Excited beyond words

[ddhburns]

Just finished washing our (non-Airstream) "beginner trailer" which goes to a new home Wednesday, to make room for our "big kid" trailer -- a 2012 Flying Cloud 27FB. We've admired these babies in the parks and on the road since we started RVing a couple of years ago, and we simply can't wait to get our new toy loaded up and on the road!

Virtually everything we know about RVing came from the friendly advice of good people, and we're open to ANY advice the "old hands" care to pass along - care, feeding, tips and tricks, I'm interested in all of it. Can't wait to become a bigger part of the community here!

doug

[sandlapper]

Hey, Doug, congratulations on your new trailer. Everyone here is thrilled for you. You are in the right place, so don't go away. Everything will fall right in to place. Safe & happy travels. John

[Skatiero]

Wow! A 2012 flying cloud?! That is AWESOME! I am soooo envious! That will be a wonderful rig!!!

[bike_addict]

Congratulations!! That'll be a beautiful trailer. I completely understand your excitement. I'm picking up our first airstream, a 2012 Flying Cloud 25FB, on Tuesday.

[Traildog]

Congrats Doug and Ronnie on your new FC's. The wife and I will be picking up our new 2012 25FB Flying Cloud in a couple of weeks and we are very excited, too. Ronnie, we will meetup next month at the Piney Woods rally and will have plenty talk about, fer sure.
--
Dan

[bike_addict]

Dan, yea we'll definitely have plenty to talk about it. We're anxious for that rally to get here.

[ddhburns]

Well, we had the new trailer out for a "shakedown" night about 30 miles from the house at a 5-star campground (where if anything breaks, they have the parts).

Nothing broke.

This trailer (27FB flying cloud) actually exceeds our expectations in every regard. There was one "fit and finish" detail missed -- a window had only one, instead of two, "opening levers" (what would you call those?). Other than that, the trailer was PERFECT. As somebody who gets paid to pay attention to quality control, my hat is off to the craftsmen at the Airstream factory -- well done, folks; well done.

We hesitated for many years before laying out our cash on such a luxury. I wish we hadn't. Worth every penny. We had a number of RV'ing friends come visit this weekend, and they're all on Craigslist and eBay right now, looking at Airstreams. We made monthly payments for a while on a trailer that ended up not being worth much; we're now making monthly payments on a trailer that will be there when we're long gone, and is vastly more pleasurable to vacation in.

Thanks to those who encouraged us to take this step -- you couldn't have been more right!

Cheers!

[MrUKToad]

Hi Doug,

Mrs T and I have just finished our first season with our 2011 28' International Serenity (living in the frozen north we have to put our baby into hibernation for the winter). We've learned a lot since April but a couple of bits of advice really came good for us.

Firstly, it will take a lifetime to really become an expert, so look and learn, accept the mistakes (we all make them) and move on, better for the experience.

Secondly, take it slowly. Everything takes longer than you think so always allow more time than you think you'll need. That way you'll not get too stressed when the pressure, real or imagined, is on.

On our big trip, we spent three weeks travelling down to Florida and back via New Orleans, at the height of summer. We'd planned carefully and everything went pretty well (except the weather but I couldn't plan that!), especially as we really took our time and never set ourselves exacting targets. As a result we found that we enjoyed what was a very long trip, with the kids, and were quite disappointed to get home again; I'd never known that feeling before.

Anyway, it all sounds a bit like homespun wisdom but it worked for us.

Happy camping!

[Fly at Night]

This trailer (27FB flying cloud) actually exceeds our expectations in every regard. There was one "fit and finish" detail missed -- a window had only one, instead of two, "opening levers" (what would you call those?). Other than that, the trailer was PERFECT. As somebody who gets paid to pay attention to quality control, my hat is off to the craftsmen at the Airstream factory -- well done, folks; well done.

Kudos to Airstream and a satisfied customer! I recently did my shakedown (exact same trailer, only 2010) and everything worked perfectly....and I had all my window levers too. Best of all, experienced a mountain monsoon with the wind driving the rain straight down and sideways (hard enough to wake me up in the middle of the night) and inside was dry, dry, dry! (I got out of bed and inspected every seam and window).

There is some dissatisfaction on this forum with less-than-satisfactory trailers (mostly pre 2010). I am going to look on the bright side (until proven otherwise) and say that the quality control at AS has obviously improved....a lot!

It will be good to see more satisfied customers....those on Cloud 9 with their Flying Clouds, Bambis, Classics etc.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by ddhburns

Just finished washing our (non-Airstream) "beginner trailer" which goes to a new home Wednesday, to make room for our "big kid" trailer -- a 2012 Flying Cloud 27FB. We've admired these babies in the parks and on the road since we started RVing a couple of years ago, and we simply can't wait to get our new toy loaded up and on the road!

Virtually everything we know about RVing came from the friendly advice of good people, and we're open to ANY advice the "old hands" care to pass along - care, feeding, tips and tricks, I'm interested in all of it. Can't wait to become a bigger part of the community here!

doug

Doug,

Just remember, retract the tongue jack, raise the stabilizers,(don't use them to level) and fold the steps.

Other than that...explore here and soak up other's folly's.

Bob

[danlehosky]

We picked ours up a couple of weeks ago and have been driveway camping as we hooked up, adjusted hitch and figured out our systems. First trip to Leavenworth WA over Christmas break to see the town (and Mt. Rainier all decked out in white.