Nexus Viper Class B+

[msmith1199]

Okay, I’ve gone back and forth and now I’m back to looking at a Class B+ on a Ford E-450 Chassis with the Ford V-10. I looked at the sprinter based motorhomes and determined that since I still want the option of bringing the Ford Ranger toad along that the Sprinter chassis just won’t do it since I’d be over the GCVWR.

Now I’m looking at the Nexus Viper 27 foot model with the Ford V-10. Looks like it is well built and has everything I was looking for. But, it’s a small company with only 30 employees so they don’t turn out a huge number of motorhomes. I found one RV site that had a few reviews on the RV and most were negative. Now I am an experienced RVer and this will be my third motorhome, so I know it’s routine that people generally only write reviews when they aren’t happy. Anybody on here have any experience with the Nexus Viper motorhomes and have any feedback? Good, bad, or ugly?

Although fuel mileage is not a huge issue for me, I’m seeing people all over the place on the MPG of the current V-10 engines. My first motorhome was a Rexhall Airbus 32 foot class A with the V-10 and I’d get 10 with the Jeep toad and 12 without it. I would be very happy if this smaller motorhome got 12. My Rexhall was almost 20 years ago. Any experience with MPG on with the V-10 engine on smaller motorhomes like this?

[msmith1199]

These weren’t spider cracks, the entire piece was completely broken all the way through. I have photos but I don’t remember how to post them on here. I mostly quit using this forum back when they got so heavy handed with the censoring.

[Gjac]

ron.dittmer wrote:

msmith1199 wrote:
I wasn’t concerned with the leaks as much as I was on what caused the damage. I’m not looking to buy that one anyway. Not sure how it could have got damaged in three different parts of the back end, without it showing some time of impact point. I told the guy I wouldn’t be worried at all if it was obvious collision damage, but that wasn’t so obvious.

One would hope they backed that rig into something that caused the damage. Cracks developed from simply driving the rig would be concerning. That would imply a lot of "flexing" of the house is occurring.

In that comparison video I shared higher up here, Phoenix pointed out that their competitor mounted the walls to the sides of the floor. The walls do not rest on the floor. They rest on the mounting hardware. That construction method could be the cause of excessive flexing of that back wall, creating those cracks.

It looks like the add on pieces were meant to look like a rear cap but the structural part to just a flat back panel attached to the side walls will a 90 degree angle. Sharp angles do not transition loads well around corners causing stress build up and the panels to flex and crack. A better design is a rear cap with radius corners that minimizes the transitional loads around the corners and puts the fasteners in shear rather than tension. Having said that you will sometimes see spider cracks in the gel coat in rear caps with a radius due to transitioning loads around the corners, so there is a lot of load transitioning from side walls to rear wall around 90 degree corners. The larger the corner radius the more efficient the joint is.

[ron_dittmer]

msmith1199 wrote:
I wasn’t concerned with the leaks as much as I was on what caused the damage. I’m not looking to buy that one anyway. Not sure how it could have got damaged in three different parts of the back end, without it showing some time of impact point. I told the guy I wouldn’t be worried at all if it was obvious collision damage, but that wasn’t so obvious.

One would hope they backed that rig into something that caused the damage. Cracks developed from simply driving the rig would be concerning. That would imply a lot of "flexing" of the house is occurring.

In that comparison video I shared higher up here, Phoenix pointed out that their competitor mounted the walls to the sides of the floor. The walls do not rest on the floor. They rest on the mounting hardware. That construction method could be the cause of excessive flexing of that back wall, creating those cracks.

[msmith1199]

I wasn’t concerned with the leaks as much as I was on what caused the damage. I’m not looking to buy that one anyway. Not sure how it could have got damaged in three different parts of the back end, without it showing some time of impact point. I told the guy I wouldn’t be worried at all if it was obvious collision damage, but that wasn’t so obvious.

[ron_dittmer]

msmith1199 wrote:
.....I was looking at one they had in stock and at first noticed the seams around some of the fiberglass parts around the rear bumper had pulled apart. Upon looking further I found the top rear fiberglass cross member completely cracked through and the same on a side cross member. The sales guy seemed pretty honest and he didn’t know what happened to it. That did concern me a little because I could no see any direct impact marks, but it did look like it could have been collision damage. But it was odd that one crack was on the very top, one was on the right side, and the other was lower left around the bumper. I’m not sure what somebody would have run into that did all that, and yet didn’t leave an obvious mark that it hit something. That does worry me a little because it’s also possible it just broke in all those places when the driver hit a bump or something.

On the Viper, it appears that all those back wall protruding sections are installed after the rear wall is completed. If you removed them, you might have a generic looking back wall, of coarse without all the fixtures. My point is that none of them are structural, and any water getting inside through those seams and cracks, likely will not get directly into the interior. Still they should be repaired properly to protect the fixtures and "limited" water infiltration through drilled holes.

Here is a picture of the rear wall of a Viper.

[msmith1199]

ron.dittmer wrote:
The actual measurements of the 27 foot Nexus Viper is actually 28.5 feet. Like yourself, I have read some serious negative reviews on the Nexus line.

Just down the street from the Nexus factory is the Phoenix Cruiser factory. PCs are scaled-down by design to make them more friendly to drive and maneuver.

CLICK HERE to watch a You Tube video that compares a Phoenix Cruiser to a similar floor plan of what they refer to as Brand-X. I recognize Brand-X as a Nexus Viper. A lot is nit-picky trivial stuff, but there are some serious matters too.

Drove all the way to Salt Lake City and spent the night to look at some Nexus Vipers this morning. They don’t have what I want in stock so if I get one I’ll have to order it, but I wanted to see them in person. I really like them. Lots of really nice storage, a full size queen bed that you can still use with the slide closed, and a decent size bathroom and shower for the size of the motorhome.

They seem to be well built but I was looking at one they had in stock and at first noticed the seams around some of the fiberglass parts around the rear bumper had pulled apart. Upon looking further I found the top rear fiberglass cross member completely cracked through and the same on a side cross member. The sales guy seemed pretty honest and he didn’t know what happened to it. That did concern me a little because I could no see any direct impact marks, but it did look like it could have been collision damage. But it was odd that one crack was on the very top, one was on the right side, and the other was lower left around the bumper. I’m not sure what somebody would have run into that did all that, and yet didn’t leave an obvious mark that it hit something. That does worry me a little because it’s also possible it just broke in all those places when the driver hit a bump or something.

[msmith1199]

I don’t seem to have a problem understanding what they mean by Class B+.

[DrewE]

msmith1199 wrote:

MDKMDK wrote:
B+ = Unicorn, Leprechaun, Fairies, honest politician. They don't exist. If it's a coach on a cab chassis, it's a class C, or a Super c.

You need to complain to the owners of RV.NET because they have a B+ category.

They do indeed, and it's a subcategory in the Class C Motorhomes forum.

"B+" is marketing speak, and means whatever the people marketing them want it to mean--usually a relatively upscale class C without a cabover bed. It's also a rather confusing term because they're not class B RVs at all; they're not built within a van body. I guess they probably figure that "Class B+" sounds better than "Class C-"....

[ron_dittmer]

msmith1199 wrote:

ron.dittmer wrote:
The actual measurements of the 27 foot Nexus Viper is actually 28.5 feet. Like yourself, I have read some serious negative reviews on the Nexus line.

Just down the street from the Nexus factory is the Phoenix Cruiser factory. PCs are scaled-down by design to make them more friendly to drive and maneuver.

CLICK HERE to watch a You Tube video that compares a Phoenix Cruiser to a similar floor plan of what they refer to as Brand-X. I recognize Brand-X as a Nexus Viper. A lot is nit-picky trivial stuff, but there are some serious matters too.

Only problem with the Phoenix’ Cruiser is the price. Yeah, I understand you get what your pay for, but they want almost a much a DP for that. Also they only do factory direct sales don’t they?

Yes and no. There is also a dealer network now, primarily east coast.

Lots of people say the same thing concerning the price of the Phoenix Cruiser. They buy "used" and most are very happy with their decision.

The prices have gone up the past 3 years, so a 4 year old used one sold by owner will be much more affordable. That is unless they learned of the price hike.

[msmith1199]

MDKMDK wrote:
B+ = Unicorn, Leprechaun, Fairies, honest politician. They don't exist. If it's a coach on a cab chassis, it's a class C, or a Super c.

You need to complain to the owners of RV.NET because they have a B+ category.

[msmith1199]

ron.dittmer wrote:
The actual measurements of the 27 foot Nexus Viper is actually 28.5 feet. Like yourself, I have read some serious negative reviews on the Nexus line.

Just down the street from the Nexus factory is the Phoenix Cruiser factory. PCs are scaled-down by design to make them more friendly to drive and maneuver.

CLICK HERE to watch a You Tube video that compares a Phoenix Cruiser to a similar floor plan of what they refer to as Brand-X. I recognize Brand-X as a Nexus Viper. A lot is nit-picky trivial stuff, but there are some serious matters too.

Only problem with the Phoenix’ Cruiser is the price. Yeah, I understand you get what your pay for, but they want almost a much a DP for that. Also they only do factory direct sales don’t they?

[ron_dittmer]

The length of the 27 foot Nexus Viper is actually 28.5 feet. Like yourself, I have read some serious negative reviews on the Nexus line.

Just down the street from the Nexus factory is the Phoenix Cruiser factory. PCs are scaled-down by design to make them more friendly to drive and maneuver.

CLICK HERE to watch a You Tube video that compares a Phoenix Cruiser to a similar floor plan of what they refer to as Brand-X. I recognized Brand-X as a Nexus Viper. A lot is nit-picky trivial stuff, but there are some serious matters too.

[RetiredRealtorR]

bob_nestor wrote:

MDKMDK wrote:
B+ = Unicorn, Leprechaun, Fairies, honest politician. They don't exist. If it's a coach on a cab chassis, it's a class C, or a Super c.

Give it a rest. If people or companies want to call a Class C without a cabover a Class B+ who does it hurt? Just because RVIA hasn't blessed the term doesn't mean it's the end of the world. People give their RVs cute names too and that's not blessed or authorized by RVIA either.

Like Thor's RUV's for example. What's an RUV, and what makes it any different from a Class A??

[Jack_Spratt]

2019 Leprechaun on the F450. V10 mileage averages around 8
Towing a Jeep at 65.