Vanleigh RV Beacon reviews

We purchased this RV new after the hurricane destroyed our DRV 40KSSB4. We had several friends that loved their Beacons and decided to give it a try. The floor plan is pretty nice, aside from the fact that the bed becomes an obstacle when it comes to A: Getting in and out of B: Making up in the morning C: Keeping skin on my forearms due to the wooden valances on the sides. The air conditioning does not come close to keeping up. I suspect that this is probably due to poor insulation. Coming from a four season 5th wheel, this is a huge disappointment. Also, the condensation dripping from the ceiling vents keeps my rugs wet. And being that there is air conditioning in the closet, my clothing is wet, too. And on the second week of use, the front air conditioner puked. On the third day, while washing clothing, the basement spewed like a geyser. We opened the wall in the basement compartment to find what looked like a snake den full of hoses with one not connected. We were accustomed to a water manifold in the DRV, not so in this rig. Also, when running the washer, it backs up in the shower when draining. Also, the shower does not drain well and leeks after every shower. The shower seems rather awkward, as the faucet is next to the toilet location. This didn’t seem bad upon looking at it, but I find when you use it, the flip up seat must be stowed to enter and exit the shower without bruising oneself. And the towel hangers are located over the toilet, so you need to open that side of the door first to grab a towel, then shut it and open the other end to get out. The washer and dryer location seemed ok at first, hanging up clothing right out of the dryer is nice enough, but it does take a third of the hanging space out of the equation. Also, the only electric outlet in the closet is on the side of the washer, blocked with trim, so I cannot plug in my Dyson stick vac to recharge. Not a happy camper. While on the subject, there is only one outlet in the rig that is not located on the front of the cabinets, so using your coffeemaker, toaster or blender requires two of them to be plugged in on the front of the cabinets. Not attractive, so they must always be unplugged. The kitchen at first sight, seems pretty spacious. It is prepped for a dishwasher, although I have yet to figure out where it goes, if not on the floor? Not a plumber, but it doesn’t seem like it would be doable. I love the appliances. Having a bigger usable oven is very nice and having the fridge at floor level is a plus. Also, there is a beverage center that holds a ton of cold whatever your poison is. That said, the insulation is so poor that walking past it is like walking past a blast furnace as it spews hot air around the top and sides. The cabinet shelves are spaced too far apart. There could easily be double the storage. I do have friends who added shelving to accomplish this. Two other complaints are, no trash can cabinet, so the can needs to occupy the aisle and there are no utensil drawers next to the stove. The windows are also substandard, as I am accustomed to double pained windows in the DRV. Workmanship……nonexistent. I have never seen cabinets and woodwork that were more poorly finished. Only the front facing surfaces have clear coat. No edges are finished, let alone sanded smooth. Even the vent covers for the fans have splinters in the grooves where sanding was never done. We ordered a high quality mattress topper also. This is obviously personal preference, but concrete is not on my definition of comfort. The exterior looks rather pleasing, if not pretty. But I refer to that as lipstick on a pig. We will be turning this rig in on a new DRV. For the meantime, it is providing us with a place to stay this winter.

We purchased this RV new after the hurricane destroyed our DRV 40KSSB4. We had several friends that loved their Beacons and decided to give it a try. The floor plan is pretty nice, aside from the fact that the bed becomes an obstacle when it comes to A: Getting in and out of B: Making up in the morning C: Keeping skin on my forearms due to the wooden valances on the sides. The air conditioning does not come close to keeping up. I suspect that this is probably due to poor insulation. Coming from a four season 5th wheel, this is a huge disappointment. Also, the condensation dripping from the ceiling vents keeps my rugs wet. And being that there is air conditioning in the closet, my clothing is wet, too. And on the second week of use, the front air conditioner puked. On the third day, while washing clothing, the basement spewed like a geyser. We opened the wall in the basement compartment to find what looked like a snake den full of hoses with one not connected. We were accustomed to a water manifold in the DRV, not so in this rig. Also, when running the washer, it backs up in the shower when draining. Also, the shower does not drain well and leeks after every shower. The shower seems rather awkward, as the faucet is next to the toilet location. This didn’t seem bad upon looking at it, but I find when you use it, the flip up seat must be stowed to enter and exit the shower without bruising oneself. And the towel hangers are located over the toilet, so you need to open that side of the door first to grab a towel, then shut it and open the other end to get out. The washer and dryer location seemed ok at first, hanging up clothing right out of the dryer is nice enough, but it does take a third of the hanging space out of the equation. Also, the only electric outlet in the closet is on the side of the washer, blocked with trim, so I cannot plug in my Dyson stick vac to recharge. Not a happy camper. While on the subject, there is only one outlet in the rig that is not located on the front of the cabinets, so using your coffeemaker, toaster or blender requires two of them to be plugged in on the front of the cabinets. Not attractive, so they must always be unplugged. The kitchen at first sight, seems pretty spacious. It is prepped for a dishwasher, although I have yet to figure out where it goes, if not on the floor? Not a plumber, but it doesn’t seem like it would be doable. I love the appliances. Having a bigger usable oven is very nice and having the fridge at floor level is a plus. Also, there is a beverage center that holds a ton of cold whatever your poison is. That said, the insulation is so poor that walking past it is like walking past a blast furnace as it spews hot air around the top and sides. The cabinet shelves are spaced too far apart. There could easily be double the storage. I do have friends who added shelving to accomplish this. Two other complaints are, no trash can cabinet, so the can needs to occupy the aisle and there are no utensil drawers next to the stove. The windows are also substandard, as I am accustomed to double pained windows in the DRV. Workmanship……nonexistent. I have never seen cabinets and woodwork that were more poorly finished. Only the front facing surfaces have clear coat. No edges are finished, let alone sanded smooth. Even the vent covers for the fans have splinters in the grooves where sanding was never done. We ordered a high quality mattress topper also. This is obviously personal preference, but concrete is not on my definition of comfort. The exterior looks rather pleasing, if not pretty. But I refer to that as lipstick on a pig. We will be turning this rig in on a new DRV. For the meantime, it is providing us with a place to stay this winter.

We were brand new to the industry and studied nearly all manufacturers and all the various modes of transportation and after 2 years of extensive search we chose this Rv. We had this one built to our specifications and chose to load it with everything they offered and added solar panels and a 30 amp pass through inverter for boondocking. We also chose the gas refrigerator and the booth dinette, light color cabinets, and the best part they let us design the outside colors of the Rv and at that time free of charge. We did this during Covid when not many were buying and before the price hike. About 3 on this in we noticed some imperfections and called to set up an appointment for warranty work and scheduled it for the 11 th month of ownership. We did not have many problems really and everything was taken care of at the factory at Tishamingo Mississippi. They were excellent. They allowed us to enter the bay for 3 full days. We had to leave during the day as they worked on it and sleep there at night. We had electricity and water. They only work on Vanleigh 5 th wheels so they are very well versed and know everything about them. They were excellent. The biggest problem we had up to here was the Dometic refrigerator. But that was a Dometic nightmare and not their fault. My husband and I went to Red Bay Alabama which is nearby, to a Tiffin tour (they own Vanleigh), and spoke to Mr. Tiffin, his son and so on and they did get me a new refrigerator. Long story. Now we have used it for another 6 months since almost full time and it has been wonderful. I would not trade for anything else even if you showed me a larger much more expensive anything. It is a surprise when we don’t get complements on the color and it truly has everything we need to travel full time without it being too big to get around. There is a huge pantry, 2 TVs one for my husband and one for me. I like to lay down watching tv on the large couch and sometimes fall asleep on it. The island is great to prepare meals and I have even made pies. It has a slide in gas stove and large oven which I use every day. The microwave is my breadbox. The booth dinette has padded cushions ,no need to mess with it when we move, and has a lot of storage. There are so many cabinets I always have some that are empty for souvenirs. We have used the 3 air conditioners and the heat pumps often. They work great. We also have used the gas heater and it warms up fast in there. The fireplace was also awesome to take the chill out of the place. Love the multiplex electrical system. As soon as I walk in we set it as the main is there. So easy to check on everything. I love love love the amber glaze cabinets. They are real, light in color, and one can see laborious to manufacture, But the results are perfection with the soft close and lit cabinets inside. We chose a dishwasher which took us a long time to figure out how to use it and it is still kinda hard to understand. It beeped for months and drove me crazy. Also the spinner comes undone often after traveling so a must check each time. Leaning the tv was a challenge but necessary. I think they should leave a note on it as to setting it with the Wineguard. Simplistic once you know. Took 3 months before we finally asked someone to show us. It was easy, wrote it down and used every time we moved. This was important. My husband had to learn the exterior connections and his only complaint is that the gauges don’t work they always say full and blink no mater what we have tried. But all the connections are convenient. We did get some quick connects and purchased extensions for electric and dog bones for 30 amp campgrounds and so on. It cost us about 3000 dollars for all the miscellaneous things needed to run the Rv seamlessly and cautiously. We love the double pane windows because it allows us to shut them when it is noisy outside and lets us sleep. Also keeps the temp inside longer without drafts. We did purchase a Berkeley water filtration system because I am neurotic about drinking pure filtered water even though we had a filter on the Rv. The generator works well and can be started inside. We purchased 3 battleborn lithium batteries with heaters that are fantastic. Expensive but work great. We also had to purchase a truck and after much deliberation and speaking to those who had one we decided on the f450 ford Lauriet. In the most difficult meanderings it was strong, and absolutely dependable. We even pulled our rig straight up the Shenandoah campground 1.5 miles into the clouds. I was scared but there were no issues. 450 verses 350 cost was minimal difference and the turning radius is impressive. I see people with a lot of problems with their Rv. We are sooo satisfied and would do it all over again. No regrets. Traveling is fun…

Lost a vent cap for the black water tank. No big deal. Called parts after 1-hour I spoke with a lady that informed me that parts for Vanleigh and Tiffin had merged and they couldn't sell me the part without my registration information being transferred from VL to Tiffin. She said she would put in the request and call me back in a few days. After 2 weeks of no phone calls, I waited on the phone for 1:15 minutes to speak with parts folks who could not find my record. she said to give her a few minutes and she would call me right back. another 2 weeks past with no phone call so yesterday I called at about 2:45PM and at 3:20 I was kicked line with a with a recording saying they were closing at 3:30. Today I called at 2:03 and you guessed it, kicked off after 1:17 minutes of holding. Customer service, I Don't Think So!

My husband and I bought our 2020 Vanleigh Beacon and were thrilled. THEN things went wrong. The list is too long to go into. We had a local dealer repair most of the things and some items had to order. Warranty was running out and the items fixed earlier had to be fixed again with more things going wrong. We went to Tishomingo Alabama and spent to nights there to get things fixed. Four hours down the road our fridge stopped working on the battery backup. Something they had just repaired. One year later the same items need re-repairing plus a few more things. The water valve was just replaced. The electric toilet will flush but the casing for the flushing mechanism fell off. The jacks are acting up again. This is a great disappointment for the price they cost and the brand.

Worst rv we have ever owned, nothing but problems, so many it would take 6 pages to list. Right now the whole roof needs to be replaced, Costing around 15k. Of course its out of warranty and the extended warranty we purchased for 5k doesn't cover roof leaks! No wonder Thor industries bought them out, they f***ing suck.......

We like many things about our VanLeigh 5th wheel. We looked at several brands before deciding on VanLeigh and in particular the the Beacon. Construction in our opinion was far better than anything we compared it to. The galley being in the rear gave us much more room, both in the kitchen as well as the living room. The bath and a half was another great decision for us. The king bed was a must for us and lots of storage in the master bed room as well aa the master bath. Large shower and double sinks with more storage. The washer and dryer in closet still gsve us a lot of storage. We teally do not have any complaints with RV. Only reason we have to sell it is my eye sight is failing and I won't be able to drive much longer.

A beautiful, nice towing, piece of junk. We spent 165k on this, expecting a high end 5h wheel, with very few if any problems, but it's making me feel very stupid for listening to the salesman, who told us all about how Vanleigh was top of the line and, how the company's main concern was quality, with the best furniture and appliances. I don't know why these RV companies use Furrion TV's and appliances, they are garbage period! I don't know anything about Franklin furniture for houses, but the junk they gave us is NOT comfortable. Where did they get the people who assembled this 5th wheel?! The shelf in the bathroom was upside down, the wall behind the sink was not attached or sealed! Screws are falling out, I expect the walls to fall off any time! One of the slides in the living room has been stuck in since October! I had to go to Tucson RV to get an apt. for Jan 17th! They shipped the parts to the wrong RV dealer, then they didn't do anything for 2 weeks, then sent them on, and it was for the wrong slide! These people don't know how to make a RV, and are complete idiots! BIG TIP: DO NOT BUY A NEW RV! Unfortunately, I've spoke with owners of other brands, and they all have a lot of problems for the first 5 years. Buy a cheap travel trailer, at least you'll get what you expect.

The Tiffin family knows what they are doing when it comes to building a quality RV. Went from a 40’ Phaeton AH into the Beacon 5th wheel and not disappointments. It tows like a dream, easy to manage. All the features in the amazing rig are well though out to include a drop down bench in the full shower to the soft close drawers/cabinets. Had zero issues in handling any of the warranty issues that came up. Everything has been taken care of and this rig is ready for you for full timing or other adventures!