I dreamed of touring with a teardrop trailer…

I actually planned out a route that would take me through the US. It felt like a wonderful plan and I was looking forward to the day that I could make it happen.

I didn’t know about the nüCamp TAB 400 or even nüCamp trailers when it all started. I just kept looking at pictures of cute little teardrops and dreaming.

My logical brain wondered, “Don’t they look kind of small?”
“Are you sure you want to do all your cooking outdoors?”

But, you know, some dreams won’t let you go. I kept looking and hoping to find a way to experience my adventure someday.

Then I met the man who would change my life

Shortly after Adriel and I started dating we talked about goals and dreams. I shared my teardrop dream with him. Over many discussions that idea morphed into a shared Airstream dream. Before long we were hitting the local Airstream dealer to check them out.

We sat in trailers (and talked), watched youtube RV videos (and talked), read RV blogs (and talked)

The years passed but the dream didn’t fade. We decided we needed to do something or we’d find ourselves looking back wishing we’d taken the risk.

We started defining the perfect trailer for us.

And then we realized we needed a tow vehicle before we could choose a trailer. Sadly, it looked like we’d need a pickup to tow an Airstream the size we wanted. Neither of us wanted to drive a pickup on a daily basis. We went back to the drawing board.

So we came at it from the opposite perspective and asked an important question.

What was it that we wanted to drive every day?

At that point, we were driving a Kia Soul and a BMW 230i convertible. Obviously, neither of them could tow anything. There were things though that we liked about each, such as the carrying capacity of the Kia and the sportiness of the BMW.

Since we had planned to sell both and get one vehicle we came upon an idea. How about a BMW SUV?

A perfect tow vehicle solution appears

Based on our criteria, it looked like either the X3 or the X5 would do the job. Considering all the bells and whistles that we wanted the X5 came in a bit above our budget. And we weren’t sure it would fit inside our garage.

But the X3 looked like a perfect solution. It fit our budget, it was great to drive, it would easily fit in the garage and it would tow up to 4,400 pounds.

On a weekend holiday to the coast we visited Melbourne BMW and found a 2019 X3 in great shape at a good price. We took the plunge and drove it home.

We come full circle back to teardrops

With a tow vehicle selected we searched for trailers with a gross weight of less than 4,000 pounds. We discovered we’d come full circle back to teardrops.

Now I know that this is a very roundabout way to arrive at a teardrop trailer being our perfect fit. But it’s pretty much how it happened.

After researching the teardrops out there, we narrowed it down to either the nüCamp or the Little Guy. We found a dealers with trailers on the lot that we could get into. We set up appointments to go see both on a Saturday in October, the dealerships being an hour apart.

We finally get inside a TAB 400

Our day started at Gerzeny’s RV World in Lakeland, Florida, the nüCamp dealership. We planned to quickly see what they had before driving to the Little Guy showroom. Then we’d go home before making a final decision.

Bruce Edwards was waiting for us and ferried us via golf cart to the only nüCamp TAB 400 Boondock on the lot.

We walked around listening to his list of features and then we stepped inside. It was love at first sight.

It was a no-brainer

I had originally started visiting RV showrooms checking out teardrops several years ago. We’ve been to the local Airstream dealer so often the sales staff just let us wander around. We’d subscribed to all the major RV YouTube channels and watched hours of video and read many blog posts from RVers. We pretty much knew what to expect. It’s hard, though, to truly assess quality from photos or videos.

We were surprised. Everything was better than we’d expected.

The cabinetry, flooring, windows had such a high level of craftsmanship. And, even though it’s only 18 feet long, the layout felt so comfortable we just totally relaxed sitting at the dinette.

From that moment on, the nüCamp TAB 400 felt like the perfect trailer for us. We called the second salesman and canceled our appointment. He was extremely gracious and congratulatory when he heard why.

We didn’t even have a hitch on our X3 yet, so we postponed taking delivery for a couple of weeks to get one installed.

Delivery day arrives!

On October 30th, we made the trip back to Lakeland and there she was, all ready to go. By then we had a name for her – Tibby!

While the service department installed our brake controller we completed the closing paperwork. They gave us a thorough walk-through of all systems, answering all our questions. They helped us hitch up and wished us well.

Our adventures started with driving off the lot, carefully making our way to a sub shop a few blocks away. It was long past lunch time and we were starved. Adriel managed to find a spot under some trees for shade and backed Tibby in. We ate our first lunch at the dinette with a lovely Florida breeze blowing through the open windows.

I’d like to say that the rest of the trip home was as idyllic but, as all RVers know, every moment can be an adventure. That’s a story for another time.