Stop Thomas Payne RV Furniture Peeling (How to Repair Guide)
You pay a lot of money and in return, you expect the interior furniture to last a long time. But use and accidents can cause the furniture to peel. This is not a major problem but it needs to be dealt with before it does become a major problem.
It is going to be a little more difficult to stop the peel than it is to repair it. One reason RV furniture peels is because the quality of the material is inferior. Most RV makers use synthetic leather and not the real thing. The former does not last very long.
To learn more about this topic just continue to read our article. It has the information you need to know about. One tip to stop the peel is to prevent it from starting. Use covers to protect the furniture material.
Thomas Payne RV Furniture Repair 101
Does Thomas Payne RV Furniture Peel?
It is not supposed to but it will. The Thomas Payne leather furniture is made from a product called PolyHide. This is a type of leather that is given a polymer coating.
This coating is supposed to make the leather material more durable and prevent it from peeling. However, as most RV owners have experienced, the PolyHide furniture will peel.
Even real leather products will peel eventually. It just takes it longer than vinyl-covered furniture. Part of the reason the material peels is because those pieces of furniture are used a great deal and take a lot of punishment.
The wear and tear on the items eventually get through the coating and the furniture starts to peel. This may not sound good as you paid a lot of money for the RV and that furniture. But it will happen sooner or later.
Proper maintenance is the key to stopping the peeling before it gets started. Thomas Payne or your RV dealer should have tips to help you keep your furniture in top shape. Give them a call and see what they say.
If you want to keep your furniture looking good, this is the place to start
Why is My Thomas Payne RV Furniture Peeling?
We checked two manuals for Thomas Payne furniture and they are only 4 pages long. These manuals can be found on the Lippert website. We were looking at them to see if the company provided any troubleshooting solutions for furniture peeling.
They did not and the manuals only focused on the operation and installation of the different pieces of furniture. It seems that the company has a lot of confidence in their products to avoid that section.
One reason why the furniture would peel would be that it was not made right and the product slipped through quality control. This happens more often than you think with all products.
Once it gets into your RV, the wear and tear are too much for the chair, etc., and the material starts to peel. Another reason is that the chair is used beyond normal use.
This happens a lot when the grandchildren stay over or you have a lot of guests who spill their food and drinks. If you use harsh chemicals to clean those seats, etc., the harsh chemicals can ruin the coating and help the leather to start to peel.
Those are the main reasons why your furniture may peel. It could also be that the chairs, etc., have been given too much exposure to the sun and the material could not hold up against those UV rays or the sunlight.
Lippert RV Furniture Peeling
This company does use the Thomas Payne furniture options for their RV furniture models. The manuals that we spoke about are written by Lippert and do not have any suggestions why this furniture style would peel.
Why they do not is a mystery as this is more of a common problem than a rare one. There are many owners reporting that they are having trouble with their Lippert supplied RV Thomas Payne seats, etc.
One owner reported that he had not had a peeling problem after 4 years of use while others have had it after 3 years. He also wondered why there was no credible response by either Grand Design or Lippert considering this problem.
It is happening frequently enough to warrant a credible response by both companies. From the owners we have read, most have simply replaced their peeling furniture instead of enduring the hassle of repairing it.
One reason given by another owner is that the leather material or leather-like material could not handle the sweat from the human body. He had no problem for 3 years, then after several days of hard work, he sat in the chair each day before showering.
He reported that within a few months his chair started to peel. It is a theory worth exploring.
Recall on Lippert RV Furniture Peeling
We looked at the recall web page on Lippert’s website and while there is a number of recall notices posted, not one was for peeling furniture. This absence does not mean that historically there have not been any recall notices sent out. There are no dates on these notices unless you go to the full notice. That means that there may have been some sent out in the past.
On the company’s recall program web page, all the company says is the following “Please enter a VIN in the search box below to find any applicable recall kits for a unit.”
You have to use your VIN number to get to any pertinent information and repair kits. If there are any for peeling furniture. The recall program link is located at the bottom of the different web pages on that website.
Or you can use their contact information and talk to the company directly if you cannot find what you are looking for on those pages. That contact information is also listed at the bottom of their web pages.
How To Fix Peeling RV Furniture
This project is going to depend on the type of material used to make your furniture. Vinyl and vinyl-like materials are easier to repair than real leather and other real fabrics.
The word is that even if the furniture is covered with fake leather, etc., it is practically impossible to repair it. We know of a vinyl weld system but that comes from over 30 years ago and not sure if it is still in use or not.
The repair is not going to be stronger than the original cut of the furniture and may not last as long as 5 years. Also, if it does, that does not stop other parts of the furniture from peeling and you are facing the same problem again.
The best and easiest solution, although it will be expensive, is to recover your furniture. This provides all new material that should last for a lot more than a few years. It will be of better quality than the material used by RV makers.
If the material used is a bonded leather, there is no repair technique for that fabric. According to our research, the material used for RV furniture is designed to only last 3 to 5 years.
We see this proven true by the many owners we have read who said they had no problem until the furniture was 3 to 5 years old. What most owners have done is replaced their ole RV furniture that was peeling and got a better quality option that should last a long time.
Thomas Payne RV Furniture Repair
We checked one dealer and while they have a service department, they do not offer any repair service for peeling furniture fabric. They may have it but they do not list it on their service page. It is one of those you need to ask us before we will tell you situations.
But the previous section’s content will apply to this section. Thomas Payne says they use a very durable fabric to cover their furniture but in reality, it is not very durable. Unless you get lucky.
Owners that had the bonded leather option from this company called the fabric junk and replaced their seats with another brand that had better quality fabric. Many owners replaced their Thomas Payne collection with Lazy Boy models and have not had the same problem.
Lazy Boy is more expensive but it lasts longer, does not peel, and so on. Let’s just say that the RV maker’s reputation for cheaping out on parts and features is not ruined by their use of Thomas Payne furniture.
Going this route helps build profits while still being able to say that they are using top-quality items in their RV models. One owner stated that he was given a 20 to 40% discount from Lippert for his peeling furniture.
He found out that he could buy the same furniture or similar ones, at a lower price at non-RV outlets than he could with that discount and buy at Lippert.
The mark-up is something you should consider when thinking of replacing your older and peeling RV seats, etc.
How To Keep RV Furniture From Peeling
This is going to be like throwing water into the wind. It may help but it won’t stop you from getting wet or from having peeling furniture. The best thing to do is to do preventive maintenance and try to stop the problem before it starts.
One suggestion is to use mild soap and warm water to clean the material. The reason to do this is that any harsh cleaners will damage the fabric. This is true. Those harsh chemicals will do some damage to the fabric over time.
Doesn’t matter the fabric. Since the material is glorified vinyl anyways, soap and water are all you will need to keep the furniture clean.
Also, you should keep the furniture out of direct sunlight. This situation can damage your fabric even though it may be a piece of durable fabric. This move should protect your furniture and extend its life a little bit.
Plus, you cannot stop time from doing its degrading work. As one of our sources said- “Everywhere I searched, there was no solution on how to stop our RV furniture from disintegrating right before our eyes. The simple answer to what makes bonded RV leather furniture peel is- Time.
You will only get about 2-5 years out of it!
There Are Some Basic Steps To Replacing Your Furniture
One of the steps is to check your warranty. If it is still covered and it has only been subjected to normal use, then get the dealer or company to replace the damaged seat, etc.
The next step if it isn’t under warranty is to decide what you will buy to fill that spot when you remove the damaged item. Once that decision is made, where will you buy the replacement piece.
As you know RV suppliers are not cheap. You may need to go outside the RV options and buy at local retailers to get a good price. Then you have to consider the size of the replacement piece of furniture.
Can it make it through your entry door? Can it be disassembled and reassembled? How easy is it to do that work? These are just some of the factors you have to ask yourself and answer before you buy.
If it is fabric, repairing is not going to work. If you can afford it, you can replace the fabric totally. It is your choice.
Some Final Words
Peeling furniture seems to be a fact of life in RV life, It has been going on for decades and does not seem it will change anytime in the near future. The reason for this is that many RV dealers tell you one thing when the fabric is made of something else.
Expect about 3 to 5 years of use then start thinking about getting a replacement piece of furniture. That is about the lifespan of the furniture material in RVs.
