Airstream Factory

[Mulligan]

They are also building the European spec airstreams from start to finish, whereas before they were just sending the shells over to be finished in UK and Germany.

[m.hony]

I saw a sport built for the UK when I took the tour- grab handles, triangle reflectors, galvanized steel frame, little wheels and tires, surge brakes, styrofoam and luan floors, different coupler-

[AWCHIEF]

When I visited they had 4 Bambi food carts under construction. They were bound for Europe. The service bays were all busy with a two month wait. The custom shop where they are restoring older trailers had 3 units under construction. Most impressive of all was the SkyDeck motor home that was under construction in the service area. It was going to a NASACAR team. They have orders for 3 more.

[m.hony]

I missed the Skydeck. That would have been awesome to see.

[m.hony]

Souvenir from the tour-

[Photobum]

Interesting perspective. I doubt that will happen. I do think prices will rise in order to attempt to recoup the investment. Airstream is American made product, and sales would suffer dramatically if it were made offshore.

I suspect Airstream will suffer more American competition as their prices climb, and other manufacturers will generate a very similar product, just as Harley Davidson is suffering like competition.

YMMV

[dkottum]

Interesting to predict Japanese buyout and moving the plant when the Japanese and others are moving their assembly plants here often to rural locations, and installing offshore components. Airstream has been using that idea for years.

[m.hony]

It's all about the mighty dollar- the bottom line-
Factories first move to the south to avoid unions and pay lower wages.
The next step is Mexico or overseas.

[dkottum]

It is absolutely about the bottom line. Airstream is part of Thor, a publicly held company that answers to stockholders who don't give a hoot about the product or even know what it is. The company must produce profit, dividends and growth or heads will roll from the top down until they do.

That doesn't mean the folks who manage or work there are bad people or don't care about what they build.

[Jim Flower]

My Airstream is fabulous and the guys building it did an awesome job. Jim


Sent from my iPhone using Airstream Forums

[dkottum]

Mine too, Jim. But few want to look at it that way.

[Photobum]

I love mine....and have no problems with the business or the people I have dealt with.

Well, there was one dealership....but I will never use them again.

[streamquest]

Just took the factory tour a month ago, and I can understand why they would want to expand. We had the chance to pretty much walk right down the production line, over air hoses and extension cords, as the people doing the work paused to let us pass. I'm no expert on factory production, but the place had a decidedly old world sort of functionality to it, as opposed to more contemporary assembly lines; let alone state of the art robotic plants. I can easily see how more space could benefit their production quality and efficiency.

The tour guests present on the day I visited were fairly affluent, and represented several countries. The Euro-spec trailers had several features such as galvanized frames, and insulated sandwich panel sub-flooring, that left me wondering why I couldn't order one for domestic travel.

Airstream has clearly focused on their product's identity in the market place, both domestically and globally. They view themselves as the top of the line in the unique niche that they occupy, and clearly have their work cut out to live up to that reputation. They may not be perfect, but a few years ago I helped a friend pick up a custom specced trailer built by the Forest River group up in Elkhart, Indiana. Let me just say that if you ever want to see a complete manufacturing Sh#t Show, you should visit that town. His trailer had so many errors in dimensional sizing that we were half wondering if we were picking up the right unit. The "plant", if you could call it that, was basically a big old warehouse with heavy metal music blasting (and I do mean blasting) through the whole place, over the noise of a zillion air powered tools. I thought I'd wondered into some sort of day time meth rave.
The folks at Airstream are doing a heck of a lot better than that.

[m.hony]

Don't get me wrong. I love my trailer.
I love the retro style and the art deco vibe. The pull is stronger than any hobby I've ever had. The service center at Jackson Center is absolutely the best hands down.
But...
It is the most expensive thing I have ever bought with the most small irritating problems.
And...
All that aside I enjoy it every week/weekend all year long except February- just too cold and wet-

[masseyfarm]

Was this a new chassis and body build or was it just a refurbishing of an older unit. I have asked numerous times about availability of the large Class A's and don't even get an answer anymore.

Dave

Originally Posted by AWCHIEF

Most impressive of all was the SkyDeck motor home that was under construction in the service area. It was going to a NASACAR team. They have orders for 3 more.

[m.hony]

It had to be work on an older one.
The only motorhome they are manufacturing is the Interstate on the Sprinter van.

[AWCHIEF]

Originally Posted by masseyfarm

Was this a new chassis and body build or was it just a refurbishing of an older unit. I have asked numerous times about availability of the large Class A's and don't even get an answer anymore.

Dave

It looked brand new. It appeared to me that it was being retrofitted from scratch. As I understand it these are all very special orders for NASCAR teams with three on order as of about a month or so ago. As to price, it is one of those questions that if you have to ask you cannot afford one.

[masseyfarm]

Was it similar to this or was there a different front cap??

Dave

[Mike-Gloria]

Glad to hear they are growing. We would like to take a tour some day. The largest problem we have with our trailer is that in every camp ground someone wants to see the inside so we always keep it picked up and things put away. We are in Montana and six people wanted to see the inside last night.
Happy problem

[AWCHIEF]

Sorry but I do not recall. I was unable to get a photo.