New 27' Eddie Bauer owners in Las Vegas (lots of offroad/boondocking mods planned)

[CTDJeeperman]

I've been reading on these forums for a few months. Thanks for the wealth of great knowledge and help here. We've been looking for a 27' Eddie Bauer Airstream for a while and finally found a 2012 model in SC. Every Eddie Bauer we found seemed to sell as soon as it popped up for sale and we kept missing the sale by a few hours. We feel lucky to have found the one we did from a nice Canadian couple. We bought it early last week and are excited to start using it. We already have trips planned @ the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and all over the 4 corners region from St George, UT to Ouray, CO etc...

Our tow truck is a highly modified 2011 Ram 2500 MegaCab Cummins Diesel with a manual transmission. The truck has 37" tires, we potentially might start running some of the AEV prospector XL parts and run 39"s or 40"s . I normally pull trailers much larger/heavier than the Airstream. The truck is setup to easily tow double what the Airstream weighs (probably triple, so the truck is a bit overkill)

We plan to immediately lift the airstream, then I will eventually design and build some type of beefed up subframe (or maybe an entire new frame) and run trailing arm setup with airbags or find some way to continue to use the existing torsion axles. I've built offroad trailer suspension/frames before, just not quite as large as an Airstream. I will probably run some type of toyo truck tire on the airstream (probably toyo open country AT/RT in @ 32-33") We plan to install solar and a composting toilet. I will probably re utilize the black tank for additional grey storage or something else since we won't need it anymore.

We plan to stay at RV parks as little as possible. We will also travel with mountain bikes, two 12' kayaks, and whatever toys our toddler son is currently using/riding.

Thanks for the awesome forum, I'll start a build thread once I get the Airstream out to Las Vegas in the next few weeks.

[SCOTTinNJ]

Cool. Good luck.

[jayseejay]

Jeeperman - congratulations, it sounds like you are headed toward a great and rewarding adventure! We have a 2015 27' Eddie Bauer twin bed unit with factory solar and two AC units (with EasyStarts added), and we thoroughly enjoy it. On our most loaded trips, we travel with two 9' kayaks packed side by side in the living area, and two cruiser bikes between the twin beds. Other trips we don't pack any of that and just enjoy the open hatch when the weather is nice. Please post pictures as you make progress modifying and traveling with your rig. Joe