Build Quality?

AirBoss

Growing up parents had the classic "It Hasta' be Shasta" little yellow rig with the wings. Sadly, while riding with my dad and grandfather (who was driving at the time), we flipped it in high winds. Spent the next three hours separating the silverware from the condiments and the sleeping bags from the milk. But I remember that little rig was a tight ship (until it wasn't). And my father spent very little time worrying about this or that. Load it up...go enjoy. A lesson I've tried to live well over the years.  

Fast forward...raising a family of three daughters ( yeah...even the Cocker Spaniel and the Goldfish were female...imagine my life), we owned or rented all manner of RVs. Sawed-off Class C's to 28' 5th wheels. Most all of them standard, run of the mill, RV's. Nothing special...but serviceable. 

Later on I decided to try my hand at boat ownership. A 56' twin berth, twin head, cruiser built in the late 80's. Twin Volvo turbo diesels and all the dressings. Nice vessel. Did it have issues...you bet it did. Wrote more than a few checks with more than a few "0's" in them. But it also took me places I'd likely never have visited without it. THAT is the cost of ownership. 

Point being (and this is just IMHO), one doesn't (or at least shouldn't) go to the time, effort, and expense of owning a recreational vehicle (be it land, water or air) and then expect that your life will be trouble free...or that you won't be dealing one issue after another. Of course you will. Folks, we spend 20X-30X and more on our homes and are they trouble free for decades. No. 

All that being said, and I'm 110% behind what our esteemed colleague @Denny16 has to say on this matter, the nuCamp product it top shelf. Will you have issues...you bet you will. If that proves to be more of a burden than a blessing in disguise, sell the rig and get a room. 

Da_Birds

Just wanted to add that we just returned from a weekend trip where we were hit with rain from tropical storm Henri. According to weather reports the area got about 5 inches of rain in 36 hours. We stayed high and dry in our T@B and even under the clam shell lid when it was time to cook (thankfully there was no wind). Meanwhile we came home to some water in our basement I need to clean up!

Denny16

Thanks AirBoss for your kind words.  Yes any RV will require some help along the way, your comments are well put.
cheers

tabiphile

An interesting piece about the current industry with no direct reflection upon nuCamp."Pathetic quality": RV dealers are fed up with what manufacturers are producing - RV Travel

manyman297

Great article and it pretty much mirrors what a lot of us are seeing. Like I've said before, Nucamp is a step above but we're still dealing with a lot of little issues in our rig. mostly cosmetic interior issues but a few major ones we've luckily been able to fix ourselves. As long as Nucamp's customer service and willingness to correct issues remains remarkable then it's at least some kind of concession but it's not an ideal situation.

I'd argue this bad quality has been going on for years though. Us as well as friends we know have always had issues with RVs. It's a low, low bar to make something exceptional. It would be interesting to see what the work culture is like in these factories. Is it the suits squeezing every last bit of profit out of the workers or are the workers just not great, well, workers?

Sharon_is_SAM

I read a couple of years ago on RVTravel.net that 50% of the applicants to Elkhart RV manufacturers could not pass the required drug screening.  There are many variables that factor into RV quality - expectation, demand, supply, work pressure, lack of training, lack of workers, etc.

Chopin

This is our very first RV. I had also read a lot about quality problems with RVs generally. I’m thrilled to say that the quality of our 2021 tab 320 S is really high. It feels very solid. That does not mean it has been perfect: there have been a few very minor issues and all of them have been easily resolvable and nucamp has always been very responsive. We absolutely made the right choice and I think you will be happy too. 

LonesomeRoad

Our 2021 320 S BD delivered in May of '21 was darn near perfect (not saying that the ordering/build process doesn't require a major overhaul or anything about the quality of the dealer network). That said, we (already) upgraded to a 400 and can say that the attention to detail compared to the 320 seems lacking. I don't regret the upgrade (although the price tag is stupidly high), but there are many minor things that are simply wrong and QA needs an overhaul @ NuCamp (IMO). 

While we have not had any catastrophes yet, I have taken off the 'plumbing cover' in the back after every trip and had to tighten the PEX connectors. Had a leak in the sink trap (disassembled and used Teflon tape). Cabinet fit is only "OK" although the materials seem pretty good. Cushions need better foam, stargazer window surround is a major issue, black gate leaks and more things like that. Warranty service has been pretty good (shipping parts), but the dealer network simply sucks. Try to get dealer service in a reasonable timeframe -- good luck. I'm pretty familiar with dealer quality control systems in the luxury auto market and some people from that industry need to come over to the RV industry and get these RV dealers in shape.

ColoradoSun

After buying our 2021 T@B 400 BD last December I started reading on this forum of some owners problems. It was pretty concerning and I kept expecting something not to work, break, fall off or be a big problem. This was  particularly concerning because of the lackluster dealer support many owners reported.
Well after months of use our experience has been really good. No major problems and only a couple of very minor ones that I was able to quickly and cheaply resolve on my own. Most of the problems I've had were user error. Hopefully a couple of years from now I'll be able to say the same thing. If that happens, it will be good mark of quality.

tab_nation

Picking up our  new 2022 T@b 400 bdk in a few days. Ordered 8 months ago. I think expectations are the key here. We're looking forward to the journey and glad to have found this forum. Keep you posted.  Be well!

Charlie_FYFM

Well an update on build quality.  19 months later the Elwell Air8 air conditioning STOPPED WORKING.  We have treated this unit with kid gloves.

GregChris

Just my opinion garnered from my experience and and what I've read here, The trailer construction it's self is first rate. All of the vendor parts, ac, aldi, water pump, etc, seem to unpacked and installed without any quality control or inspection. How else do explain things like dometic stove top not opening, or thermometer on aldi being 6 degrees off, or the plumbing clogging with bits of plastic from the water tank. I don't know if these things should be checked before leaving the factory, or it's the dealers responsablility. I would think it should work properly before leaving the factory.

KK1L

@GregChris The vendor parts not being up to snuff is a problem. The Supplier Quality job probably falls to Procurement at NuCamp. The volume consumed is not high enough for Dometic, etc to respond to a SCAR or complaint issued by NuCamp. If the supplier quality is going down it puts a burden on NuCamp to verify function of the components. They are not equipped to thoroughly check each component...no assembler is. Without something obviously wrong how would you know? Having a robust QA/QI process using customer feedback at NuCamp is important, but without the supplier being responsive to quality issues it puts them in a hard place.

FatTab

In my searching for a small camper I narrowed it down to the Tab 320 and the Airstream Basecamp. In my opinion the NuCamp's seem to have better build quality, or at least on par, with Airstreams. I was honestly disappointed with the cabinetry alignments, window fitments and materials given the massively high prices of the Airstreams. Not that they are that bad, just that they aren't as "perfect" as I thought they'd be.

kottum

Quality of assembly is only as good as those doing the work. I suspect Nucamp uses Amish workers to get a cut above the average American workforce. Are they really Amish craftsmen, or more just likely to show up at work sober and ready to work.

Compare to automobile assembly.  These campers are assembled by hand, automobiles by robot.  Expect less quality which can be mitigated with good workforce properly trained at their task.  If they don't know what good work is, how can you expect to get it out if them.

tabiphile

kottum said:

Compare to automobile assembly.  These campers are assembled by hand, automobiles by robot.  Expect less quality which can be mitigated with good workforce properly trained at their task.  If they don't know what good work is, how can you expect to get it out if them.

It's kind of basic process control, manufacturing, standard work that is practiced in any industry that relies upon human hands-on assembly to build a complex product. 
Qualified builders should be following validated procedures with process control. Out of box failure or warranty events should be monitored by the quality system and the process tweaked accordingly. Relying on the assemblers to use some sort of magical native skills as a substitute for a quality system does not lead to zero defects. It does make for a nice story though.