27' vs 25' with two young children?

[kscherzi]

Unless you have an especially tall garage door, the Airstream may not fit. I think standard garage doors are 6` 8" . An Airstream needs almost 10 feet of vertical clearance.

[aireseneca]

Originally Posted by aftermath

Assuming that they will not be in bed with you, "their space" will be the same.

Having raised two boys, "their space" quickly became ALL the space!

[rodsterinfl]

Sounds like a plan Boosmama. I also want to repost something I found that is related to your question from another thread by the forum member Foiled Again. They were addressing someone's question on selecting a 25 or 28:

Foiled Again wrote: The 27 FB and the 28' are virtually the same length (don't try to understand it, just deal with it). To me the big difference between the 27 FB and the 28 are
A) dinette location
B) closet space

The dinette in the 28 is on the side over a wheel well... so it comfortably seats 2 adults and 2 children. The end dinette on the 27 will really seat four adults and is a bit wider. The 28.... find the closet I dare you. It's twice as big or more on the 27. The 28 has a couch that the 27 lacks.

You choose what works for your family.

Just my two cents.

Take your time, it's easy to buy then trade, but it will cost you a bundle!!!!! Before you purchase go to a big dealer or a big rally and spend real time inside both units. Also check "throne room" and sleeping comfort. If either of those are wrong, they'll become ever bigger irritations over time.

Paula

The main point is to pick what works for your camping lifestyle. The 25, 27 or 28 will meet your bedding need. The rest is considering the livability. If you get can live with the twin option in the bedroom, you gain quite a bit- storage, a dressing room area and better locker access. Also, the "twin" size is deceptive. My twins measure with the wall to mattress "crack" as I call it 35.5 wide by 80" - that is basically half a king bed with a slight curve at the head of course!

We all love what we have, but if I had two growing children and your garage I would love the 28'. This is because of the L-shaped sofa and separate dinette, everybody has room to stretch out, or play table games/do hobbies while others lounge.

I agree with you Doug on this one. That is how my family "behaves" at night. Watching a movie or playing a game. Now, even though I travel mostly solo, I too still use the living area as a lounge and just a couch like my floor plan has, is sufficient; however, it depends on how Boosmama's familiy plans to use the living area - dinette oriented or lounge oriented. What you could do Boosmama, is take everyone to the dealer. Get in the trailer and sit around in the living area for about 30 minutes. Get an idea of what it would be like.

It sounds like you have done your homework!

[2PNPOD]

Good luck with your decision, and congrats on your upcoming AS purchase!

[JFScheck]

Originally Posted by dkottum

Note some actual lengths:

25' Airstream is 25' 11''
27' Airstream is 28'
28' Airstream is 27' 11"

A Propride /Hensley hitch adds about 1 1/2' depending on the position of the movable coupling.

Yes -good point both on the PP & HaHa hitch's and the actual length of the trailers - the names can be misleading....

[SuperTrouper]

Originally Posted by Boosmama

The section of the garage that the Airstream will be stored in is "two car" and after looking at the space today I think we can fit it so, I think we're going for the 27FB.

Good Choice! :-) Happy Airstreaming!

Brad and Maggie

[mefly2]

Double check your garage dimensions (height and width, too) as that is where you need to be most "comfortable". We don't feel that we gave up anything choosing the EB 25 over a less expensive 27 at the dealership...we have microwave and slightly less storage space in the AS but we learned to conserve space in first a 16 and then a 20. You will enjoy either the 25 or 27 with your children for all those weekend mini vacations. We have been out with ours dry camping since Valentine's Day in February! Don't sell short the ease of backing & parking a shorter trailer ... two feet looks different on paper than it does in your garage or in a parking spot outdoors ... as a NPS ranger I watched the frustrations of many campers trying repeatedly to back into a space and eventually giving up ... to go find a "pull through" outside of a park.

[dkottum]

Two good points, mefly2 (Jerry?). The growing family should fit the camper and the camper should fit the garage.

doug k

[mefly2]

Yes, Doug, that would be me ... I couldn't believe that there was a choice of emoticons/Smiles that included my name -
Jerry

[CDONA]

One point about national parks, is that you are allowed overhang off the back of the parking slab. Which makes my 27 EB, 20' 2" long, hitch to back of rear wheel.
Disclaimer, some parking pads have a large/high backstop/trees that can't be overhung.

[cms4140]

No longer an AS owner, but have some experience with this...

Our first AS as a family of 4 was a 2010 25' FC w/twin beds (two small kids - 6 and 3 years old at the time) was doable but tight. Then I ordered a 2011 30' Classic w/twins -better, much better from a sleeping arrangement perspective - everyone having their own space - kids are separated.

I still think that a 28' offered with a twin beds floorplan along with its separate dinnete and L-sofa would be an ideal set up.

-Chris

[brad1]

Young kids won't care how big your Airstream is. In later years, they'll remember it as huge, luxurious, cramped and miserable. And they'll thank you for ever.

Mom won't think the storage in any Airstream is quite adequate, but over time, she'll learn to make do, in the same way that her pioneer forbears, real or imagined, made do with the space in their Conastoga, dog cart, or whatever. They left stuff by the side of the trail and you'll do the same.

But lets think of Dad. Poor Dad. After hours and hours and hours of driving-during which time he must referee conflicts, instruct, calm, illuminate and inspire-he's going to end up at some camp site or RV park near, at, or after dark. And he's going to have to back into a too-narrow space between other "campers" who've been drinking and bbq'ing for hours. Those good folks can't help but judge the quality of Dad's skills. Dad knows this. Dad pretends he doesn't care. But he does. In this case, the smaller the better.

We traveled along the Umpqua River in Oregon recently. It was near, at, and then after dark as we sought an open spot in the few State or Forest Service campsites along the river. At the entrance to each the sign read: no trailers over 25'. Just making it under the mark in our 25'FB Eddie Bauer I finally found a spot and made a 22 point entry into the one slot I could find. And I'm telling you, I was nervous on the way in about making it through the narrow ranks of redwoods and pines that lined the narrow road and seemed to threaten my aluminum friend. After the parking debacle I really needed that cocktail the good woman shook up for me as I rolled down the stabilizers.

So what is the lesson here? Make sure that whatever trailer you get is always stocked with Dad's libation of choice and the appropriate mixers. Just about any size Airstream can manage that.

[C0305]

welcome to the site

[switz]

We have an International Serenity 25FB and the cross bed appeared in the literature to have adequate walk around space. I purchased it sight unseen from out side the US. The five inch wide "floor" beside the bed behind the front trailer wall is difficult to stand in and make the bed since you can not stand up because of the ceiling roof locker directly overhead. The sleeper on that side of the bed has to do a bug crawl to get off the bed and answer nature, then climb back aboard and shuffle all the covers and hopefully not awaken the other person sleeping there.

THe 25FB and 27FB models from the television back have identical floor plans. From the bed room wall forward forward the space is different to accomadate the orientation of the bed.

We just decided to switch to a twin bed model for the extra interior storage space, outside accessible storage space, additional wardrobe space and "person" room between the beds. Unfortunately, none of the International trim models offer twin beds. Only the Flying Cloud models in lengths of 25' or longer and all three models of the Classic line support twin beds as a no charge option.

Unfortunately, when I stopped at the local Airstream dealer there was a lovely looong 34' Classic on the lot. We decided to peak inside. We fell in love with the Hickory wood interior. We really inspected all the 31' models and they were too long for us and we could not work out our desired feature set without major remodeling after getting a new unit. So, by the process of elimination, we finally decided on the Classic 27FB with twin beds.

Now action is required to implement the decision. It is numbers crunching time to see if the boat will float and who the lucky dealer will be to get us as a (new) customer.

[dkottum]

A rebuttal on the 27 over 25 debate.

We've used our 25 for 12 months total travel. The bed orientation is an easy adjustment after use, not so much different than squeezing around the corners of the 27.

If we needed two more feet length, it would be the 28 (actually an inch shorter than the 27) where the lounge is separate from the dinette. That is our greatest comfort issue and the 27 won't solve it.

We really like the 25 size as a universal traveler, so will stay the course.

doug k

[sunnygirl]

Originally Posted by dkottum

A rebuttal on the 27 over 25 debate.

We've used our 25 for 12 months total travel. The bed orientation is an easy adjustment after use, not so much different than squeezing around the corners of the 27.

If we needed two more feet length, it would be the 28 (actually an inch shorter than the 27) where the lounge is separate from the dinette. That is our greatest comfort issue and the 27 won't solve it.

We really like the 25 size as a universal traveler, so will stay the course.

doug k

Doug,

While I realize you love your 25, have you ever slept in both the 25FB and the 27FB? I have. Prior to purchasing our Airstream, we stayed in a 25FB for several nights at the KOA in Bar Harbor, ME. We too were undecided between the 25FB and 27FB. After the stay at the KOA, we realized how difficult it was for us to negotiate the "east/west" bed of the 25. I am not tall (5'4") and I found getting in and out of bed on the side with the roof lockers to be terribly annoying plus downright dangerous if I forgot to "duck" when getting up in the middle of the night with the lights off. Our dislike of the bed orientation in the 25 pretty much sealed our decision to buy the 27FB. The 11" radius corners on the foot of the bed of the 27FB make it very easy to walk around the bed so there is absolutely no need to squeeze around the corners.

For us the decision became clear after sleeping in the 25FB. We didn't want the aggravation of negotiating the tight clearances around the queen bed. We would have only considered the 25FB model with twins (which is a very spacious layout) but we preferred the queen bed. The 27FB bed layout fits us to a "T".

Susan

[DMT]

Originally Posted by brad1

...Make sure that whatever trailer you get is always stocked with Dad's libation of choice and the appropriate mixers. Just about any size Airstream can manage that.

Here Here.

[MrUKToad]

Originally Posted by dkottum

A rebuttal on the 27 over 25 debate.

We've used our 25 for 12 months total travel. The bed orientation is an easy adjustment after use, not so much different than squeezing around the corners of the 27.

If we needed two more feet length, it would be the 28 (actually an inch shorter than the 27) where the lounge is separate from the dinette. That is our greatest comfort issue and the 27 won't solve it.

We really like the 25 size as a universal traveler, so will stay the course.

doug k

The precise reason that we went for the 28' (and inch shorter than the 27')

[MrUKToad]

Originally Posted by MrUKToad

The precise reason that we went for the 28' (and inch shorter than the 27')

We have two kids, too, although small they aint!

[dkottum]

Originally Posted by sunnygirl

Doug,

While I realize you love your 25, have you ever slept in both the 25FB and the 27FB? I have. Prior to purchasing our Airstream, we stayed in a 25FB for several nights at the KOA in Bar Harbor, ME. We too were undecided between the 25FB and 27FB. After the stay at the KOA, we realized how difficult it was for us to negotiate the "east/west" bed of the 25. I am not tall (5'4") and I found getting in and out of bed on the side with the roof lockers to be terribly annoying plus downright dangerous if I forgot to "duck" when getting up in the middle of the night with the lights off. Our dislike of the bed orientation in the 25 pretty much sealed our decision to buy the 27FB. The 11" radius corners on the foot of the bed of the 27FB make it very easy to walk around the bed so there is absolutely no need to squeeze around the corners.

For us the decision became clear after sleeping in the 25FB. We didn't want the aggravation of negotiating the tight clearances around the queen bed. We would have only considered the 25FB model with twins (which is a very spacious layout) but we preferred the queen bed. The 27FB bed layout fits us to a "T".

Susan

I should also say our 25 is the rear bed model which has many interior differences from the FB 25/27. So it was not the bed configuration alone in our case.

But after extended use of our 25 I think the difficulties of this bed configuration are completely overstated, and not completely resolved with a fore/aft bed.

Referring to the original post, if considering two more feet of Airstream look at the 28 for the separate lounge and dinette setup. The fore/aft bed is there as well.

doug k