Our 2016 Classic - The Good, Bad, & Ugly

[FreshAirStmr]

Originally Posted by gwydir

What we found was crookedly installed blinds, a window in the bathroom door that was visibly canted to the left, and a myriad of other visible evidences of shoddy, sloppy workmanship.

I'm the OP. Thankfully, besides the abrasions and scratches on the cabinets, our Classic shows no other obvious signs of shoddy or sloppy workmanship as far as how the pieces and parts were put together. On the whole, it's quite nice.

The exterior scratch probably happened post-factory. The oven has a bad part and the propane issue has proven to be a bad part that has been recalled.

[FreshAirStmr]

Originally Posted by avionstream

Good to hear the dealer attempted repair of cabinets, etc. that's all that can be expected, an attempt to repair. Then the recommendation to go to Ohio makes sense, good luck you have the best,!

Yes, the issues were not the fault of the dealer. I certainly never intended to give that impression. They fixed what they could, but recommended that the big stuff be done by Jackson Center, and I agreed. It's just hard to hear that when you're standing in a trailer you've owned for one day.

And then we had the accident, which meant we'd be going to Jackson Center anyway. Already, JC has been very responsive and now I'm really looking forward to our visit there.

[dkottum]

Recently we looked at a new Classic very closely and found no construction problems, nicely assembled. This weekend we looked over a new 30' closely and found one issue with clearance between the pantry and wall next to it, otherwise nicely assembled. We looked at a new 26U, again a nicely assembled Airstream.

We don't need a new one, ours remains in beautiful condition and trouble-free going on five years, but if we did I wouldn't hesitate to buy one. However, based on other reports here I would go over it with a fine-toothed comb before signing the papers.

Same as with a house, car, land, or any other big-ticket purchase.

[graysailor]

I must have hit a nasty bump in the road as my galley sink fell about two inches. Does anyone have experience in re attacking the sink?

[GloryBound]

Yes ours fell down as well. I reattached it but I also propped it up with some wood supports on both sides. I then resealed it with silicone.

[BAB]

I, too, had the dropped sink experience with my ’15 Classic when it was less than a year old. After taking everything apart (that included removing the Corian countertop), I was underwhelmed when I saw the very few sketchy tabs that held it in place. I, too, reassembled with silicone sealer and tripled the number of metal tabs that held the lip of the sink to the countertop. Problem solved. Moral of story: it’s really good to be handy with tools if you’re an Airstream owner.

[graysailor]

Thanks for the input. I assumed that it would need additional supports. What type of silicone sealant did you use? Thanks.

BAB, was it necessary to remove the top?

[BAB]

I decided that repairing the sink correctly meant removing the countertop, as the sink is flush mounted to the countertops underside. I think it was the right call. Granted, I had to remove the stove/oven and faucet/drain pipes. Once I had the countertop out, I flipped it over and refastened the sink. I used clear silicone sealant (Lowe’s), and manufactured another four of the metal tabs that hold the sink to the countertop. (Obviously, I unscrewed the one’s that Airstream had installed -- and weren’t strong enough to keep the sink from pulling loose from the countertop.) I was VERY careful reinstalling the countertop/sink unit as I think it would be possible to break the countertop section that’s behind the stove. It is quite narrow. I did this repair 2 years ago and the sink has proven solid.

[Zybane]

Holy hell, just checked my galley sink. They actually thought four little crappy screws screwed into plywood about a half an inch would be enough to hold a sink?

The morons at Airstream didn't even use the side wall cutouts on mine, screwed in right at the edge of the plywood so it split and one of the tabs basically just fell out. More typical Airstream quality.

I'm going to try and put some more support brackets up under there without removing the sink. Going to be a challenge though with the limited work space.

My sofa middle table/seat back bracket just all had three screws on one side hinge just all fall out.

Basically I'm finding anything that is fastened or connected to something else was done by a mouth-breather at the factory.

Any other preventive items to look into keep sharing!

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by Zybane

Holy hell, just checked my galley sink. They actually thought four little crappy screws screwed into plywood about a half an inch would be enough to hold a sink?

The morons at Airstream didn't even use the side wall cutouts on mine, screwed in right at the edge of the plywood so it split and one of the tabs basically just fell out. More typical Airstream quality.

I'm going to try and put some more support brackets up under there without removing the sink. Going to be a challenge though with the limited work space.

My sofa middle table/seat back bracket just all had three screws on one side hinge just all fall out.

Basically I'm finding anything that is fastened or connected to something else was done by a mouth-breather at the factory.

Any other preventive items to look into keep sharing!

Morons? Mouth breathers? That kind of assessment is not only unkind, it doesn't help you get good service or help the system learn anything.

Your situation may be indicative of something systemic or a one off that could be traced and corrected. Good luck.

[BAB]

I hesitate to mention this one, as it is possible that I am the only one who had a serious issue with my Villa sofa with the electric foot/leg rests. But, since I have a 2015, and it was the first year for the major redesign it’s possible I am on the front end of a potential problem for others. Last fall, the street side leg rest broke. After checking, I knew it wasn’t an electrical issue. After removing the middle drawer and using my flashlight I found that one of the key steel mechanisms had broken. To fix it meant it had to welded. So, I disassembled the sofa so I could remove it from the trailer. This is a huge and very heavy task. Once I removed all the cushions I found that the break was due to metal fatigue -- open/close;open/close;open/close. It didn’t break from misuse -- nobody was jumping up and down on it, sitting on it, etc. It broke because the metal (to be kind) was the cheapest pot metal imaginable for a mechanism that moves back and forth. There are a total of four places in the legrest mechanism that carry it in and out. One of the four had broken, the other three were ready to break (all had torn steel and the remaining three were ready to break.) I took the sofa’s metal frame to my Airstream dealer and they rewelded the broken (or about to be broken) frame pieces with doublers. If the sofa breaks again -- and I’m pretty sure it will, it’s going to the junkyard and I’ll install recliners.

[billrector]

Originally Posted by FreshAirStmr

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, we drove from Orlando to Foley RV in Gulfport, MS to pick up our new Classic the next day. It turned out to be an eventful and stressful trip for this pair of newbies and a few tears (mine) were shed. We’re planning to travel full-time beginning in February and we had (have) a lot to learn.

In brief:

The Good
The Classic is eminently livable. Every aspect (except the size of the gray tank, ha) worked for us: the sofa with recliners, the twin beds that incline, the surround sound speakers, the dinette, the bathroom and shower, the window coverings. We found it extremely comfortable and feel we can live quite happily for several years. Also, we got the light furniture/light countertops, and the combination is beautiful.

The Bad
As I feared from some earlier reports, our Classic has many quality control issues. In addition to a 3-inch noticeable scratch on the lower exterior panel below the galley area, there are a few dozen scratches and abrasions in the cabinetry. (The Foley service manager said he thought all the cabinets should be replaced.) There’s a problem with the awning latch in that it’s very difficult to latch, yet on the road it becomes unlatched. The propane oven was dead on arrival and is awaiting a part sent from Germany which probably won’t get installed until March when we make it to Foley’s again. The LP is never available when we want it and appears to go off when towing. When we become aware of it, my husband fiddles with the switch and valves and it becomes available again. But then later, it's not available again.

Over the course of the week, we spent 3 nights at Foley. They fixed some issues not mentioned above, but recommended we go to Ohio for all the cosmetic repairs. We were on their property all day Monday, most of Tuesday, much of Thursday, all of Friday, but our trailer didn’t really get attention from them until Friday, when our original plan had been to leave Gulfport on Thursday. Instead, we didn’t leave until Saturday late morning. We also had some issues with the ProPride hitch power extension, in that it didn’t work. Sean expedited a new one that was delivered on Friday at noon. The hitch is whole other topic.

The Ugly
Hoping to make up some time, we stupidly drove into the night on Saturday. After all, it’s interstate driving - what could happen, right? Well, when merging onto I-75, we unknowingly sideswiped a semi-truck. Seventy miles down the road a FHP officer chased us down and pulled us over. Fortunately the officer was a nice guy and realized pretty quickly that we didn't know we had hit the semi. The only damage to the semi was a broken side mirror. Our Airstream, however, has a big dent forward of the street side bedroom window. Now we’re looking at have two panels replaced when we go to Jackson Center, probably this summer.

It’s taken this whole week for me to have the heart to post about all this. I know this sort of thing happens, but it couldn’t help but shake my confidence. I’m hoping that we’ll figure out how to back up the trailer (this has proven to be much harder than expected and having a cab topper makes it even harder), that we won’t have any propane issues we can’t resolve ourselves until we get to Foleys again because we’re gonna need that furnace in February, and that in June, Jackson Center will make our new trailer new again.

Joanne

We dented our 27' FC FB the first time we took it out. I unknowingly jackknifed the trailer backing up and broke both the rear light lens on my truck and a big dent in the trailer. Life will get better....hand in there!

[Zybane]

Originally Posted by SteveSueMac

Morons? Mouth breathers? That kind of assessment is not only unkind, it doesn't help you get good service or help the system learn anything.

Your situation may be indicative of something systemic or a one off that could be traced and corrected. Good luck.

I don't care about being unkind. I would say it to their faces in person if I saw the workers that worked on my trailer. There is no excuse for the way some things were done on my trailer, simply pathetic work.

I don't care about good service. At least 95% of people working in the service industry are totally incompetent. I do all the repairs myself.

Originally Posted by BAB

I hesitate to mention this one, as it is possible that I am the only one who had a serious issue with my Villa sofa with the electric foot/leg rests. But, since I have a 2015, and it was the first year for the major redesign it’s possible I am on the front end of a potential problem for others. Last fall, the street side leg rest broke. After checking, I knew it wasn’t an electrical issue. After removing the middle drawer and using my flashlight I found that one of the key steel mechanisms had broken. To fix it meant it had to welded. So, I disassembled the sofa so I could remove it from the trailer. This is a huge and very heavy task. Once I removed all the cushions I found that the break was due to metal fatigue -- open/close;open/close;open/close. It didn’t break from misuse -- nobody was jumping up and down on it, sitting on it, etc. It broke because the metal (to be kind) was the cheapest pot metal imaginable for a mechanism that moves back and forth. There are a total of four places in the legrest mechanism that carry it in and out. One of the four had broken, the other three were ready to break (all had torn steel and the remaining three were ready to break.) I took the sofa’s metal frame to my Airstream dealer and they rewelded the broken (or about to be broken) frame pieces with doublers. If the sofa breaks again -- and I’m pretty sure it will, it’s going to the junkyard and I’ll install recliners.

BAB, does the sofa come out in sections to fit through the door? I was just brainstorming for when I have to replace the sofa.

Pot metal you say? Sounds par for the course with Airstream. They probably saved $2 going with pot metal.

[BAB]

First you have to unbolt the arms, bolts are located on each side. Not easy to get to. Once you take them off you can get the sofa through the doorway. It’s heavy and takes two people.

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by Zybane

I don't care about being unkind.

- well I can see that [emoji3]

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I would say it to their faces in person if I saw the workers that worked on my trailer.

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- would you really? Because if I had anything to do with management at AS, I'd work very hard to keep you out of the factory....

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There is no excuse for the way some things were done on my trailer, simply pathetic work.
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- can't disagree that poor quality is inexcusable in this day and age and sorry you experienced it personally. I just think your blame is pointed in the wrong direction. Quality is a cultural issue and it starts at the top. My 2012 had a handful of minor nits I had repaired on warranty so my experience was very different than yours. That's not to discount your individual experience - just suggesting that while even 1 of these problems is 1 too many, they are not universal...

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I don't care about good service. At least 95% of people working in the service industry are totally incompetent. I do all the repairs myself.
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Really? At least 95% are 100% (totally) incompetent?? Could that statement (like your suggestion you'd insult the line workers in person) just possibly be a little dramatic for effect? [emoji3]

I'm glad you can do the work yourself! There's lots of work to do to these trailers that comes from use, wear and tear, and basic maintenance. That you can do the work yourself (to your highest standard) puts you in a much better position than me. I "do" maintenance and service work by checkbook [emoji53] - and for the record - most of that at the factory and they've been great.

Again - good luck and happy camping.

(Apologies that looks like one quote...wasn't sure how to do multi-quotes in a reply....)

[terryg]

After two years I thought I'd finally addressed all the problems. The bathroom sink fell out last year. It was improperly installed at the factory according to my Dealer. Now my galley sink has separated from the countertop and the countertop is loose. After todays travel leg on good roads I discovered the top of my nightstand (twin beds model) laying upside down on the floor. It was not glued and only held in place with four screws that only penetrated a little over an 1/8" into the nightstand base and back support.

[switz]

Maybe if enough of the Classic users complained to the factory with the last six digits of the vin in the letter, Airstream could do what any responsible business would do and track the production line and determine who was working on which parts. These issues could be caused by a perhaps one or more folks with an attitude. Oh wait, this is Airstream....

The reality is that the guy with the stop watch is the real culprit here as they are shoving them out faster than a QC person can inspect on the line expecting the dealer to catch the obvious issues and hoping their slip-shod work gets past the warranty expiration date.

They are laughing at their end user customers all the way to the bank. The dealer in the middle pays Airstream when the unit gets "released from production".

The Basecamp folks have their refrigerator issue and fortunately a few dealers got them back under lemon laws due to many repeated failures on the same unit of the scatter brained ideas to cheaply fix the problem.

[dznf0g]

Um, dealers are not a party in lemon law cases....only mfr. I am unaware of any states which have a trailer le.on law. Can you provide links?

[graysailor]

After staring at my galley sink for two weeks I decided I could not do this job alone so I took it to Airstream. They stared at it for a couple of days and yes they decided the best way to repair the sink was to remove the counter top and start all over. The repair job does seem to be excellent. 3 months out of warrantee of course.

[FreshAirStmr]

Hello, OP here. Been reading with interest about the galley sinks. We may well have that problem too but I don't feel like looking into it right now. We do, however, have a falling bathroom sink but I'll get into that in a minute.

To give a brief followup on our Classic experience since my original postings: We started full-timing as planned on February 1, 2016 and are now into our third year. We've travelled most of that time, only remaining in place for a month or three at a time during the winter months. We wanted to be out west, but had to criss-cross the country a few times in 2016 to visit Jackson Center and get our issues resolved.

Overall we've been extremely happy with our trailer. It's beautiful and comfortable and a joy to be in with all the windows. Only sometimes do we envy the smaller rigs and never do we envy the bigger ones. Going on our third year, any stress related to towing, backing up, hitching up the ProPride is long gone. Everything feels easy and simple.

We are not handy people and so the few times we've had issues, it's been stressful, so thank god it hasn't happened much. Also thanks to our friend Keith (khollister on these forums) who provides great phone support, haha. After the initial problems were resolved (propane regulator not working, cabinet scratches, ProPride hitch installed upside down), the biggest problem we had was when the OEM single-stage converter died. Another time DH was draining the gray tank with the sewer solution but ice in the hose caused a backup. We also had to replace the GFCI breaker.

BTW, we never had our dent from the accident (next to the streetside bedroom window under the awning bracket) repaired and we never notice it or think about it.

Currently we have two main issues that we will have repaired when we return to Jackson Center this August. Although these items definitely need to be fixed, they do not affect us in our daily life and so are easily ignored.

The first: in our unit with twins, there is a storage compartment behind the beds that runs the length of the rear of the trailer. Inside the compartment, there is a piece of wood that goes the length of the compartment with attachments to the inner skin. This bar and its attachments have/are pulling away. While it looks alarming and will require the removal of the beds to repair, it doesn't appear to have any real structural impact.

The second: our bathroom sink is attached by only one attachment point, on the inner skin side (streetside). The second attachment along this side fell out and there are no other attachment points on the opposite side (curbside) of the sink. This problem was first pointed out to us by Vinnie, the AS repair guy in California, but it was beyond his ability to fix. We had the Spokane AS service guy look at it and he said that the counter must be removed and a Corian tech needs to add the attachment points. So for the last 8 months we've had the sink propped up and haven't had any problems with this workaround.

So what has impressed us is that in our over 700 nights on the road, there have been only 3 days when something broke or went wrong. We think that's pretty amazing.

Joanne