Leather or Vinyl for Captains Chairs

Roman Duck wrote:
we've sat in leather and vinyl seats and I would rather have cloth as when we drive naked we don't stick to the cloth, like we do with leather or vinyl.

I'm glad we are not the only ones who feel this way.

I like cloth. But that being said, we just purchased a 40' MH.
IT HAS the fo leather and I find that I don't sweat that much in it.

rgatijnet1 wrote:
If you plan to keep the coach another 9 years, I would go with REAL leather and not the Ultra Leather, which is a vinyl. REAL leather tends to get softer with use, if it is maintained properly, and should last for the remaining life of your coach. If you current seats are serviceable, any auto upholstery shop should be able to update your existing coach chairs with new foam and covers.

Need to correct some information, which should probably help. Ultraleather is NOT Vinyl. It is Urethane. Urethane is a much more durable product, and therefore can be made much thinner, which gives a much softer feel. It is also hydroscopic, so you do not stick to it like you would vinyl or leather or itch like cloth. My Ultraleather seats are going on ~80K miles, and still look pretty good. The cording has poked through on the driver's seat on the end, but the actual seat its self is fine. They are also easy to clean, and will stand up to strong soap, like 409. If were to look at my engine install pics, you would see a very greasing engine, inches away from white seats. Yes, they are still white.

WARNING: There was an imposter who sold some cheap product to Winnie and a few other brands under the name of Ultraleather. This product was not true Ultraleather and did not hold up. I think the manufacturer advertised Ultraleather, but then used something else. Its too bad, as the real Ultraleather product is an exceptional product. Not sure how one would identify the imposter of the real company, other than doing an internet search and finding where each product was made.

ScottG wrote:
People are going to hate this but vinyl will out last leather 10 to 1.
Check out any old cars from the 60's or 70's. The leather ones are shot where the vinyl often still looks new.
Anything will outlast leather and stay looking good longer without splits or cracking.
A final note, only the wear surface is generally real leather anyway (the part that cracks first) the rest is vinyl.
JMO.

+2 on that Scott, I saw the same thing over and over back in my "loves antique cars" days, before kids came, now "loves Harleys" era. I would take a quality Naugahyde synthetic leather over a cheap grade of real leather any day. However if you compare the leather in our BMX X3 to the leather in our Toyotas, you'd want to find where THAT leather comes from! :)

wny_pat wrote:

ScottG wrote:

rgatijnet1 wrote:

ScottG wrote:
People are going to hate this but vinyl will out last leather 10 to 1.
Check out any old cars from the 60's or 70's. The leather ones are shot where the vinyl often still looks new.
Anything will outlast leather and stay looking good longer without splits or cracking.
A final note, only the wear surface is generally real leather anyway (the part that cracks first) the rest is vinyl.
JMO.

As someone who has restored quite a few Classic cars of the 50's and 60's, I have to disagree. Properly maintained, leather will far outlast vinyl.
If the RV owner, or any old car owner, totally ignores his seats, and just lets them age in the sun, then both will deteriorate. There are some fine Classic cars out there with the original leather still serviceable, that were built before vinyl was even used in production.

I wrote this post because I too am involved in classic car restoration (just completed a Thunderbird).
I have never seen original leather no matter how well it was kept that held up as well as vinyl clad models. Vinyl OTOH, almost is always good unless it has sat in the sun and even then, seats are often fine. I simple trip to a junk yard will give the OP firm evidence on the life span of leather interiors.

Scott,
Think you should take a look at Ron's profile and open his website before sticking your neck out to far.

Well, I could post websites, pictures, projects, etc, but I consider all that showing off since it has nothing to do with RVing.
And, it doesn't change the facts.
Personally I don't care about changing someones mind. I put the facts out there full well knowing it would bruise some peoples ego's.
So I will end this by saying again, if it's that important to someone then go to any junk yard that makes a living off newer cars and look at interiors.

ScottG wrote:

rgatijnet1 wrote:

ScottG wrote:
People are going to hate this but vinyl will out last leather 10 to 1.
Check out any old cars from the 60's or 70's. The leather ones are shot where the vinyl often still looks new.
Anything will outlast leather and stay looking good longer without splits or cracking.
A final note, only the wear surface is generally real leather anyway (the part that cracks first) the rest is vinyl.
JMO.

As someone who has restored quite a few Classic cars of the 50's and 60's, I have to disagree. Properly maintained, leather will far outlast vinyl.
If the RV owner, or any old car owner, totally ignores his seats, and just lets them age in the sun, then both will deteriorate. There are some fine Classic cars out there with the original leather still serviceable, that were built before vinyl was even used in production.

I wrote this post because I too am involved in classic car restoration (just completed a Thunderbird).
I have never seen original leather no matter how well it was kept that held up as well as vinyl clad models. Vinyl OTOH, almost is always good unless it has sat in the sun and even then, seats are often fine. I simple trip to a junk yard will give the OP firm evidence on the life span of leather interiors.

Scott,
Think you should take a look at Ron's profile and open his website before sticking your neck out to far.

ScottG wrote:

rgatijnet1 wrote:

ScottG wrote:
People are going to hate this but vinyl will out last leather 10 to 1.
Check out any old cars from the 60's or 70's. The leather ones are shot where the vinyl often still looks new.
Anything will outlast leather and stay looking good longer without splits or cracking.
A final note, only the wear surface is generally real leather anyway (the part that cracks first) the rest is vinyl.
JMO.

As someone who has restored quite a few Classic cars of the 50's and 60's, I have to disagree. Properly maintained, leather will far outlast vinyl.
If the RV owner, or any old car owner, totally ignores his seats, and just lets them age in the sun, then both will deteriorate. There are some fine Classic cars out there with the original leather still serviceable, that were built before vinyl was even used in production.

I wrote this post because I too am involved in classic car restoration (just completed a Thunderbird).
I have never seen original leather no matter how well it was kept that held up as well as vinyl clad models. Vinyl OTOH, almost is always good unless it has sat in the sun and even then, seats are often fine. I simple trip to a junk yard will give the OP firm evidence on the life span of leather interiors.

Cars that end up in the junk yard are perfect examples of vehicles that were not properly maintained.

rgatijnet1 wrote:

ScottG wrote:
People are going to hate this but vinyl will out last leather 10 to 1.
Check out any old cars from the 60's or 70's. The leather ones are shot where the vinyl often still looks new.
Anything will outlast leather and stay looking good longer without splits or cracking.
A final note, only the wear surface is generally real leather anyway (the part that cracks first) the rest is vinyl.
JMO.

As someone who has restored quite a few Classic cars of the 50's and 60's, I have to disagree. Properly maintained, leather will far outlast vinyl.
If the RV owner, or any old car owner, totally ignores his seats, and just lets them age in the sun, then both will deteriorate. There are some fine Classic cars out there with the original leather still serviceable, that were built before vinyl was even used in production.

I wrote this post because I too am involved in classic car restoration (just completed a Thunderbird).
I have never seen original leather no matter how well it was kept that held up as well as vinyl clad models. Vinyl OTOH, almost is always good unless it has sat in the sun and even then, seats are often fine. I simple trip to a junk yard will give the OP firm evidence on the life span of leather interiors.

we've sat in leather and vinyl seats and I would rather have cloth as when we drive naked we don't stick to the cloth, like we do with leather or vinyl.

ScottG wrote:
People are going to hate this but vinyl will out last leather 10 to 1.
Check out any old cars from the 60's or 70's. The leather ones are shot where the vinyl often still looks new.
Anything will outlast leather and stay looking good longer without splits or cracking.
A final note, only the wear surface is generally real leather anyway (the part that cracks first) the rest is vinyl.
JMO.

As someone who has restored quite a few Classic cars of the 50's and 60's, I have to disagree. Properly maintained, leather will far outlast vinyl.
If the RV owner, or any old car owner, totally ignores his seats, and just lets them age in the sun, then both will deteriorate. There are some fine Classic cars out there with the original leather still serviceable, that were built before vinyl was even used in production.