Community Forums

Rapid Robert · 04-07-2011, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rapid Robert

Sure hope your right, I need a break and some fun! I spent the day pulling the sinks and faucets and sealing them. No sealer was used and the sink edges had cut through the painted on (Solid Surface) and allowed water to reach the low quality pressed wood sub-straight and now the counter top is pretty much toast and we have just 600 miles on the unit and have never used the sink. Sometimes the kitchen faucet burps out water after you shut it off and if you have the cover on the sink it will run off and on to the counter (wipe it up fast) and use a lot of wax on the counters. This is just incredible that they would put this total junk in a coach and sell it as Solid Surface even formica at least would be durable. So what do you do, fight to get them to replace it with the same crap, try to find a dealer to do it, leave it there while they order and tear out the bad one, and probably screw up something else in the process? No, I don't think so, as always they get off easy, I will use it until it becomes so bad I have to replace it with real Solid Surface tops. Meanwhile Thor is banking that all the others out there will last until the warranty runs out. I sure hope I'm getting close to the end of the serious stuff and can concentrate on the small fun stuff.
They have a chance for a terrific coach here with a few more bucks spent in the right places and a whole lot more quality control in putting them together. We were going to go with the new Tiffen puller but were swayed by all the storage and the great layout, this just seemed like a better design all around, now I wonder.
Enough sour grapes for now, better times ahead I'm sure!

Well I now know the dealer hoodwinked me on the counter tops, ours are not SOLID SURFACE but in fact low grade composit painted. They look great but are not durable at all. If you have these seal around your sinks and keep a good car wax on them, I am using Meguiars and it seems to work good.

rkm1201 · 05-19-2011, 03:08 PM

We are downsizing from a beautiful Vintage 40ft. Vogue Diesel pusher. We get 10mpg towing an Element.
We've looked at the Serrano, the Tiffin Breeze and would love to see the Monaco Vesta. The Serrano and the Breeze are not too far apart in price and the Monaco Vesta is a good 40K more. We love the outside/inside storage and floorplan in the Serrano but are concerned with Quality Control issues. We love the quality of the Breeze but there doesn't seem to be enough storage. I'm assuming Vesta is a quality rig but have heard it's a heavier rig with maybe not enough power and low mpg.
Any thoughts guys? It seems like mostly guys are on these posts but i'm the one with time to do the research and report in to the currently employed husband.

DriVer · 05-19-2011, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkm1201

I'm assuming Vesta is a quality rig but have heard it's a heavier rig with maybe not enough power and low mpg..

For more information about Vesta, please read my Blog;
I Drive The 2011 Monaco Vesta

TXiceman · 05-19-2011, 06:34 PM

The inspection program is something that should be done by any decent supplier. But the inspection program will not do away with the requirement to design the quality into the product in the first place.

So until the manufactures do a better job of designing, the inspection programs are just a lot of words and a cover up. But it is encouraging that some manufacturers are seeing that they do have a problem.

Now we will see if the products from some of the manufacturers actually improve.

Ken

TexasSprinter · 05-20-2011, 08:14 AM

I can tell you that on the Serrano, the design has not been the problem. I like almost everything about the design. The water drain valve on the fresh water tank takes a contortionist, but that's about the worst of the design. It is the execution of that design where Thor has had problems - kinked hoses, water leaks, drains installed crooked, etc.

We're lucky in that we have a great dealer that has done wonderful work to make everything right. They've taken out windows and reinstalled them, they've reworked sinks, drains, and pipes. They've aligned slide stops, adjusted door locks, etc.

So I have mixed recommendations on the unit - the design is great, it drives wonderfully, gets great mileage and lives very well. And it fits in a lot of places that others don't as it is narrower, the slides are narrower, and it turns very tight.

But you need to go over the particular unit with a fine toothed comb and you need to have a dealer that you trust to do warranty work after your first few shake-downs.

I keep thinking that it would be cheaper for Thor to do it right at the factory than pay the dealer to do it later, but I'm not sure they think that way.

DriVer · 05-20-2011, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by COSerrano

I keep thinking that it would be cheaper for Thor to do it right at the factory than pay the dealer to do it later, but I'm not sure they think that way.

A machine may be perfect when it comes off the CAD/CAM computers and in theory the designs are excellent.

Implement that design into a production line that is dependent on just in time and time is money and you can see what the final objective is. Time & money. It would be a more perfect world if time wasn't so expensive and it probably has little to do with the guy that's building the RV.

Rapid Robert · 05-21-2011, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkm1201

We are downsizing from a beautiful Vintage 40ft. Vogue Diesel pusher. We get 10mpg towing an Element.
We've looked at the Serrano, the Tiffin Breeze and would love to see the Monaco Vesta. The Serrano and the Breeze are not too far apart in price and the Monaco Vesta is a good 40K more. We love the outside/inside storage and floorplan in the Serrano but are concerned with Quality Control issues. We love the quality of the Breeze but there doesn't seem to be enough storage. I'm assuming Vesta is a quality rig but have heard it's a heavier rig with maybe not enough power and low mpg.
Any thoughts guys? It seems like mostly guys are on these posts but i'm the one with time to do the research and report in to the currently employed husband.

The truth is that it is almost always the women that make the decision on what RV to buy. It's the guys who do all the complaining about the quality problems. The industry is very aware of this and they focus on comfort, decorating, workable floor plans, closet space, kitchens and all the other nuances in the coach. We men are far more interested in the mechanical things and how they are put together. These things are often hidden or even overlooked because we get excited when the better half falls in love with RV. We are just smart enough to realize that if she is happy and in large part helped make the final decision we are good to go. This allows us, at least in the back of our minds to know if things go completely south we can be at lease partly exempt from blame.
The Serrano has most of the good qualities I mentioned along with a good helping of mostly minor but annoying quality issues as well. It would be my guess that this is true with most RV's today as the cutbacks at all factories have taken a toll on the bottom line. As noted by COserrano be sure to do your due diligence on the RV's and just as important the dealer and try to buy from one close to you as you will be returning for service multiple times unless your husband likes to work on it himself.

Just my thoughts!

Rapid Robert · 05-21-2011, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DriVer

A machine may be perfect when it comes off the CAD/CAM computers and in theory the designs are excellent.

Implement that design into a production line that is dependent on just in time and time is money and you can see what the final objective is. Time & money. It would be a more perfect world if time wasn't so expensive and it probably has little to do with the guy that's building the RV.

They save the time and we pay the money!
It is always far more cost efficient to do things right the first time, unless of course you can force the consumer to fix it himself by making it more costly or problematic for him to return it!

DriVer · 05-21-2011, 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rapid Robert

They save the time and we pay the money!

I'm going to remain optimistic and hope that the Gold Star Inspection Program and others like it improve the products that we buy with few to 0 defects on delivery.

rkm1201 · 05-22-2011, 05:46 PM

I'm going to try to do a spread sheet comparison of the Thor Serrano, the Tiffin Breeze and the Monaco Vesta. The weight difference between the Vesta and the Serrano and Breeze is quite significant. I hear on their website they were going after better mpg so I'm a little befuddled about the thousands of pounds more in weight.

TexasSprinter · 05-23-2011, 07:48 AM

If you need any help with the spreadsheet, let me know. We actually wanted to consider the Breeze, but they just kept pushing back the release of it to the point that we needed to make a decision and we still couldn't see one!

Robot9000 · 05-26-2011, 01:11 PM

Okay, so I took delivery of my 2011 Daybreak a couple weeks ago. I love the layout and had a previous Daybreak so I knew what I was getting into.

But the Gold Star inspection missed:

CO2/LP detector that puts out a high pitched whine. The OEM knows about it and sent me a replacement. I didn't bother with going to the dealer.

My Leveler pump leaks. There was oil all over the bottom of the compartment this is in when I got it home (never ran the levelers myself before I saw the oil, so it was not like it happened once I got the unit home). I have a trip planned and will have the dealer fix this once I get back. The jacks don't leak down so its not a show stopper, but still....

Heat ducts are full of sawdust. Once I turned on the furnace, stuff was blowing out like confetti. I had to unscrew the duct covers and vacuum it all out. Blech.

Minorish nits? Sure. But so much for the Gold Star Inspection. Especially on the leaking leveler pump.

rkm1201 · 05-27-2011, 11:03 AM

It must be very frustrating for the design team to come up with an ingenious design/layout only to have the actual quality of production sabotage their efforts. Once a product or company gets a bad reputation it's difficult to once again get the public to trust in your product enough to purchase it with their hard earned money. Especially when they know it will depreciate in value. We, the consumer public, are taking a chance that the product is what the company advertises it to be.
For example, Winnebago has always had a pretty good reputation for quality, no? But many folks I've read on other sites are having trouble with their new Reyo. One couple had so many things go wrong they tried to give it back to Winnebago, but Winnebago would not take it....something about lemon laws do not apply to RV's in their state. I only bring this up because it may be that every co. is cutting back on personnel to save costs and increas profit but somewhere a line gets crossed where that policy backfires and is counterproductive and once a good reputation is lost it's hard to get it back again.

Robot9000 · 06-01-2011, 11:18 AM

We took our first trip and everything went pretty well. Steps decided to start retracting no matter what position the over ride switch is in, but then started working normal...

My problem is that for $100K, you should danm well get a vehicle that is perfect. Can you imagine if people went to pick up their Porsche or BMW and found dirt in the corners, and it was well known that you have to put a few hundred miles on the car and a couple trips back to the dealer to get all the bugs worked out ?!?