Tribe EX500

This thing is cool… 55k seems like a good place to be. 65k and I’d have a lot of trouble not just buying an eos-12. Is it insulated/will it have tank heaters?
 

Obsessed2findARuggedHybid

Well-known member
One concern I have about this company is as far as I can tell the Tribe Basecamp model is the biggest trailer they have made. It's a small " sleep on " rig. There have been quite a few quality issues in the FB group. But lots of trailers have quality issues. The 2024 (wierd) models msrp is 25k. Not exactly cheap. Now they are jumping to a much larger rig that is a hardsided pop up. There is a reason there are not any us made off road hardsided Pop-ups. I would imagine it's a challenge structurely for this to hold up and avoid water penetration. I will hold any other judgment until we see the details of how the pop up works. If they keep raising prices to dealers like ROA says and the added improvements I bet the 65k will be the price
 

Obsessed2findARuggedHybid

Well-known member
Wow that's impressive that Tribe could buy a company like this. Maybe it makes sense as they have signed a lot dealers. Does it pop up with a motor or is it a manual system?
Can you show us a picture of the tounge sticker that gives dry weight and gwr?
 

Obsessed2findARuggedHybid

Well-known member
Hello everyone! Very excited about the EX 500. Keep the questions coming.

Yes, tribe is owned by the owner of Tuff Stuff.
Yes, the trailers will be manufactured in china. I thought they were manufactured in arizona where their other tribe trailers were, but they are not.

They own their own manufacturing plant in china and this is not outsourced.
They have their own proprietary suspension. Yes it has airbags, and shocks.


here is a quick walk around the trailer. Let me know what you guys think.

Right now they are projecting to release the trailer for around 55-65k depending on the components that they decide upon.

There other Tribe trailers are built in china as well. So confused to what you meant by that. But it doesn't matter we now know we're they are built
 

ROA-OFFROAD

Supporting Sponsor / Approved Vendor
There other Tribe trailers are built in china as well. So confused to what you meant by that. But it doesn't matter we now know we're they are built

when I met with the owners a couple days ago they informed me that the smaller trailers were built in their factory in arizona. So that’s what I am going off of. Why do you believe otherwise?
 

ROA-OFFROAD

Supporting Sponsor / Approved Vendor
Wow that's impressive that Tribe could buy a company like this. Maybe it makes sense as they have signed a lot dealers. Does it pop up with a motor or is it a manual system?
Can you show us a picture of the tounge sticker that gives dry weight and gwr?

the owner of tribe is the owner of tuff stuff. The same factory used to build all equipment for tuff Stuff will be used to build their own trailers.
 

Obsessed2findARuggedHybid

Well-known member
when I met with the owners a couple days ago they informed me that the smaller trailers were built in their factory in arizona. So that’s what I am going off of. Why do you believe otherwise?

I am guessing here but if you look at the no name Chinese components on the bascamp model and read the issues that folks are having on the Tribe Trailer FB group it seems odd they would have all those no name raw materials shipped to AZ to be manufactured when there is a mfging facility at your disposal in China. Hard saying not knowing
 

rehammer81

Active member
I think the question for the owner is are their trailers manufactured in the China factory and assembled in AZ similar to OBI? That is the model most of these Chinese "knockoffs" follow such as Opus, Black Series, MDC, OBI, etc. Again, nothing wrong with that. Just a matter of transparency and honesty.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk
 

EPO

Active member
A camper such as this design makes a lot of sense and will sell a lot of them IF some things are done such as assure it's stability on the road, doesn't have constant breaking components, doesn't need a bunch of mods to make usable, etc. Can you imagine having to clean that wet bath? Make it solid and it will sell. If not, well, it won't and it's reputation will follow.
 

rehammer81

Active member
A camper such as this design makes a lot of sense and will sell a lot of them IF some things are done such as assure it's stability on the road, doesn't have constant breaking components, doesn't need a bunch of mods to make usable, etc. Can you imagine having to clean that wet bath? Make it solid and it will sell. If not, well, it won't and it's reputation will follow.
I'm not sure what is going on in that wet bath. I wish they would just simplify with a composting toilet.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk
 

Obsessed2findARuggedHybid

Well-known member
So a YT channel called 137 Adventures posted this video


It appears to be a video made by Tribe

I asked if both the Bascamp and EX 500 are built it china and they said yes.

It looks like the pop up is electronic. Anyone have a guess if that's a huge power draw?
 

gendlert

Active member
Shouldn't be a huge relative power draw because you don't use it for very long. Not knowing the specs of the linear actuator or the weight of the top half of the trailer, this would just be an estimate, but what the heck, this will be fun. Here are some assumptions that affect the math:

  • Top of trailer (moving section) weighs 700 pounds. It makes the math easy below. Could be more or less, but whatever.
  • Draw is 7.5A for a linear actuator under load.
    • This is the biggest unknown, but once we get to the end, I don't think it will matter even if it was 3x this estimate, which it's not.
    • I picked a Progressive Automations PA-04-400LB model. This has an unloaded draw of 4A and 0.02A per pound moved.
    • With 700 pounds (175 lbs per actuator), the amperage is 4A + 0.02A/lb*175lbs = 7.5A per actuator. I showed my work so you can change it if you don't like it.
  • 4 linear actuators (one on each corner).
  • Based on video, a conservative estimate is 2 mins to raise the roof (1/30 hours).
We trailer people tend to think of power use in Amp-hours, so now it's easy.

7.5A*4 actuators*(1/30 hours) = 1 Ah consumed.

Unless they spec it with a 2Ah AGM battery bank, you shouldn't get into the danger zone of power consumption. If you set it up in the sunlight for that 2 minutes, you may not even see your bank dip below 99% charge after it's lifted.
 
I'm trying to hold back on my questions until they release the video/specs... if this thing has good bones (insulated well, has a solid frame) and comes in at a low price point I wouldn't mind buying it knowing eventually the suspension, hitch, stove etc would have to be upgraded sort of like the dweller. Hopefully it's not black series level dysfunctional
 

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