"Full Time"

[Kemsa51]

Greetings! My father has 2 Airstreams, a 25' and a 19' model. The 19 footer has been turned into a pool house and the 25 footer is what he uses for adventures. I spent a week in the 25' Airstream last month and fell in love with it.

I fly for an airline based out of DFW airport and am considering purchasing a 23-25' Airstream as my full time home. I spend 3-4 nights at home and the rest of the week I am traveling for work. I am single, mid 30's, no pets and I don't have tons of possessions that would need to be taken with me (mostly uniforms, clothes and electronics).

Does anyone have experience living full time in an Airstream in the Dallas/Fort Worth area? My biggest concern is finding a safe, long term place to park it where it can be left unattended for 3-4 days at a time while I am at work. Also the climate is an issue.

Any thoughts, advice or Pro's and Con's would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

[dkottum]

We travel 6-7 months a year in a 25'. The big, big problem will be keeping the poorly insulated, many windowed Airstream comfortable in Texas summers.

[Kemsa51]

That's really my biggest concern. I can deal with most other issues but AC is very important. So much research to do. I feel as if I am back in college.

[Del Gurney]

Maybe your dad has some free space alongside his AS's? FREE RENT AND
SECURITY!!
I full time and it's great.

[Kemsa51]

Unfortunately he is in Boston.

[Kemsa51]

My father, being in New England, usually puts his AS to sleep for the winter. So this year I am going to bring it to Texas for the winter and see how that goes. It is a 25' AS with one air conditioner. While I am sure this will be sufficient for the winter/spring, would it be enough for the summer? I'm more than comfortable if it is in the high 70s inside. Would it be able to maintain that on a 95 degree day?

[Goal15]

You might look up Deke at Weaselmouth blog. He and his wife full timed for a little over a year (my math may be a bit fuzzy) while he was working here. They came down from Chicago.

They lived at Bluebonnet RV in Terrell because that was the closest park that they considered suitable while he was working in Mesquite. When his offices here moved from Mesquite, they relocated to a park in Argyle.

If my memory serves me correctly, this was one of the challenges that they saw, the dearth of suitable RV campgrounds within commuting distance in the DFW area. I know there are a couple more, most notably the one in Grapevine, but other than that, for long term living, it might be pretty slim pickings.

AC is going to be an issue but if you have two 15k units and have a shaded site, you could probably do okay, but don't expect it to be 68 degrees when its 106 outside.

My two cents worth
Dana

[Kemsa51]

Thanks! I will go look that up now. I am presently living in Miami but transfer to our DFW base in January. I figure sometime before now and then I will fly over and check out some places to see what is suitable for me.

Sadly my airline's base cities are mostly less than ideal for AS living. With the exception of our San Francisco base but being based there generally requires one to be upwards of 100 years old (not really, but it's a very senior base) or Raleigh-Durham.

[Antique Pedaler]

North Texas Airstream Community in Hillsboro is 1 1/2 hrs south of D/FW sounds like a possible fit for you. It is an Airstream only park set up for full timers.

[Goal15]

Originally Posted by Antique Pedaler

North Texas Airstream Community in Hillsboro is 1 1/2 hrs south of D/FW sounds like a possible fit for you. It is an Airstream only park set up for full timers.

Antique:

thanks for adding that. I was thinking about daily commute to DFW but on a pilot schedule, that would probably work perfectly. We bought our AS from a retired AA pilot who lives in Midlothian. I forget that some of these pilots commute long distance as well... flying from San Francisco non rev to go to work in Dallas.

Dana

[Kemsa51]

I read somewhere that NTAC is a 45+ community. I'm only 33 so for the time being it isn't an option. Too bad because it would be a good fit.