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leedav · 09-08-2015, 01:54 PM

Having replaced the interior lights in my Bambi with LED, I didn't bother to check the exterior running and signal lights because they are powered by the TV. Yesterday I noticed that they are LED. Why the heck would AS make the interior lights incandescent (they run off the battery) and the exterior lights LED (they run off the TV)!!??

RamblinManGa · 09-08-2015, 02:03 PM

Hi from AZ. . . ahhh, cause they're cheaper to supply ? Airstream makes a lot of those choices, IMO. . . regards, Craig

leedav · 09-08-2015, 02:10 PM

I think LEDs are more expensive, no?

AWCHIEF · 09-08-2015, 02:20 PM

Not if you buy them direct and not from gouging RV supply stores.

Gene · 09-08-2015, 02:28 PM

I thought they had starting using LED's inside long ago. Maybe it was for the more expensive models. As long ago as the mid "00's they were testing LED's and I think they sell them in their store in JC. The Sport is designed to be a lighter, more basic and thus less expensive trailer, so using old fashioned bulbs would seem to fit.

Gene

leedav · 09-08-2015, 02:40 PM

yeah. and an absolutely crazy number of light fixtures in a tiny trailer. You could do brain surgery with all of them on ... for 10 minutes until the battery dies

Gene · 09-08-2015, 03:03 PM

Your insurance requires the doctor do the brain surgery in 8 minutes or less, so you can rent your trailer out for mobile surgery.

Even our mid-size trailer has a lot of lights. The original incandescent ones were much too bright, so I bought more mellow ones when I converted to LED's. Funny how they spend so much on fixtures and so little for bulbs.

Gene

m.hony · 09-09-2015, 10:46 AM

All lights should be LED, but my trailer has some incandescent and some fluorescent lighting on the inside.
The exterior lighting is also a mix of LED and incandescent. The running lights, marker lights, and scare light are LEDs, but the tail/stop/turn/reverse are incandescent.
In the future, I would like to get an LED tail light assembly.

Seemore2006 · 09-09-2015, 10:54 AM

If you are changing out fixtures I need some of your old ones. I have a 2006 Flying Cloud 75th and need the ceiling mount fixture that is in the main area (the light fixture that is turned on by flip switch inside door) close to the Fantastic Fan and two ceiling mounts that are in the bathroom. The switches in the fixtures are broken and according to the dealer you can't order them the exact size. When you order the closest ones in stock they do not cover the holes in the padded ceiling from the old ones. I paid an astronomical amount to have one fixed and like the guy said 'it works for now'! We switched over to warm LED and love them. If you have some working fixtures you would like to sell please Contact me directly and we can work it out. Thanks.

idroba · 09-09-2015, 11:08 AM

The cheaper "sport" model Airstreams have one battery, incandescent lights and some other economy items, like no back bumper.

I always wonder who makes decisions at Airstream and why. And do they ever camp in their own rigs? If the executives did, there would be some changes, and fast.

leedav · 09-09-2015, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by idroba

The cheaper "sport" model Airstreams have one battery, incandescent lights and some other economy items, like no back bumper.

I always wonder who makes decisions at Airstream and why. And do they ever camp in their own rigs? If the executives did, there would be some changes, and fast.

Funny. I added one more battery, LED lights, and a back bumper

Foiled Again · 09-09-2015, 12:36 PM

My 2012 Eddie Bauer is all LED except the lights in the stove hood - which have burned out.

It's a huge improvement over the late lamented 2006 Safari SE (now Flying Cloud). That one had Halogen/Xenon lights - hotter than HAY-EL (a southernism) and energy hogs with a short lifespan. Spent a fortune upgrading them to LED, then wrecked it a week later.

I pulled out about half of those bulbs and put them back in their original boxes. If you see me at Alumalina next month and want some bargain LED's see me. I still have a few left tho' many have gone to good homes. They should be compatible if you have Halogen bulbs - and a few of them are incandescent compatible.

They are all soft white too. Not quite so "operating theater blue-white" but still quite bright.

Paula

Gene · 09-09-2015, 12:52 PM

[QUOTE=idroba;1681653

I always wonder who makes decisions at Airstream and why. And do they ever camp in their own rigs? If the executives did, there would be some changes, and fast.[/QUOTE]

Airstream is owned by Thor Industries. Thor's trailers and MH's are mediocre at best and Airstream is their "premium" brand. The culture at Thor is to cut costs in every way possible, so cheap versions of standard things used in RV's and vehicles in general and hiring labor with poor skills are the way they do it. Airstream is a small part of the Thor empire and has few resources to engineer things properly.

The "president" (really more a division head) of Airstream was put in by a Thor honcho with family ties to Bob Wheeler's wife. There were questions earlier in Bob Wheeler's presidency whether he had ever been in an RV; he didn't seem to have one. Eventually they got him an Airstream but no knowledge if he has used it much or at all. Basecamp was Wheeler's idea—it failed fast. The other major failures may or may not have been his idea, but he is supposed to take responsibility, isn't he? They include weakening frame of the lower end models causing sag, OSB used as subfloor in some models, corrosion issues, development of a reputation for poor quality and workmanship and slow, even glacial, response to changing markets and customer demands.

Thor has long been run by a small group of closely allied males. The company culture is low quality mass production with high prices and well compensated executives but poorly paid employees. Since they sell every Airstream they make, they have no economic incentive to improve it.

You overestimate the moral values of the company executives when you state they'd change things if they only knew what was going on. They didn't get where they are and in the type of company they run by being nice guys. They know exactly what they are doing and they will keep doing it for as long as they run things.

Gene

idroba · 09-09-2015, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gene

You overestimate the moral values of the company executives when you state they'd change things if they only knew what was going on. They didn't get where they are and in the type of company they run by being nice guys. They know exactly what they are doing and they will keep doing it for as long as they run things.

Gene

Sigh, you may be correct. Executives of many companies which sell to the public don't or wouldn't ever shop in their own stores. I doubt that Sears executives would be caught dead shopping at Sears. They make too much money.

We are a long ways from the days of owners running their own company producing products that they designed and understand. Too bad, but I guess a fact of life.

RamblinManGa · 09-09-2015, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by m.hony

All lights should be LED, but my trailer has some incandescent and some fluorescent lighting on the inside.
The exterior lighting is also a mix of LED and incandescent. The running lights, marker lights, and scare light are LEDs, but the tail/stop/turn/reverse are incandescent.
In the future, I would like to get an LED tail light assembly.

uhhh, you mean 2013 Classic doesn't have LED taillights ? ? ? My '05 Safari 25 did ! That's a surprise to me ! regards, Craig

mefly2 · 09-09-2015, 01:40 PM

$$$

Gene · 09-09-2015, 03:52 PM

For what it's worth, Toyota went from LED's to a cheaper bulb (probably halogen) in its tail lights in certain vehicles. With LED's having come down so much in price, that's kind of surprising.

Gene

m.hony · 09-09-2015, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RamblinManGa

uhhh, you mean 2013 Classic doesn't have LED taillights ? ? ? My '05 Safari 25 did ! That's a surprise to me ! regards, Craig

Nope. Ain't got no LED tail lights.
It is optional, though...
$94,000 MSRP and it ain't included-

Sent from my iPhone using Airstream Forums

RonH · 09-09-2015, 06:25 PM

Back in the mid-80s at one of the original Homecomings the president of the day (Letourneau [spelling?]) was new to the RV business but understood customer oriented management. At a talk session (where he really seemed to be interested in the users views) he said he quickly learned why quality was so poor and did the following thing to bring about change.

1) communication within the factory was very poor, so every week he invited ten people, chosen by lot, to spend a morning having coffee with him and talking trailers.

2) almost no-one in the work-force had ever spent a night in an RV, let alone an AS, so he set up two rigs for employees to take on holidays for two weeks. On their return they were asked to report on how things could be made better.

3) he eliminated the quality control unit and every employee was equally responsible for turning out a good product.

4) he took advantage of every opportunity to talk with, and listen to, the users.

As result he was able to boost the quality of the stuff coming out of the factory and implement changes that the users wanted.

Unfortunately he met with a tragic accident. In the years since we have sees quality go down and sometimes even up a little bit. Maybe the current business ethos does not support that kind of thinking. But for $100K there is no excuse for cut corners and shoddy workmanship.

Foiled Again · 09-09-2015, 07:12 PM

Progress - well the wretched useless tank sensors have been ditched in favor of a better model (only took them ten years but lets give them all a hearty round of applause - of course "applause" and "clap" are synonyms, aren't they?)

It's hard to be humble when sales are way way up... and their doesn't seem to be a hard man in the lot of them (of course it was a double entendre, look who is writing the post!)

And they are doing at least a half vast attempt to seal around the rear trim which they didn't believe was necessary in the first decade of the 21st century.

So progress like global warming is real even if it's almost impossible to really believe that the dance is ending and the piper does expect to be paid. We few, we happy few - are gonna git outta Dodge in our silver chuckwagons and hide in the hills until the carnage reaches it's "self limiting" final bloodbath.

Will the new language be Klingon or Vulcan?

Live long and prosper, Paula