Adding Quick Tabs Programmatically to a node is not working
I got this to work using node--typename.tpl.php



$tabs = array(
      array(
        'title' =&gt; t('Overview'),
        'type' =&gt; 'view',
        'vid' =&gt; 'product_tabs',
        'display' =&gt; 'block_1',
        'args' =&gt; $node-&gt;nid,
        'weight' =&gt; 0,
      ),
      array(
        'title' =&gt; t('Dimensions &amp; Weight'),
        'type' =&gt; 'view',
        'vid' =&gt; 'product_tabs',
        'display' =&gt; 'block_4',
        'args' =&gt; $node-&gt;nid,
        'weight' =&gt; 1,
      ),
      array(
        'title' =&gt; t('Shipping'),
        'type' =&gt; 'view',
        'vid' =&gt; 'ps3_games',
        'display' =&gt; 'default',
        'args' =&gt; $node-&gt;nid,
        'weight' =&gt; 2,
      ),
      array(
        'title' =&gt; t('Ratings &amp; Reviews (' . $node-&gt;comment_count . ')' ),
        'type' =&gt; 'view',
        'vid' =&gt; 'product_tabs',
        'display' =&gt; 'block_3',
        'args' =&gt; $node-&gt;nid,
        'weight' =&gt; 3,
      ),
    );
    $qtoptions = array(
      'style' =&gt; 'Zen',
      'ajax' =&gt; FALSE,
    );
    $qtname = 'commerce_product23';
    $quicktabs = quicktabs_build_quicktabs($qtname,$qtoptions,$tabs);
    print drupal_render($quicktabs['content']);


works with views, but if I try to use nodes it does not. 

You should try another method.

Create a Quicktab using the Quicktabs UI. Then create a custom module to override the settings/output of the quicktab using the machine name to target a specific quicktab 

For Example:

 function mymodule_quicktabs_alter($quicktabs) { 
    $nid = $node-&gt;nid
        if ($quicktabs-&gt;machine_name == 'quick_tab_front_page') { 
        $quicktabs-&gt;tabs = array(
          0 =&gt; array(
        'nid' =&gt; $nid,
        'view_mode' =&gt; 'full',
        'hide_title' =&gt; 1,
        'title' =&gt; 'Full',
        'weight' =&gt; '-99',
        'type' =&gt; 'node',
          ),
          1 =&gt; array(
        'nid' =&gt; $nid,
        'view_mode' =&gt; 'teaser',
        'hide_title' =&gt; 1,
        'title' =&gt; 'Teaser',
        'weight' =&gt; '-99',
        'type' =&gt; 'node',
          ),
        );
        $quicktabs-&gt;renderer = 'quicktabs';
        $quicktabs-&gt;style = 'Arrows';
        $quicktabs-&gt;options = array();
        }
        }