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Old 05-24-2015, 04:52 PM   #1
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$80 grand for an Airstream, you gotta be kidding me!

In 2012 I pulled into Sundermeier RV Park in St Charles, MO. with my 2013 brand new 36 ft TT. After setting up on the concrete pad, I made two Grey Goose Martini for Carolyn & I. My trailer had 3 slides, an electric fireplace and I could go on & on. Sitting out enjoying our cocktails under the electric awning, a new neighbor pulled in, an Airstream pulled by a f-250 Power Stroke.
The next day we chatted & learned we'd both previously had Class A Diesel motor homes, and were downsizing, the conversation continued into TT cost. That's when he dropped what I thought was a bomb, $80 grand sticker on that silver bullett. I told my wife latter that evening & her comment was " you must be kidding" 80g & it don't even have a slide.
WELL, long story short, we're anxiously waiting our 2016 to be built.
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Old 05-24-2015, 05:45 PM   #2
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So, are you getting a slide?
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Old 05-24-2015, 05:52 PM   #3
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Mrjkq... funny how that works, isn't it! We're downsizing from a 44' diesel pusher as well. It was a really nice one that has spoiled us in many ways, so we're going with Airstream for the next rig, hoping that it will lessen the shock of giving up a lot of space and amenities. I think we'll adjust ok and suspect you will too! Cheers to our new 2016 Airstreams!
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Old 05-24-2015, 05:54 PM   #4
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Airstream travel trailers are expensive. The bottom line is that if it's what you want, that's what you have to pay. We have had three of them, two new and a used. Each time that we moved to a new RV, we considered all of the options, reassessed our wants and desires, and did a whole bunch of research and a lot of shopping.

When it was all said and done, we were in another Airstream.

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Old 05-24-2015, 06:15 PM   #5
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The point here is most people have seen & heard of Airstream, but like me back then had no idea of the quality that goes into this coach. I know it won't be perfect, something will leak or break as all the components are made by imperfect immortals, but what I'm certain of is I've got a lot of bang for my buck, something I didn't have in my previous TT's or the 40ft diesel pusher for that matter.
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Old 05-24-2015, 06:22 PM   #6
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Sure the initial cost is high, but if you figure that what a trailer costs you is the difference between what you pay for it and what you sell it for -- in other words depreciation -- then Airstreams are not so expensive compared to alternatives.

Plus, this whole adventure is about a lot more than money !
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Old 05-24-2015, 06:25 PM   #7
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My Airstream experience to date is that one can spend much time and lots of dollars after the sale to make the Airstream just the way you want it. Only the SenDel wheels and Michelin tires we installed on our 2014 Classic as soon as I got her home have become standard on the Classic.

Everything else we did is classed as modification or improvements whose total costs are significantly greater than the new ones coming down the line. But the mods work for us just as everyone else modifies to their taste and needs.

The Airstream design lends itself to unique modification unlike most other brands out there in RV world.
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Old 05-24-2015, 06:33 PM   #8
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mrjkq, I'm curious as to what made you change to an AS from your other TT?
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Old 05-24-2015, 07:14 PM   #9
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Quote:
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mrjkq, I'm curious as to what made you change to an AS from your other TT?
Sold that 2013 I referred to after a year of use & disappointment. We washed our hands of RVing, the 40ft Motor Home we previously owned had spoiled us & the TT was junk in comparison. After rethinking our options
we decided that maybe a diesel sprinter class B might meet our needs but the idea of disconnecting everytime we went somewhere was not appealing. I wanted a smaller RV that I could easily handle, set up etc, I'm approaching my 73rd bday so that was primary along with quality, value and the best out there. Our 25 FC has all of the above, my RAM 1500 Ecodiesel & it are a good match & I'm happy! Hope tha answers your question.
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Old 05-24-2015, 08:10 PM   #10
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Old 05-24-2015, 08:35 PM   #11
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And it doesn't even have a kitchen island, how can you camp/live without a kitchen island?
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Old 05-24-2015, 08:46 PM   #12
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To get around it, if you tell them a ridiculously low price for your AS, the folks get surprised and they wish if they knew that before buying their SOB. Some of my friend don't believe what I paid for mine. You have to have a an eye and deep pocket for high quality products.
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Old 05-24-2015, 09:23 PM   #13
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Like an awful lot of streamers, we downsized from a MH, in our case a Patriot with a Grand Cherokee toad. There were tons of County, State and Federal campgrounds we just couldn't get into. In the end we have a lot more flexibility, and almost NO downside. In the MH we went down the steps to the bay's. - now we go down the steps to the truck's bed (with a shell).

Congratulations. Time will confirm you made the right decision.
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Old 05-24-2015, 09:46 PM   #14
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Quote:
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we decided that maybe a diesel sprinter class B might meet our needs but the idea of disconnecting everytime we went somewhere was not appealing.
I went the Sprinter Class B route, for a number of reasons I won't go into at the moment. The idea of breaking camp every time I wanted to go somewhere didn't appeal to me, either, so I carried an electric mountain bike on a hitch-mounted rack. And had saddlebags to fit that could hold a paper bag of groceries on each side. That lasted me for about a year.

After that, I replaced my untowable full-size SUV daily driver for a Honda toad— not only because I wanted the flexibility to visit tourist attractions without breaking camp, but also for hurricane evacuations. The idea of evacuating in one vehicle and leaving the other behind at the mercy of the storm did not appeal. With a toad I can evacuate both vehicles. And I have all of the flexibility to explore without breaking camp if I take the toad on my camping trips.
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Old 05-24-2015, 10:14 PM   #15
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I love this.... RV experience: 2007 AS 25D Int Ocean Breeze, 2009 AS 27FB Ocean Breeze, 2010 Allegro Bus 43 QGP, and now my 2015 Serenity 30 RB. The Moho had an overall cost of about $3.25 per mile after depreciation, taxes, insurance, and operating costs are added up.

Why I am now back in an Airstream is about the thoughts of "what goes wrong next" and the ease of pulling rather than towing a car. The AS is essentially trouble free, the Moho, as all moho's are, had lots of small things to go wrong on a continuous basis.

When I sold my Allegro Bus I looked at a lot of box trailers, fifth wheels, and decided I was a better fit with an AS. So the new Serenity. I might have gone with the Classic, but they had not announced it when I ordered the Serenity. As to a fifth wheel, fuel mileage is poor and one person does not need all the room.

From my Serenity on the road in South Dakota...


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Old 05-24-2015, 11:27 PM   #16
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This seems like a good thread to post this in ...
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Old 05-24-2015, 11:29 PM   #17
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This seems like a good thread to post this in ...
Cute. But having been homeless for a time after Hurricane Katrina, you could say I spent a small fortune on my Airstream so I'd never have to be homeless, ever again.
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Old 05-24-2015, 11:37 PM   #18
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This seems like a good thread to post this in ...
HaHa! Good one!
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Old 05-24-2015, 11:58 PM   #19
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Same scenario. 20 years with a motorhome and a Jeep Wrangler toad. Daily driver was a Tahoe, now an Expedition. Wife's car a small crossover. Pickup to use to maintain three real properties. Three houses, five motor vehicles to license and insure AND MAINTAIN. Sold everything but two vehicles (one tow vehicle, one run-around-town car), bought a single house and a FC 25 FB - the Tin Twinkie. In 2-1/2 years, 20,000 miles on the Twinkie, and we're signed up for the 2016 WBCCI caravan to Alaska. The two of us and 2 100-pound Rhodesian Ridgebacks go wherever we please. Three or four trips a year, three or four or five weeks a trip. Being an engineer and a lifelong tinkerer, enlarged the bed to almost a Cal King, replaced the table with a maple one (Formica is for kitchen counters, not the table I eat my dinner from), aluminum platform on tongue for my generator and some other tweaks and additions. Been to Key West, San Diego, Bellingham, and Camden, ME, and points between. Long ago, restored a '66 Overlander, so I have rivet spinners and Pex tools and pretty good bring-along tool set. Ready for the road.
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Old 05-25-2015, 12:22 AM   #20
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I've been very fortunate in my life. I've worked hard and prospered beyond my dreams. I have everything I could reasonably dream of having, and a decent retirement account along with a continuing, generous internet-based income that we work. I guess you could say that I'm a 1 percenter, at the present time anyway. We feel very fortunate in that.

But, we are very much aware that things can and DO change. Sometimes quite DRAMATICALLY!

Putin may be pushed to drop an EMP over the center of the USA, rendering life as we know it to be completely extinct. He is evil enough to do that given that Russia is heading backward, not forward in today's world. (Read what he pushed into legislation in Russia today?) Putin will accept being beaten down for only so long. Pressures/changes in the world may very well push him to gifting us an EMP. May God bless us after that happens.

Or, on a much more minor level, the stock market could crash horribly and send most of us with fatty retirement investments straight into the financial gutter. I know that these things are possible and I respect that potential reality.

I've never been homeless. And I would hope that I never am.

HOWEVER, after having a 5th wheel, a large and luxurious diesel pusher, and soon, an Airstream... I know that if it should ever come to that (being homeless, with just a trailer to live in permanently - which isn't EXACTLY homeless!)... I know that I could live in a trailer and life wouldn't really be all that bad, at that, assuming that our overall infrastructure and supplies are well maintained. Living in RV parks (and I've stayed in a heck of a lot of RV parks, all across this great country, while traveling) isn't my idea of "wonderful" by ANY means, but it certainly is "do-able" if push comes to shove.

It's not the "things" you have in life that matter (as long as you at least have the basics of food and water and an intact shell to call your home) it's the people and, especially, your mindset that matter the most!

Trailer-trash doesn't necessarily have to be trash... it may just be living on a very different scale than most of us are presently accustomed to.
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