My tow experience with a NoBo 19.6

I had a fiberglass issue with mine at the corner of the refrigerator access down to the fender flare. There were waves in the fiberglass sheet. I sent pictures to NoBo and they thought it was delamination and tried to say it was from seals in the refrig access leaking. I let them know that it was noticed a week after I got it and we hadn't had any rain from the time of purchase until the time I brought it to the dealers attention.
It ended up being a glue issue and was fixed to my satisfaction.
The other small issues I had was the wall on the side of the refrig in the slide cracked. The paneling was too long when it was built and had a sl. buckle to it. Driving it around caused it to flex and crack. It took the dealer 6 weeks to get the new panel from NoBo.
Also the small countertop backsplash in the kitchen behind the stove had a gap that left the wallpaper to separate from the countertop. I had the dealer install metal backsplash on the wall to fix it...figured it would give me better protection from cooking. Then the same thing happened in the bathroom at the vanity. They were able to fix it- re glue it and filled the gap with caulking.
So relatively minor issues (except the fiberglass) that all these stick and glue trailers seem to have over time.
The azdel is supposed to prevent delamination BTW.

 

That same friend of mine mentioned that it's seldom water intrusion creating these delams when new. He said ever since Covid Production trailers have hit the lots, the delams are pretty much always due to the builder moving too fast and failing to apply a sufficient amount of the adhesive product to stick it to the foam core walls. He personally has developed some good tricks to fix these things that don't lead to more problems but he warned that the wrong guys doing repairs can cause repeat problems. Resins will attack and destroy the foam that encased in the aluminum framework that the Azdell and interior luan is glued to. When that happens, it creates inclusions or pockets of "nothing" for the surfaces to stick to so it makes it easy for for the delams to continue once they get going.

Kinda funny, I haven't heard shit from my dealer in a week and a half after giving up a $1000 deposit and I'm laying low to see how they deal with this transaction. My sales guy was nice in that he didn't shadow us when we went and looked at different models but I now know that I know more about these trailers then he does and he doesn't bother to call me to update where things are going. We put a credit app in 2 weeks ago as we're tossing the idea of maybe buying through a credit union and then paying it off in 6 months or so or we may just cash it out. It depends on the interest rate at this point. I know the credit stuff was dealt with 2 weeks ago as I was alerted to the hard pull. I get a call yesterday late afternoon from a service tech wanting to schedule our walk through and hand us the keys! Nobody has sent me a purchase agreement with pricing, finance details, nothing. In the meantime, I have found a used 2 times, kept in a barn 19.6 for sale about 45 minutes from home for the same price the new coach is but that's negotiable. Then I found a new '22 up in NorCal with all the bells and whistles with upgraded solar with a bigger inverter and Battle Born Lithiums for $4k less! They sent me a confirmed pricing agreement and spec sheet within 10 minutes of me talking to them yesterday. Even though my dealer is 10 minutes from the house, I have a suspicion this communication issue while carry on when it comes to warranty issues so I'm on the fence right now about their trailer.

Here's a shot of the first one with the delamination for grins and giggles!

 

Thanks for the info man. I’ve been looking at buying a NoBo and this helps a ton. Out of curiosity how is your RV holding up? On paper it seems great but I’m seeing mixed reviews.

 

See post #41
All the stick and glues have their issues. I think the build quality compared to some of the others I looked at was overall better.

 

Here are some picture of my fiberglass issues.

 

Did your issues start after the 1 year warranty or has Forest River offered any resolution to the problem?

 

It was noticed right after I bought it. I brought it up to them right before my regular warranty was up when the interior wall cracked and needed to be replaced. Everything was done in one shot. I bought an extended warranty. The way these things are built (across the board), I didn't want to take any chances. It looks fine now.

 

I hope you don't mind me beating this naughty horse but I'm obviously really interested in how things progressed with that issue! Did they need to send the unit back to the manufacturer or were they able to handle the repair in house? Did they replace the outer/inner panel or just fix what was there? Any visible remnants of the repair work? Curious if you were able to see any of the process?

I'm just a bit sketched by the whole issue. We were able to walk away from the first one. I STILL have not seen the unit we're buying as it was in a storage location they claim I am not allowed to access so I have to wait till they get it to the location where we'll be doing a walk-through, which is going to be Saturday. I don't want my walk-through to be my investigation visit. I told them yesterday I want some significant time on my own to go through all the nooks and crannies like I did on the first one as my wife and I looked it over and just hung out in it and made plans and ideas of our future upgrades and concerns.

 

It was repaired by a local company that the dealership trusts. The problem was in the shape of the panel. They removed the refrigerator access panel to figure out what the problem was and then made cuts in the sheet of fiberglass and glued it down. The fiberglass surface was then repaired and painted. The service manager dealt with it. I met him when I picked up the trailer at the dealerships location in NW Phoenix. He works at their east valley location. He did not like how the paint looked when done, so he had someone else do a repaint from the stripe down. You can't really see any defect unless your really look on an angle. To me it was acceptable. Since I already owned the trailer, there was not much choice. It took them about 8 weeks to get everything done. Most of it was the 6 weeks waiting on NoBo to send the inside wall panel.
They will all have some defects, hopefully cosmetic and easy fixes. I already had to replace the plastic strip that goes around the outer edge of the slide. Bought a roll of the camco vinyl trim insert from Amazon, took me less than 30 minutes to replace- looks like new

 

Cool. Thanks for the details. It's not my first rodeo with travel trailers, I've had several so I know what to expect with "cutting corners" during the factory build. Mine will be stored right here at home initially as I plan to essentially "tear it apart" figuratively to straighten up all the mistakes I can find before they become problematic. I've been sponging info on several NoBo related sites where flaws and fixes are shared. Lots of good info to build a comprehensive punch-list to get started on when I get her home this Saturday.

 

How did you make out with it full time? What did your total trailer weight end up at on average?

I'm looking at double axle trailers for full time living so any thoughts on your experience is appreciated

 

Bar 5 months in phoenix this summer we’ve spent 2 years solid in our Apex Nano 213rds, traveled some 14k miles.

I copied @KissmyTaco and started a thread, you can read about it here… https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...oser-to-5-000lbs…-maybe.760812/#post-27122598

 

Overall really positive! We were full time from April '22 until July '23. I'll do a larger write up at some point but here's a few things:

- Never actually got the thing weighed but I'd guess a little over 5000# with our gear and the solar setup. We never towed with fresh water and only carried black/gray to the nearest dump.
- The trailer we had was only 7' in width which matches the Tacoma pretty closely. This was really convenient both for not needing tow mirrors and for the confidence that if the truck would fit down the narrow forest rd - the trailer would too.
- Fuel economy avg is about what you'll get with anything: 9-11mpg depending on winds, etc.
- Biggest drawback of the Taco is the fuel tank size. You pretty much have to stop every 2-2.5 hours to be safe.
- I'm not sure about other brands but the schwintek slide on the Winnebago Micro Minnie/Minnie line is GARBAGE. Its not a question of if it will fail, but when. We primarily boondocked down some tough dirt roads so I'm sure that expedited our issues but I would choose a trailer without a slide if I did it again. Outside of mechanical problems, the slides are just another annoyance to deal with during setup/tear down and if you need to stay a night in a rest area you probably aren't (and shouldn't) going to extend it so it can block things you need overnight. If you can make the layout work, go no slide.

Despite the anemic engine, awful gearing, and fuel tank I wouldn't do it with any other truck. I never once had any problems in all those miles and all I did was regular maintenance during that time. It's not a joy to drive but it will do it and you won't be anxious about getting stranded. We hit some 14% grades out in California and even went up and down Wolf Creek pass in CO during a snowstorm back in March. While those weren't the smartest decisions the truck did it and we lived

Highly recommend going for it if you can!

 

Look familiar?

We did it westbound in April and didn’t find it too bad. Eastbound looked like it would be a struggle though!

 

We did it at night so can't say it looks too familiar haha! We actually were headed eastbound, headed over to Westcliffe from UT. Once we made it through the pass it was around 2am so we camped the evening in some lot in South Fork I believe.

Also love the trailer, can't believe you can get that floorpan around 4000#. That was our ideal layout but the Winnebago we looked at with it was around 6000#. Jealous of the roof space too... so much solar opportunity. I squeezed in as much as we could but could have used more!

 

Wowzers, that's a lot of solar! We've managed with just the one standard panel all this time!! I never got around to finding it but I have a parasitic draw somewhere (I think), 2 standard lead batteries will be down to 1/3rd (via the battery monitor) after 5 hours of minimal lighting usage and device charging. Although I was always impressed that the solo panel would charge them up to full by midday.

I'm sure with your setup you can charge even on a overcast day.

Since you started towing did you always have your canopy on? I've always thought a canopy would help considerably?