New owner - 2020 T@b 400 BDL w/solar (weights & pics!)

b407driver

So I had been planning on reserving my ‘formal’ introduction until taking delivery of our new T@b, but I just received the first pictures of our trailer coming off the line, and honestly can’t wait! My wife and I have been joking about ‘getting old and buying an RV’ for nearly 25 years, and it is our 25th anniversary gift to each other. I guess we have arrived! 

We put in our order for a 2020 T@b 400 Boondock Lite w/solar, and we are now about a week from delivery (incredibly, only 1 to 3 days prior to our anniversary date!). It will have all of the late 2019 and 2020 changes, including:

• New (presumably faster-draining) bath sink, square (late-2019 change)
• New Avia-style 'wand' shower head, single temp-control handle (late-2019 change)
• Outlets near dinette moved below passenger-side cushion, WFCo moved to beneath passenger-side dinette seat
• Dometic CoolCat A/C moved rearward (for weight & balance reasons); exterior screen for A/C intake on front-left driver side is thus gone (and is now a bottom intake, haven’t seen a picture yet?)
• Kitchen sink no longer has p-trap, giving extra storage room (mid-2019 change)
• New vinyl flooring, almost with a 'macro' cross-hatched appearance
• ‘Booondock Edge’-style aluminum trays now installed on tongue
• ***Tongue weight significantly decreased, somewhere in the neighborhood of 35# (don’t have actual weights yet, will update).***

nuCamp now has a proper scale, so apparently all products manufactured will now have the yellow ‘actual’ weight stickers applied.

Anyway, thrilled to become part of the nuCamp family, and can’t wait to start the next leg of our journey!

-Jeff

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UPDATE: Just talked to nuCamp, and received the following info for confirmation:

1. A/C unit is now an 'Elwell Air-8'  mounted beneath center-bed (no CoolCat). No heat pump, but has de-humidifier setting.
2. Inverter moved to new WFCO location, under passenger-side dinette seat
3. Countertop and table are no longer particle board, but the new foamcore material developed for the Cirrus
4. Tire is returned to the mounting area behind tongue, underneath (was beneath bed for awhile)
5. TONGUE WEIGHTS: 373 lbs dry, 386 lbs wet (for 400 BDL, 2-way fridge)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Number 5 is a great big "YAY!", having a 5000# tow vehicle, as I'll now not worry so much about looking for a W/D hitch solution...

Cheers!

atlasb

The Air 8 looks strangely like the climate right unit we used in our LG 5 Wide several years ago.  Wonder what the BTU's are.  Given the size listed on the site looks small.  Wonder how they duct the hot air?

rh5555

I think I found the original manufacturer of the AIR8: A company called Truma Saphir out of Germany.  Apparently a big name in European caravan accessories.  It looks like we're getting their Compact model which is about 1800W = 6000BTU of cooling and doesn't offer heat.  But it is really efficient!  Only draws about 650W to cool your TAB - Makes solar-powered cooling seem just about possible. See: https://www.truma.com/int/en/products/truma-air-conditioning/truma-saphir-compact.html. 

jkjenn

Congrats!

Awca12a

Impressive

Cbusguy

@rh5555 if that is the case,  the manual list 2.8 amps running which is about 30 amps into an inverter to run it......but the other thing to keep in mind is that the specs are listed at 220 volts ac.   so the reality might be between 5 and 6 amps at 120 volts...    which means a 2k generator will run it even in high altitude.    

Just need to see the real world numbers when an engineer type gets their hands on it.

AlB

I've actually seen a 2020 T@B 400 in person - the improvements are very nice.

Here's pictures of two things many have asked about in the various threads - the air conditioner under the bed and the driver's side dinette storage compartment with the hydraulic strut.

b407driver

Nice, thanks for the pics!

DigitalSorceress

Congratz!!  so very pretty!

RCB

This Truma unit apparently weighs 20 kg (44 lb) while the Coolcat weighs 30.4 kg (67 lb). 

b407driver

Right! Probably a pretty significant part of the tongue weight decrease (guessing the foamcore table, as well).

PeteRissler

The power consumption is fairly low but I wonder how a generator or invertor will handle the startup 15A @230V (about 3450 watts) for 150ms.

Blueespy

Very nice.  Understand they moved the inverter and a/c unit to the rear under the bed to shift the weight off the tongue. Gives you storage under the seats and that's nice, plus you can put the storage platform on the front.  My question; since tongue weight was a concern with the 2019 models (I have one and on every trip I'm careful how we pack), isn't nucamp concern that if a consumer uses the platform for a generator, fuel, luggage, camp stuff and packs the storage area under the seats, that there isn't a potential to repeat the 2019 tongue weight problem? 

JEB

Blueespy said:

Very nice.  Understand they moved the inverter and a/c unit to the rear under the bed to shift the weight off the tongue. Gives you storage under the seats and that's nice, plus you can put the storage platform on the front.  My question; since tongue weight was a concern with the 2019 models (I have one and on every trip I'm careful how we pack), isn't nucamp concern that if a consumer uses the platform for a generator, fuel, luggage, camp stuff and packs the storage area under the seats, that there isn't a potential to repeat the 2019 tongue weight problem? 

You got it.  Plus, since the storage in the aft bay has been reduced significantly to accommodate the AC, most people will need to make full use of the storage under the driver’s side dinette seat.  Moving the AC to the rear lets NuCamp publish a lower dry tongue weight.  But as a practical matter, I doubt it will matter once the trailer is normally loaded.

TNOutback

From some photos I’ve seen recently, it looks like the outside storage compartment is now sealed off from the interior, and appears to have more storage “potential” with the batteries being moved.  Is that correct?

b407driver

It is sealed off, and it seems like it's bigger than before. Which would make sense.

[Deleted User]

There are complaints about the new a/c being really loud and an Error 7 message if the temp gets over 90 degrees and the air going out. Update us if you have any a/c problems. 

b407driver

I'm always off grid, but it's worked fine every time I've used it on shore power at home, 90 outside in one case.