right behind the front seats.

If I felt the Flair was decent quality I would probably get it and dismount their shower door and install the shower door like the Ace has. However in reading info on Fleetwood I'm not confident that their RV is built well. Will have to do more research. Also could wait for the recall on the shower door so they have to do the fix.  There is no way that door can be considered safe.

Other Flair quality issues:

• Slide did not come in properly and was sticking out a bit on one end.
• Slide in Flair was noisier going out than slide in Ace.
• Generator ran rough and might not have been bolted down.