2013 Interstate, will miss her

[Boxster1971]

Check out what Chuck Woodbury, editor of RV Travel says about the RV industry not focusing on customer interests.

http://rvtravel.com/rv-travel-newsletter-issue-755/

"Nobody in the RV industry is looking out for the specific interests of RVers. The system is such that they are far more concerned about you and me buying an RV than us buying one free of defects no matter what the price point. Just read all the comments that readers have left in the last few weeks about the poorly built rigs they bought with the idea of fulfilling their dreams of carefree, happy RVing as promoted in advertising. If RV makers really cared about you and me, they’d be darn sure the RVs they made were trouble free from the get-go, even economy models."


- - Mike
2013 Interstate Lounge EXT on 2012 Sprinter

[TheCabin]

While the AI and the AS trailer seem to share the same AS build quality, the class B has a big advantage. The 90-95% of the RV that makes it mobile and safe in the case of the AI is made by a company that knows and cares about what it builds, Mercedes. Almost all aspects of an AS trailer is at the mercy of AS build quality. The couple WBO b's I looked over seemed to be assembled well and they must be doing something correct to be the market leader in this class.

[Cricket3991]

Brian, I spent 3 years talking my husband into the interstate so we could go from KS up to Montana, Canada Rocky Mts. and down through Washington , Cal. and home through Denver. We sold our C motorhome for a 2012 that is very pretty but not at all impressed with the Airstream. We have had everything from the maserator pump to go bad, batteries burned out because of a switch that needed replacing. Right now we don't have a horn, and the noisy air conditioner stopped when husband tried to adjust it and can't get it started again. It seems like every time we get In it something goes wrong. We have been to 4 different shops to try and find the problem as the Airstream people charged over a thousand and did not get it fixed the first time. It is always something new. We are in S. Dakota tonight with windows open and fan going because air won't start again.
IN those three years we looked at the one you bought but I had a problem with the interior being so close. The upper cabinets come out further and I felt closed in just walking down the isle. Yes, I would like the tall fridge and sleeping more would be nice but I don't think I could deal with the tight head space. I am glad you found what would work for you. I only found one complaint abut these models so I bought into the Airstream as being a top notch product. Sorry I paid so much for something that we have had to spend more on just to keep it going. I hope others have not had this kind of problems with their. I keep hoping it will stop at some point.

[Ron_CA]

AtlantaCpl congrats on your new ERA

What's the deal with costing you $20k to trade??

[Steamy1]

The Leisure Vans look nice as an alternative.

[gmillerok1]

Originally Posted by Cricket3991

Brian, I spent 3 years talking my husband into the interstate so we could go from KS up to Montana, Canada Rocky Mts. and down through Washington , Cal. and home through Denver. We sold our C motorhome for a 2012 that is very pretty but not at all impressed with the Airstream. We have had everything from the maserator pump to go bad, batteries burned out because of a switch that needed replacing. Right now we don't have a horn, and the noisy air conditioner stopped when husband tried to adjust it and can't get it started again. It seems like every time we get In it something goes wrong. We have been to 4 different shops to try and find the problem as the Airstream people charged over a thousand and did not get it fixed the first time. It is always something new. We are in S. Dakota tonight with windows open and fan going because air won't start again.
IN those three years we looked at the one you bought but I had a problem with the interior being so close. The upper cabinets come out further and I felt closed in just walking down the isle. Yes, I would like the tall fridge and sleeping more would be nice but I don't think I could deal with the tight head space. I am glad you found what would work for you. I only found one complaint abut these models so I bought into the Airstream as being a top notch product. Sorry I paid so much for something that we have had to spend more on just to keep it going. I hope others have not had this kind of problems with their. I keep hoping it will stop at some point.

You pay a premium for the Airstream name, and that's all you get. This sounds about right as I had similar and multiple issues from day one...although once you get the bugs out, fewer things seem to go wrong. My wife and I just returned from a 22 day, 5600 mile trip to the Pacific Northwest, back down through Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and back home to Oklahoma in our 2011 Interstate, visiting 14 states in the process. Almost on every trip, something breaks or needs repair. This time it's the macerator hose, that has now developed the pinhole leaks others have reported, and through no fault of Airstream the windshield cracked and needs replaced after a bird made a bad and fatal choice in its choice of direction. But other than that we had no major system failures and used the AC almost every day and night as well as the other features of the van. Of course, since we actually used the shower every night, I swore at least once a day at the incompetent engineers that designed the shower since it pools a significant amount of water behind the toilet, requiring multiple sponge wringing to remove it. But its not worth spending 60K plus to fix that with a different unit that likely would no doubt suffer from its on set of frustrating issues.

The RV business in general is unconcerned about quality. I truly believe there is no quality control whatsoever. They just build them and shove them out the door, and let the end user figure out what they did wrong and I challenge Airstream to prove me wrong (I know they are are listening). I have a love-hate relationship with my Interstate, to be honest. But after 50,000 miles, I've decided to keep it rather than spend a lot to get something that would likely not any better, and perhaps, much worse. I actually was tempted to replace mine with a Roadtrek, with their fancy solar/lithium battery options, until I had the chance to see one in person. That inspection quickly ended my temptation.

I've learned to live with the deficiencies, fix the things that go wrong as I go, and enjoy the ride.

Hang in there-it could be much worse. What you should do is after a long trip, you likely will find multiple issues to be fixed. Plan a trip to Jackson Center, spend a few days, and get them to fix whatever is wrong. One thing I have to say is that the one thing Airstream gets 100% right is their customer service, and the folks in the service department are excellent and do the best they can to resolve any issue to fix the things that production gets wrong. That doesn't make up for the lack of quality control, but it does go a long way to help.

[amirm]

I come from boating world and compared to that, RVs seem to have much better quality! I say that half joking but there are pretty good parallels there except that in boating your life is in danger often.

An example: was coasting to the dock in our boat using the outboard engine that had very few hours on it (Evinrude E-tec). Go to slow down but could not pull the handle down. It was stuck there at 2000 to 3000 RPM rushing toward the dock! Shut down the engine and now we were floating in water with no way to restart since it was in gear. After much struggle, got it to the dock.

Here is the kicker though: after 2-3 years of suffering from this problem and finding no solution at the dealer or anywhere online, it turns out to be a defect in the engine accelerator lever! It was made out of plastic and when it heated up, it would expand and bind. We are talking "unintended acceleration" type of fault here yet Evinrude quietly rev'ed the part and never issued a recall, a letter to the owners, nothing. Just let you go steaming towards the rocks and docks with no ability to slow the thing down.

I have repaired and fixed dozens and dozens of serious safety problem on my boats which were all new and bought from higher-end builders. You have not lived until you lose steering in rough waters due to a small set screw coming loose because it didn't have loctite on it.

These things are not manufactured products but assembled out of bag of parts from same set of suppliers. There is no comparison to a car or just about any other product one buys. Compared to my boats, the Interstate has been hugely better quality. Should be better of course but in a relative manner, it is good.

As someone said, the great thing and one of the main reasons we bought the Interstate was so much of it coming from Mercedes.

[gmillerok1]

Originally Posted by RareStream

...across the street in a separate Thor factory. If they were "just like the trailers" they wouldn't be built off of another manufacturer's complete (minus the interior) vehicle. And, they would be made out of aluminum and look somewhat like an Airstream.




Thank you for proving my point.

This is no doubt the exact thinking Thor's marketing team was counting on when they decided to assemble the Interstate under the "Airstream" moniker and add a camping interior to the Dodge/MB Sprinter cargo van in Jackson Center. Jackson Center is Airstream mecca.

As I stated, GREAT marketing, and GREAT for sales. People love to get attached to that Airstream name and resent anything otherwise.

That's why Thor didn't call it the "Bison Coach Interstate." No one would buy it using Thor's "Bison Coach" nameplate.

If it's one thing Thor is good at...it's marketing the Airstream name and aura. Line 'em up and they will come. And buy.

Just don't call anything "Bison Coach."

This is just plain silly. I spend five days at Jackson Center and pretty much roamed around anywhere I wanted to go. The engineers who design both the trailers and vans and the managers over the employees who build both are the same. They are paid and managed by Airstream, whose parent company is Thor. They are actually built actually nearer the original garage where the Airstream founder Wally Ballym started and that has been owned by Airstream since. The trailers are assembled from scratch, in a separate facility across the street, because they actually, well, have to build them from scratch. Interstates are built on a line where the employees install what's inside-a totally different process. To allege they are separately built by Thor and badged as an Airstream in patently false. Are they built to Thor's standards? Now that's a legitimate question. But the reality is that the Interstates are built by Airstream, who parent company is Thor, and while I'm sure Thor directs Airstream as to many issues, including probably cost control and quality control (or perhaps, a lack of a concern thereof), Thor is not likely involved in the details of day to day operation. That's not how things work.

Thor was specifically created to acquire Airstream in 1980, when Airstream was on the brink of bankruptcy. But Airstream had previously built Class A's starting in 1974 at Jackson Center and continued building Class A's for a time after Thor acquired it, and started building Class B's in 1989. Interstates began production in 2004.

Thor went on to acquire other brands and now owns Airstream; Four Winds; Dutchmen; Komfort; Thor America; Thor California; General Coach America; Aero Coach; El Dorado National; Champion; and Thor Bus.

But to allege Thor's marketing team decided to build Interstate's at Jackson center and simply brand them as Airstreams is simply not correct. It is not what Thor does. Thor has acquired and controls many divisions, as a parent. But it does not build anything. The divisions they own do.

[RareStream]

Right.

Thor has nothing to do with managing what they build or where they build their products or what they call them.

That makes sense.

...and btw, in your list of Thor brands you forgot "Bison Coach."

[gmillerok1]

Originally Posted by RareStream

Right.

Thor has nothing to do with managing what they build or where they build their products or what they call them.

That makes sense.

...and btw, in your list of Thor brands you forgot "Bison Coach."

Certainly they can have input-they are the parent corporation. And owning the Airstream corporate division, they can and certainly dictate whatever they want the division managers to do. But as in any corporate environment with a parent over subs, they are more interested in profits and not the day to day activity. Do they ultimately control what Aistream does? Absolutely. But the details are left with the local managers. The point is that a division of Thor builds them, not Thor itself. It does not mean the quality is any better or worse. Most likely, worse, since profits mean more to Thor than quality, while quality likely meant more to the founder of Aistream. But they are still built by Airstream, a division of Thor, and not Thor itself, not that it really makes any difference in how they are built.

[bsedor]

BTW Thor recently purchased Jayco which manufacturers Entegra class A coaches. I've owned a couple and they are awesome coaches.

[73shark]

After watching the "10 reasons" video, I was left wondering how the paint color was a pick (#1), rear screen that AIs have (#3), swiveling cab seats that AIs have (#6), I preferred two TVs rather than one on a swivel (#7 & #8), and wasn't sure what the difference was on the TV antenna (#10).

[MILATV]

Originally Posted by mutcth

I do wish Winnebago would get the Mercedes factory safety gear upgrades, like blind spot monitoring and forward collision alert, that most other brands have.

Tom

I upgraded my AI EXT from 2013 to new AI for lane departure alone! Love it. (Wish it had auto-adjust cruise).


Mike

[Amg]

My first AI was a 2015 lounge. I traded it in on a 2016 AI lounge with air suspension and glad I did. Prior to purchasing my first AI I rented several brands, one was a Winnie class B. Previously in my life I had owned class C's and A's. So I was prepared for problems any motorhome will have, from the least expensive to the very expensive.

I thought the Winnie was decent and compared well to my experience with the other motorhomes I had. I did love the mercedes sprinter underpinnings. However, when I had the AI it was, in my opinion much superior. It had all the upgraded mercedes equipment. The components what I could see were top notch and superior. The cabinetry with its hardware was better.

Everybody has there own use of a motorhome. For those who want to sleep more then two then there are other choices.

I have had a few problems but have now got most of the bugs out. I do wish there were manual bypasses to some of the systems, like the macerator or the steps.

The AI was more expensive then the others I looked at. Whether it was worth the full difference is a personal matter. I enjoy driving mine and using it. It is far more reliable then the previous class C's and A's I owned. Getting to the inner parts is difficult, but to be expected in what they jam into such a small unit.

The only motorhome I wished I tried was the Advanced RV. It is about 100 G's more then an AI so I would expect a lot more.

As a final point I did not buy my AI because of the AI badge I bought it after I compared it to the others in the marketplace and more importanly what I personally wanted for my particular use of the vehicle.

[jerhofer]

We recently sold our 2013 AI EXT to go to a small Class A DP. However, we really enjoyed our AI and it performed well for us. We owned it just less than two years and put 24,000 miles on it. So we used it. Half of those miles were driven on two separate month long trips out west.

We had very few issues with our coach. Most of those issues that we did have were self inflicted due to this being our first RV. We had a leaky exhaust fan that the dealer tried to fix three times under warranty. I finally took it apart myself to see what was going on. Once I discovered the issue and sealed it, it never leaked again.

The other issue was with our AC when it would not turn on at a campsite. Thanks to this forum, I was advised on what to look for and where to find it. I found it, fixed it and all was well. Never happened again.

And that was the total sum of our issues. Everything else worked as designed. We used the shower at least 90% of the time and it worked well. The seats were very comfortable and, unlike others here, we found the bed to be comfortable. We always slept well but maybe that was because we were on vacation and not worried about day to day things. Our single biggest complaint was the loud AC. Fortunately on our last western trip, it was May in the mountains so AC wasn't a necessity for a good part of the trip. The furnace works well and came in handy on some of those thirty degree nights.

For the last 14K miles, according to the trip feature, we averaged 14.9mpg while towing our Fiat Abarth. Considering that mileage included lots of mountain roads and that I have a heavy foot, I found that mileage to be very acceptable.

Because we want to do longer trips, we decided to try a larger motorhome. Having driven our recently acquired 33' Tiffin Allegro Breeze back from Florida to our NC home, I can see that I will miss how well the AI drives. I will have to accept that I am no longer in the sports car of motorhomes. I am planning a two month long trip for next summer that will take us from NC to Calgary to see Banff and Jasper national parks and then on to Vancouver.

This forum has been a wonderful plus. The knowledge here will make any new owner's life easier.