Official statement from Scott Hubble concerning the Air8 air conditioner

N7SHG_Ham

@falcon1970 I heard is was three inches forward, just enough to take some weight off the hitch. Hard to discern in the photos I have seen, I think it would take a side by side comparison to actually see it.

falcon1970

Three inches isn't much of a lever arm change.  I can't imagine it would do much towards alleviating tongue weight.  Fortunately it probably doesn't do much to add instability to the trailer while under tow either.

Denny16

Most of the weight shift, is having the big AGM batteries all the way back in the center area under the rear bunk.  My battery (200 amp AGM 12VDC) was moved to the middle of the center area under the bunk, by the previous owner, and our 2018 TaB400 has a measured 400 lbs with 1/2 grey and black tanks.  So between shifting the axle and moving the odd 150lbs of battery, you get a considerable lighter tongue weight.
cheere

tepe50

I was also supposed to get the new upgraded unit before all this COVID-19 stuff happened. I was told by the dealer that my unit was  dead he never seen that before. Didn't really ask him what he meant by completely dead. I was distracted by all the social distancing going on. The unit powers on and blows air I'm assuming the charge is gone.

Addison

I have a 2021 320 with the air 8, was getting error code after 2 minutes, talked to air 8 we found out the ac unit isnt secured in place and it slide to the front so the exhaust vent under it was no longer under it, slide it back and fixed.
Now to figure out how to secure it in pkace??

Verna

@Addison, please send an email to tech@nucamprv.com and Creed will be able to tell you how to do it. Or, if you are close to your dealer, they are always your first point of contact. 

Addison

Thank you, ill email him now, I'm 1.5 hours away from my dealer so rather do it myself. 

AirBoss

I've been in touch with Aaron in Warranty @ nuCamp. He's been great at responding. He indicated the factory is fabricating the scoops and hopes to send one along soon. He also indicated that Elwell has asked for a list of T@B owners from nuCamp who have the Air8 installed (promising) and while Elwell hasn't produced a comprehensive "fix", Aaron seemed optimistic one is forthcoming.   

tepe50

I think Elwell are dragging their feet on this one pandemic or no pandemic they’ve  known about this for a while they should be able to come up with a solution by now.I don’t think it’s Nucamps  fault if they could’ve fixed it they would have.  Aaron and the guys over at Nucamp are  awesome. Because if there is no reasonable fix it may affect the resale value. I would like to use the unit. I don’t know when they’re going to call me to fix it if I’m in the middle of a trip and then they may not get to it for another couple months. It’s just a little aggravating

TNOutback

@tepe50 Elwell’s options are limited by the pandemic unfortunately.  Elwell doesn’t manufacture these units, so they are dependent upon their supplier, and they are not the only ones having challenges with suppliers right now.  I think they have a solution, just waiting on manufacturing, and the pandemic has set things back.

AirBoss

I suppose ones patience may be tried more if one is/was living or travelling in the much warmer climates. For me, I'm in San Diego and the winter has been mild. Now that the weather is really getting nice (consistent 75-85 degres) it may become more of an issue for me. In the mean time, I'm willing to give the current mod's (new vent/duct screens and exhaust vent deflector) a whirl. 

That said, if the "repairs" are something less than satisfactory, it may well impact resale value. Won't be a happy camper if that's the result. 

I'll give nuCamp and Elwell the time needed. But it won't keep me from being a squeeky wheel. This must be addressed. Seems by virture of the fact nuCamp went back to the Cat, they've essentially agreed the Air8 is not the best A/C unit for the 400. 

Jaddin1953

davegct said:

It was good that the CEO addressed the issue, but to me the message still leaves questions:
1) what units are going in new 2020 TAB 400 - the original Air8, or the upgraded unit that is mentioned?
2) what is the plan for 2021 model year - the original Air8, the upgraded unit or something else?

i have sent customer care an email to try and get more clarity.

Jaddin1953

I am new. But, where is information to see if I have an "upgraded" Air8?

N7SHG_Ham

@Jaddin1953 the 2021 units went back to the Cool Cat so no upgraded Air8

Jaddin1953

I am dealing with private party.. so I don't have a dealer as first point of contact. How do I get warranty info? With my Vin#..

Sharon_is_SAM

@Jaddin1953, the original warranty is not transferable.  https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/8474/one-year-1st-owner-warranty

Send an email to:  warranty@nucamprv.com

Denny16

the However, the structural warranty and any factory issues are transferrable.  We bought a Jan 2018 TaB 400 which had the floor separation issue, and nuCamp stepped up to replace the floor under its warranty.
So a known issue like the Air8 and anynupgrade on this issue would also be covered I would think.  But a note to nuCam would give you the answer on this.
cheers

ecstatic

Will I need to contact NuCamp to get the new scooped vents or the "improved" replacement unit?  Will they be contacting 2020 400 owners that have the Air8 automatically?

Verna

As the original statement from Scott Hubble says (on page one of this discussion), please contact your dealer for a warranty claim and for answers as to how the dealer will handle your warranty claim. 

tepe50

 Elwell contacted me last week. I don't think there is a replacement unit all they are going to do is move the temperature sensor location with a wiring harness. Hopefully that solves some of the problems. I noticed the other day that's a temperature coming out of the air vents is 4° warmer when the fan is on high and its on low. And it also had frozen coil code a couple of times.

Denny16

Fan speed and air flow through the AC effects air temp coming out on all ACs.
The faster the air moves through, the less time it has to get cooled by the AC coils, with increased contact time inside the cooling unit.

To get max cooling, turn fan on low setting to allow air to get colder coming out of the AC, and rig a small USB fan to increase air circulation in the TaB.  This will help to get the warm air in the top of the camper mixed with the cool air to help equalize the air temperature and allow the warmer air to get cooled by the AC, whose intake is down low, so currently the Air8 is returning cool air into the unit causing some of the issues being experienced.

Ideally, the return intake should have been at least 1/2 or 2/3rds up from the floor, with the temp probe located in the higher mounted air intake, which would be giving the AC more accurate temp readings and returning the warmer air which rises up.  This way the cool air vents being down low would work.  Normally in a house it is the other way round, return low and cold air supply coming from the ceiling.  This is not always practical on a small camper with no ceiling space for ducts and limited wall duct areas.
cheers

TNOutback

Looking back at my May 1st post, and it seems so long ago, and we just feel defeated and ignored.  We are now 10 months into ownership and still do not have a working air conditioner, and short of some miracle, will go past 1 year of ownership before we even have a hope of a replacement, and a summer of camping is lost.

AirBoss

Good tips from @Denny16 which will no doubt help the unit cool. Thanks!

@ecstatic
I contacted Aaron in Warranty @ nuCamp and he was very helpful in getting the deflector out to me fairly quickly. Same goes for the replacement intake and exhaust vent covers for under the rig. 

@tepe50
Odd. When I spoke to Elwell about 7-10 days ago, they indicated the harness to relocate the sensor was about a month out and that their more powerful Air8 Plus was in work with distribution due in last summer or fall of this year. The Wuhan pandemic has pumped the brakes really hard on production, but to my knowledge, WA state is getting back to normal and just recently Clark County (where Elwell is based) entered Phase 2 of recovery so they should be returing to some semblence of normal operations, if they weren't there already. 

@TNOutback
Are you saying your a/c doesn't work, at all? Or is it that it has the same issues as discussed on this thread? Haven't looked back through the entire thread here but have you taken all the steps discussed here? Deflector, vents covers, running fan on lower speeds, re-circulating fan, etc.? I share the frustration and ocassionally my posts here RE: this matter are somewhat pointed. Don't wish to offend the good folks at nuCamp or Elwell. Have to believe they're doing the best they can under unique circumstances. 

It's one of my favorite sayings and never more true: "I know what I know. And I know what I don't know. It's what I don't know that I don't know that keeps me up at night!" Difficult to make well informed decisions when you matrix is clutterd with unknown unknowns. Don't envy any business decision-makers in this environment. Hang in there...

Just my $0.02.

 

TNOutback

@airboss we have tried every combination/iteration of operating, and doing things to mitigate that we shouldn’t have to do.  Yes, we have the vent covers and likely the first prototype deflector installed on a customer owned unit.  If we only camped or drove to a camp outing in the shade or cooler weather, then it would not be an issue.  Hope against hope, I tried again last Friday, turning it on when it was 81 outside.  After 4 hours of running, it would only achieve 85-86 inside, while it was 87 degrees outside.  The issue of sensor location also means if the a/c reaches set point and turns itself off, it will not turn itself back on due to its location, which eliminates all possibility of leaving our dog in the camper while we go out.

At the end of the day, I wrote a very large check 10 months ago for something we cannot use and enjoy most of the year, and will likely be over a year to even see if the fix works or not.  The window leak I posted about in another post is the 17th separate warranty claim we’ve had since last August.  Strange as it seems, we really do love our 400 and got a brief glimpse last Fall of what it could be like.  We just want one that works.

AirBoss

@TNOutback...I recall now that you had numerous issues under warranty. No doubt I'd be just as frustrated. While we all understand that during the manufacturing and QC process things can be overlooked, it goes without saying having 17 claims for a brand new unit is, well...beyond unsatisfactory. Has your dealer been good to work with so far? I'd think they'd have to be a bit perturbed about all this as well. 

I sincerely hope most of those have been resolved without much delay in whatever use you are able to get out the rig to this point. Does seem un-nuCamp-like and trust your relationship with nuCamp remains a working one, though I know you're likely less than understanding about taking "we're working on it" for an answer at this point. 

 

Verna

Just a reminder for those who own a T@B 400 with an Air8 air conditioner, this is a copy and paste from Scott Hubble’s initial statement at the beginning of this discussion and you must do this:

” IF your Air8 on the T@B 400 is not performing adequately, you must contact your dealer to have them take care of your warranty claim. If you want to double check to make sure your T@B 400 is on a warranty claim list, send an email to customercare@nucamp.com and to warranty@nucamprv.com. Be sure to have your VIN available to reference it in any correspondence, plus your dealer’s name. “

TNOutback

@AirBoss the customer service, tech support and warranty folks at Nucamp are just stellar, top shelf.  We do have a nice dialogue going and it is a clear positive for them. Unfortunately, dealer support and service experience not good.  They had the camper 1 week shy of 3 months in the winter and did not finish the repairs and did some so poorly they will need to be redone again.  I would probably drive it 9 hours back to Nucamp before I consider letting them work on it again.  Their service seemed unfamiliar with the product, which is probably a testament to the quality of the unit.  Every once in a while, someone gets a lemon, and it’s apparently me.  Clearly mine is the odd case here, but I seem to be caught between actors here and it’s hard to see why this is my problem I must endure.

AirBoss

Verna said:

Just a reminder for those who own a T@B 400 with an Air8 air conditioner, this is a copy and paste from Scott Hubble’s initial statement at the beginning of this discussion and you must do this:

” IF your Air8 on the T@B 400 is not performing adequately, you must contact your dealer to have them take care of your warranty claim. If you want to double check to make sure your T@B 400 is on a warranty claim list, send an email to customercare@nucamp.com and to warranty@nucamprv.com. Be sure to have your VIN available to reference it in any correspondence, plus your dealer’s name. “

Thanks, @Verna. On it! 

crohrbacher

I contacted nuCamp warranty about a different issue, and mentioned the poor performance of my AIR8 unit, and got this response: (on May 19th)

"Elwell is working on a replacement unit for the current AIR 8.  We hope to have a better completion time for that within the next 3 weeks or so.  We will put you on a list to have your AC replaced.  Elwell will either send a Tech to do the replacement or direct you dealer on how to do the install. Nothing will have to be changed in your camper.  They new A/C will fit in place of the one now.  Let us know if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Emily Miller

Warranty Administrator 

844.823.9112 Ext: 327

warranty@nucamprv.com"

AirBoss

Thanks for that. I'll fire off the email to Warranty this PM. 

Was told by Elwell the replacement unit will be approx. 7500BTU's, some 1500 or so stonger that the current unit. Not clear that will be enough but it's welcomed nonetheless.