THOR MOTOR COACH Complaints

The contact owned a 2018 Thor Chateau. The contact stated that while her husband was driving at 45 MPH, he saw another vehicle encroaching into his lane head-on from the opposite lane. As her husband began to veer the camper to the right side of the roadway, the other vehicle sideswiped the driver’s side of the camper and the inside of the camper immediately caught on fire. The fire quickly spread throughout the camper as her husband lost complete control of the vehicle. The contact's husband was forced to exit the vehicle through the passenger’s side window. Her husband’s jacket caught on fire and he was forced to roll in the snow to put out the flames. Her husband was taken to the hospital and treated for second-degree burns to his left hand and scalp. The jaws of life had to be used to extract the other driver from his vehicle and he was also taken to the hospital and treated for multiple fractures. The fire department and police department were called to the scene and the fire department extinguished the fire. A fire and police report were filed. The accident had remained under investigation and the exact cause of the fire had yet to be determined. The vehicle was towed to a junkyard where it was deemed a total loss. The dealer nor the manufacturer were notified of the failure. The vehicle had been destroyed. The failure mileage was approximately 12,400.

The front cap above the drivers and passenger compartment come loose from the body. Mine has been to a few dealers and back to Thor's plant. They supposedly fixed it at Thor. But it is coming apart again. After Thor's head management came out and looked at it this last time they told me their is no internal support for the hole front cap. It's held on by self tapping screws where it meets the body of the camper and a few where it meets the truck cap. It is a fiber glass shell that flexes up and down while going down the road. The rear cap is the same way the screws that mount it to the camper are over tightened and fractures the screw heads. Both of these issues are very common on the Omni and Magnitude. The other issue is the suspension the chassis they put it on is to light for some models. Mine being one of the models the bh35. If a 18 wheeler passes you it will almost throw you off the road. Even if the rv is empty. Everyone with one of these. Has to put spring helpers on it to make it not such a handful. The tow hitch on them Is rated at 10,000 lbs and 1,000 lbs of tongue weight. However the ccc of the rv is only 1402lbs meaning if you put a 1,000 lbs tongue weight trailer on it. That only leaves 402 lbs of weight for inside. If you have a driver and passenger in it weighing 200 lbs a piece that leaves 2lbs for your clothes, food, water, bedding ,or anybody you might want to bring with you. The numbers here don't add up to me. And I believe this is a safety problem. Then the electric transfer switch. they put the fresh water tank in the same spot as all the electrical. Including the fuse panel, breaker box for 12v and 220ac power. They have left many wires loose on the transfer switch causing a buzzing noise. This has happened on many rigs. And the water tank leaks on many as well including mine it will flood the floor. Thor supposedly fixed this as well. Mine is still leaking. To me all these issues makes Mine unsafe to use.

On the Thor forum noticed others with an Omni/Magnatude complaining of the front cap overhead bunk are coming loose from the coach, inspected mine and had the same issue going on, screws pushing out through the molding and my front cap also bounced a lot and rattled and heard loud popping noises coming from it. Contacted Thor and their response was, I am out of my 1 year warranty by a few months and they were not going to cover it under the structural warranty. I took the molding off the outside of the coach that covers the screws that hold the front cap on, there are 10 on each side, on the left side found 7 broke off and the other 3 had backed out, on the right side found 6 broke off and the other 4 backed out. Found multiple holes where screws were put in and broke off from using screw guns. Removed the interior trim and bunk to find the screws that attach the cab to the cap, found small self tapping screws screwed into thin sheet metal, also found the aluminum frame for the bunk was only tack welded together in spots and the welds were coming apart. Where the cap attaches on the roof found all of the screws backing out through the sealant. Where the cap overlaps the side of the coach there was no sealant/adhesive. This is a dangerous situation that could cause the front cap to come off while driving that could cause a wreck. The cap is attached very poorly.

While on the Thor Forum I noticed a topic on the Omni/Magnatude motorhome of a recall on the propane line passing through the left rear leaf spring, mine was not listed in the recall but wanted to check and make sure that my propane hose did not pass through that area, it did not. This RV has used propane up a little faster than our previous motor homes so while I was under the RV decided to inspect the hoses, found where the hose passes over the frame it was being pinched by the coach floor above and the frame below, while trying to move it back a few inches to an open area the hose would not move, got a flashlight and was looking for what was holding and saw nothing, thought maybe it had some glue on it and tried to slide a screw driver above it and hit something, pushed the hose down and shined the light above it and found where Thor during assembly ran a screw through the floor and right through the hose, found my propane leak. Contacted Thor and told them about it through email, their response was, thank you for bringing it to our attention and we are going to pass it on to improve their assembly process. No bring it in to have it fixed/inspected or we will reimburse you for any out of pocket expenses to have it fixed. Darn lucky that this did not injure or kill my family from fire or an explosion since the leak was about 4 feet from the furnace.

We read on the Thor motor coach forum that there is an open recall on Omnis and Magnitudes built after 9/1/2020 for damage to LP gas line caused by the way it was routed near the springs. Our manufacture date is prior to this date, but my husband crawled under our unit just to have a look. Fortunately he did because we have a pretty severely damaged line! Thor has agreed to fix it, but has not altered their recall notice. Based on other chatter on this same forum, one owner discovered his LP line actually has a screw that protruded into his line through the floor decking. These units are ticking time bombs! Additionally, we believe our coach is beginning to show symptoms of 'cap separation' - ie the bunk over the cab of the F550 chasis is separating from the rest of the RV 'box'. Again, the forum has numerous cases where owners have thried to get Thor to address this issue, but seems to fall on deaf ears. These caps are at risk of faling off the unit while travelling at highway speeds which can create catastopic accidents. The separation is occuring because of poor workmanship and use of screws that are not substantial enough to hold and/or too few of them. First symptom is the popping of trim pieces due to broken screws. Our local dealer replaced the broken screws causing the popping but won't look any further as Thor is not willing to compensate them.

It seems that Thor did not install the proper amount of wall screws to the floor. This is causing wall separation the causing the dash to come loose from the walls and cause the steering column to be unstable This is a high rate of failure on these units on the Thor outlaw toy hauler models

The front entry area and steps are falling down leaving an opening between the lower step and door (pictures in attached file). Every time we enter the coach the steps sag, drop, and the floor dips. What if we or someone falls as the steps drop, or falls through the floor? We are also concerned if they will just fall out while we are driving down the road?! When inspected by the Camping World Service Technician, the attachment bolts that hold the step box to the main flooring frame screws broke and the box and steps are falling down. He showed me the screws were improperly installed during manufacturing and described in writing what must be done to correct, and I forwarded the repair order (attached file) to Thor Motor Coach (TMC). TMC replied they will only advise. The Technician completed the Safety Recall 20V-804 for the Overhead Cabinets falling down on my Coach and is waiting for the TMC special tool for the Coach Windows Safety Recall. We noticed it about a year ago, however it has continued to get worse the past several months. We believe this is safety for us and others!

On Sunday afternoon 20 June while traveling westbound on I-10 about 50 miles east of Ft. Stockton, TX, the passenger side rear slideout extended on its own. This slideout is about 2 feet deep so the width of my motor home suddenly changed from 8.5 feet wide to 10.5 feet wide. Fortunately there was little traffic on I-10 at this time. I was able to pull to the shoulder and used wood blocks in an effort to keep the slideout from extending. These blocks held until reaching Ft. Stockton where we were able to get off I-10 and into the first campground we came to. By this time the slideout had extended on its own again. I was able to get a truck mechanic to use cargo straps to strap this slideout in place so it would not extend and returned home to Alabama. My RV mechanic had found that both Lippert slideout cylinders had gone into bypass allowing the slideout to extend on its own. By this time the opposite slideout was giving me the same problem and one of its cylinders was found to have gone into bypass. This drivers side slideout gave me the same problem on I-25 southbound about 100 miles north of Denver last summer. A Lippert slideout cylinder was again found to have gone into the bypass mode. And fortunately for me again there was little traffic on this section of I-25. My RV has three slideouts and each slideout is controlled by two Lippert slideout cylinders. In the past two years I've now had three Lippert slideout cylinders fail by going into bypass and allowing two slideouts to extend while traveling on interstate highways. Fortunately, I was traveling in areas with little traffic, but the outcome could have been tragic if I was traveling I-10 through Houston or I-25 through Denver. I've included pictures of these three Lippert slideout cylinders with the part number data tags clearly shown. My recommendation is for an immediate investigation to get this suspect lot of Lippert slideout cylinders off the highway.

The contact owns a 2017 Thor Challenger Motorhome. The contact stated that while driving at 65 MPH, an abnormally loud banging sound was heard and another vehicle honked the contact, alerting him to look in the rearview mirror. The contact noticed styrofoam flying from the motorhome and the external compartment door flapping open. The contact pulled over and examined the RV and became aware that one of the external compartment door skin had separated from the glue. The contact used masking tape to tape the separated door compartment and four other door compartments that were starting to separate as well. The vehicle was not repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure but informed the contact that the warranty had expired. The contact related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V845000 (Structure) however, the VIN was not included in the recall. The failure mileage was 19,100.

SUBJECT: WIPER ON DRIVER SIDE. 2017 THOR AXIS MOTORHOME. WIPER SWEEP (FROM CENTER PARK) STOPS MID-LEFT HAND BEFORE RETURNING TO PARK POSITION. THUS, THE BLADE STOPS DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF THE DRIVER VIEW FORWARD, OBSTRUCTING ONCOMING TRAFFIC VIEW TO THE LEFT OF THE DRIVERS FIELD OF VISION. THE WIPER BLADE DOES NOT CLEAR RAIN ALL THE WAY TO THE LEFT SIDE OF THE DRIVERS VIEW. THOR MOTORS CLAIMS THERE IS NO FIX, AND OTHER OWNERS HAVE MADE THE SAME COMPLAINT ON THE THOR FORUM SITE.