Hello everyone it's a pleasure to become a part of this forum for Airstream trailers and motor homes. I was introduced to Airstreams back in 1969 when my father purchased a brand new 31 ft
Sovereign trailer. I was a teenager at the time and I was privileged to travel across Canada as well as the eastern part of the US. There was 6 of us and our cat Charlie Brown. We spent two entire summers, total of six months traveling. We pulled that trailer with a
1968 Pontiac Bonneville equipped with a 428 cu in engine and a special trailer package that my dad installed. That car never failed us for over 30,000 miles of travel pulling that trailer. It was the best experience, and I will never forget it.
Which brings me to today. A couple of years ago I had an opportunity to acquire an Airstream Motor Home. I jumped at it. It's a 1983 Airstream 310 Turbo Diesel. It has 114,000 miles on it. The inside is in very good condition, everything is original down to the carpet and drapes. I lived in it for about a year and during that time upgraded the electrical systems, adding a new 2k inverter and changing many of the incandescent lights to low voltage LED's. I have also upgraded much of the outside lighting to LED's which are available through such stores as Vintage Trailers.
Lately I have been concentrating much of my efforts to the underside of the motor home ie. the suspension and brakes. The motor home was built on a Chevrolet p-24 frame which is basically a 1 ton frame which was modified by Airstream. However they only modified the rear adding air bags and shocks which had brackets that where not very strong. I had to have both brackets re welded to the frame and replaced the rear shocks with extra heavy duty shocks. As for the front I Literally replaced everything from shocks to new springs. The front end was not designed to take the weight of the coach and the additional weight of a diesel engine. The front springs had been compressed by 2 inches causing many bottom outs on not very bumpy roads. I also changed the master brake cylinder as well as the four wheel brake pads.
My next step is to strip the plasticoat off the outside and polish the the aluminum skin. I am trying to keep it as original as possible down to the striping. This is what brought me to this sight as I am looking to replace the wood grain striping with new. So far I have not been successful in finding but maybe some one out their might know where I can get. In any case I am very happy to be a part of this forum and I look forward to sharing information on these incredible trailers and motor homes. Thank you and I look forward to your responses.
Very Truly Yours,
Capt Dave
Linear Mode
