Why I can't recommend Nexus

[TS Racer]

I picked up a new 2019 Ghost 36DS as I explained on another thread here in March. I have a short list of things that need to be looked at but nothing that would cause me to turn around and go home from vacation. Probably the biggest thing is that the rear air blows but doesn't cool. I had it on for about 20 minutes and confirmed that the thermostat was set correctly. It's either a defective unit or the thermostat isn't hooked up correctly. Small worry. The rest are little things like a few trim pieces have rattled loose, the radio won't hook up to Blue Tooth, etc. Other than that no real issues.

In the past I've driven new motorhomes or toterhomes home 2,000 miles from other manufacturers in the Indiana area and found refrigerators coming out of the wall, couches loose, leaking plumbing, and so forth, and decided there is a lot going on with these things and I should expect that they will need to be sorted out. No manufacturer is immune to it no matter how many commas are in their price.

[BCook57]

I owned a 2014 Nexus 31P. It was our 5th motorhome, so we were pretty experienced buyers. Our previous motorhomes were a '94 Tioga Class C, '98 Lazy Daze 30IB, 2001 Newmar Class A gas, (36 ft, but can't remember the model), and a 2007 Newmar 43 ft Dutch Star DP. We had sold the Dutch Star, and due to work, lifestyle changes, etc, had been out of the RV world when we bought the Nexus.

Over the 4 years we owned the Nexus, we had issues with it, mostly related to component choice, but a few related to workmanship. It was back at the factory on three occasions, related to the slides, a cab-over leak, general new unit fixes, and some customization.

We chose Nexus because they were willing to customize the unit for us. Lots of storage, some other special changes. While the issues we had were annoying, and in one case caused us to have to cancel a trip, I'm not sure they were any worse than issues with the Newmar products. The only truly "trouble-free" units we have had were the Tioga and Lazy Daze.

So, to bring this story to an end - the Nexus was stored on Big Pine Key here in Florida, and washed away by Hurricane Irma. Six feet of water in it for hours. Totaled by the insurance company. We got more for it than we ever could have gotten selling or trading, so we came out OK. And, truth be told, I'm glad it's gone. When we finally decided to get our 6th motorhome, it is a used (2006) Lazy Daze 30 IB. Just like the one we had in 1998. No slides to worry about, no leveling jacks to not come up in the morning. We're heading out in a few days for 3 months, and my level of worry over everything working is much lower than with the other units we've owned.

[Ron Dittmer]

BCook57,

The end of your story had me laughing.

And I agree with you regarding slide outs and leveling jacks. We avoided them when ordering our rig back in 2007 SEEN HERE and all remains trouble free to this day. It also helps having indoor storage HERE at home, our 12 year old rig is still like new.

[lazycamper]

I purchased a 25' Phantom years ago and had tons of problems. It had insufficient welds from frame to MH frame with angle irons only 1" depth into the ford frame. When I picked up the unit at the plant water poured out of bottom of shower, 2 shower walls pulled away from wall, bathroom door pops out of track, dinette table did not fit cut-out for sleeping and fantastic fan did not work right (they just added another switch?), microwave leaning out at top-not properly fastened, vent fan did not line up with interior flap was off by 2" , slide out bottom hitting floor (had to go to factory twice to get this fixed), tv cable had 12 volts going through it, all this was fixed while at the factory. After having it home for a while I discovered half the cabinet door hinge pins fell out, city water connection on wrong side, one end of spare tire frame hanging down, several door catches were misaligned, front tv cable too short causing it to kink when tv was in lock, thermostat came loose on wall, gas fill hose was kinked and found 2 hose clamps where they tried to make it round, the double drawer frame under bed was never fastened to the floor and no support at the top, the large drawer kept falling off its tracks, found the drawer slide came apart because the opening was to large, shower door magnet was installed backwards causing door not to line up when closed, toilet paper holder fell off wall-screws were to short, tv cable going to outside jack was never hooked up, ceiling opening above microwave where wiring go through was not sealed and allowed about half the air conditioning to go out the microwave vent, one trip noticed strong sewer smell found out 2 clips that hold the black tank were only screwed into azdel and foam causing the tank to drop down-improper backing also found the MH frame was cocked and the angle iron that is suppose to hold the tank lip was out of range, also black tank was installed up against leaf spring and put a hole in it, steel angle irons that support the mud flaps were sheared off by being too close to the leaf springs,
fresh water hose leaking at top of tank found vent line was stretched out because the water tank was never fastened to the floor and kitchen drain line under bed flopped around because it was missing hangers, wire in the ceiling at the AC were up against sharp bend metal when they cut out for the AC no wire loom. All this was a total nightmare including the worry and stress after buying a new unit and found out it was the last one built before their Thanksgiving break. I have over 40 hours in labor fixing all this stuff and when i called about these problems all they said was I could trade it in on another unit! I ended up selling the MH and will never buy new again, as my brother-in-law who is a RV mechanic said you buy them broken and then the fun begins. Sorry the long post.

[mre]

Originally Posted by lazycamper

I purchased a 25' Phantom years ago and had tons of problems. It had insufficient welds from frame to MH frame with angle irons only 1" depth into the ford frame. When I picked up the unit at the plant water poured out of bottom of shower, 2 shower walls pulled away from wall, bathroom door pops out of track, dinette table did not fit cut-out for sleeping and fantastic fan did not work right (they just added another switch?), microwave leaning out at top-not properly fastened, vent fan did not line up with interior flap was off by 2" , slide out bottom hitting floor (had to go to factory twice to get this fixed), tv cable had 12 volts going through it, all this was fixed while at the factory. After having it home for a while I discovered half the cabinet door hinge pins fell out, city water connection on wrong side, one end of spare tire frame hanging down, several door catches were misaligned, front tv cable too short causing it to kink when tv was in lock, thermostat came loose on wall, gas fill hose was kinked and found 2 hose clamps where they tried to make it round, the double drawer frame under bed was never fastened to the floor and no support at the top, the large drawer kept falling off its tracks, found the drawer slide came apart because the opening was to large, shower door magnet was installed backwards causing door not to line up when closed, toilet paper holder fell off wall-screws were to short, tv cable going to outside jack was never hooked up, ceiling opening above microwave where wiring go through was not sealed and allowed about half the air conditioning to go out the microwave vent, one trip noticed strong sewer smell found out 2 clips that hold the black tank were only screwed into azdel and foam causing the tank to drop down-improper backing also found the MH frame was cocked and the angle iron that is suppose to hold the tank lip was out of range, also black tank was installed up against leaf spring and put a hole in it, steel angle irons that support the mud flaps were sheared off by being too close to the leaf springs,
fresh water hose leaking at top of tank found vent line was stretched out because the water tank was never fastened to the floor and kitchen drain line under bed flopped around because it was missing hangers, wire in the ceiling at the AC were up against sharp bend metal when they cut out for the AC no wire loom. All this was a total nightmare including the worry and stress after buying a new unit and found out it was the last one built before their Thanksgiving break. I have over 40 hours in labor fixing all this stuff and when i called about these problems all they said was I could trade it in on another unit! I ended up selling the MH and will never buy new again, as my brother-in-law who is a RV mechanic said you buy them broken and then the fun begins. Sorry the long post.

Other than that, did you like it?

[lazycamper]

Yes. when it was being driven away by the new owner!

[mre]

Originally Posted by lazycamper

Yes. when it was being driven away by the new owner!

Good one!

[Kenfocht]

I have been looking over the 2019 Bentley. Has anyone actually had “seat of your pants” time to pass on handling and ride ? I’m concerned about the lack of information and praise. It’s also really low priced for what is claimed in features. Also, only a one year factor warranty. What am I missing? Thanks ken

[mre]

You're probably not missing anything. When I first looked at them about 5-6 years ago, they were strictly factory-direct sales, they sold only Class B, C and Super C motorhomes, they had limited production, and there a fair number of complaints. Their product didn't seem any better than anyone else. In my view after looking a their web site they now have dealers all over the lower 48 and expanded their model line. So it looks like they spent there money on expansion and not quality assurance. From what I understand, this isn't anything different than anyone else in Elkhart. So they are at least par.

[TourNut]

A friend bought a new Nexus Phantom about a year & 1/2 ago . Has had it back to the factory 4 times & local dealer a few times too . Got 1 week of vacation out of it ! Some problems I can remember of his long list : Slide wouldn't work , got slide to work but ripped trim off of slide inside , steps worked intermittent . Convinced me not to get Nexus !

[TS Racer]

Follow up on my purchase of a 2019 Nexus Ghost 36 footer. I posted my experience earlier in this thread right after I purchased it. Other than a few normal small glitches my experience has been great and I would buy it all over again. I suspect you're only going to hear the complaints on a forum like this but as an owner we enjoy our rig and I highly recommend them.

[Weiss]

Our experience is much like TSRacer above - minor things & a few cosmetic changes that we had done but overall the motorhome has been great. Drives great, pulls great, etc. You'll always get more people willing to post about their negative experiences than their positive ones. Check out the Facebook group & you'll have access to a lot of Nexus owners & get a good cross section of satisfied/dissatisfied owners.

[WorldCat25]

We have a 2018 Ghost 36DS (on a 2017 Durastar chassis), picked up in September, 2017.

I had the exact same problem as the OP with the inverter circuit but managed to figure it out with the help of Magnum (inverter supplier). Admit is was frustrating that Nexus could not give me any help over the phone. I also replaced the 200amp fuse with the correct sized 300amp fuse.

Have had a few other issues which Nexus did fix. I've made numerous other upgrades (air horns, swivel copilot seat, moved transmission control box).

I agree it drives great and pulls my fullsize Expedition like a champ. Only remaining nagging issue is excessive wind noise at highway speed but I've tried so many fixes which haven't worked, I've just gotten used to it.

Last month we returned from a 13,000 mile round trip to Alaska and currently have 37,000 miles on it.

The biggest plus, and how I found out about them, is that it's GVW is 25,999#. Even though I have a Class A drivers license, my wife does not and this allows her to spell me for a bit on highways. She is very comfortable driving it, even towing the SUV.

Still happy we bought it. Would have liked one of the bigger Super C's but did not want to spend the money and deal with the dirver's license issue.

After a long muddy drive down from Alaska.

[slyfoxqh]

I have been looking at a new 2018 Nexus Phantom 32 ...wondered why it never sold ! Guess it still won't - at least on my nickel ...