Vanleigh RVs

Vanleigh is a division of Tiffin. Tiffin is now owned by Thor. I do like their modern approach to decor.

Forum member, garyp4951 has a Vanleigh. If he does not respond, you could PM him. He is a great guy, and would give you an honest opinion, from actual ownership.

Jerry

Like stated Vanleigh was started by Bob Tiffin and his son and Grandson, Van Tiffin and Leigh Tiffin.

We have seen a few at shows over the past 2 years and are impressed by what we have seen. They did sell to Thor, not sure what that did ( if anything) for the fit and finish?

If I was looking to purchase another 5'er, I would be doing my research on them as well...

Before we bought our current 5er, they were on our short list. The build seemed good, but the deal breakers for us was small tank sizes and residential only fridge. Also no 12 volt USB plugs anywhere for charging things. We mainly boondock or dry camp so those were all big deals to us.

In our opinion, they would be very good units if you were mainly at full hookup sites. We almost never have full hookups, like twice with our current 5er.

We purchased a VanLeigh 3yrs, and 30k+ miles, ago. We like it very much! We were debating between GD, Montana, and VL for a 35ft 5er; the cabinetry and styling tipped the scales decisively to VL, the upgrade in tank sizes in 2019 model years was also necessary (they slso have lots of usb chargers now too).

I’ve made many mods and improvements, including 630AHr batteries, a 3k inverter, and MORryde IS suspension and disc brakes. We travel about half-time and mostly stay at state parks, COEs and NFS. As with any 5er I come back from each month long (or more) trip with a list of minor repairs and improvements I want to make. I think VL is no different than other 5ers in need to keep up with minor issues; I think that VLs weakness is their suspension which we resolved with IS.

VL is a smaller manufacturer and they pride themselves on customer service. Words and actions in the last few months are consistent with that not changing with Thor’s purchasing them earlier this year. I have had excellent support and responsiveness whenever I’ve dealt with them, but have also seen others complain more on the VL website.

Bottom line, I think VLs are very good and worth yours looking at, but don’t expect perfection in this RV market where quality control isn’t what it should be from any of the manufacturers.

We looked at them 4 years ago at the. Phx. Winter shows and I couldn't find a speck of solid wood in any of them. I think they were furnished by IKEA.

C Schomer - not sure if you looked at VL, all face frames, doors, etc are solid Alder with Cherry plywood in the fields. The woodwork is what makes VL stand out, no paper wrapped pressboard like we found in several competitors.

Make sure you check their cargo carrying capacities. When they first came out they had a 6 slide monster with 1,400# of capacity. They seem to have rectified that now somewhat but CCC still seems low for a rig that will probably be used full time. Higher content equals weight. It looks like they went to 8k axles.

MNRon wrote:
C Schomer - not sure if you looked at VL, all face frames, doors, etc are solid Alder with Cherry plywood in the fields. The woodwork is what makes VL stand out, no paper wrapped pressboard like we found in several competitors.

I agree with this, they did have nice woodwork in them.

Since being bought out by Thor and its history of destroying brand reputations, I'd be very leery on buying a new one.