Thor Forums

[davidgebo]

I gave Thor the benefit of the doubt, in the first few months. I defended the company at first. Now, after a full year of ownership, with ruined trips, cancelled reservations because of workmanship and QC problems, aggravation and fuel costs for driving back and forth for warranty work, we are done. It is a shame. The Vegas handles well, is fun to drive, nimble in traffic and tight spaces, and gets 10 MPG. The wife getting trapped in the bathroom was the final straw. I know from doing some of the repairs myself, that some components Thor uses are really cheap. The drawer slides are very flimsy, and have actually fallen apart, after they came loose from the mounting points. They came loose because Thor uses one tiny screw in the rear flange to hold the entire slide and heavy drawer. This drawer is large, and is intended for pots and pans and should have a more substantial support system. I plan to replace the slides with heavier components. Simple issues like this tell me that Thor is not interested in longevity of their products. I have discovered many instances of inferior components and application in this coach. Another example: the cabinet door struts are extremely flimsy, and they are attached to the cabinet by a small screw. There is no washer or any type of isolation between the strut pivot movement and the cabinet wood, allowing the wood to abrade, and the screw to loosen in the first week of use. This is such a glaring example of poor workmanship that is so obvious as to be laughable. Any fool could see that this application will fail almost immediately. These are just two examples of stupendously stupid build quality by Thor. Some of the components Thor uses are typical, such as Norcold, Atwood, Coleman, and other quality pieces. Most of these things are tried and true. I will maintain that Thor quality control issues, and extremely poor application of some components has led to such a poor record of customer satisfaction and high failure rate. Just open any drawer and look inside the bottom of the compartment, you will see piles of sawdust and wood chips that should have been cleaned out before final assembly. I also found 10 feet of loose, extra cables and wires stuffed under the drawer. Under a moveable drawer, which will result, eventually in a wiring problem. In fairness, I found similar situations in our high-end Tiffin coach. We had a lot of problems with that coach as well, though the workmanship was not nearly as shoddy as the Thor coach. I know from experience of owning and repairing RVs for 30 years that the repairs I make will last. The little alterations I do should have been done at the factory, cost little more to do correctly, and would add up to years of contented ownership. Come on, Thor people, wake up! It is not too difficult to make a superior motorhome. I am sure NO ONE who designs these motorhomes is an RV user and owner. If that was the case, most of the design flaws would not leave the drawing boards. I have made suggestions to various Thor reps on how to improve the finished product, but I fear they fell on deaf ears.