'with that much you could have bought a fifth wheel'

[Howard L.]

Originally Posted by m.hony

Why would anyone want 3 campers?

So they can spend their time updating and renovating.

[PharmGeek]

No reason - simply to point out the gratuitous waste of money

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by PharmGeek

No reason - simply to point out the gratuitous waste of money

Huh? Irony alert. :-)

Pharm, you can't have it both ways. You started this whole thread to vent about people making presumptuous statements about the way you chose to spend your money (perhaps in their eyes, your "gratuitous waste" of it to boot). Seems a bit pot/kettle here, no?

[RangerJay]

We've just finished our 11th camping season with our Bambi - during the last road trip we celebrated our 500th night in it - somewhere during next year we will celebrate 100,000 kilometres. It is starting to need a bit of maintenance but we still have no desire to trade it - no desire to trade up, no desire to trade down, no desire to trade sideways. We purchased it for the long haul - and we're still into it for the long haul.

Why I say this is that we have good friends who purchased their own new SOB the same year we bought the Bambi.

I took a few jabs on the price tag at the time.

Today those same friends are now planning to look for their 4th SOB before the next camping season.

There is no question in my mind who's "investment" continues to give the best return.

Now I'm the one giving the jabs .....

And loving it!! .....



Jay

[Howard L.]

It's been 14 months now since we pulled out of the dealers lot in Denton, TX with our first Airstream, 30 Flying Cloud. During that time we've traveled with it to New Mexico mountains 4 times, Natchez, MS, Florida, New Orleans, and numerous Texas State parks from Galveston to El Paso to the south TX coast. I'm closely guessing 20,000 miles. It still looks, feels and smells brand new. Several friends, with slightly older 5th wheels used less total time, are in need of new carpet, new plastic toilets or just a total new 5th. There is no comparison, quality is always quality, camp-ability is camp-ability, class is just class. Dealer told me that if you keep the trailer for ten years you get your money back at resale. Whether true or not, I feel we've already recovered our costs through enjoyment and we're still under warrantee.

[PharmGeek]

Originally Posted by SteveSueMac

Huh? Irony alert. :-)

Pharm, you can't have it both ways. You started this whole thread to vent about people making presumptuous statements about the way you chose to spend your money (perhaps in their eyes, your "gratuitous waste" of it to boot). Seems a bit pot/kettle here, no?

My point was, no one wants other people to tell them that their purchase was a gratuitous waste of money....perhaps my tone or intentions were unclear there? Or I am confused.

I simply am not a fan of people judging others on the basis of cost.....and my statement about "gratuitous waste of money" was not meant to be my words...it was a reference to some (very few I think statistically as far as I can tell) that have openly said that it is a "waste of money" or that "it is crazy"....

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Originally Posted by RangerJay

We've just finished our 11th camping season with our Bambi - during the last road trip we celebrated our 500th night in it - somewhere during next year we will celebrate 100,000 kilometres. It is starting to need a bit of maintenance but we still have no desire to trade it - no desire to trade up, no desire to trade down, no desire to trade sideways. We purchased it for the long haul - and we're still into it for the long haul.

Why I say this is that we have good friends who purchased their own new SOB the same year we bought the Bambi.

I took a few jabs on the price tag at the time.

Today those same friends are now planning to look for their 4th SOB before the next camping season.

There is no question in my mind who's "investment" continues to give the best return.

Now I'm the one giving the jabs .....

And loving it!! .....



Jay

Hi, we studied hard and long before we bought our trailer and I basically said the same thing." We don't plan to ever trade up, down, or sideways."

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Originally Posted by m.hony

If someone can afford a 3/4 ton diesel pickup and a 5th wheel surely they could afford an Airstream. That just don't make no sense.

Hi, we could afford a larger and newer tow vehicle and a larger, fancier Airstream too, if we chose to make payments for the rest of our lives. But we chose to not have any payments and this played a large part of our decision of what we bought. [So we couldn't afford the other option, if we wanted to, but we didn't want it.]

[PharmGeek]

we hope that ours will sustain the long run...barring way down the line some desire to downsize, we think/hope we will be great for a while!!

Hearing all you fine people speak about your success gives me confidence!

[m.hony]

I was talking about the presumption that the Airstream costs more than a fifth wheel. I think they cost about the same.
1 ton diesel truck and fifth wheel => 1/2 ton truck and Airstream.
It just ain't never occurred to me personally to want a diesel truck or a fifth wheel...
I love my trailer.

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by PharmGeek

perhaps my tone or intentions were unclear there?

Thanks - always tough in communication, even tougher on line...your intentions are always yours, the inference drawn is always the responsibility of the reader/listener. Sometimes those two don't compute! Apologies for jumping to pot/kettle before getting your actual intention - appreciate the explanation as I was pretty slow on the uptake there!

[andreasduess]

Originally Posted by ROBERTSUNRUS

Hi, we could afford a larger and newer tow vehicle and a larger, fancier Airstream too, if we chose to make payments for the rest of our lives. But we chose to not have any payments and this played a large part of our decision of what we bought. [So we couldn't afford the other option, if we wanted to, but we didn't want it.]

That was our thinking exactly. We could afford an older trailer for cash, or a newer trailer for payments, unless we were prepared to save up for another two to three years.

I had to make vehicle payments once and didn't care much for the experience and we wanted to go camping now, so cash for an older model it was.

Not intended to be a value judgement, as you've said elsewhere, TETO.

[PharmGeek]

Originally Posted by andreasduess

That was our thinking exactly. We could afford an older trailer for cash, or a newer trailer for payments, unless we were prepared to save up for another two to three years.

I had to make vehicle payments once and didn't care much for the experience and we wanted to go camping now, so cash for an older model it was.

Not intended to be a value judgement, as you've said elsewhere, TETO.

That's seems legit and indeed non judgmental !!

[SeeMore]

Personally, I have never been too worried about what others think or say about my choice of recreation - its mine, not theirs. When you listen (or read) from that perspective it is easy to smile at anything said and take no offense. On reflection, most cost comments I have received by non-Airstreamers are based on ignorance or hearsay anyway and it is a chance to educate if they are in the mood: the common denominator is they all appreciate a icon of Americana.

[Protagonist]

Maybe it's a trailer thing. No one has ever said to me about my Interstate's price tag, "Wow! For that you could have bought a Class C!"

But since an Interstate only costs about half of a Class A's price tag, gets about 4~5 times the fuel economy, and can fit into the smallest site in a campground, I've had lots of Class A owners say, "I wish I had one of those!"

[mccrosti]

I love the look I get when I tell them I traded a vintage Harley Davidson for it invariably the next question is "dontcha miss the Harley?" Answer "nope" rode for 36 years and never figured out a way to load my wife and my daughter on the thing. As an side when I'd pull into gas stations I'd get "that's a gorgeous bike,who did the restoration work?"

With luck I'll hear the same about the Overlander.

[PharmGeek]

Originally Posted by SeeMore

Personally, I have never been too worried about what others think or say about my choice of recreation - its mine, not theirs. When you listen (or read) from that perspective it is easy to smile at anything said and take no offense. On reflection, most cost comments I have received by non-Airstreamers are based on ignorance or hearsay anyway and it is a chance to educate if they are in the mood: the common denominator is they all appreciate a icon of Americana.

Great points!

[PharmGeek]

Originally Posted by Protagonist

Maybe it's a trailer thing. No one has ever said to me about my Interstate's price tag, "Wow! For that you could have bought a Class C!"

But since an Interstate only costs about half of a Class A's price tag, gets about 4~5 times the fuel economy, and can fit into the smallest site in a campground, I've had lots of Class A owners say, "I wish I had one of those!"

Speculation - but perhaps more people have a sense for what "travel trailers cost" as opposed to motor homes such as these?

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by PharmGeek

Speculation - but perhaps more people have a sense for what "travel trailers cost" as opposed to motor homes such as these?

http://www.rvguide.com/specs/travel-trailer.html

Here's a site folks could use (I found with a simple google search - don't know anything about them...) which can do both motorhomes and trailers.

My dad was probably too old school for stuff like this, but if I asked him questions about his pay or what he spent on something, he'd say something like, "it's none of your *}]^% business."

And if I asked him a question I could have researched myself he'd say something like, "what am I - Funk & Wagnalls? Go look it up yourself!"

Perhaps modern versions of these would be:

I'm sorry, privacy agreements restrict my ability to share that information with you.

And:

Google/Bing/Yahoo! it.

Dad could be crusty, but he was effective :-)

[cwf]

I have a 5th and 6th wheel!!! I have a triple axle!

We saw many "5th" wheel and other SOBs. SOB doesn't mean "some other brand" in this case.

If I own one, it will immediately be traded for aluminum. Yeah, sad disease, but we must embrace our weaknesses to grow!!

So, thankfully I will not have to do that.

The "sob's" were always losing parts like trim and hardware. The slide outs I could sick my fingers through as I could see light between the sides and "seals". I could hear scraping and grinding and chattering as the marginal mechanisms strained to extend and retract.

Off gassing was obscene. Flooring strained under my 240 pounds. The shower flooring nearly caved. .. And I could get into the ones with sunlight hole in roof.

All the plastic plumbing handles and nozzles and fittings were, well, plastic and cheeeeep. Everyone we saw had broken parts and we were promised they would be checked out...sure.

We also checked out some classified for sale ones..wow the look bad after 4-5 years.

Ah well, in 5 years, buy two and start a third and still spend less than one AS... Then you start to see the false economy