Thoughts from a month of TABbing

AaronC

Just returned to Evanston, IL from our month-long westerly trip (and easterly return). What a blast! 3,700 miles, 8 states, 14 nat'l/state park and private campgrounds, 26 nights. First time to Grand Canyon and Lake Powell, AZ. Second time to Moab. We still love northern New Mexico more than most anywhere else. GREAT state park camping there. Our 320-CSS actually grew on us over time, even as it seemed to shrink. We LOVE the clamshell kitchen, and cooked on it almost every day. I have no clue how anyone uses the indoor kitchen in the 320. Used our Pahaque side tent if we were anywhere three nights. That extra room is a godsend. As for the unexpected: one flat tire on our Ford Escape, one cooked brake on our TAB. Getting service for the brake in Flagstaff was almost a miracle. An amazing mobile RV tech, Darryl Ivy, saved the day. Quite an interesting man. 

But wife and I are thinking the TAB is too small for us if we do more lllloooonnnnggg trips like this, which we are now fairly hooked on doing. With a 3500 lb rating, our '14 Escape is a fabulous tug for the 320. Even pulled the mountain passes (at 10 mph). Any ideas? We have visions of Class Bs dancing in our heads, though we'd need to find a great deal on a 10-yr. old one. Having owned two Casitas and a Scamp, I'm tempted to go back to fiberglass. Escape 19 is a possibility. And even though it's a frame built camper, the Luna Horizon is pretty cool. I love the Altos from Quebec (not fiberglass), but they have a long backlog, and I hate buying new (preferring well loved/maintained campers with a few years under their belts, so you know what issues arose and how they were dealt with).

Would I buy another nucamp product? Hmmmmm. Quality is OK, but some design decisions leave me scratching my head.  
 
Sorry for the long post, but we loved this longest-ever (for us) trip so much I had to share. 

Safe travels. (Photo is the spouse at Cimarron Canyon, NM)

gooselady

Have you looked at an Oliver trailer?  Well built fiberglass but very heavy.  A friend of mine has one and it's a tank!

Dutch061

Having owned 4 RV's to date, 1 30' TT, a 36' 5th Wheel, a 320-S, and now a 400 BDL I can speak to a few points.

1. Quality

Granted the TT was an entry level (15K) product with entry level quality but served me well for a couple of years. The 5th Wheel was a big heavy 4 season unit (75K) that I lived in for 7 years. We liked the 320-S well enough but it was too small for me to stand up in, so we upgraded last year to the 400. I considered Airstream and even looked at one but I couldn't justify the price they wanted. I can say that for the dollars spent, you will have a very hard time matching the quality and craftsmanship that NuCamp puts into a RV. Are they perfect, nothing is.

2. Usage

The next thing you need to consider is how you typically use an RV, if you go from park to park with full hookups then it doesn't really matter. If you boondock (like we do) the types of amenities used becomes very important. Example, the Alde system uses very little DC power and can run for days on a battery whereas a forced air furnace will drain a battery fast.  

3. Kitchen

We carry a camp stove and a gas grill, we cook outside 99% of the time. However, it is a nice option to be able to cook inside in inclement weather if needed. Although we have never really cooked inside, we have warmed soup, boiled water, etc. when the weather was not conducive to being outside. It is a nice fall back option.

4. Features

It's hard to define this one, but I think that NuCamp offers many features that re only on very high end RV's from other manufacturers. Things like cabinetry, overall attention to detail, heating system - hot water heater and things like this really set them to a level that is not typical in tis price range.

5. TV

You obviously will be upgrading your TV with whatever direction you go based on your comments of "even pulled the mountain passes at 10 mph". 


At the end of the day, you have to decide what is most important to you, what you are willing to have and what you are willing to do without. For my wife and I, the 400 is as close to a perfect RV for what we enjoy and we didn't have to sell our souls to own it. Good luck in your quest of the "Perfect RV" for your needs!

Brad

Denny16

We chose the TaB400 for similar reasons, we plan to, and have, BoonDock camped as well as at small State Park Recreation RV sites, many offering electrical hookup only, if any.  While my TV can handle a larger trailer, we liked the compact size of the TaB400, which offers what we were looking for in a well built quality camper. 

Cheers

1968Healey

The ALDE system is amazing for boondocking.  Annoyingly, aside from T@B’s, it’s really only offered on the 30 ft Airstream classic - a trailer that I doubt people are boondocking in often.  Wish it was the de facto standard for RV’s all over. 

Marceline

1968Healey said:

The ALDE system is amazing for boondocking.  Annoyingly, aside from T@B’s, it’s really only offered on the 30 ft Airstream classic - a trailer that I doubt people are boondocking in often.  Wish it was the de facto standard for RV’s all over. 

I don’t know about true boondocking, but I have a friend with an Airstream who mostly camps without hookups. I think that it’s fairly common in NorCal where most state park campgrounds don’t have power.