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• Avidly following your Gemini posts. Great info and visuals. Thanks!

  • Hi Nancy. I'm glad my updates are helping. We made some progress today. I'm just updating the posts. Just got to add some pictures, which I'm working on now.

    • Hi,
      Unfortunately we too are the unlucky owners of the Thor Gemini. Bought new. Began with diesel sensor issues on the long drive home from Camping World. Called CW from the road and they advised that it will do a burn on the road and keep driving. 8 hours later, late at night we arrived home and diesel had gone into limp mode. Took to local ford dealer next day. RV was there several weeks. They took apart many engine components without success. We did our homework and kept insisting it was likely a sensor. Got them to change sensor and fixed. On the road for the 1st time 2 months after purchase. More problems abound. Fortunately we were in the construction (plumbing, heating, electrical) field and husband is very accomplished auto restoration hobbyist. So we have repaired and fixed issues listed below ourselves. Otherwise, we would have yet to take the unit out, it would still be in repair shops somewhere.
      Found numerous issues, patches falling off the bottom of tanks. (zip tied back in place)Laminate peeling off all over inside. (hot glued back-ongoing project) Slide-out wiring almost cut through where manufacturer puts wires next to sharp aluminum cutout. (Built track for wiring out of plastic and dowels to keep away from sharp edges and repaired exposed wires and zip tied in place)Girard instantaneous overheating. (found 3 snap plugs loose-falling apart)Single A/C unit on roof not adequate for hot climate. (Installed second central air A/C in ceiling) furnace is not adequate below 35F. Girard failed again besides being a total failure to begin with. Can't use Girard unless connected to sewer and water. Operation requires constant water running. Each time you turn off water, instantaneous heaters shut off and you have to run water and wait for hot again. Cannot use partial hot water with cold as not enough flow on hot side to keep Girard running. (Have Suburban 6 gallon W/H on order to replace terrible Girard. RV doesn't have enough gray water tank and enough fresh water to withstand more than one shower if not hooked up. No matter how brief of a shower.)
      First winter in storage, plastic SS looking fridge door split down the middle. Tried for weeks to get correct door through CW as was under warranty. Gave them part number, still couldn't get it right. They sent actual 2 door SS panel for wrong fridge. (We cut SS to fit our single door and fits fine now.)
      Storage door hinge screws were mostly stripped by manufacturer. Kept finding screws on the floor and outside TV lift rods screws were stripped out. (Went through and replace most hinge screws with slightly larger) Took RV out of storage. Oven was on. Still haven't found that malfunction. If camper gets cold, oven comes on. Mattress was terrible which is not uncommon in RV's. (Replaced with athletic pad base and new gel foam, now very comfy) Black water valve wouldn't close after emptying. Tried using gray water to back flush, no go. Found Camping World a couple hours away. They immediately said it was toilet paper stuck in valve. Plumber husband knew wasn't paper. Valve hitting something hard. When they went to flush tank, valve also wouldn't close, found toilet tank cutout stuck in valve. Apparently Thor does not remove the cutouts when installing plumbing. They leave them in the tanks.
      Washing RV, noticed reverse light flopping.(Nuts missing, fixed ourselves)
      Found insects under slide-out bed. Pulled out cushions. Large holes around slideout where Thor hacked up rubber seals and inside seals all unstuck(Installed patches of seal outside as best I could)
      Original A/C unit not blowing air out to ceiling vents. (removed inside cover and put baffle back where it's supposed to be. Was just laying up there and air pushed it out. Needed screws and duct tape to hold in place and seal as required.)
      Couch was terribly uncomfortable. (Removed and installed recliners, much better) Got DEF warning that filter was "overloaded". Warning light tells you that if doesn't clean out by itself, it will go to limp mode. Ford truck dealer never heard of that message. We shut off engine while researching what to do. we looked up local Ford dealer. Started RV and headed there and RV began DEF burn. After 2 burns, it was OK again. Need that little stressor on your trip 3000 miles from home.
      There's no DEF guage. All you get is a quick flash while you're driving that you have 500 miles before limp mode. We saw the little flash and put DEF in within a few miles. Also found out from dealer, sometimes it takes a few days for DEF refill to register with computer. Probably the reason it had gotten "overloaded". We never ran out of DEF, or even came close.
      If it weren't for the beating we would take on a trade in and the 15 to 18 miles per gallon, this POS would be long gone. We're not rich, we live on fixed income. Thor and Camping World will never get our business again.
      My bet is we will have more to add in the future. Overall very shoddy workmanship and quality.

• Hello Kevin, Thank you very much for your excellent and informative blog. We're retired and have been shopping to buy a motorhome that we can travel reliably around North America in for a few months at a time. We thought we found the perfect unit, a 2017 Gemini 23TR and so we recently put a deposit on it for pick-up early in the new year. I then decided to do a bit more research and found your site. Many of the problems that you are experiencing should not be happening period, especially with a decent quality "brand new" unit that has supposedly gone through some kind of quality control inspection. The poor follow-up service you've been getting is very concerning and does not give me a warm and cosy feeling about Fraser Way. We decided to cancel the order on our Thor built Gemini, do a little more research, and if we need to spend a bit more for a different dependable unit/builder, "so-be-it". We have some RV experience but not on this continent. We spent a total of 14 months touring Europe in 2 different (less expensive but just as nice) German made motorhomes and we had very, very few issues. I don't know why we can't expect the same quality standards from North American builders. Thank you again for sharing your knowledge and experience.

  • Hi Bruce,

    Thank you for your feedback and kind words. It's important to share information with others, especially with big purchases like this.

    The service we are getting for Fraserway RV has improved a bit, but there are still disappointments such as not getting promised phone calls back from the General Manager, Scott. The tech who has been working on our Thor Gemini has been great though - honest and very respectful. Ultimately it's really Thor who should take ownership of warranty issues - but I double that will ever happen.

    I worked in Germany for a couple of years and the level of quality is not comparable to what we get in North America. I am sure your Europe tour was amazing. We definitely want to do that as well.

    We have been looking at the Earthroamers and the Global Expedition Vehicles, but they are quite expensive and the Earthroamers are built on a Ford F550 and F750 chassis. Given the issues we've been having getting Ford to fix the electrical issues on our Thor Gemini, we're hesitant.

    Time will tell, but we definitely love exploring and motorhomes.

    Let me know what you end up getting - please!

    Kevin

• Thank you for your great blog. We have been looking to buy a small motorhome with a fixed queen bed we can walk around and a dry bathroom as we will be living in it for up to 10 weeks at a time. When I came across the Gemini 23 I thought we found one to consider, but after reading your blog I am not even going to consider one. We owned a Winnebago LaSharo back in the 80's. Brought it brand new and it worked great for 3 years. Then just before the warrantee expired the engine gave up and we spent 2 weeks of our vacation stuck waiting for a dealer to get it fixed which happened just in time to head home. About two hours later it slowed down to 25 MPH going up hills. At that point I was very frustrated and we had to get home. We drove the speed limit on flat roads but every hill, overpass ect we would slow down to 25. After getting home we took it to Winnebago and they said it wasn't the engine but the injectors. They repaired and we took it home. A few weeks later we took it out and going up a steep hill it started all over again. We also got a notice from the dealer who fixed the engine that the insurance company went bankrupt before paying the $2000 repair which we now owed and discovered several other repairs we now owed. The alternator went out right before leaving on vacation and then the injector repairs. We got rid of the unit at that point. Needless to say we are very concerned about having similar challenges now that we are looking again so really appreciate your blog.

  • Hi Rick,

    I'm glad you found the post helpful. I don't see how a Gemini or Compass owner wouldn't have issues with their unit - we've had so many.

    We are still in the middle of this adventure. Right now the unit is with Ford while they are trying to figure out the electrical issue. Once that is done, our Gemini 23 will go back to Fraserway RV to have the water heater fixed (again). We talked to the general manager of the dealership, Scott, but he doesn't follow through.

    Funny enough, the sales person at Fraserway RV showed us a Winnebego, but she didn't really promote it much. It might have been a better choice than the Thor. It is really unfortunate that Thor owns so many other brands (Airstream, Bison Coach, Breckenridge, CrossRoads RV, Cruiser RV, Dutchmen RV, DRV, Heartland RV, Jayco, Keystone RV, KZ RV, Livin Lite RV, Redwood RV).

    Let me know what you end up with. We've been looking at Earthroamers, but they are a bit pricey.

• Here r the recurring problems with the unit
  1. Hot water heater doesn't work
  2. Batteries in coach go flat when unit turned off in about a week(brand new...replaced them both at my expense)
  3. Card board insert comes off the ice box door repeatedly
  4. Collar around moon roof falls off
  5. Storage compartment leaks
  6. Overhead storage door pulls out of the hinge. (Wood screws in pressed wood)
  7. Bathroom commode pulled lose from floor

  This model has more problems than Carter has little liver pills.

  • Wow, we're SO sorry to hear you're going through this. We remember how frustrating these problems were, and how helpless we felt. Regardless if it was all "under warranty" all of these Thor Gemini problems stop you from being able to ENJOY your purchase... We hope you get them sorted out soon, or can return your unit and get something more reliable.

• Thanks for your well documented journey with Thor and Ford, it is very informative. I wish I had come across this blog before we purchased a 2017 Thor Compass 23TB. We have had a number of problems with ours also. Some were Ford, some were Thor and some were appliance manufacturer problems. Luckily most of mine are things I can fix although I didn't buy a new RV so I could spend my time on repairs, I have already done that with the first two used rigs I had.

  Sorry you had such a bad experience but thank you for the heads up and the problems that I should look for in the future.

  • Hi Rus,

    Oh no, that doesn't sound like Thor stepped up the quality of the Compass/Gemini. We purchased a new unit for the exact same reasons you mentioned. We're in a 2004 Monaco Windsor now, which is a bit bigger than our Gemini was, but it's also so much easier to fix things and the REV Group (Monaco) has been really awesome. Of course, we don't have warranty or anything, but when we bring our coach to Coburg, OR - we know all work they do will be done right. Our experience with the dealer where we got the Monaco from wasn't the best, High River Autoblex, but the guys and gals at Monaco made up for it.

    We had a 2-year old Leisure Van beside us last night, the couple seemed really happy with the quality so far. We had looked at the Leasure Van units, but they were a bit too small for us (we had just added a third dog to the family).

    Hope to see you on the road sometime,

    Kevin

• Hi, likewise we purchased a ‘17 Thor, but a Citation 24SR on a mercedes chassis. I love the chassis, wonderful to drive, lots of leg room unlike ford’s narrow foot space. the diesel mpg has been at 14 over 8,000 hilly miles, avg around 63 mph. The thor body is junk, the tv’s were wired wrong, the blk and grey tank wiring is wired backwards, The tankless water heater is a pain, give me the 6 gal one back, I can deal much better with it in a RV. the shower drain was plugged with junk. the factory batteries lasted 8 months. shelving was warped. There’s more - lets just say the build quality of Thor is non existent, Indiana’s should be totally asamed of their work products. I will buy canadian next time.

  • Yikes! We had an issue with comments and I'm just getting to yours. Sorry! What a nightmare though... I'm so so so sorry you had to deal with this.

• Thank goodness I stumbled on this site! I'm a single (not overly handy) gal who wants to do some exploring in my early retirement. I was just going to pull the trigger on a greatly reduced Gemini 23TR (2017). I liked the roominess of the Thor unit over the Travato, and wasn't enamored with the Sprinter layouts (Winnegebo). I'm guessing the $45k below cost may be due to these issues? Anyway, looks like I'll be spending a bit more to get the RV experience I'm dreaming of. I see a few recommendations in the string above, but would love to hear any recommendations on reliable Class B and small Class C units. I'll definitely be attending the RV show in Denver in a couple days! Thanks.

  • Yikes! We had an issue with comments and I'm just getting to yours. Sorry! --- we're SO happy you found this post. That's why we documented it all... to save people from making the same mistake we did. We hope you found something good!!!

• Ya, good blog - thank you. I am going to look at RV's this evening, but I'm a first timer and not real sure what questions to ask. I found your blog b/c I googled THOR Compass. Do you have a recommendation on what RV brand(s) we should investigate? I'd assume spend extra up front - if that would even help to avoid issues such as yours. The entire industry may be frought with problems due to engineered obsolescence. But, I'd like to think that isn't the case.

  Okay, your time is appreciated - I owe you a beer, or maybe some venmo? Thank you. Scott & Sanna

• Our 2016 Thor Compass has been cross country a couple times, and has 25,000 miles on it. We've had many of the same issues you had, and got them repaired at Ford or the RV dealer. Hot water, electrical, all a pain, but fixed. I may be naive, but fallen window shades, poor choices of hardware, trim issues, are what I consider part of the life of an RVer. Maybe a Winnebago would be better, but we had an older Itasca class C, and also had many issues. I hold Thor responsible for these issues in an attempt to deliver a low priced product.

• Thanks very much for this info. We have had a Roadtrek in the past (sold 5 yrs. ago) which was wonderful but we would like to move up to something a little larger for more comfort during longer trips. The Gemini seemed ideal until I read your blog. We will now look at options to this brand - any suggestions appreciated. We are on Vancouver Island so for warranty reasons will avoid Fraserway RV. You have been extremely patient in dealing with the issues - your unit should never have left the lot in this condition. Thanks again for educating us.