Dealers are so frustrating.

Mountaintrails

Before I tell you my story. First let me say, that I have Toyota vehicles and my Toyota dealership is amazing. I have taken lots of vehicles to them and they are always truthful and try to lookout for the customer. A few years ago I purchased a brand new fishing boat and that dealer and the manufacturer has been amazing also. I have learned after my 55 years to buy quality and stick with quality people if you want to be happy., well today was the day that we were supposed to pickup our new T@b 360 Black Canyon. It’s not home. All the paperwork is done and we did the walkthrough. There was a few things wrong. Tears in the window screen on the curved windows, lights that did not work and things like that. Then we tried the water system check. At the start of the walkthrough I mentioned that there isn’t any glycol in the heating system tank.  We couldn’t get the hot water heater to heat the water. The person doing the walkthrough I through stated that they didn’t know this system and wanted to research it for us. She called someone else on her phone and he said not to run it without glycol. We walked into the the service department and the main service guy behind the desk got a big attitude. He started chewing out the person doing the walkthrough with us and when I stated the glycol tank is empty he said he doesn’t even know what that tank is. I walked over to the front desk and asked for the GM. Him and I sat down in a couple camp chairs under a show room rv awning with a fake fire pit and had a bit of a chat.  They still have the trailer and I really hope things work out. But the RV industry continues to show me that it is not quality. 

Dave 

Marceline

This doesn’t sound great. How did you become aware that there wasn’t any glycol in the tank? Honestly this sounds serious enough that I’d consider calling NuCamp customer care. 

Grumpy_G

I'd agree to put much of the blame on the dealer. Clearly they didn't check the trailer before trying to hand it over and I hope they didn't try to charge you a "dealer prep fee" or similar. Plus the lady doing the walk through and the service guy didn't have a clue about the specifics of the Alde system. 

Apparently there has been a lot of turnover at Nucamp in the past few years, and the CEO left to start a new company. Time will tell if it is a slump or the beginning of the end.  

Sharon_is_SAM

Please confirm that there was no glycol in the system.  If that is true, Truma/Alde warns against operating the Alde without glycol.  There is a risk of damage.

From the Alde manual:

“The boiler comes installed with glycol heating fluid.

If the fluid is drained for any reason, you must

replace it before restarting the heating system.

Damage to the heating system and voiding of your

warranty could result if you attempt to start it with

no or low level of glycol heating fluid.”

Bayliss

@Mountaintrails, based on your description of what has transpired so far (attitude, lack of knowledge, etc.), I would be cancelling the deal ASAP and looking for a different dealer who knows what they are selling and how the components operate (let alone where they are located).  You will only experience more of the same in the future if you need service or repairs and return to get that done at the same dealer.  If you get any push-back from the dealer, get on the phone with nuCamp and make it happen.  Regardless of how you decide to proceed, I agree that you need to share your experience (and dissatisfaction) with nuCamp.

Care to share who the dealer is and where they are located?  I am particularly curious whether they are a recognized "T@B/nuCamp" dealer and have several on the lot.  I am also curious what the GM had to say, including what their explanation was for the lack of knowledge possessed by their employees, and their plan to make you happy.

qhumberd

@Mountaintrails I would concur here and note that accepting the trailer after the dealer has (by your description of the dealer checking the Alde by starting it without glycol), voided the Alde warranty. You can use the information from the Alde manual provided by @Sharon_is_SAM above. 

Mountaintrails

Small update. It’s Monday. I called the dealer as soon as they opened. I couldn’t get ahold of the managers. It seemed I was being ghosted. I drove to the  dealer and demanded to talk to the store manager. I had a long talk with him. He seemed to be listening. Tonight I received a phone call.they will have my trailer ready to go at the end of the week. I understand I will have the top technicians and people working on it. It sounds like they will be swapping the Alde system out with one from another trailer. I will let you know the end result. I know people are just people and people make mistakes. It’s how the person fixes their mistakes is what matters to me.  I will give them a little wrope and see what they do with it. 

manyman297

My dealer tech knew nothing about the systems of our 400. I knew so much going into the deal that I basically just tuned out the tech as he was walking me through everything. Half of what he said was incorrect. Some of these dealers just want the profit and don’t put any effort into learning about what they sell. 

Marceline

Mountaintrails said:

Small update. It’s Monday. I called the dealer as soon as they opened. I couldn’t get ahold of the managers. It seemed I was being ghosted. I drove to the  dealer and demanded to talk to the store manager. I had a long talk with him. He seemed to be listening. Tonight I received a phone call.they will have my trailer ready to go at the end of the week. I understand I will have the top technicians and people working on it. It sounds like they will be swapping the Alde system out with one from another trailer. I will let you know the end result. I know people are just people and people make mistakes. It’s how the person fixes their mistakes is what matters to me.  I will give them a little wrope and see what they do with it. 

I hate to be a Debbie downer but I'm not sure I'd accept that on a brand new trailer. I think that swapping the Alde system is actually pretty big deal.  

This whole situation seems very odd. As someone else pointed out, the trailers ship from Ohio with the glycol in the system. So where the heck did the glycol go? At the very least you might want to bring NuCamp corporate into the conversation.

Mountaintrails

Keeping you updated. It’s Tuesday night. Monday morning I went back to the dealer and had a sit down with the manager. He seemed to care and was sure we can get it all resolved.  I emailed Nucamp on Sunday. They replied early their time today. Tuesday. I live in Washington so they are a few hours ahead of me. Nucamp stated that they haven’t registered the trailer to Nucamp under my name yet. And they hadn’t submitted a warranty claim for the items needing repaired. I spoke to the service manager today, for the first time. He has been out until today. He was clueless. His customer service skills are very much lacking. He said everything will be fine and they had the heater up and running currently. I am a bit concerned at the moment. The trailer is mine also. So now it’s a matter of getting all this sorted out. Years ago I had a bad dealing with a RV dealer and the rv I bought fell apart.  I took a loss and swore I would not do that again.  This little T@B 360 seemed perfect. But I feel my nightmare of dealers continues. I will never work with another one as long as I live. 

Bayliss

@Mountaintrails, again, based on what you have shared, I really feel that you need to cancel the deal and be forceful about it.

I agree with @Marceline that switching out an Alde from another trailer is a BIG deal, especially when a dealer that obviously does not know what they are doing, is "doing" it.  Beyond that, it is not the way to run a business and you should expect (demand) that nuCamp assist you in cancelling the sale contract and convincing the dealer to refund your money (or at least replace the trailer with one sent from the factory; not from the dealer's lot).  If that is not feasible, you should strongly consider making the purchase from a different dealer.

The dealer's plan to resolve the situation makes me wonder what they are going to do with the Alde that they are apparently (allegedly) pulling out of the trailer you purchased...........put it in another trailer and sell it to some unsuspecting customer?  You don't even have any guarantee that they actually have changed it out (or plan to), unless you took photos of (or recorded) the serial number for the original Alde.  Considering how they have handled things to this point, for all you know they simply added some Alde fluid and fired it up.  The Service Manager says they had the heater up an running, but has he demonstrated that for you?

Ughhh.  I feel for you.  I went through something like this several years back when I purchased a 5th wheel (the exterior was delaminating - - I discovered it the day after I took it home).  I had to be very forceful with the dealer, but they replaced the trailer.  In situations like this, you need to go with your gut.  If it doesn't feel right, and you are getting bad vibes, you need to get out of the deal.  You have plenty of justifiable reasons to do so.

Best of luck to you!!  I truly hope it all works out well for you, and I'm guessing everyone else on this Forum feels the same way.

Mountaintrails

Update. I received info that the tank was empty but the hoses did have glycol in them. Am I being to hard about this? I have had bad experiences with rv dealers and rv’s in the past so am I just being to strict ? The heater was ran for about 1 hour and the water heater was started for about 10 minutes. I can’t believe there hasn’t been people who have ran these systems dry before. This should just be the fluid to cause the reaction. Not like the lubrication/oil in an engine. Second guessing myself at this point. And that isn’t something I normally do. I know that Nucamp sells a good product. 

Thanks for your comments. 

Dave

AnOldUR

Both electric and propane heating depends on having fluid in the glycol chamber inside the furnace to regulate the heat. The electric elements should be submersed in the glycol. They will burn out if there's no glycol to distribute the heat away from the element. The propane heating has the same problem. Without glycol, the walls of the propane combustion chamber will overheat.

If, as they said, it's only the expansion tank that's empty, and there is glycol in the hoses and furnace, the Alde should be fine, but you need to verify that this is true.