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Old 09-03-2017, 03:49 AM   #1
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Brand: Still Looking
State: Nevada
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THOR #4729
Angry at THOR

I have this issue. Under the back decal is a dark discoloration that looks like mold, rust, or a bleeding of the color. It's only on the edges of the back decals. My rig is just over 1 year, so I don't know of it's covered under warranty, or is repairable at all?
Here's the rant. I live in Nevada but happened to be 2000 miles away from home, and close to the Thor factory. I called them up and was told that they are 3 months behind in repair appointments. I said I only wanted to stop by and have someone look at it to tell me what it was. They 3rd person I spoke to said they couldn't reach the service dept to ask, but without an appt they couldn't guarantee it would be looked at. It was late, and we had to be on our way to get home. What kind of support is that?

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Old 09-03-2017, 11:58 AM   #2
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Model: 37GT
State: Florida
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I'm not trying to make excuses for them, but I have toured their facilities up there and they are pretty busy. What time of day did you call? How close were you to the actual factory service center? Couldn't you have made that call a week in advance and asked for someone to just take a quick look in the parking lot on a certain day and time?

If I am a Thor owner and I have waited 3 or 4 months for my repair appointment I certainly don't want anyone working on my unit stopping what they are doing to check a decal issue on some traveler that just happen to be in the area.

If you drove a Chevy that was just out of warranty and you noticed a defective paint issue while on vacation, would you even consider stopping at a factory where they made Chevrolet products to have someone look at it?
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Old 09-03-2017, 01:19 PM   #3
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: Four Winds 26B
State: Indiana
Posts: 387
THOR #6414
They flooded the market with crap this year and are more than overwhelmed with fixing crap units. They have a pick and choose who we make happy mentality and you can see which list you landed on. #ThorLacksIntegrity But you are not alone. There are others out here just like you.
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Old 09-03-2017, 02:26 PM   #4
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: Hurricane 35C
State: South Dakota
Posts: 1,132
THOR #3761
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Originally Posted by airforceret View Post
They flooded the market with crap this year and are more than overwhelmed with fixing crap units. They have a pick and choose who we make happy mentality and you can see which list you landed on. #ThorLacksIntegrity But you are not alone. There are others out here just like you.
We were at the Thor facilities back in late July and we had an issue we wanted to see if they could take a look at. They checked our VIN, saw that we were out of warranty and said that we could call to make an appointment for service. When we did call, they were 3-4 months out for non-warranty work. Sounds like the same response that the OP got.

We also toured the factory and talked with a bunch of other owners there (and some who were just looking) and got the impression that many of the other brand factories are run in a similar way with opportunities for errors (we saw several.) There were a number of units that had been identified as needing additional work before they ever left the production line.

I am not making excuses for them. I am saying that they have been good to us, both in warranty and out. They are consistent with how they treat customers.

In our case, we went on from Elkhart and found a different dealer to handle our issue. Finding someone who isn't booked up during the peak summer months and will service a unit not purchased there is hard.
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Old 09-03-2017, 04:08 PM   #5
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: Hurricane 31S
State: Texas
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Originally Posted by airforceret View Post
They flooded the market with crap this year and are more than overwhelmed with fixing crap units. They have a pick and choose who we make happy mentality and you can see which list you landed on. #ThorLacksIntegrity But you are not alone. There are others out here just like you.
Thor's policy is to never build any RV that is not ordered by a dealer. A deposit of 30-40% must accompany the dealer's order. The entire price of the RV must be paid in full before the RV leaves the delivery prep area. That has been Thor's policy since they bought Airstream in 1980. They are building two new factories and enlarging three more, so someone (besides me) must be happy with Thor's RVs and their dealers. I have toured plant 750 twice and plant 850 once. I was most impressed by their attention to detail and the competence of their quality control personnel. That you were unfortunate enough to buy a RV that the dealer did not properly inspect is regrettable but does happen. Realize that there are only 20 service bays at Wakarusa and when you build 5,461 motorized RV's in the third quarter of the year, there will be a considerable delay in factory service. This number does not include the 1,466 motorized RVs produced by Jayco. To Thor's credit they have plans to enlarge the Wakarusa service area.
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Old 09-03-2017, 05:13 PM   #6
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: ACE 30.3
State: Illinois
Posts: 371
THOR #8503
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Thor's policy is to never build any RV that is not ordered by a dealer. A deposit of 30-40% must accompany the dealer's order. The entire price of the RV must be paid in full before the RV leaves the delivery prep area. That has been Thor's policy since they bought Airstream in 1980. They are building two new factories and enlarging three more, so someone (besides me) must be happy with Thor's RVs and their dealers. I have toured plant 750 twice and plant 850 once. I was most impressed by their attention to detail and the competence of their quality control personnel. That you were unfortunate enough to buy a RV that the dealer did not properly inspect is regrettable but does happen. Realize that there are only 20 service bays at Wakarusa and when you build 5,461 motorized RV's in the third quarter of the year, there will be a considerable delay in factory service. This number does not include the 1,466 motorized RVs produced by Jayco. To Thor's credit they have plans to enlarge the Wakarusa service area.
Jim and Roy, not trying to be negative here, but your statement that, "I was most impressed by their attention to detail and the competence of their quality control personnel. That you were unfortunate enough to buy a RV that the dealer did not properly inspect is regrettable but does happen" is incongruent. If their attention to detail and quality control is impressive, the units should not be arriving at the dealership requiring the dealer to find and correct problems it should never have left the factory with. I have a brand new ACE 30.3 and have been out camping for two nights, only 35-40 miles from home. I had one window screen that was not installed correctly because it had both clip fasteners missing on one end. A window fell out the first night out because it was installed backward, and the San-T-Flush flooded my bedroom and bathroom the first time it was used, requiring a hole be cut in my brand new bedroom wall to fix it. This does not speak to attention to detail and impressive quality control. Yes, I guess the dealer should have known about the screen not being fully installed, but the other issues were not obvious to the eye until they were used and malfunctioned. These units should never have been shipped with these issues. Also, the window that fell out and was "repaired" fell out again the first time it was used and shattered when it hit the ground.

Another quality control issue that I have forgotten to mention to the dealer because I had other things to get fixed is that I did considerable research on the different floor plans, models, etc., before I bought my ACE 30.3. The video from Thor about the 2017 ACE 30.3 said that because of complaints people had made about the bathrooms being too hot or too cold, they did away with the door with an opening at the top, replaced it with a full-length door and added heat and air conditioning outlets inside the bathroom. Well, mine has the full-length door, but no air/heat outlets inside the bathroom. It does have an air return, though. It has actually made the bathroom even more uncomfortable. Attention to detail and impressive quality control would have not let this unit get out the factory door without those outlets being installed.

I like my Thor motor home design and features. Quality control and attention to detail in the factory, or the dealerships, not so much. Unfortunately, this seems to be standard operating procedure throughout the RV industry.

I guess this did turn out to be negative after all. I did not intend negativism aimed at you, but at the industry and Thor.
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Old 09-03-2017, 06:26 PM   #7
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: Hurricane 31S
State: Texas
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I can only speak from personal experience. I have 18 years experience with another class A coach (188,000 miles), so I am not new at this. My dealer, MHSRV, presented me with a two page, 205 item dealer prep checklist listing the things they had checked and corrected. Both the water and propane systems needed some work. At the factory, I learned that Thor does not check these systems because of winterizing the coach for delivery and explosion potential in the factory where the inspection stations are located (they are leak checked with air). MHSRV strongly suggested we spend 24 hours in our new coach before we left the dealership which we did. This stay did not involve dumping or city pressure water on the coach. At the morning debrief with the salesman and maintenance tech who spent two hours familiarizing us with the coach the day before, I requested we go dump and pressurize the water system. The maintenance tech road with us to the dump station and watched me exercise everything. I asked if we could spend another night in the delivery area as I wanted to get an early start home (635 miles) which was granted. Everything has worked as it should on the coach for the 19 months years (176 nights), we have owned the coach.
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Old 09-03-2017, 07:19 PM   #8
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Model: ACE 30.3
State: Illinois
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Beau, I am very happy to hear of your good experiences. I have heard similar stories from other MHSRV customers. I seriously considered going to Texas to purchase from them, but decided to pay a little more money and stay close to home rather than go 700 miles to purchase and end up being that far away from my dealer when I had issues.That In hindsight, I quite possibly made a mistake. Forgot to mention in my earlier post, I also gave a shade in the bedroom window that is cock-eyed and provides zero privacy. I tried to adjust it, but apparently the only fix is to totally remove it and restring it. This should not be missed by quality control at either the factory or the dealer. If I ever purchased a car with these kinds of issues out of the factory door, I would be checking my state's lemon laws. Why do RV owners just accept this as "business as usual," learn to fix everything themselves, and never demand it be done correctly?
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Old 09-07-2017, 08:37 PM   #9
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State: California
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It's a strange situation, I think.
(Long post, hopefully worth the read)
Unlike the auto industry, each one of these RV's are custom made. Each one!

With cars, the assembly line is so slick that it's kind of hard not to be consistent from vehicle to vehicle and very little craftsmanship are involved past the design phases.

RV's are ever evolving and changing sometimes on a monthly bases... plus they can be customized way beyond any automobile. The assembly process allows for this by design.

The structures are not made by one person placing 6 bolts in a door panel all day long then passing it along.

RV's need to be built for the most part by craftsmen, apprentices and workers, that can do multiple things.

When they hire the right people and treat them right, it is a great thing and we RV'ers benefit.
But it's hard to keep skilled labor now days and the companies are so competitive that without a solid workforce and good management, they are ripe for failure.
RV's are more in demand than ever placing huge growing pains on the industry. ...And no-one want to pass up the money, so quality control suffers first from the "get it down the line and we'll fix it at the end" 80's US CAR MAKER MENTALITY).
Tiffin seems to have the best reputation for quality, they produce, if I remember 17 coaches a day, where the bigger companies boast somewhere around 37-ish...?

Point being, management and worker loyalty seems to be lacking when it comes to the almighty dollar (not unlike the US auto industry of the late 70's & eighties).
But unlike the car industry we have fewer configurations and floor plans and manufactures to choose from, toss in a large price and we end up being stuck with the state of the art as it is now.
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Old 09-07-2017, 09:01 PM   #10
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Model: Challenger 37LX
State: Arizona
Posts: 506
THOR #7863
Bratmanstudio, thanks for the insights. I was just telling my son today how I don't think the people who assembled our Challenger have much pride in their craftsmanship. I said this as we were reinstalling our residential refrigerator in its cubby, following replacement of both fans in the fridge. Of course, I realize the that's not Thor's fault, but the way it's installed is.

Three long screws holding the fridge to the top left bracket, one short one on the right top (identical 3-holed) bracket. Two in the bottom center, at severe angles. Too hard to go get more long screws, ah, this little one will do. Too hard to go get a short screwdriver, ah, angling it in will be fine. Sawdust behind the fridge - too hard to clean that up, the buyers won't see it. Cables (power, TV, I don't know what all) not in the wooden channel on the back wall, not coiled properly, just thrown in and scrunched up behind the fridge. Oh well, owner won't see it.
Oh darn, we put the pre-drilled holes for the wood fascia top piece in the wrong side of the wood... no worries, this staple gun will hold it there, no one will notice.

So after we cleaned their mess, sorted and zip tied the cables, found proper sized screws and put them all in, it's now the way it should have been when we picked it up.

Maybe this all seems trivial. Combined with other things, like failing to attach the drain pipe to the shower drain so my first shower ended up flooding the basement, and I'm a little concerned about what other little details were missed and when/how they'll make themselves known.

Other than that, I love my RV.
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Old 09-07-2017, 10:24 PM   #11
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Thanks, ...it's the potential and the innovation mixed with our imagination that makes the RV a wonderful thing.

Something so worthy of our dreams that we overlook the lack of quality control, lack of craftsmenship and lack of integrity. They look so pretty!

Some say nicer looking than their own homes... And when, like you did, you start digging past the facade you find (depending on their day made, price - to some degree I understand... The rich complain here too - and manufacture) that your coach really is NOT a gold painted turd for the most part, but something that was birthed with the best intentions, but not loved. Like the over worked nurse on a 14hr shift that didn't clean well & barely swaddled your infant and forgot it bottle...again, our poor coaches suffer from neglect.
It's well being is predicated on the whims and moods of the current worker.
It's not his! He probably can't afford one at his pay scale... And you Mr. Rich Guy are for some reason a target of his loath...
Plus...They (Thor or..?) need laborers, so he really has to F-up really bad to lose his job.
This is your dream, your comfort and security away from home, to him, a paycheck. Ask him to put his name on it, see what happens.
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Old 09-07-2017, 10:45 PM   #12
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Well said (you're quite poetic!). And a good idea, find a way for the builders to put their "signatures" on each coach in some way, see if their pride kicks in. Or, management could put more emphasis on safety and quality, a little less on production times. A problem in nearly every industry.
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Old 05-22-2018, 05:27 PM   #13
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State: Alabama
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THOR #3772
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKConey View Post
I have this issue. Under the back decal is a dark discoloration that looks like mold, rust, or a bleeding of the color. It's only on the edges of the back decals. My rig is just over 1 year, so I don't know of it's covered under warranty, or is repairable at all?
Here's the rant. I live in Nevada but happened to be 2000 miles away from home, and close to the Thor factory. I called them up and was told that they are 3 months behind in repair appointments. I said I only wanted to stop by and have someone look at it to tell me what it was. They 3rd person I spoke to said they couldn't reach the service dept to ask, but without an appt they couldn't guarantee it would be looked at. It was late, and we had to be on our way to get home. What kind of support is that?
I have the same issue but on the decals on my entry door so everyone who comes to my door sees the discoloration that looks like rust. It is getting worse. I was wondering about sending a photo of it to Thor. Did you ever get any information about whether it is something that can be fixed?
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Old 05-22-2018, 05:32 PM   #14
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I attached a photo of rust colored discoloration on my door decal. (I’m not sure I did this right, though.) I would like to know if anyone else has had this issue with their Thor decals. I am considering just painting over it but would rather get it fixed right if that is possible — without too much expense.
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Old 05-22-2018, 06:19 PM   #15
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: Hurricane 31S
State: Texas
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Last summer, I had a landscaping trailer drag the rear of the coach while parked at a Cracker Barrel. Part of the rear cab was torn. The local Jayco dealer (Youngbloods) agreed to repair the coach and recommended that I go with a vinyl printed decal, as Thor could only supply the 2017 or 2018 style decal but not the 2016 decal for the rear. I agreed for the vinyl printed decal. On the bill, I noticed the insurance company was billed $89.00 for the decal. Thor quoted $125 for the 2018 rear decal. The vinyl decal is still holding up well but it is behind the spare tire (recent purchase) so it gets little sun.
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Old 05-22-2018, 08:22 PM   #16
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State: Georgia
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I would simply suggest that you just drop by your local dealer, where you purchased your unit, for an 'inspection' of your perceived problem, rather than ranting on Thor that just because they can't 'squeeze you in' that they are somehow 'at fault' for not providing you want you think you deserve.
I'll bet that your own dealer doesn't have the time either, and will want to schedule you an appointment time. Nothing is as simple as it may seem, especially when everyone is busy doing for others exactly what they were doing for you when you were buying your new RV.

Having said that, I would have cruised into the Thor service center, and simply asked if someone one could take a quick look at your unit. It doesn't hurt to ask, but when you only call, you can only expect that they are going to give you the 'normal' answer: you must have an appointment. That's the way the service center works. It's not a quick-change oil center drive thru, though I do love them, and they ARE convenient.
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Old 05-24-2018, 01:47 AM   #17
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: Thor Tuscany 36 MQ
State: Indiana
Posts: 936
THOR #6280
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKConey View Post
I have this issue. Under the back decal is a dark discoloration that looks like mold, rust, or a bleeding of the color. It's only on the edges of the back decals. My rig is just over 1 year, so I don't know of it's covered under warranty, or is repairable at all?
Here's the rant. I live in Nevada but happened to be 2000 miles away from home, and close to the Thor factory. I called them up and was told that they are 3 months behind in repair appointments. I said I only wanted to stop by and have someone look at it to tell me what it was. They 3rd person I spoke to said they couldn't reach the service dept to ask, but without an appt they couldn't guarantee it would be looked at. It was late, and we had to be on our way to get home. What kind of support is that?
Unfortunately this is typical at Thor. My rig is at Thor Warranty Repair in Wakarusa Indiana right now being repaired. I made the appointment 6 months ago.
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