More repair/warranty work!!!

[MRS JARHEAD]

We bought our 2015 Thor Challenger 37GT in May of this year. Brand spankin' new......It is back at the dealership for the 4th time since we bought it for "warranty work". We have had multiple, multiple problems and this time the front windshield had a water leak or shall I say "pour".....I guess my question to you experienced owners of "new" motorhomes, is it normal to bring a brand new rig back in for so many warranty problems? It's like we get it home and find something else....The dealership does the work without any questions, but it's usually between 4-8 weeks before we get it back...We try to wait until we get a list of problems before we bring it in, but the water leak couldn't wait......I'm really getting frustrated with the whole process...This is our first motorhome....

[brianh442]

Sorry to hear you've purchased a Thor product!! Take a look at this thread, there seems to be a problem with Thor quality control!

http://www.thorforums.com/forums/f17...4-2-a-408.html

[brad13]

Originally Posted by MRS JARHEAD

We bought our 2015 Thor Challenger 37GT in May of this year. Brand spankin' new......It is back at the dealership for the 4th time since we bought it for "warranty work". We have had multiple, multiple problems and this time the front windshield had a water leak or shall I say "pour".....I guess my question to you experienced owners of "new" motorhomes, is it normal to bring a brand new rig back in for so many warranty problems? It's like we get it home and find something else....The dealership does the work without any questions, but it's usually between 4-8 weeks before we get it back...We try to wait until we get a list of problems before we bring it in, but the water leak couldn't wait......I'm really getting frustrated with the whole process...This is our first motorhome....

Just had my brand spankin' new 2014 Thor ACE that I bought in February in for its 4th warranty repair. I think everything is OK for now.

[mmwoods]

I have a 2013 Thor Daybreak, the first year the coach was in the shop more than 8 months with major problems from water leaks in all the overhead running lights, loose slide motors (3 occasions), the front levelers brackets both were bent, screws were popping thru the linoleum and the whole floor had to be replaced. Those were all under warranty. This summer while traveling rivets holding the slide awning cover came out and was dangling along the side of the coach and ripped the cover. When I got to my destination, the top bar of the driver side storage came loose and the front door and the rear door was ajar. Warranty has expired. Thor has no quality control. I wrote a letter to Thor about all the problems but never got any answer so I think they must be so used to letters that they ignore them.

[MRS JARHEAD]

I have to say it is very disturbing to hear these remarks.......It certainly makes me think we made a big mistake in purchasing a Thor product.......I hope not but it's not looking too good....Thanks you all for your honesty and comments......

[mmwoods]

I wish you luck in your camping and traveling and hope my experience is not the norm.

[MRS JARHEAD]

Thank you mmwoods......I'm hoping this will be the last time my Challenger is in the shop for a while......Happy Camping to you!!!!

[Roddy53]

Sorry to hear about your problems but we too are very disappointed. We bought a 2014 Thor Challenger 37KT in April 2014. Guess what it spent 8 weeks of the summer in the repair shop. We have had so many problems that we no longer go to the deal we have to go the the factory for repairs. Our repair list has exceeded over 103 items. We have owned it almost a year now and have yet to have a camping trip without something failing. We are in Florida for 3 months we meet with every Thor owner that comes in the campground and we are hearing the same horror stories from all of them. My opinion owners should band together and try to get a class action suit against Thor.

[elevinsp1@aol.com]

wow
We just recently bought a Thor ACE 29.2
In the shop for a bent leveling shaft. I hope we are not gonna be regulars at the dealer repair shop. I have already spent about 4 hours fixing things myself.
Should I trade it for a Tiffin?
Thanks
In Haymarket, Va

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by elevinsp1@aol.com

wow
We just recently bought a Thor ACE 29.2
In the shop for a bent leveling shaft. I hope we are not gonna be regulars at the dealer repair shop. I have already spent about 4 hours fixing things myself.
Should I trade it for a Tiffin?
Thanks
In Haymarket, Va

Before trading for a Tiffin, check their forum and read some of the complaints such as 11,000 miles in the first year of which 8,000 were back and forth to the factory for repairs.

I know someone that bought a Tif last year and he has been to Alabama three times for warranty repairs. On his shakedown cruise he developed a two page list of warranty repairs.

All RV brands have their problems. My prior coach was a Forest River and it had problems as well. The major issue was every repair required 2 trips to the dealer. The first trip was to repair the warranty item and the second trip was to fix what they broke while repairing the warranty item. Usually the second problem was not identified until after I got the coach back home and all systems hooked up or I went out on the road again.

[davidgebo]

We are bringing our 2014 Vegas in for the 7th warranty repair trip. 70 miles each way, ruined vacations, aggravation and disappointment, and we finally are giving up. After these repairs, we are dumping this POS. We don't want any more tension and upset on our vacations. We are trading for a towable, and not looking back. The wife will not travel in this coach any more. Too bad, since it handles great, and gets good fuel mileage, and is very nimble and peppy in traffic. I do love driving it, but am tiring of waiting for next breakdown, which we know will come, due to the poor build quality and quality of the cheap components. The last straw was the last trip, when my wife became trapped in the bathroom when the latch system broke, and we couldn't open the folding doors. I had to pull over on the interstate, very dangerous, and rip open the doors. We are done with Thor. We will not be buying another Thor product. They are much more interested in acquiring more RV companies, than they are in providing quality vehicles from the companies they currently own. WE gave Thor 10 chances to make us happy, they failed. The last trip out, 3 more items failed. You had your chance, Thor.

[elevinsp1@aol.com]

Originally Posted by dstankov

Before trading for a Tiffin, check their forum and read some of the complaints such as 11,000 miles in the first year of which 8,000 were back and forth to the factory for repairs.

I know someone that bought a Tif last year and he has been to Alabama three times for warranty repairs. On his shakedown cruise he developed a two page list of warranty repairs.

All RV brands have their problems. My prior coach was a Forest River and it had problems as well. The major issue was every repair required 2 trips to the dealer. The first trip was to repair the warranty item and the second trip was to fix what they broke while repairing the warranty item. Usually the second problem was not identified until after I got the coach back home and all systems hooked up or I went out on the road again.

[elevinsp1@aol.com]

Hmmm
How about a "park model" on an open trailer?

[EA37TS]

Just think about it:

How many times have you placed blame on Thor when in all actuality the problem is with the supplier of materials.

For example, my 2015 Challenger has condensation built up in the parking lights. This condition did not develop until after the rig was in my driveway for 2 weeks. Should Thor QC have found the problem? Should the dealer have found the problem? Should I have found the problem during the PDI? The answer is no to all three because the problem didn't exist when I bought the unit. Did Thor, the dealer or myself manufacture the lights with inferior seals, no we did not.

Another example is a fire extinguisher recall. Did Thor knowingly installed a recalled fire extinguisher in my coach? I doubt they did because Kiddie did not publicly announce the recall. They announced the recall to retail outlets that bought the products then relied on those retailers to notify customers they have a defective unit.

As I told Thor, the use of a shop vac before installing drawers would go a long way; but news flash, I had the same issue with my previous Forest River.

Also, and this is going to be a slap in the face to most folks; you are not a customer of Thor. The customer is the dealer which purchased the unit from Thor for the purpose of reselling it. If you want proof of this just look at Thor's annual report filed with the SEC. Their largest customer and greatest risk to declining sales is the parent company to the Jiffy Lube of the RV world; Camping World. In the case of my unit, Thor built it and did their quality inspection. The unit was driven 850 miles from Thor's plant to the dealer. It is the dealer that should have checked the unit over before selling it to me and it is me that should have demanded that during the PDI the unit be fully connected so all systems could be thoroughly checked.

Thor is a stock company and their primary purpose is to keep stockholders happy. If you want to deal with a private company whose primary purpose is to make you happy drop the 500 to 1 mil for a custom coach that can take 3 to 4 months for the simplest repair.

As to going to a towable; good luck with that move. In December I talked to someone in a new (2015) 5er that had been sitting in a camp ground with a busted spring for 3 days. A friend of ours has a travel trailer and she is constantly repairing something or another.

Quite frankly, so far I am relatively pleased with the quality I see in my coach for its price point. I will add however, that my unit left Thor's plant as a "show unit" so there may have been some additional oversight.

Again, just food for thought.

[elevinsp1@aol.com]

I agree
Seems that all makes have issues
I will deal with em as they come along
Thanks for the reply
I am new into RV life and guess repairs are slow in this world

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by elevinsp1@aol.com

I agree
Seems that all makes have issues
I will deal with em as they come along
Thanks for the reply
I am new into RV life and guess repairs are slow in this world

Repairs can be extremely slow in this world. unfortunately the "real slow" time (May through Sept) is rapidly approaching.

On my Forest River, my power awning deployed (came out) while driving 55 mph on Interstate 95. Luckily it happened as I was preparing to exit the highway for home. The awning was under a Dometic recall and I had not been notified by Dometic or Forest River of any vehicle or system recalls. It took two months before I could get the coach into any service center just to look at the awning, let alone do the repair. Once I selected a service center Dometic pre sent all parts and materials which were on-hand when I arrived (two months later) but it still took the service center three weeks to complete the repair.

Also, Forest River only tracks major items such as AC units, refrig, stove, microwave and televisions by serial number and VIN. The component list I received from Thor, upon my request, has everything with a serial number listed to include awning motor, awning mounts, dash radio, etc... In this regard my hat goes off to Thor. Thor seems to have far better records of how my coach is configured and seem more willing to share this info than Forest River was.

Heck, Forest River never, ever contacted me after buying that rig. Thor called the house within two weeks. I believe the lag time is a result of the dealer's notification to Thor and their registration of the warranty on my behalf.

[Nursx2]

Thor does not have a problem with quality in their motorhomes -------there is NO quality and Thor has no problem with that fact!

[FW28z]

One issue I think you will find if you change brands is they all use the same items from 3rd party vendors. There are some exceptions to be sure, but things like bathroom latches are made by someone else, and if they are the cheapest, they are bound to find their way into multiple brands.

One example is the tail lights I have on my rig, which are very popular with motorhomes. Problem is - mine leak. I am not sure how widespread this issue is, and how many others have experienced leaking tail lights.

So on one hand, you cannot blame and particular RV manufacturer for a supplier's defective product, you can blame them for selecting such a trouble-prone product.

The up-scale motorhomes, or at least the premium model motorhomes tend to use different brand tail lights.

I am replacing my tail lights this spring with the upscale ones that don't seem to have a leak problem.

I did talk to a supplier to the RV industry that I am acquainted with, and he sells upscale systems. He has a hard time selling to the industry as a whole as they are interested in the lowest prices.The RV manufacturer mindset is the least expensive is the best.

Mind you, this is just one person's perspective.

In boats, the old adage for some manufacturers was that a boat is built to only last as long as the warranty, and I wonder if the RV industry is any different.

It should not be that way, but as long as we insist on paying under $100k for a 30+ ft. motorhome with 3 flat screen TVs, two air conditioners, leather seating, upscale interiors, and other forms of electronic and mechanical bling, it's going to continue.

I saw a motorhome the other day that had a 32" TV that was on a motorized lift that made it disappear inside a cabinet. This was in a sub $100k RV. That lift probably cost $400 to include, which means the manufacturer had to cut $400 somewhere else.

Personally, I recognize that fact, and I would rather have a RV with a fixed TV and not cut corners to make up that $400. But how many people would be mesmerized by such bling and make their buying decisions on it. As a buying public, we're buying bling.

Remember, a motorhome is just a glorified tent.

[Nursx2]

FW, you make a great point and strong argument. Your words are so true! Well stated!


I have more TV's in my Hurricane than in my house - 5 in the RV and 3 in my home! However, I did not purchase the RV for that reason, but am just as guilty as the rest! I did not purchase it for the TV's however, but I will admit, I was taken by the outside kitchen and full body slide when choosing this model, so I am guilty as charged!

[RMS31W]

Yes, all brands and all types have problems. Even super high end like Prevost and Newell's have their issues (usually electrical) for the sum of 1.5- 2 million. Sometimes the more expensive units have more issues because everything on those coaches are automated. For me it's the repair side that is really lacking. Waiting several months to get into a facility to look at the problem then waiting for warranty authorization and shipping of the part can take an eternity. Then there's the problem of getting a tech that knows what he's doing is another big issue. I also think another problem with quality is due to the weight issue. Everything is either veneered, laminated, glued and stapled of lightweight and sometimes "faux" materials that make up the RV. Maybe someday the quality will be more like the automotive industry, but remember they've had a 60 year head start to work out most of their Q/C issues.