Build Quality?

Charlie_FYFM

We are anxiously awaiting the delivery of our T@B trailer.  We had previously owned an Airstream Bambi and loved it.  Unfortunately we downsized our house and had no place to store it.  We are on the verge of retirement and decided to get back into the travel trailer life.  We had two requirements.  It had to have a bathroom, and it had to fit store our garage.  The T@B 320s fit perfectly so we started following these discussions and youtube videos to prepare.  I must say we are getting a bit concerned about the build quality.  There are more than a few owners who are having problems with it.  Uncomfortable cushions, steps that break, bugs seeping in, gaps in the trim, leaks, etc.  Is Amish craftsmanship truly present or is it just a marketing punch line?  Trying to feel better about our choice especially with the inflated prices and long delays.

CanadianTabber

As someone else has said on this forum, the build quality across the RV sector is in need of more attention. That being said, after looking at a lot of RVs, it seems NuCamp products are one in the top of the league of better built RVs. 
There does need to be more attention to detail at the factory, and truly they are overpriced, but there is no comparable product at this time with the features of a Tab teardrop. 

Dutch061

I can share this with you, I have owned a total of 4 campers now.

A travel trailer bought in the 2013 time frame - low priced and cheap quality

A fifth wheel built by NuWa in Chanute, KS - high priced and high quality

A 2017 320-S - outside of it being too small for me to stand up in and the absorption refrigerator (which you won't have) it was fine

Currently we have a 2020 400 BDL with the smaller AC/DC refrigerator and can safely say this. These are unprecedented times for ALL manufacturers, supply chain issues, supplier quality issues, etc. NuCamp has and will go above and beyond for their customers way past what I have ever experienced or had expectations of with any of the vehicles, boats, motorcycles, or campers I have owned in the last 40 years.

I had looked at Airstream when I upgraded from the 320-S to the 400 BDL, my deciding factor was the build quality, components used, and manufacturer support and loyalty that has been posted many many times on this forum.

I am not saying this because my 2020 has been perfect or trouble free, I am saying this because NuCamp has went above and beyond my expectations on any issue(s) I have had. Plus there is a great group of people on this forum that together as a resource are phenomenal.

Unfortunately, people who don't have issues rarely make a post about how much they enjoy what they have. Instead we only see those who are having issues, this is the same across the board with anything you buy. At one time I think the statistic was for every unhappy customer they told 8 people but for every happy customer they told 2. The same old pareto principal aka 80-20 rule. 

Brad

DougH

It depends on your expectations.

As an old arthritic retired person, I could sleep on the cushions fine, but was more comfortable with a self inflating sleeping pad or topper. But the cushions held up very well for the four years I had my T@B.

The furniture is real wood, and well constructed. But there could have been better caulking of the tail lights and air conditioner drain tray, and the vents for the three way fridge could have been better designed.  And the floor could have been stronger.

No RV is ever perfect, and some of the 3rd party elements (fridge, air conditioner, speakers, stereo, etc.) are never going to approach the quality of what you have in your stix n brix home.

But if you start with the mindset that you're pulling a rolling hard sided tent to stay out of the rain... then the bed will be glorious. And it has heat!  And cooling!!  OMG there's even a bathroom!!!  Wait... is that a kitchen?!?!?!

Overall, having been to many RV shows pre-pandemic, and dozens of dealer showrooms, the T@B quality is well above average.  Any forum will shine a spotlight on the 1% or 0.1% of the buyers who have issues.

Charlie_FYFM

@DougH @Dutch061 @CanadianTabber Thank you all for the quick response.  I realize these trailers can be a labor of love.  @Duch061 - Very important point "NuCamp has and will go above and beyond for their customers way past what I have ever experienced or had expectations of with any of the vehicles, boats, motorcycles, or campers I have owned in the last 40 years."

SweetlyHome

@Charlie_FYFM, we have to agree with all the above comments in many ways.  Where @Dutch061 has had experience with other manufacturers we can only say our 400 is our 3rd Nucamp / Pleasant Valley product.  As we aged we up sized.  We particularly agree with his comment on people not commenting in the positive.

For us the positive is Nucamp addressed all the issues we had during the warranty period on a fit our time frame schedule, granted we went to Ohio, and have continued to supply information and support after warranty.  Under warranty they replaced a couple of vendor built items.  Try to get a typical big box store to replace your brand new non-functioning what ever.

In terms of Amish fit and finish we always remind ourselves this is a camping trailer meant to bounce down a road on what is in reality a slightly flexible frame and go from 100+ degrees to the 70s on a frequent basis, not the custom Amish built table in our climate controlled kitchen.

CJax

Fantastic perspective! Cheers all!

tabiphile

One further perspective to consider. At the NuCamp and Airsteam price points the customer demographic is tilted towards a customer who is very selective and likely with a "professional" background. Along with that comes an audience of folks who know quite a bit about the elements of a quality system, business management, production, business practices and planning. The expectations from that demographic tend to be quite high. In and of itself, that may be what has steered these buyers to NuCamp and Airstream. It is also what can lead to very high expectations of them. And fairly so.
As has been noted, complaints and concerns are more likely to find their way here. That should not suggest that these builders are falling short. The RV/recreational trailer market is filled with cookie cutter products. NuCamp and Airstream differentiate themselves by both building better products and providing better service. 
NuCamp is far from prefect and some of us could easily visualize moving into their facility for a month or two to implement a stronger quality system, production process, customer support model. Maybe if they ever scale to to the point where that becomes necessary that will happen.
Until then, the product is one that is as good as it gets from a market where "not bad" is considered to be "pretty good".

manyman297

As someone who is dealing with quite a bit of (mostly) minor issues and a couple of major ones I'm on the fence about the entire industry. I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable buying another RV regardless of manufacturer. Or maybe I'll buy used and let the former owner iron out the issues first. 

It's true, Nucamp is probably a cut above but that might not be saying a whole lot when the bar is already so low on these. I think there's a definite issue with workmanship. I'm not sure if these guys are under the gun to produce or simply aren't trained well...or just don't care. And this goes beyond the pandemic. Most RVs have always been built poorly as far as I can tell.

I think it will take some builder coming in and offering amazing quality all around to force other manufacturers to up their game. It's the whole Detroit/Japan thing in the automotive world. 

It's disconcerting to keep hearing this beating of the drum of "buy American" but when I do, I'm disappointed. I'd gladly buy American if it were quality. I just want quality regardless of what country is building it. 

With all of that said, Nucamp really does want you to be happy. I've been working with their warranty department and they've shipped many parts to me directly because my dealer is so far away. I think I'm the exception because I've been dealing with so many issues but they really don't want an unhappy customer. 

Also, while the workmanship is lacking, the materials they use are top notch compared to what you get with other builders. My cousin rented a Dutchmen unit and I don't know how that thing would last 10 years let alone 5. It had a million bells and whistles on it but if the foundation is poor then what's the point? I had a Forest River tent trailer before our 400 and this Dutchmen was on par with how poorly built that tent trailer was. You get what you pay for.

I say go with Nucamp still. If you spend any amount of time on other builder's forums you'll quickly see that a lot of the issues you're seeing here are happening with other builders too. Many times they're a lot worse.

RMo

Dutch061 said:  Unfortunately, people who don't have issues rarely make a post about how much they enjoy what they have.

To Brad's point - we bought our 2019 as a 3-month-old used model in August of 2020 and have had no issues at all after about 7,000 miles, except the black tank valve handle broke and we replaced it for $3.99.  I have no complaints about quality.  Knock on Azdel.

qhumberd

@Charlie_FYFM I thought I would weigh in on the new versus used issue. I too was concerned about a new purchase and the many possible annoying things that the dealer would have to fix that I had read about that across most RV manufacturers. So we decided to look for a lightly used unit and got a 1 year old 400 boondock and we love ours. From reading the forum I keep going back and checking this or that to see if my unit is impacted, but no. Everything works and the issues we have had have been very minor and we are pretty far from a dealer. Most units are like ours, and our one window issue NuCamp handled outside of warranty with no hassle and no cost. So best of luck and happy camping!

Da_Birds

I too had second thoughts when we were waiting for our camper to be delivered. I've been researching trailers for the past 5 years or more. I've talked to many owners and watched hours of YouTube videos etc.. A common theme is that all RV's will have at least some minor issues and at worse some major issues. One major differentiator is how the dealer and manufacture handles these issues. 

I watched one video interview with a person who transports trailers for a living. He wouldn't name names but said he delivered some very high end trailers and many of them needed major repairs after making their first trip on the road (e.g. fixtures falling out of the ceiling, cabinets coming lose etc). Some needed repairs during initial inspection before he would even haul them (e.g. propane lines hanging dangerously low to the ground etc.). Even some honest dealers will say that no RV will come without some sort issue that needs to be fixed and none are perfect. One dealer said if your waiting for the perfect RV you're never going to find it.

One thing that put things into perspective for me is that these trailers are basically subjected to hurricane force winds (sometimes rains) and earthquakes the whole time you are traveling. Plus they need to be built light enough to tow with a reasonably sized vehicle. That shouldn't be an excuse for the industry but it does explain why some screws or caulking can come lose etc..

I also agree that most reviewers and people posting on these and others forums want to share their problems or find help with them. Few people take the time to voice their pleasure with something. Many don't even do that with their loved ones. One last thing dealers etc. won't tell you is that no RV is meant for full time living or heavy use. They are designed for recreational use. Again, not an excuse for the industry but a reasonable excuse why things can break etc.. If you're using them more than a week or two here and a few weekends there then it's reasonable to expect issues to arise sooner rather than later.

My 2 cents....

Binghi

I’ve made some comments about build quality on our Tab 400, but last year we rented a couple of Airstreams (27’ Globetrotter and 25’ Flying Cloud) for a lengthy period of time and they have issues too. The build quality for our Tab is commensurate with the Airstreams. One thing I’ve learned about RVs  - they are a labor of love. But love them we do - and we do love our Tab!

scottincarmel

If it calms your nerves any, I took delivery of my 2021 TAB 320S-BD in May. I've since put 5-6K miles on it, including the Ucamp Rally in Ohio and a trip to Maine. With fingers firmly crossed, I can tell you I've yet to experience any issues with my unit. It's been flawless.

jimrj

Other than some operator errors, our 2021 has also been flawless. We thoroughly enjoy it. 

CJax

@RMo said "knock on Azdel." Brilliant! 

Homebodyatheart

My 2017 320S has operated flawlessly the first four years. Then a $35 part on the toilet broke a year ago. NuCamp doesn’t make those, Thetford does and things break. Now in my fifth year I finally had a fuse blow and replaced it last week. I have some other general maintenance things to do, like sanitize the fresh water tank, clean out the water pump filter, that kind of stuff. So while Ladybug is not an inexpensive trailer to start with, she’s also only in the shop when I’m adding something on, or having general maintenance done, like repacking my bearings after four years. They were in pristine condition. When I read on other groups about all the time their rigs have spent “in the shop” for repairs and costs, I’m still very grateful to NuCamp for their commitment to quality and customer support and service! Thanks NuCamp! 

elbereth

We are still loving our 2018 CS-S.  Other than careless operator error (leading to a dead first battery and a fridge mess - entirely our fault, and fixed without lasting issues), the only thing that we’ve had an issue with is the string on the screen door.  We’ve never even needed to take it back to the dealership - we’ve done our own bearing grease, winterizing, and spring sanitizing each year.  We are of the “wow, this thing is the best tent ever!” variety, so not looking for a house on wheels, but boy do I love our fan on hot nights, our Alde on cool ones, our fridge to keep our beer cold, and our potty!

Heh heh, knock on Azdel!

Da_Birds

elbereth said:

We are of the “wow, this thing is the best tent ever!” variety, so not looking for a house on wheels, but boy do I love our fan on hot nights, our Alde on cool ones, our fridge to keep our beer cold, and our potty!

That is what we tell everyone..."best tent ever"! Beer still goes in the cooler but at least we don't find soggy food in the bottom of the cooler now! We had a lot of gear for tent camping but even some of the quality gear had some issues over the years.

We are saving hours of work on trip prep, setup, breakdown etc., even though we had that down to a science. The T@B has it's own time sinks but most of that time can be spent at our leisure. On our first trip in the T@B we were amazed by how much extra time we had. Shortly after getting to the campground my wife and I were like...."wow there's nothing more we need to do"! So we locked up the T@B and went for a walk! Seemed we spent that whole trip saying "that was easy...what should we do now"!

Now I need to go knock on Azdel in case I jinxed myself!

Dutch061

@Da_Birds

You know, the funny thing is as we travel and watch people and their set-up etc., I have to reflect to the days of having a 5th wheel and the time and pain in the butt things were. Set-up took 30 minutes to an hour by the time everything was done.

With our 400 BDL, I use an Anderson leveler and the Level Pro to get leveled. My wife asks me every time what she can do to help, my response is to just stand back and in 5 minutes it's done. We can literally pull in, level, unhook and be done before most people even get parked how they want. 

Moral of the story, "less is more".

Maybe I need to teach her how to do it and I watch? Nah, it's way to easy to let someone else do it!

Brad 

ScottG

@Da_Birds, what you do now is get yourself an awning and a picnic table shelter, so when you get to camp you will still have some "tents" to set up.  ;-)

(Not to mention you'll be a lot happier when it rains!) 

manyman297

Quality comments aside, having a travel trailer has really saved us time as @Da_Birds mentioned. The popup trailer we had prior was deceivingly time
consuming to set up and tear down. A step up from tent camping but still kind of a pain. Now we’re set up within minutes and I can take the time to clean the 400’s interior before we break down camp so it’s ready for the next trip. If it rained on the popup you’d have to open it back up at home to let it dry out and then pack it away again. 

Tabaz

Scott Hubbell and his team at nuCamp have treated me so badly these past five-plus years, that I send them a few boxes of Clobentz chocolates (Walnut Creek, OH) each year on the anniversary of my T@B delivery date.

Tabaz

Coblentz Chocolates - not Clobentz (I flunked out of High School German).

Da_Birds

Hate to hijack this threat but I think some positive comments will be helpful to the OP.

@Dutch061

I've witnessed people with 5th wheels setting up a breaking down and yes....less is more in this case!

@ScottG

Maybe an awning down the line for the clam shell but we've done just fine in steady rain without one so far. No way on the picnic table shelter! Never had one never will, especially now. We keep some provisions in the pass-through cabinets in case we can't cook. I'm happy having nothing more than my folding chair to set up!

@manyman297

You have no idea how many people told us we should get a popup! Cheaper...lighter...sleeps more Blah blah blah. No thanks! It's a glorified tent if you ask me. Plus a must for us was an outdoor kitchen which I was not able to find in a popup. We have all the room we need inside our 320 (we're both less then 5'5" tall) and, to be frank, we don't want to sleep any more than the 2 of us

manyman297

Yeah, we sold the popup after two years (actually less than that). Just came to the realization that it was more work than I was willing to do. The whole point of getting a towable was to avoid the prep and setup time we spent tent camping. I started avoiding camping because I dreaded the popup experience. 

gulfarea

I must be very lazy as I am elderly, I just pull in don't even get it level, set up the folding chair outside and enjoy life. When I leave the campground for whatever , like going out for fast food, I pull the 320 with me then pull it back to its spot back in the campground. Art

ScottG

That's funny, @gulfarea. In my comment above to @Da_Birds I was also going to add that getting the trailer positioned just so--not to mention perfectly level--is another way I kill time setting up. I guess it all depends on how you define "enjoying life."  :-)

@manyman297, that's funny about the pop-up, too. I considered a pop-up many years before getting the T@B, but simply opted for a better tent at the time as I had a premonition about all the difficulties you described!

So, lest I be accused of facilitating derailing this discussion, I would like to say the T@B's roof (which does absorb moisture) and its handles (which allow for positioning it just so on challenging campsites) are both of a very high build quality.  ;-)

Da_Birds

ScottG said:

So, lest I be accused of facilitating derailing this discussion, I would like to say the T@B's roof (which does absorb moisture) and its handles (which allow for positioning it just so on challenging campsites) are both of a very high build quality.  ;-)

Funny you mention the handles because we lost one of our handle covers on our second trip. We need to push\pull our T@B in\out of our yard so the handles do get used quit a bit. Called the dealer about getting a replacement cover and in less than a week a new handle cover came in the mail from NuCamp which was covered 100% under the warranty. To hopefully help them stay on I applied a little silicone adhesive to the inside of the covers.

AirBoss

I'd put build quality of my rig up against anything in the marketplace of similar size, regardless of price. 

Done. 

Denny16

RVs are like boats, different levels of construction and craftsmanship, not all are equal.  I remember a 40-foot fiberglass hull yacht, with teak details and decks, that had a steering system quadrant pulley ripped off the hull (poor design/install).  Got a new design for the owner so he could get it fixed.  With a boat building/repair background, I am quite fussy about build quality.  We looked at a lot of RVs before buying our TaB400.  The upper end RV market only has a few serious players, with Airstream and nüCamp topping the list from what we could see.  I used to own a 1958 Kenskill, which I lived in whilst in college for several years.  It was kind of my RV benchmark for build quality, with nüCamp being in a similar league quality wise.

Our 2018 TaB 400 has had only a very few issues (, which were immediately taken care of by nüCamp.  When first purchased the original owner, (we got it used) towed it from SoCal to Burning Man in the California desert, where it roamed about for its first summer.  Only issue from his trip was dust collected under the driver’s side cabinets (under closet on floor), still there when we bought it.  The local dealer and I  (who was not the original sale dealer) sorted out the source, and worked out a fix to plug the entry points in the trailer floor.  Next the trailer had the late 2018 floor issue, which nüCamp and the local dealer repaired under nüCamp’s recall warranty.  Otherwise, no issues and has been smooth sailing.  We are very happy with our little TaB trailer (smaller than my Kenskill but just as functional).

While nüCamp has gone through several floor design/builds, they were leaders in using composite type floors to reduce the weakest part of most trailers, including the original plywood floored TaBs.  Today, I think nüCamp and Airstream are using the best available all composite (no wood) flooring unit in the RV industry.  Buyers of the new 2022 TaBs are going to get the best trailers produced to date, one piece composite floor foundation, LiPro ready battery/DC systems, Solar panels now included on all TaB400/320 models, and improvements to the rest of the systems based on previous owner feedback.  

Now that you have a TaB, and Covid is getting closer to being checked, go out camping and enjoy your TaB! 
cheers