'81 Excella II info

[Ifihadtime]

mj81excella, Sorry been out on a fishing trip and haven't been keeping up on the forum. Your interior looks like mine but I have a 27 ft and the divider does not interfer with removing the cover. If I remember right it looks like the "wood" looking vinyl slips in the aluminium cross bar covering the rivits holding it on. So I think you can slide the vinyl to one side and drill out the rivits then slide to the other and drill those. I don't have mine here so this is only from memory which is a little suspect at times. Good luck and let us know how it goes. I to am planing on replacing my AC down the road, it's still working but needs a new shroud and recharging so I'm thinking on replace won't cost much more and be better in the long run.

[rogerdodger]

mj81excella, I just brought my AS home, new purchase. In my unit, the bar has the accordion door separating the kitchen and sleeping area, and the bar is located about a foot aft of the A/C plastic cover. My A/C is a Coleman RV unit, I assume is original.. Sorry, cant help you, but keep us posted on how you get it done.
Roger

[toadtogo]

mj81excella, I feel your pain !! I have the identical configuration problem and posted several years ago, but not responses either. Since my AC still works fine, my purpose was to merely remove the interior cover to paint it with plastic coat and replace the filter material. Unable to fully remove the cover, I was barely able to get to the filter material to remove and replace. Since then, I have just moved on to other 'projects,' ie: replace the axles/hubs/brakes/tires; redo the material on the window valances, wall boards and couch; prep and coat the bath tub, sink and countertop with Por15 and paint the bath walls with a splatter paint to cover the 70s style flowers. This spring, the project at hand is to replace a section of the curbside bananna and replace exterior window and door gaskets. It has been a fun adventure, so far!

[ole81]

This forum has been too quiet!
At the moment we are at the factory in Jackson Center.
We are having awnings installed on the back and a long one on the road side....also a solar on the front windows.

Our interior is 100% original except for the paper towel holder above the sink.

[toadtogo]

My A/C finally gave up, so I had to figure a way to remove the interior A/C shroud. By chance I found an Airstream service bulletin that provided the steps for removing it:

Air- Conditioner Interior Shroud Removal on 1981-1982 31'

The placement of the foldette door header track beneath the inside air conditioner
shroud on 31' trailers with a rear bath prevents the shroud from being removed
in the normal manner for s~rvice. The filters may be cleaned by simply lowering
the front of the shroud and pulling the filter out.
The following procedures will allow the shroud to be removed completely.

1. On the curbside remove the curved filler piece that fits between the top
of the foldette door header and ceiling - two screws through the header
holds it in place.
2. Unfasten foldette door from vertical post and slide door to the opposite
end of the header. .
3. Unfasten the forward end of the roof locker from the vertical panel. There
are two screws through the tambour door guide, two screws along the
inside bottom of the locker, and four rivets attaching the forward and
center section of the root-locker to the ceiling.
4. Lift the foldette door header up and twist clockwise to clear the top
of the vertical panel. Note: If it is not loose there may be a screw into
the header from the galley roof-locker.
5. Pull the header toward the rear of the trailer until the shroud can be
removed.
* If the trailer has the optional hanging wardrobe use the following directions
in place of step three:
Remove the hanging wardrobe face frame. Attachments are through the
forward part of the frame into the vertical panel, through the rear part
of the frame into the roof-locker, and one rivet in the 'bottom of each
front corner. Once the attachments are loose the lower and rear face
frame can be tapped outward from the inside using a soft block of wood.

Following steps 1-5 I was able to remove the shroud and interior assembly of the old A/C. The new Coleman unit's shroud is not as large, so now there is no interference with the door header.

[toadtogo]

Well, 2010/11 was a busy year for my Excella, not only did the A/C retire, but the converter and refrigerator retired as well. Other than climbing & dancing over the front couch numerous times, the converter was swapped out with little problem. The refrigerator, on the otherhand, was a challenge. It took almost a month to get the new one once ordered, it arrived the last week of February with my 1st 2011 camping trip planed the 1st & 2nd week of March. The wall cabinet and table had to be removed before the wall panel could be removed to expose the refrigerator and a floor bracket and topside wall bracket. Once the brackets were unscrewed from the refrig.,The 'same' size replacement Dometic unit was taller than the original RM100. Even after removing a platform board the top had to be squeezed under the upper cabinet frame. Now the cabinet doors need to be realligned.
At any rate, the new refrig worked great on a 10 day adventure the first of this month. The only remaining original appliance is the furnace, so, I'm guessing in due time that will retire too.

[howdyjoel]

Hi Charlie and others.
I know these posts are several years old now. I just came across the thread regarding the 1981 Excella II. I picked one up a couple months ago here in Colorado near Cortez and up until this time have never seen or heard of another airstream with the dimensions of this one. It too is close to 24' bumber to hitch, 80 inches wide at interior floor level and 76 " to ceiling without flooring. I caught the reply about the 1981's that were put together for a China road safari and were of limited production. THAT explains a lot. I actually won a couple beers from an airstream friend "know all" who claimed such dimensions didn't exist. Thanks, Lonnie. Anyway, I am thrilled to get some questions answered here! I have started the remodel and am about done with the demo. The interior was very abused and I will be recycling most of the innards to any out there who may be looking for pieces. Will be more posts on that later. I actually love the smaller dimensions of this unit. My wife and I are not large folks and our 2 year old son has a long way to go before he'll know the difference. I'm hoping to build her up to something that will see us through many years to come. The only drawback to this specific trailer is the low hung rear end. I know the extra beam width under the bath has something to do with that (roughly 6-7 inch beams). But it also seems that there is much too much depth from the base of the toilet to the belly pan under the bath. Still tearing into that part and may find out why soon enough.
So, thanks for the good info here. Chalk up another 1981 Excella II 25' to the known bunch. Cheers. Joel

[ole81]

Have not been on the forum n 'toooo long'.....
Since we had been to a Viintage Rally and took 'Best Original', we figure that ... as Confucius said...'When you are on the top of the mountain, there is only one way to go!'.
Other than the awnings we had installed at the factory, we are now making some more functional changes....
..like taller commode,
...new hot water controller...
...converting one bunk bed to a 48" 'full size'.....
Conversion trial was removing the mattress from one side, cutting the block of foam and fabricating a piece of 3/4" plywood with legs to support the newly created mattress.
We have also replaced several of the original light bulbs with LEDs......which do not get hot.
Bottom line.....we are really starting to enjoy Ole81....

[Dear Abbie]

I just bought my 81 Excella II and I have a water leak that's seeping up from the floor in the bathroom and bedroom. I checked the water lines and all are dry. I am new to rv plumbing so I don't know what could be causing the seeping upwards! Where is the drain line from the kitchen sink and its it accessible from inside? What about the bathroom sink drain line? That's all I can think of that could be causing this. Any and all help from this forum is greatly appreciated!! Abigail in Texas

[Ifihadtime]

Abbie, all plumbing should be above the floor and fairly easy to access. Not sure what you mean by seeping upwards. Where is the floor wet, from the edge inward or is not near an edge. It's not uncommon to have a leak from the rain. Does it get wet when you use a sink or ? A little more info would be helpful.

[toadtogo]

You may want to investigate the toilet as your source. The water inlet valve may have developed a crack.

[ole81]

Abbie, What configuration do you have? We have the 31' rear bath. the hot water heater is just to the left of the commode. when our carpet was soaked, it was only in the area of the commode and hot water heater. we assumed that the water tank had sprung a leak, so we replaced it with a new one ....and have not had a problem since.
We are really glad that we bought the new gas/electric unit...after all...all RV locations provide FREE electric...but you have to buy your propane....

Hope you get your leak solved and let us know the cause...

Bob and Gail

[Bob Barker]

I'm trying to find out more info on this unicorn I picked.

[Janet H]

Hi Bob - welcome to the forum. Do you have any more info about it or perhaps a serial/vin number?

[Bob Barker]

Originally Posted by Janet

Hi Bob - welcome to the forum. Do you have any more info about it or perhaps a serial/vin number?

I know it as a 1981 20' EXcella II. I have looked a lot online and haven't come across another 20' unit.

Vin is ISTDECD17BJ5000601

This thing is rare, right?

[Pacerized]

Is this an 81 Bob? Small 81's are not very common but I've never seen a 20'. How wide is it? Show us a few pics. The VIN tells you some info.

Charlie

[Ifihadtime]

Hi Bob, welcome to the Excella II world. I have a few sales brochures mostly from the 70's and nothing for 81 but. In 77 they offered a 21ft globe trotter and in 79 the smallest was a 23 safari so it looks like they skipped around the smaller sizes from year to year. Unfortunately my next brochure is from 87 and the smallest there was a 23 as well. They also varied the size of different models by as much as a foot or more.
Looks like you have a fairly rare model in that they only built them in a few years during that time or maybe it could be a special order, hard to say.
Good luck and enjoy!!
Ron

[Bob Barker]

I'm on my phone so it's hard to post pictures but I'll try later at a coffee shop. This link below opens a sales brochure from 1981. Mine is the 20' double model. I took a measurement and it came out to be around 7'2" wide.

This is my first airstream and I'm about to go fulltime in it. I'm trying find its value for insurance purposes. I found a "generic" appraiser but I'd rather someone more in the know about airstreams. If anyone could recommend someone that would be great.




https://www.airstream.com/wp-content...b222a2c3e1.pdf

[SUSAL]

We have owned ours for almost a year & have put approximately 4000 miles on it.
We have the factory installed antenna. How can we hook our flat screen tv to it? We think there used to be a 12 volt tv on the kitchen side.
Noticed the other owner of the 22' had a table that split in half but still could be used as a bed. Could you post pictures showing the hardware?
Where can we purchase an under sink bathroom door latch?
Enjoying our newer oldie, but still hate the blue stripe.
Plan on changing window coverings back to curtains & getting rid of the carpet in bathroom & walk area.
Any thoughts or suggestions will be appreciated.

[Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Pacerized

I noticed the excella 2 forum, and thought I would request an 81 sub forum. I'm new to owning an airstream, having been an over for about 1 year now. When I purchased my airstream I did enough homework to know that first I wanted an airstream, then what size, condition, and price range I was looking for. We looked for almost a year but still didn't know everything we could have before buying. Some of the things I'm trying to find out now are the differences in model years, design, and skin finish. We ended up buying a 1981 excella2 which was sold to us as a 25' model. I'm still not 100% sure of the model, but it measures 24'8" from bumper to hitch ball. I'm taking her down to Windish RV in denver on April 12th. to have a rock guard installed, and plan to get more details there. So far we've done some interior work on the cabinets, and curtains as well as replaced the carpet. We're to the point were the interior is about what we want. I spent a lot more time then I'd want to admit on the exterior last year, and said that I just wanted to clean it up, but I ended up removing the blue stripe, and giving her a high speed, and orbital buff followed by liquid gold, and wax. It still has a way to go, so I've ordered a cyclo polisher to finish the job this spring. I'm hoping I can get it to the point where I only have to wax it once each year.
There seems to be a lot more information on the web about the older airstreams then there is on the early 80's models. So far I've found very little on the web. The excella models seemed to be at the higher end of what was produced at that time, and from what I've been able to find out I don't see any differences between the excella, and excella 2 models. My model is a rear bath model, but doesn't have any issue with rear end sag. I noticed it has the larger 5-6 inch I frame instead of the 3-4 inch frame that was used in the 70's which should be a plus for this issue. I was told that there was a design change between 80 to 81, but I don't see the difference from the pics I've seen. The skin on my 81 has a brushed finish, and I don't think I'll ever get the mirror shine that the older models get, but it has a great deal more reflection to the finish then the models made today. I don't know how many finishes that airstream has made, nor what years they were implemented. I'll find out just how nice my finish will polish in a few weeks.
Any information that anyone has on the excella 2, or on the 80's models in general would be of great interest to me. Remember some of us are in the vintage group now. I'll follow this with a couple of pics.
In time I hope to see some post on here.

Thanks: Charlie

I'm a new "81 Excella II" owner and am in the same boat you were in then. Should you have any wisdom to impart, please do.
I've taken it on a few short trips with my family and currently I'm having electrical issues - No DC power. Only AC is working right now.