25 Ft. Airstream " Twins"

[barbsfish]

We are on the verge of purchasing our first Airstream. We like the 25Ft. Flying Cloud with Twin beds. Question....can a 25ft. with a queen bed be converted to twins. If so, does this require alot of costly modifications ?

[moosetags]

First off, welcome to the Forums. We're glad to have you with us.

I assume you are referring to a 25FB. The conversion can be done, but it may cost more than it would be worth. You may also lose some of your outside access storage.

Brian

[Jammer]

I'm not sure about the FC but the Classic has totally different bedroom cabinetry depending on whether it's a twin or queen layout, as well as a different configuration for the outside storage (the twin has more).

I would not attempt a conversion.

[Dillon2]

The cost is considerable. My experience is not directly relevant (I have a Classic and converted from queen to twins) but it does give you some sense of the scale of the operation. When I converted a 2008 25' Classic earlier this summer from a queen to twins it cost $5500 at Jackson Center.

[Foiled Again]

but this is from memory - don't have the layouts in front of me, and even the floor plans at airstream.com don't show upper cabinets or all of the exterior and interior features.

QUEEN

Sideways Queen bed - there is one garage access door on the street side - with inside compartment that has the water heater on the left and the inside storage sort of an "L" shape going backward to the right - hard to access the deep side. Inside the bed is on hinges, and can be lifted to access storage, but hinges are about 2/3 the way up the mattress and reaching for stuff near to the far wall is a bit of a challenge.

Interior (queen) On the roadside there are a 1/2 length closet with two drawers and a small door beneath Overhead cabinet is on the front side of the unit above the bed's "front walk around space" - which is virtually nil. There are no overhead cabinets running down the sides of the room. The overhead cabinet on the far side is best reached by standing on your knees on the bed.... not too handy for anything you'd want on a daily basis.

TWINS

EXTERIOR - The streetside aceess door remains the same - but the interior is only as deep as the twin above it... smaller, but what you lose is the part that was deep under the queen and hard to reach.

There is a front access door that gives you access to storage under the center nightstand. In first production units, the corners of this door were square, and many have had cracks develop in the aluminum skin radiating out from the upper corners. Newer ones have radiused corners which may or may not alleviate the cracking - this area seems well suited for storing weight distribution bars or other hitch components when camped - or even additional batteries for the dedicated boondocker.

I am not sure whether there is an exterior garage door on the roadside... but with two that could leak already? Would it even be a good idea?

Interior cabinetry - the Half closet on the streetside is "amputated" leaving off the lower drawers and small cabinet so a full length twin can fit under it - that's where your tootsies go.

A SECOND half closet is added on the roadside opposite the first one - ooooh more hanging storage!

The big overhead cabinet on the front end of the unit is eliminated and there are two smaller side mounted cabinets put in over the windows (windows might actually be lower? and little oval window is eliminated on the sides?... Foggy mental breakdown here) These cabinets should be more easily accessed from the center aisle than the end cabinet ever could, and removing excess weight on the front end, esp. if you have pano windows might be good.

Underbed access with twins - damn I'm not sure they are hinged for top access - or whether they have hinged doors that fold down or sideways. Either way, they aren't much wider than the big bins that fit under them so you have one bin behind another to contend with when pulling them out. If the twins are hinged for top access, the hinge would only be less than six inches from the outside edge - far enough in to snap a straight line for cutting the plywood. Overall more useable accessable storage than under the queen.

ALSO the inverter has to be relocated - probably easiest part of the conversion. It goes under the foot of the roadside bed.

DOING THE CONVERSION

You'd probably just want to leave the front end overhead cabinet alone and not add the side ones. Changing that means the whole interior endcap has to come out and be replaced. There is no interior aluminum behind the radio speaker sections of the interior endcap. Even with one end cabinet overhead, it would be easier to access from the new center aisle than it was when the queen was there

I saw one woman who lived with her two daughters in a 25 FB who converted to twins and actually had the roadside one shortened to leave IN the drawers - but if you're both on the tall side that would be impossible.

Adding the front outside access door would probably be optional too. Most of the space could also be accessed from the inside under the twins - and then there are those reported cracks. Without a front access door you could change the design of the center bedside table, or even use a small mobile table. (One does hear of folks who've contrived a system to slide the mattresses together for "friskiness" - a design which would be easier if the nightstand were portable or folded down.)

And of course the inverter does have to be moved.
And youll need new mattresses too.

5K to do all of the work? Not surprising.

Paula

[BillTex]

If it is like our Excella, it is a very expen$ive conversion; a piece of scrap plywood and a crib mattress (that we had in the attic) total cost = ~ $6.

Bill

[2airishuman]

Originally Posted by barbsfish

...We like the 25Ft. Flying Cloud with Twin beds....

IF this is what is LIKED and wanted...

check MORE of the dealers inventories.

that's easy to do with a puter or phone.

IF none are available, ORDER exactly what u want.

4-8 weeks later and u'll have your dream stream.
_________

dealers wanna SELL what's on their lots,

don't be pressured into buying OFF the lot...

just because the dealer is pushing a stock unit.

anyone wanting NEW can get whatever features a/s offers in short order.

converting a NEW unit from one bedroom layout to another...

is inefficient money spending and will take time...

and still may not be exactly as imagined.
_________

if you WANT a real price and real list of issues for the conversion,

EMAIL customer/tech support at jackson center with this question.

they do queen/twin or twin/queen conversions regularly...

and can provide a realistic picture of all the issues.

cheers
2air'

[moosetags]

2air is correct. It would be much less expensive to buy the twin model 2000 miles away and have it shipped to you than to convert a queen to a twin.

To each their own, but we have a 2005 25FB queen that we have spent over 700 nights in and have pulled over 60,000 miles. We thought that we would have preferred the twin set-up, but the queen has worked out super for us.

Brian

[Jammer]

2air is absolutely right.

Dealers will drag their feet on a factory order while they have unsold inventory on the lot. So, you have to make your intentions clear, or find another dealer.

My trailer was a factory order, in part because of the twin beds.

Dealers hate twin beds. Queens reportedly outsell twins 3:1.

Which is crazy, because twins have important advantages. Aside from the obvious flexibility in accommodating a guest who is not your true love, the twin layout often results in more usable floor space, more storage, better access to under-bed storage when needed, and a bed that is easier to make.

And even if you always travel with your spouse the alternative of sleeping together on the gaucho to free the twin beds for two guests who would not customarily share a bed is a good one.

[Safari-Rick]

Hello everyone

Yup, it's been awhile that I've posted but I wanted to contribute my 2 cents worth also.

I have the twin bed safari and it does work out great. I have two grandsons who love to travel with us and love "my" twin beds. Wife and I often use the gaucho sofa and let the boys use the twin beds. Have in the past had my two sons use the beds and or gaucho. it's a bit hard to have two grown men (brothers) (or women) sharing a queen bed. And guess what? there have been times where the wife shares my twin bed with me

And of course, Storage is optimum with the twin bed setup......just saying

[wheel interested]

Hey welcome Barbsfish. We have family in Fort Lauderdale. How's the weather?

I would get an Airstream with the configuration I liked if I were you. I'd rather switch than fight (it.) However members have done the queen to twin conversion with great results. You would have to check to see what's under your bed and what goes where and modify that. Depending upon the width available limited by what overhead or hanging wardrobes and cabinets you will have at the sides, you could add or skip the night table between the twins and have a convertable side queen with the additiion of a plywood pullout and extra cushion between the two twins.

Greg (Roadtoaster) and John (Pahaska) have both detailed their steps in the conversion with pictures. I might ask how handy are you? These two are very skilled, perhaps not to be attempted by viewers at home...

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f296...tml#post869707

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f46/...tml#post405026

[mutcth]

If we ever upgrade to a modern "wide-body," a 25FB twin would be near the top of the list. Hence this question:

Originally Posted by Foiled Again

In first production units, the corners of this door were square, and many have had cracks develop in the aluminum skin radiating out from the upper corners. Newer ones have radiused corners which may or may not alleviate the cracking

Any idea when that change was made?

Tom

[Foiled Again]

Originally Posted by mutcth

If we ever upgrade to a modern "wide-body," a 25FB twin would be near the top of the list. Hence this question:



Any idea when that change was made?

Tom

I think they changed in 2009. Definitely all of the 2010's and 2011's have radiused corners.... but I'm not 100% sure that corrected the cracking. They may have also used thicker aluminum on just the one piece above the tongue. There were posts here about the problem - and a few dealers who tried to shove a "patch" repair on customers with units still under warranty. A few might have even gone back to the factory for complete replacement of the whole panel and changeover to the radius curved door. If you're looking for an FB with twins - always check the exterior pictures - the door corners are easy to see from most angles.

My speculation is that if you have panoramic windows and that big overhead storage on the front end, the effect of bouncing down the road is not dissipated by the rigid window, and all transfers down to the softer aluminum panels below.

I didn't get the panos in the bedroom (and have the queen so no door). which make it darker for sleeping, and I'm betting there's a big reduction in weight and stress on the metal because of that. If you see a unit without the panos, the square cornered garage door might be less of an issue.

Paula

[wheel interested]

Originally Posted by Foiled Again

If you see a unit without the panos, the square cornered garage door might be less of an issue.

Paula

I think Rich Luhr's 30' Bunkhouse with the regular center front window (no pano) cracked at the front storage door, and there may have been more that posted in the Bunkhouse thread about cracks in the front storage compartment area. Just be aware it is a possibility with some rate of recurrence in those similarly configured Airstreams.

[barbsfish]

Thanks to all who have replied. For all the reasons mentioned I agree that "production twins " will be the best way to go...now once I find that bag'o gold I'll be on the hunt for the perfect 25 AS. Best wishes to all and be safe on the road.

[October]

The ironies of life! In Dec. we purchased a 1995 25ft. excella with twin beds and
wish so much we had a full size bed. Wishing you well in your Airstream adventures!

[Cathy&Pete]

Hi Barbara!

We had a different experience than most of the replies.

We bought a 25B Classic. We searched high and low for the B floorplan, because as luck would have it, we decided to size up from our Bambi just as that floorplan was being discontinued. We found one, a Classic and the price was right but it was a queen and we wanted twins. We bought it anyway and Pete removed the queen and built the twins.

Cost of materials a couple of hundred dollars plus the cost of the new mattresses that were custom sized foam plus getting them covered in a nice bark cloth. $600 tops total.

Hours of work--All approx.--tear out--4-5 hours, building the new platforms--4-5 hours, installing--3-4 hours.

If you want to PM me, we have pictures (somewhere) of the whole project. We did this 3 years ago. And if you want, we can chat over the phone for the details.

It was an easy, fun project, we had never done any kind of trailer remodeling before. And now we have the additional space in the bedroom and no bickering over how warm to keep the electric blanket!!!

Cathy