New 2020 Tab Solo Owner.

Morgan

Shopped and reviewed many many campers for the past 3 years. Having never owned a camp trailer but also having spent many a night in bear country sleeping in a tent...I decided to get something a bit safer. My last solo trip was to Alaska for a swim in the Artic. My trusty Suzuki DL1000 motorcycle and I camped all along the way. Now being retired as of December Friday the 13th, 2019, and after spending the last 23 years working on the road and staying in hotels and earning over 2,000,000 Marriott points earning Lifetime Ambassador status, well now I want to take my wife camping and never spend another stay in a hotel. 

Being a rather large person, 6'4", the 320 was out. LOL i don't even fit in the jon with out holding my breath...shower is mission impossible. Enter stage left, the T@B 400.  When looking at the standard, I did not like the shortness of the bed. The solo floorplan is the winner for me. I fit on the bed with room to spare. It has more floor space and room for a Laguna table to mounted so that both my wife and I can have separate tables for computer/sewing machine/ham radio gear, etc. 

I found one on line used and ventured from Topeka, Kansas to Columbus, Ohio. 728 miles later at Mark Wahlberg RV, we bought the 2020 Solo. Arriving in the morning before the store opened and waiting for the sales staff to close the deal, we finally hitched it up. Never having owned a camper, I read everything that I could find before going there and then asked many questions. We hooked up to the Ford F150 4x4 and off we went at 12:30 in the afternoon. By 2 AM we were back in Topeka, Kansas. It took many adjustments of the electric braking system to get it right so my wife would not get carsick with the jerky stops. Finally, Success!  We slept well when we returned that night. The next day was Learn The Trailer Day. This lasted 3 days with continual trips getting supplies and learning about the heat pump and the Alde radiator heating systems. It was a bit frustrating to do this all by myself. Many downloads from the net and a few calls to a friend of mine about generally the way stuff is to work got me well on my way to mastering the 400. Encountering many problems with functioning and operator error and some equipment adjustment issues, I understand why the previous owners traded it in. Once all the systems were hard rebooted and figuring out why there was no hot water when the boiler temp was good and the pump worked and all the fuses were good on the Alde caused some concern. The mixer valve was full on max temp and the water was barely luke warm. Having read the forms about the water temp control, why yes, I unscrewed the valve knob and rotated the knob, retightened the knob a full turn back then advanced to full warm max temp. It took 2 times of this to fix the hot water. I pity the previous owners having to take cold showers, but maybe they liked cold showers. Each to his own. Water problem fixed, Heat pump working great, Alde conduction radiant heat working great and I might say QUIET. 

My wife and I are going to take the camper out for a dry run at one of the state parks near us. Because I am a Ham Radio Operator, I am designing a mast plate for the hitch to put up a 20 foot mast mounted to the Tongue of the 400. Additionally, because I love designing and building antennas, I will be making a 3 element beam for 20 and 15 meters. It will collapse down to 4 feet and weigh less than 12 pounds.  One of the reasons for this camper is putting National Parks on the Air...Parks on the Air is an operating event for us both activating a park or talking to a park from home. So, If you see a 400 parked in a park, with a mast supporting a rather large antenna, stop by and have some coffee and my you too may want to become a radio operator talking all over the world from your camper shack on wheels.

73,
Morgan NJ8M

Denny16

Congratulations, and welcome to the TaB family.  My wife is a Ham radio operator, assisting with a local emergency net, hope,she does not see your post about the antenna mast, might give her some ideas... 
cheers.

Sharon_is_SAM

Welcome and congratulations!  I think the Solo model came out with the 2021 edition.  What was the build date?

Did you find the forum before purchase?

Morgan

Sharon, Yes I have been a lurker for some time. Only a week or so ago did i register. I guess I will have to check out the build date. I really like the solo so far. My grandaughters want to use it as a play house and sleep in it. The first thing they want is the TV to work. I am looking for indoor storage for it through the winter. Today is winterization day and then storage shopping. It may end up being parked on my driveway with the cover on it this season. 

Denny16

Sharon, the Solo was released in mid 2020 year model, and was on dealer lots in the fall of 2019.  The standard TaB 400 got a interior makeover in 2021, changing the Wardrobe locker, so it was a separate unit from the washroom, instead of having a common front with the washroom.  This made the layout from the washroom and galley forward the same between the two models.

Here is the original TaB400 floor plan:

As you can see, the washroom and wardrobe have a one piece common front panel.  In 2020 nüCamp came out with a large fridge option in the wardrobe area.

2021 Std. Model:

Note the wardrobe is now a separate unit (red box with X), and washroom front is separate from wardrobe, which is now parallel  to side wall, and can be a wardrobe or large fridge option.  

Solo Model:

Here is the Solo floor plan, note the Wardrobe locker unit (red box with X) has been removed, galley from red center line forward is common to Std. Model, and large 2-way fridge added next to galley unit. 

 All these bits are now modular, allowing for sharing common components and reducing manufacturing costs.

cheers

ADRawli

@Morgan
 
Welcome Morgan.  Seems like yesterday (but actually now more than 20 months) since we took a similar trek and dragged our 2019 400 BDL from the dealer in Mississippi to home in Texas.  How time flies, and we’ve had about 8 small trips in our little T@B.  I do love the idea of your solo providing more seating for both the wife and yourself, as that is a limitation in the non-solo version we own.  So, best wishes and happy camping!!

By the way, I may be the most long time inactive HAM you have ever met.  I got my license almost 45 years ago at the age of 10 years old.  I was the youngest ever at the time in my home state, but I had a father who was, and still is, very energized with the hobby. His lifetime experience is well over 50 years and counting.  In all honesty, I think I got into it mainly to be able to go to the monthy club meetings with Dad, and to go out for dollar pancakes at Village Inn afterwards.  I never really got comfortable just CQing for someone to talk to.  I did make it to Tech during my early adult years, and got a 2m handheld 25 years ago that has collected more dust than signal, especially now in today’s cell centered communication world.  My current antenna concerns are more about cell signal amplification so I can work remote and stay data connected.  But... the HAM world has been a part, albeit a minor part, of my life for a long, long time.

Happy camping and QSOs!  

73!

Alan (N7OIL)

dragonsdofly

@Morgan, welcome to the forum and congratulations on your trailer. Happy t@bbing from The Dragon, and spouse, N8ZLQ. -Denise

Sharon_is_SAM

Wonder why nuCamp does not list the Solo for the 2020 model on their website.  Check it out.  They only list one 400 floor plan.  So, maybe it was a mid year model change for the 2020 since those models only ran for about 9 months.

Denny16

Yes Sharon, it was released mid season, and was listed, here is the old floor plan from the 2020 listing:

Not a lot of info on ten Solo when it was first released, the original nüCamp web site, only showed it in their promo video, not info on the TaB400 pages, then later in mid season, this floor plan showed up.  We were looking at the Solor back in Sept/Oct of 2019.
cheers