Fans of Airstream Interstate

[Lotus54]

Originally Posted by Protagonist

When my Interstate was still under warranty, I had no choice but to take my Sprinter there for service because Louisiana requires that all warranty work be performed by a dealer who sells that brand. No third-party warranty work allowed— some states are still like that. MB of BR was the closest dealer who could service Sprinters.

I wonder how they get past then Magnuson-Moss act?

But of course to fight it would be rather expensive.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by Lotus54

I wonder how they get past then Magnuson-Moss act?

It's not actually a violation of Magnuson-Moss. Although the Act covers warranties on repair or replacement parts in consumer products, warranties on services for repairs are not covered.

So under the Act, the State of Louisiana can legally require that warranty repairs be performed by Mercedes Benz, but they cannot legally require that genuine Mercedes Benz parts be used. Which is why I could install Koni shocks and a RennTech ECU tune without voiding my warranty, yet I still had to take the van to MB for warranty work.

[SilverGate]

Airstream Spotlight: 2017 Interstate Grand Tour

[Maxwell615]

Hello everyone-- my wife and I are considering purchasing a 2017 Interstate Lounge in the next several weeks. we have found one locally that includes air suspension and the msrp is 168k. Can someone let me know what price point I should target with the dealer (pre-tax)??

[SWH]

We just purchased the exact same thing in January and paid just under $137k. It was a "no haggle" price and we took it.

[InterBlog]

What the newest Interstates are going to look like on the exterior, reportedly:

2018 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter spy shots

[InterBlog]

For those of you who are interested in wider Interstate lifestyle applications, The New Yorker just published this great investigative piece exploring some of the backstory behind #vanlife.

Don't be misled by that B-word in the piece's title. While the post-hippie influence does indeed dominate at the present time, the "movement" includes up-and-comers whose more professional, bleeding-edge tech influence will continue to grow. Not everyone wants to eat baked beans out of a can while squatting on California surfing beaches and peeing in the sand dunes. Many of us have real jobs, and the real coup in this lifestyle is being able to go directly from a beach boondock to a high-level corporate meeting without having anyone realize that you came from somewhere other than a standard stick house in suburbia. Earlier this week, I managed to do just that, largely by virtue of the fact that our lithium battery system has finally allowed me to blow-dry my hair. It sounds like such a tiny little thing - blow-drying hair! - but it means the difference between achieving full professional deportment (= acceptable) and the perception of some contractor who just crawled in off the danged beach (= unacceptable; not going to get or retain business that way). (Blog post here).

Anyway, happy reading.

[InterBlog]

Here's a great example of why I'm a fan of our Airstream Interstate. It's also one of the reasons why I no longer sleep on the ground in this part of the country, especially when I have our dog with us.

This is an alligator duet, and at the beginning of the vid, you can see the larger one (VERY large) in the water left of center, approximately mid-way between the horizon and the shoreline. But then my iPhone automatically refocuses on the no-see-um screen I made for our Interstate's back door and that view is lost.

It occurred to me for the first time this morning that the sound of our water pump bears some similarity to these vocalizations. I hope I'm not inadvertently broadcasting a territorial claim every time I turn it on. Wouldn't THAT be a bad idea.


The pitch is very low - you might need to turn up your volume to get the full "woke me from a dead sleep" effect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m7G24ELejU

[SilverGate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa38vtJM67E

[AirRiggie]

IF Interstate designers could only learn from the aging BUT really brilliant concept of the winnebago Rialta...that would be an awesome combination, but one can only dream

[FlyFishinRVr]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

For those of you who are interested in wider Interstate lifestyle applications, The New Yorker just published this great investigative piece exploring some of the backstory behind #vanlife.

Don't be misled by that B-word in the piece's title. While the post-hippie influence does indeed dominate at the present time, the "movement" includes up-and-comers whose more professional, bleeding-edge tech influence will continue to grow.

If you spend any amount of time in/around Silicon Valley and drive past Google, Facebook, Apple, or any number of other "big name" tech companies, you'll likely see a few "stealth vans" parked in the corners of parking lots. With the increasing costs of nearby housing, more single millennials are discovering "the van life" and doing just as you describe.

At Google this was (and maybe still is) a growing problem because once word got out, more and more employee-van-dwellers were showing up in their parking lots. Since Google provides employees with laundry service, free meals, and free health club with showers, it makes the van life very attractive. Maybe they're spawning the next hippie generation.....

[SilverGate]

The Interstate Blog - DYI and Travel Adventures in an Airstream Interstate:

"DYI Awning Screen For The Airstream Interstate", June 25, 2017

[SilverGate]

2018 Airstream Interstate

[InterBlog]

ICYMI, here's a neat story below about a Grand Tour owner. It appeared in an Airstream email blast yesterday.

It calls to mind one of the main reasons why I was attracted to camper vans. I grew up in Canada and I consider June 28, 1981 to be the day when I made the transition from childhood to adulthood. That was the day on which Terry Fox died, the first day when I realized on a much deeper level that life doesn't always have happily-ever-after endings. Terry Fox ran across Canada and lived in a camper van as he made his life's greatest journey (I keep a photograph of his van on the wall of our Interstate). What this Grand Tour owner is doing is analogous, in a smaller-scale, modern-day context:

https://www.airstream.com/blog/every...nsplant-games/

[InterBlog]

QUESTION --

Does anyone have a theme that they would like to see reflected in this month's Air Forums photography contest? (The contest threads are under Airstream Lifestyle/Photography). If so, please PM me with your suggestion in the next day or so.

I'm the winner of last month's contest but I've also won previously and recently, so I thought I'd throw that question out there. I've tried to involve B van owners in that contest before, to increase representation among Airstreamers. I'm a victim of my own success in a way, because the winner has to choose the theme for the next month's competition. Well, LOL, I'm running low on themes. I have one in mind, but I thought I'd ask first for additional suggestions.

Previous recent themes have been "bucket list", "unusual, funky or corny locations", "critters" (i.e., wildlife in the same frame as your Airstream), "renewal", "warmth", "fall" (the season), "remoteness", "boondocking", "sunset", "favorite interior personal touch", "flowers", "St. Patrick's Day / greenery", "love", and "aspirations".

[TayaraTravel]

"Don't Try This At Home" -- weird wonderful (or crazy dumb) things we can only do in an RV.

Originally Posted by InterBlog

QUESTION --

Does anyone have a theme that they would like to see reflected in this month's Air Forums photography contest? (The contest threads are under Airstream Lifestyle/Photography). If so, please PM me with your suggestion in the next day or so.

I'm the winner of last month's contest but I've also won previously and recently, so I thought I'd throw that question out there. I've tried to involve B van owners in that contest before, to increase representation among Airstreamers. I'm a victim of my own success in a way, because the winner has to choose the theme for the next month's competition. Well, LOL, I'm running low on themes. I have one in mind, but I thought I'd ask first for additional suggestions.

Previous recent themes have been "bucket list", "unusual, funky or corny locations", "critters" (i.e., wildlife in the same frame as your Airstream), "renewal", "warmth", "fall" (the season), "remoteness", "boondocking", "sunset", "favorite interior personal touch", "flowers", "St. Patrick's Day / greenery", "love", and "aspirations".

[InterBlog]

That's a good idea! I got a few other good ideas via PM. I'm going to sock them away and use them in the future.

The theme I chose was "in a pinch" (thread here). Where have you used your Airstream when conditions left you no choice?

I've got one thread reply thus far - someone who used their rig during the Harvey response. I had my fingers crossed, hoping to see some Harvey-related entries, and there's one of them right off the bat - very cool!

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

The theme I chose was "in a pinch" (thread here). Where have you used your Airstream when conditions left you no choice?

Recently used mine as a de facto moving van for a friend. My Interstate has never been so full— or so heavily loaded (Thank God for Sumo Springs!). Every cubic inch of interior space was taken up by boxes except for the two front seats.

[InterBlog]

My husband had to endure this rant of mine last night. I now find myself compelled to spread it around.

Our motivation for buying our Interstate was largely United Airlines, which once stranded us for FOUR DAYS in Newark. Three of us were en route from Houston to Nova Scotia and our connecting flight was cancelled. Which is not uncommon, but then UA declined to reschedule us in a timely manner. The resulting debacle cost me over $700 in unplanned trip expenses (hotels and taxis) of which they refused to reimburse me even one dime, not to mention it took a short vacation and made it even shorter.

Anyway, that's largely how we became a fan of the Airstream Interstate. We were driven to adopt alternate travel means. People wonder why I drive to Nova Scotia, given the distance. I can drive it in five days; sometimes it takes United four days just to fly it (they have a partial monopoly on that obscure route such that other carriers are difficult for us for much of the year; details omitted for brevity).

Anyway, I still have frequent flyer miles with United, and it requires some sort of booking on a regular basis to keep those miles from expiring. I need to preserve those miles for family emergencies and the like. We have to do a short overnight trip within Texas and it's too hot to stay in our Interstate right now, so we needed a hotel reservation. Fine - I told LB_3 that I would book it through United and thus meet the requirement for account activity and miles preservation.

This is what I got last night. "Username and email address sign-on are currently unavailable."

Wait, are these people not in the business of taking reservations and flying airplanes? How can the entire system be "currently unavailable"?! This is 2018, not 1999.

Sigh. I'm not even flying with United any longer, and they are STILL finding ways to mess me up. I waited for a while, but the system did not come back up. We had to book through another website and without the mileage credit.

Long live the Class B and the independence that it brings to our lives.

[Lily&Me]

You could book by phone, rather than online?

Maggie