I bought mine from my vet (71 25 ft. Tradewind). It sat (under a roof) for ten years on his farm. So far almost everything seems to work. The furnace looks to need a bit of adjustment as it has a little carbon near the burnier. The trailer even had the original manual and warrenty with the original owners name & location. Doesn't look like many miles were on it. I do have to have the pull out beds re-upolstered, UV from the front window is rotting the front couch. I think I will look into modern bed foams and replace the entire foam core when I have them re-done. I have to check out a couple of clearance lights and replace the door light & the round one by the door. Fix a couple of tambour doors and I will be off in 71 retro-style. $1500, he just wanted to get rid of it because he bought a 38 ft. - 90k Damon motor home. The only future pain will be the Care-Free awning which is in parts and will need new canvas. I still have to figure out how to assemble it, I don't think it will be rocket science. It will be stored for a couple of years while I finish the work. I will test run it then and store it until retirement in somewhere around 6 years or so. These AS trailers are great, not to mention a fun hobby. Though camping with 4 German Wire Haired Pointers may be a bit trying!
So far my expenses have been--bearing grease, 4 tires, battery, 100 ft. of door & window seal + adhesive & cleaner, and extra 10-pack of light bulbs and some silicone spray. I should include a vacumn bag and some 409, 6-7 rolls of shop towels, A few pop rivets and washers for the under pan liner. Total--not sure but less than $2500 including purchase price. I am sure there is more to come. The worst part so far was getting the paper wasp nest out of the furnace exhaust and the birds nest out of the power vent.
Cheap Entertainment so far. (storage was great too--$100/year in a machine shed & I have room to work on it.
We traded for ours, "One man's trash is another man's treasure" in our case, something not worth much to us, got us a Silver Mine! Really looking forward to many great summers in our old Airstream.
Ordered with everything on her from factory 29,500.Love her even more after 16mos.I'm still a bit of a newbie and admire those of you who have restored your babies.Following alot of you is helping me learn what I know someday I might (have) to do.Repairs!
We originally were looking to buy an older AS and restore...we thought that it might be "fun" and we'd learn a lot in the process...
However, then we started looking at other factors: We have a limited amount of "free" time that we want to spend "on the road" instead of renovating
We want to be able to start traveling immediately without a "renovation" delay and major "ooops"
We wanted our relationship to last (we already "survived" a bathroom and partial home remodel )
And ditto #1 again...we just have too much other "stuff" (jobs, hobbies, etc) in our lives at the moment that limit "free" time
So...for now, the logical choice for us was to go with new...so that we spend a limited amount of time on maintenance and repairs....However, who knows, in the future when we both are retired or have more free time...Maybe we'll get one of those 1950-1960's to remodel...
We paid $8000 for our 31' 1981 Excella Limited last year. Everything in it was working fine (although we have since replaced the water heater because it was not quite as good as it could have been). Otherwise it's little stuff like marker lights, antenna,...
It was a little more than we were intending to spend but it was only 20 miles from our house. When we factored that in it made it worth the extra in our book.
-Alden
__________________
1981 31' Excella
2005 Dodge Ram 3500 Diesel
(No it doesn't have a HEMI in it)
Ok, so it's not an Airstream "Trailer" but we paid $7,000 for our 1974 Argosy motorhome. It was 24' in 1974 and in 1984 the original owner had the chassis extended to 31'; added a tag axle; completely remodeled/redesigned the inside; full custom cabinets and floorplan. So now it's 31'. It has a 454 in it. We LOVE it!! It's been worth every penny so far (going on 2 years)!!
Hey!
I love my A/S even tough I have not had a chance to use it yet.
I got a 1965 globetrotter for $2900 cdn. it was in an OK shape complete, just needed some work in all the original appliences.
but noooooo, not me.........
I saw this evil website and decided to restore it-cuzromize it to my taste (actually my wife's taste).
so I took it all apart, restore the frame (cleaned it and painted it) it did not have rust other than superficial.
I put new floor, brakes, bearings, wires, insulation (so far)
I already bought a bunch of new appliences: A/C, range, fridge, furnace, water heater.
got new black water tank, new fresh water tank among other things.
I have spent like 5 grand ontop of the trailer! and tons of hours!
there are people that doesn't get it about old vs new.
I bought a 1973 porsche 914 a while back and restore it, then I sold it and I got a 1969 porsche 911 which I'm gonna restore.
an old vehicle looking sharp means passion for the car, that you know wht you are driving and care for it.
A New vehicle means that you have some dollars to spare.
also there are people that buy old because they can't afford to buy new and they hope to fix the old one little by little or they just don't know what they are getting into.
by the way I bought a brand new subaru and nobody said anything to me, but when I was driving my 914 tons of people stopped by to give complements about the car.
We bought our 1979 Argosy 30ft. for $1500.00 here on the forum classifieds from a few pictures in Feb. picked it up on the way home from Florida in April. The only thing that dosen't work is the 8 track. Had to tow it across Hwy. 50 in West Virginia, that is some winding road.
We paid $4,500 for ours in the summer of 2002, sight unseen on ebay. Came with new tires and two new deep cycle rv batteries installed, otherwise completely original with everything still working. She's no show queen, a few beauty marks, but is rock solid and shows no signs of any leaks. As for maintenance costs to date? $20.00 on a used electric heating element for the refrigerator. Been cheap to keep.
We are heading out tommorrow for several weeks of boondocking in the Cascade Range. Jeff
We paid $3,500 for our 31' Sovereign from a fellow teacher here in town. The more I look at it in the drive, the better that price sounds. The more digging around I do on it, the higher it feels. Go figure...
We paid $3,500 for our 31' Sovereign from a fellow teacher here in town. The more I look at it in the drive, the better that price sounds. The more digging around I do on it, the higher it feels. Go figure...
i agree!!!! They just keep going up in value all the time, so from a point of investment,, they yield good returns. The new ones are are just too pricey and they devaluate when new for a few years before they start to go up in value.
Ernie
'58 Traveler, 18ft.
Quick Links
I bought mine from my vet (71 25 ft. Tradewind). It sat (under a roof) for ten years on his farm. So far almost everything seems to work. The furnace looks to need a bit of adjustment as it has a little carbon near the burnier. The trailer even had the original manual and warrenty with the original owners name & location. Doesn't look like many miles were on it. I do have to have the pull out beds re-upolstered, UV from the front window is rotting the front couch. I think I will look into modern bed foams and replace the entire foam core when I have them re-done. I have to check out a couple of clearance lights and replace the door light & the round one by the door. Fix a couple of tambour doors and I will be off in 71 retro-style. $1500, he just wanted to get rid of it because he bought a 38 ft. - 90k Damon motor home. 
The only future pain will be the Care-Free awning which is in parts and will need new canvas. I still have to figure out how to assemble it, I don't think it will be rocket science. It will be stored for a couple of years while I finish the work. I will test run it then and store it until retirement in somewhere around 6 years or so. These AS trailers are great, not to mention a fun hobby. Though camping with 4 German Wire Haired Pointers may be a bit trying!
)
and tons of hours!
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