Airstream - the good and the bad?

September 10, 2024 8:00 AM

We are considering the purchase of an Airstream camper/trailer and vehicle. We would eventually like to cross the country for a bit when my wife and I retire in a few years. Never owned a camper before. Thought we might try to get used to a camper and get it partially paid for it before retiring.

* What are your experiences with Airstream?
* Glad you got it? Problems? Worth the money?
* How did you pay for it (if you don't mind my asking)?
* Did you have a plan going in for using for a certain period of time and then selling it?
* Vehicle considerations?
* Storage?
* Do you wish you had purchased a different brand of trailer?

posted by GernBlandston to Travel & Transportation (8 answers total)

I think you'd be well served doing a bunch of reading on the Air Forums and then, once your initial curiosity (the questions above, e.g.) has been sated through lurking, asking detailed specific questions.
posted by seanmpuckett at 11:42 AM on September 10

Have you rented campers before? I'd start there, to give an idea of what arrangements work best for you.
posted by Ardnamurchan at 12:15 PM on September 10

Not Airstream specific, but just general trailer stuff. The biggest concern with trailers is leaks and water infiltration. Assume that on a long enough timescale, every exterior seam on every trailer can leak. Airstreams, being riveted sheets of aluminum, have lots of seams.

For that reason, lots of trailer folk prefer molded fiberglass trailers. Scamp, Oliver, Casita, Escape are all the ones that come to mind right away. Smaller than most Airstreams, though, and not that much cheaper in some cases.

There is talk that Airstream has gone down in quality since they were bought by Thor RV, but that's all hearsay since I've not owned one.
posted by Huggiesbear at 12:19 PM on September 10

Besides using Outdoorsy to get some experience via renting, the other similar service is RVshare. Both are like AirBnB / Turo, where you are renting a specific truck / trailer from a specific owner, not from a company like CruiseAmerica.

We did a couple short test rentals last year in preparation for a big one this past April, and they definitely helped us realize some things we care about. I strongly recommend that you do that at least three times.

Here are my brief notes from that experience, comparing the services:
- CruiseAmerica: newbie friendly, limited pickup sites, less trailers
- RVshare: April 2023 = OK
- Outdoorsy: May 2023 = slicker interface, trailer weight provided and can be filtered on

Warning: many owners list their trailer on both services (and then fail to block out on schedule when booked on other).

After the massive surge of interest in trailers during the pandemic, now* seems to be a great time to buy a used trailer (*next couple years, and probably in fall).
posted by intermod at 12:43 PM on September 10

Not an Airstream, but last year we bought a ten year old, 17” Fiberglass trailer, a Casita. We’re having fun with it. Our chief learning is that keeping and maintaining a trailer involves way more than we’d realized. It’s sorta like owning a house AND a vehicle and combining all the sorts of things you need to worry about with both. It’s a pretty steep learning curve. Have you friends who can help you get up to speed? We are grateful to have friends that lend us their experience, not sure what we’d do without them. Oh- and while we really like our Casita, our friends have an Airstream, and it’s really MUCH MUCH NICER.
posted by carterk at 1:22 PM on September 10

My brother's girlfriend bought a classic Airstream trailer from a rich collector who had it preserved in a climate-controlled warehouse. (So we're talking about an old but unused Airstream in perfect condition.) After they've driven all day, my brother checks the floor for all the loose bolts and screws and other stuff that've fallen off, and figures out where they came from. He's a handyman, so he can put most of it back together before they take off, and the rest gets fixed when they come back home.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 1:50 AM on September 11

Is there a particular reason you're focused exclusively on Airstream right off the bat?

I don't think Airstream does slide outs, which is a feature many people like about modern RVs, especially tall folk.

In general, if either of you is close to 6 feet tall you want to find a layout with a long enough bed, or at the very least a bed you can hang your feet off the end of.
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 8:44 PM on September 11

My husband, daughter, and I travelled full time in an Airstream for three years from 2017-2019. We have a 27 ft front bedroom twin which we tow with a Nissan Titan. We paid for it in cash and haven't had any major problems with it despite using it full time on the road. As someone mentioned, it's very narrow and it doesn't have slide outs. It's like living in a hallway. But it has a lot of natural light because it has more windows.

Make sure that your tow vehicle has the capacity to properly tow an Airstream; they're heavier than white box trailers. Also make sure that you get an appropriate hitch. Again, what someone uses on a white box trailer may not be sufficient for an Airstream. We use a ProPride hitch.

There is also a sense of community among Airstreamers. There's the forum, of course, but meeting other Airstreamers while on the road is fun. Our first time boondocking in the Tetons turned into an Airstream rally when 4 others showed up. Also, you will meet other campers who want to take a look inside.

We still use it and have it in storage close by to our current home. We still love it and will probably pass it on to our daughter.
posted by mamaquita at 10:52 AM on September 12