New Airstream Owner

[JackDog]

Hi everyone,

My name is Michael and I live in So Cal. My girlfriend and I travel with our two Rough Coat Collies Jack and Rose in our Jeep Liberty 4x4.

We are picking up our new 2013 16' Sport next week. We we're long time Casita owners and look forword to viewing and responding to the postings in the forums.

Thanks,
Jack Dog in So Cal

[mpl]

Welcome Jack Dog!
I belong to another forum with the following rule; if there's no photo, it doesn't exist.
Happy trails!

[Kevin245]

Wow! Plenty of members making introductions tonight. We're glad to have you with us. Pictures of the new rig are expected.

Welcome!

[hellsbay]

Welcome Michael. I have a 16 Bambi and tow with a Toyota FJ Cruiser.

[Goal15]

Welcome to the forum. You'll find lots of good info here as well as a bunch of good natured folks.

Dana

[Scott J-24]

Welcome to the forum. You will find lots of great info here. We are sure you will enjoy your brand new 16' Sport. Hope to see you out camping here in SoCal.

[Bruce B]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new Airstream!
We love our 16'! I am a bit envious of the bathroom door re-design made on the 16' for 2013, it is a much better solution.
Have fun and enjoy yourselves!
Bruce

[Flying Gypsies]

Congratulations! We are former Casita owners too- must be something about those curves :-) We moved up to a 31' but sometimes I miss the little 16' casita too- happy camping to you.

[Michigander]

Welcome JD! Hope to see a photo soon.

[Len n Jeanne]

We also have one of the "little guys"-- a 2005 16' Bambi that we tow with a 2011 crew cab Toyota Tacoma with a canopy/shell on the back to store a lot of camping gear.

While camping in a small space is a challenge, after tent camping for decades, Bambi seems like a luxury palace!

We did have to get inventive about functioning in a small space. Probably you already developed your techniques with a Casita. Just out of curiosity, why did you switch to an Airstream?

We've talked about trading up to a bigger AS, but are happy with the Bambi's economy and smaller environmental footprint.

[JackDog]

Thanks everyone for the nice words.

The big reason we waited to get the 2013 model instead of the 2012 was I didn't like the bathroom door opening to the entry door.

Why did we move up from the Casita? We almost didn't. We had planned on replacing our 07' SD17 Casita with a new one. Casita owners call them "eggs" but we always called ours our "poor man's Airstream".

We had a small unplanned windfall come our way recently and with the great deal we got at South West coaches in Corona, CA on our Sport we couldn't pass up the purchase. We pick up the coach next Saturday and already we had the Airstream dealer install a porch light from the Safari and an extra battery.

My parants had a 1968 International that we spent every summer in Yosemite as a kid so I knew I wanted one of my own ever since. I can still remember the Orange interior with the green carpeting!!! Very sixties.

This was ten years in the making since we purchased our first RV an eight foot Jayco tent trailer.

I guess the days of us tent camping in our old Bronco II is behind us.

Jack Dog
in So Cal

[CaddyGrn]

Welcome to the forum, this is the place to learn all things Airstream!

[Zia]

Congratulations and get ready for gawkers

[valmog]

Welcome to the forum Jack Another 16' owner here...LOVE it! Happy travels and I hope you'll post some photos soon!

Kim

[valmog]

Should have said welcome to the forum "Michael"...oops...saw the jack dog...Bruce, what did they change with the 16' bathroom door...curious, and couldn't find it on their site??

[Bruce B]

Kim,
It is difficult to appreciate just how nice this new door arrangement is in the 16' until you stand in one but here are couple of pictures from Colonial Airstreams site....
Bruce

[Len n Jeanne]

Originally Posted by Zia

Congratulations and get ready for gawkers

I agree. Despite having the smallest Airstream going (and having bought it used, at that) we seldom go on a camping trip without having people either admiring it and hoping to be invited to peep inside; or else getting ever-so-slightly dissed about how expensive it must be. The latter types will often ask us how much we paid for it. My attitude towards them is, compared to what? A big old 5th wheel or motor home?

National Park campgrounds are fun, though, because they seem to attract more people with imaginative small RVs: Casitas, those A-frame "chalets", the ubiquitous pop-ups, vintage VW vans, and of course, Bambi/Sports.

Bruce, thanks for those photos. I wondered what "the new door" could look like.

[valmog]

LOL...our last two day camping trip we gave four tours of our Bambi...a record in one day for us

We even had an older couple follow us in off of the freeway as we stopped for a bite to eat. They swerved in front of us and both hopped out of their car to greet us before we even had a chance to get out of ours. The man had told his wife that the next time they saw an Airstream Bambi he'd flag them down for her so she could look...we obliged, right there in the middle of an Arby's parking lot! They had no idea that they were still made and they lived in hour away from two different dealerships. I think I sold an Airstream that day!!

Thanks for the photo, Bruce...I was literally picturing a redesigned door, and for the life of me couldn't think what it would look like!! Now I see they've moved the door to open near the kitchen instead....maybe a bit more room to move about when the door is open now.

[Len n Jeanne]

valmog, I had a similar experience once. We were at Airstream of Spokane for some servicing, with only Doug the mechanic on duty. A couple showed up interested in buying a little Sport, and we started chatting. With a delay before the owner could arrive to speak with them, I ended up touring the new unit with the wife, showing her where things were and how they worked; and answering questions like, "where could our dog sleep?" [under the bed if you don't use the furnace.]

Then we gave them a tour of our Bambi.

I hope they bought it!

Jeanne

[JackDog]

We finally picked up our new 2013 Sport over the week end. Our Jeep Liberty V6 towed the trailer like a dream.

When even drove on the toll road system I work for in Orange County since a portion of it includes a 6% grade. We we're able to keep a steady 50 mph with no problems.

We spent the rest of the week end loading and organizing and getting familiar with all the systems. We even introduced the trailer to our two rough coat Collies Jack and Rose. Jack claimed the bed (like in the Casita) and Rose was happy on the much needed larger floor space.

Looking forward to our first trip out with our new silver bullet.

Jack Dog
in So Cal