Comments on buying a 2021 ACE 33.1

[stuck in vermont]

Hi all,

First let me say that this is all so new to me.... So please be gentle... My wife and I are considering buying a new 2021 ACE 33.1 motorhome. We have never owned a motorhome before and this would be used for about 50-60% usage just rambling around the country as part of retirement. I've tried best I could to find actual honest reviews out on the net, but have not been too successful. So, I thought I give it a try here. It does seem to me that there's a ton of info as part of the escapees umbrella (that's how i found this forum) and I'm looking forward to actually joining the group once we "jump in", so to speak and make the purchase. So, my question is, what do you folks, who are way more educated then me in these matters, think of the 2021 ACE 33.1 ??? 

Thanks so much for your replys, Glenn

[Kirk W]

First of all, welcome to the Escapee forums! We are happy to have new folks join us and we will do our best to help you.

My first suggestion is that you give serious thought to joining the RV Consumers' Group and take advantage of the educational materials that they supply to new members. When I joined I had previously owned and done my own maintenance on several RVs before but still learned a great deal and I believe that membership saved me from making mistakes that would have cost me far more than the price of membership. 

The Ace is considered to be an entry level coach, meaning at the lower end of the price/quality grouping. I have personally known 3 couples who purchased one of the Ace coaches and of them, I has kept his now for more than 5 years, while both of the other two we less than satisfied and traded up, one after 18 months, and the other in about 11 months. I did own a coach that was build on the Ford F-53 chassis and we were very pleased with it and kept it for 14 years, but the coach was from a different manufacturer.

Since you have never previously owned an RV of any kind, I think that you might be wise to rent an RV for a trip first, just to be sure that you will enjoy the RV style of travel. We love it and have enjoyed a series of RVs of different sizes and types over the past 40 years, but we started with a small, used RV and worked our way up, with each one larger until the one that we lived in for 12 years and since that we have gone back down in size. The point is that not everyone enjoys the type of travel we do when RVing and the only way that I know to be sure is to try it first. Another thing that you may want to consider is attending a session of the RVer's Boot Camp put on by Escapees before you buy yours. 

It is very difficult for anyone to advise you on what may be best because there are so many choices and we don't all have the same needs or wants. 

[Ranger Smith]

I do not know anyone who was happy with an ACE . . . In my opinion they are junk. You could find a nice higher quality used one for what they ask for an Ace.

[TXiceman]

Most of the people we meet in the RV parks with an Ace are not happy with the coach.

Ken

[sandsys]

Welcome to a great group where are are very willing to share our opinions.  

Personally, I wouldn't buy any coach where the living room seats do not face the TV. We watch a couple hours of something most evenings and I'm not fond of getting a crick in my neck from angled viewing. I didn't look beyond that at this rig since that's a no go for us.

Linda Sand

[stuck in vermont]

Thanks to all that answered... I would suspect I need to do a little more homework in the area of "what do i want...."

Other then the RV Consumer Group, (which really doesn't actually real life test the things...) are there any other places to get real life, i've had one of these and this is what was good and what was bad, type of reviews?

Glenn

[Kirk W]

1 hour ago, stuck in vermont said:

Other then the RV Consumer Group, (which really doesn't actually real life test the things...)

Do you realize what it would cost for the information if they bought one of each make/model of RV and did test them all? None of us could afford the information gathered. They aren't perfect, but name me a source that is? They are the best available and have a really good reputation among many of the members of Escapees and these forums. No reviewer has agreement by everyone.

 

Edited August 21, 2021 by Kirk W

[Ranger Smith]

On 8/18/2021 at 11:05 PM, sandsys said:

Welcome to a great group where are are very willing to share our opinions.  

Personally, I wouldn't buy any coach where the living room seats do not face the TV. We watch a couple hours of something most evenings and I'm not fond of getting a crick in my neck from angled viewing. I didn't look beyond that at this rig since that's a no go for us.

Linda Sand

That is why we got rid of a 43' Winnebago Tour we had. It was an awesome rig but the floor plan you had to either creek your neck to the left or the right to watch tv. And boy was it sore after a few hours.

[RV_]

2 hours ago, Kirk W said:

Do you realize what it would cost for the information if they bought one of each make/model of RV and did test them all? None of us could afford the information gathered. They aren't perfect, but name me a source that is? They are the best available and have a really good reputation among many of the members of Escapees and these forums. No reviewer has agreement by everyone.

 

Well said Kirk. They can help avoid the worst rigs and the knowledge they provide for members is worth every penny IMO. Nothing can tell which rig to buy. Just give some knowledge to know what to look for.

With RVs it is always a compromise unless you are a billionaire and can order the most expensive rig, only to find they pretty much all use the same appliances etc.

I started out before the first SKP forums and had Frank Gummersol and several other SKPs help me out in email and phone calls too in  the 90s. So I joined and then used the SKP Parks and CoOps whenever we could as well as Military FamCamps during our seven years of fulltiming.(1997-2003) We learned a lot at the SKP parks too.

So I've tried top pay it forward for all of our SKP friends over the years.

[Kirk W]

8 hours ago, RV_ said:

had Frank Gummersol and several other SKPs help me out in email and phone calls too

Now there is a name I've not heard in a long time! Frank Gummersall was one of my best advisors too. 

[RV_]

On 8/21/2021 at 7:18 PM, Kirk W said:

Now there is a name I've not heard in a long time! Frank Gummersall was one of my best advisors too. 

It's a psuedonym, did you know that?  That blew me away when he told me to stop using it. I can't remember what his real name is now.

Edited August 23, 2021 by RV_