Thor Forums

[gmtech16450yz]

Thanks again for the warm welcome guys! I just logged on and looked for this thread and saw the title I gave it and thought "Wow, I came on a little uppity in my first post didn't I?" Sorry. haha. I'm glad you guys took it in the humorous light that I meant it in.

Thanks for the heads up on the front windows! Are they actually leaking in from the outside or is it from condensation dripping through the inside of the frame and onto the walls? I do have the front part of the inner frames loose, I'll definitely look at how it's sealed before I screw it back together.

Yeah, I took a couple things apart didn't I? lol. This is the way I see things like this, which is actually exactly the same as the Yamaha boat I bought... Units like these Vegas and Axis RUV's have the right idea on the basic design. I like the concept of a lighter class C chassis but ditching all the front cab part and building on it like a class A. Class C's have always been a "workaround" as far as dealing with basically putting a big box on a little van front end. There's so much wasted weight by doing that, and the design obviously sucks for aerodynamics. We drove a brand new class C, then drove the Vegas and were amazed at how much less wind noise there was in the Vegas. The front ends aren't exactly pretty, but they're about the best way you can get 70mph air around a big box. That was the other difference, I accelerated onto the freeway in both motorhomes and when I looked down to see how fast I was going in the Vegas, I was at 80! It's much harder to push a class C that fast, even though they were both on E450's and weighed about the same.

Anyway, I can deal with build issues caused by poor workmanship. I can't turn an entire motorhome into something that it's not. The basic design is good. The floorplan is good. The chassis is good. Those are things I can't do much about. My Yamaha boat is exactly the same, I love the basic design. The boat is extremely well laid out, the rear deck alone is amazing and really no other boat is like it. The Yamaha engines are like all Yamaha engines, incredible power, efficiency and durability. But the way the boat is assembled? It's not as bad as these Thor's, but it's pretty bad.

The other factor obviously is cost. These Vegas/Axis motorhomes are pretty reasonably priced, kinda cheap actually. A Cadillac Escalade would have cost as much as we paid for this Vegas. We wouldn't have gotten back into getting an RV if it cost twice as much. So I just have to do a little work on it. Oh well. I'd much rather do the work now than on the side of the road somewhere.

Enough rambling for now. I'll give you guys a heads up on other potential problems I'm uncovering. The front A/C didn't work in one of the Vegas's we drove. I can see why, the line routing is terrible! Ours had a fitting smashed against another line and almost wore a hole through it already. The receiver/drier line had the hood hinge smashing into it, you'd never know it unless you were looking like I am with no dash and the hood closed. A couple thousand miles and it would have worn a hole in that line. Loose grounds everywhere, tons of places for wires to short out also. I could be a valuable adviser at the Thor assembly plant, but I tried that with Yamaha on the boat and realized they just don't care. And they're making more money building them fast and cr@ppy anyway. Sad.

Thanks again for the nice welcome guys, I appreciate it! I try to document more of what I'm doing on any particular project if I know there are good people that appreciate me taking the time to share what I learn. Internet forums are always interesting, they tend to have personalities of their own. This one seems nice!