Nautilus P3 problems

madtrout

Well we just finished our 5000 mile trip out to Colorado in our 2021 TAB400 and I wanted to share a caution for those of you with a Nautilus P3 water system. We have had numerous leaks in our TAB which I have mentioned before. Because of this I have installed water alarms under the bed near the back of the Nautilus. After 2500 miles on the road we were dumping the black tank, and when I started to run the flush, the alarm went off. After pulling the cover to the plumbing area I could see that the fastening collar for the black tank flush had come loose and was letting water drip on the floor. I had tightened all connections before the trip. If you have the Nautilus system I would strongly advise checking and tightening all of the connections on the back of the Nautilus on a regular schedule. It is a great concept, but flawed in either assembly, or installation.

ChrisFix

@madtrout
After a year and 15K-ish miles, not a single leak from my Nautulis panel (2021 T@B 400) - or in the entire camper. And I check that area after every trip when I open the Alde water valves.
Sorry you're having so many problems with that - water is the thing I worry about most as it pretty much destroys everything in its path!

madtrout

Hi ChrisFix, Glad to hear that you're not having the same problems. Must have been an off day at the factory when they built our TAB.

manyman297

I too had a leak on the black tank flush connection to the nautilus panel backside. I believe many here and on Facebook had this issue. Either that connection habitually loosens over time or it wasn’t tightened well from the factory. An alarm is a great idea.

narniaorwhat

We are in the same boat. Only realized it was leaking when taking a picture to send to Nucamp for warranty work. Tightening it didn’t work and we just stopped using it til it can go back to the factory for floor replacement so they can take care of that too. 

madtrout

That's a real bummer. Tightening the fitting worked for us.  After this incident we ended up exposing the plumbing before every black tank flush on the trip so we could monitor the fitting. We also use a pressure flow gauge set to 40PSI on the flush hose. NuCamp's quality control is really questionable. If I was a person who had no mechanical or problem solving abilities, I would definitely stay away from the TABs. I wonder whether NuCamp skipped an essential step in assembly like wrapping the fittings with teflon tape?

manyman297

@madtrout Yeah, something is amiss in their QA. I don't think those fittings need teflon but ours was simply loose. We also had a loose hepvo p-trap under the kitchen sink too. Simple things that can cause huge problems.

In defense of Nucamp, I just think the entire RV industry needs an overhaul. Just peruse any Airstream forum and you'll see people complaining about quality issues too. We camped with my cousin this weekend and he rented a Dutchmen something or other and the quality was pretty atrocious. Spray foam hanging off the bottom of the trailer, butyl tape sloppily applied under the windows, etc. We were considering the Intech Sol Horizon but the amount of complaints on one of the Facebook user pages turned me off to them. 

It's enough for me to reconsider buying another RV after this. I almost would rather do a camper van build myself. 

Can you imagine if Consumer Reports tracked RVs on a regular basis?