In Appreciation of Austin and NuCamp

jameskuzman

Last summer, we joined the NuCamp family when @stro, our 2019 T@B 400, followed us home from Beckley's RV in Maryland. I've often said that every time I spend time in any other camper or RV or hear the experiences people have had with campers from almost every other manufacturer, I am happy we bought a NuCamp product and even more appreciative of how well these little campers are designed and built.

After the initial shakedown season and a winter of using our camper in the driveway as a little "getaway" room, I compiled a list of warranty repairs and arranged to take @stro back to NuCamp as we only live about 90 minutes from the factory. Items on the list included a loose plastic window on the door, a bit of a gap near the door latch, a rattling noise from the fridge, a strange noise from the Cool Cat, and a piece of plastric trim that had split on the hinge side of the bathroom door.

I dropped the camper off on a Sunday and got a call on Tuesday that it was ready to be picked up. That's right, a two day turnaround.

The loose plastic window trim they'd seen before; there was a run of doors where the manufacturer was trying a new adhesive and it didn't work out well. Ours was one of those doors. They saw a scratch (which I couldn't see) in the original plastic, so they installed a brand new window with the proper adhesive.

The small gap near the door latch (which wasn't there initially) required an adjustment to eliminate.

The fan on the bottom of the fridge had worked itself loose, causing the rattling sound. They'd seen this a few times before and installed two additional screws.

The noise from the Cool Cat was a loose evaporator fan. While they were in there, they didn't like the look of the compressor mounts. Rather than try and fix anything, they installed a completely new Cool Cat, which resets the 2-year Dometic warranty.

The plastic trim in the bathroom was replaced.

Of this short list of items, one was normal break-in (the small door gap). Three were related to purchased components (the door window, the fridge fan, and the Cool Cat). Only one could be attributed to the manufacturing process - the cracked trim from an over-tightened screw - which I could have easily fixed with a bit of glue if we're honest.

Meanwhile, I have a cousin who bought an 18' "ultralite" box-style camper last year. It has more room than the 400 for sure and cost half as much. It also flooded twice on their first two outings from water connections someone forgot to tighten at the factory. An easy fix, but they're not sure what damage it did to the walls and floor.

One friend with a 5 year old 5th wheel had the rear cap - i.e., their rear living room wall - nearly fall off on a cross-country road trip last year when the handful of screws and adhesive that holds it on gave way.

Another friend who full times in a brand-new toy hauler from a high end company lost his fresh water tank on the freeway, causing a good bit of damage to the underside of his trailer, because the manufacturer used two flimsy plastic straps to secure the tank. The dealer botched the repair, driling through plumbing lines and shorting out an electrical circuit. It's still not right.

Yet another friend with a Class A has been stranded due to stuck slides, had the dinette flooded when the top of the slide broke and dragged water into the RV when the were retracting it, and had to endure a 300 mile drive home with 90 degree indoor temperatures because their generator failed and they couldn't run the A/C in transit.

When we bought the 400, none of these folks could understand why anyone would pay $30,000 for an 18' teardrop. I don't think they wonder anymore.

My sincere appreciation to NuCamp for building a stellar product and to Austin and his team for taking care of the warranty repairs quickly, with integrity, and with my best interests in mind. I sure do appreciate you guys.

@stro is here on the left lined up with some of his kin in Sugar Creek.

Jim

lino

I plan on using the NuCamp for all my maintenance on both of my campers that they built

The only other person I trust is Preston Miller but we moved too far away 

jkjenn

Austin and the team are absolutely incredible. They have fixed things I never noticed more than once. Incredible work and always with a huge smile.

dragonsdofly

Every one of us (and our trailers) is part of their family. And everone at nüCamp treats all of us like family.