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Old 03-15-2015, 08:14 PM   #1
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2023 25' Flying Cloud
Richmond , Virginia
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New member / Airstream owner

Posted this in the wrong section earlier - I'm new here but have been lurking for a while. I've been a camper my whole life, started going as a kid tent camping with my family; we'd do a week long trip every summer with my cousin's family and another family that was friends with our parents, all over the east coast. 6 adults, 8 kids, we had a blast. Usually it would be at a campground somewhere close to an amusement park and we'd camp, hit the amusement park and other activities (hiking, rafting etc.). Always a great time except the odd day it there would be a storm and we'd end up in a hotel. Later I did some backpacking and backwoods camping. I really enjoyed both. I hiked around 80 miles of the Appalachian trail over 3 days through Pennsylvania with my father, cousin and uncle and it was a great experience. I've had a few Jeeps and would throw a 'camping' bag in the back and just head out into the woods for a weekend with a small tent and basic necessities to set up camp. Lots of fun.

Anyway, I got married, my wife loved camping and we did some tent camping, hike in stuff etc. Then had kids yada yada and kept up the camping, and I now go with one of my high school friends and his family a few times a year. We started out tenting it and enjoyed it, but with 2 young kids each - mine are 4 and 2 - it was getting somewhat more difficult (made me understand what my parents went through, though we were bit older). My buddy bought a nice pop-up and I got a cheap wilderness travel trailer from my BIL to try out and see how we liked it (I'd kind of been a 'tent snob' previously) and well, we loved it. All the great stuff we loved about camping - being outside, camp fires, activities but a quiet place for the kids to nap and sleep, air conditioning if it was really hot and no worries about getting rained out. The wilderness was a pretty good trailer but needed some work being an old unit, and it was small for us. We ended up with one kid in our bed. It was still fun, but sleeping with a 2 year old at your feet isn't a recipe for a great night's sleep.

Rather than put too much work into the wilderness, I figured it'd make more sense to start with a little bigger camper and one that I really liked - enter the Airstream (of course). One of my uncles had bought a '60's overlander a few years ago and camped in it a few times, then last year he started some minor repairs and didn't get to finishing them. Around that time I started looking for airstreams and, well, one thing led to another and back in December I agree to buy it.

So, the weather finally cooperated and I drove home my new (to me) '67 Overlander international. It towed very well, it has some type of weight distributing hitch and despite being 8' longer than the wilderness, was more stable and it was a fairly windy day. It towed no problem with my 1/2 ton Chevy at 70mph. My uncle had gone through axles and repacked the bearings along with making sure the brakes worked and put new tires on it, so it was good to go. It is surprisingly leak free, just one window that has a minor leak and the rest dry, and I looked it over pretty well. It needs a water line replaced that goes to the sink and needs some minor electrical work (he said it blows a GFI when plugged in to shore power that have one, otherwise works ok - maybe neutral tied to ground or something screwy like that). It has a few dents and one patch on it, some of the windows have been replaced with lexan and the kitchen cabinetry was (unfortunately) painted. A lot of the wood interior is original which I'm glad as it's the nice solid wood stuff, but I'm going to do some freshening up. It looks like the front bed has been reworked to be some kind of horseshoe seating area with table that folds into a bed and it doesn't look great. The floor is also a bland linoleum that I'd like to spruce up - and then there are the painted cabinets which are a kind of robins egg blue. Just doesn't match the original wallpaper or upper storage bin faces (which are still there in good shape), and gives it a cold feel, so will need to be painted. It also needs some small hardware here and there, but nothing major. The plan is to get it camp-able next weekend and go hit the road with my buddy's family and figure out what it needs while camping.

Today my wife and I started the cleaning, we got all of the corning windows open (awesome!) in the front and I replaced a couple of screens. Next up is plumbing and then testing out all of the propane appliances, which were apparently all working when my uncle last camped in it. Then I can tackle whatever is going on with the shore power.

I've learned a lot reading through the forums and I'm sure I'll have a ton of questions, but I'm really excited to have an Airstream!
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Old 03-15-2015, 08:22 PM   #2
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Greetings from the Florida Panhandle

Welcome to the Forums. We're glad to have you with us.
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Old 03-15-2015, 08:27 PM   #3
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Welcome!!!
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Old 03-16-2015, 04:26 AM   #4
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Welcome - nice looking trailer!
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Old 03-16-2015, 06:21 AM   #5
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Nice trailer. Enjoy!
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Old 03-17-2015, 08:35 AM   #6
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Richmond , Virginia
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Thanks! It's cleaning up well so far, hope to get propane hooked up and tested out today, then on to electricals.
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Old 03-18-2015, 09:04 PM   #7
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It's exciting! Nice trailer. Go camping. You will always have projects to do but that's part of the fun. Welcome!
Dave in the other Virginia (near Morgantown)
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Old 03-18-2015, 09:12 PM   #8
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Welcome aboard. There are quite a few Virginians here. Perhaps we can get a rally together later this year.

Paula
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Old 03-22-2015, 02:52 AM   #9
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Wilmington , North Carolina
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Howdy yall. New member here and have enjoyed the post. Pitching up our first AS in 2 days. This forum has been (and will be!) very helpful to us as we learn our way around. I am writing this post from inside tent beside a river in NC and a sore back. I have been a scoutmaster for 8 years and I'm ready to get of the ground! Lookin forward to meeting many of you on the road with our 2015 Flying Cloud 25fb. Thanks for all the helpful posts! Jere
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Old 03-22-2015, 04:22 AM   #10
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@blufishin

Good morning and welcome to the Forum...from a fellow North Carolinian. If you are ever in the Greensboro area, give me a shout.
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Old 03-22-2015, 05:08 AM   #11
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Welcome to both of you!


Laura & Tom
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Old 03-23-2015, 04:42 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blufishin View Post
Howdy yall. New member here and have enjoyed the post. Pitching up our first AS in 2 days. This forum has been (and will be!) very helpful to us as we learn our way around. I am writing this post from inside tent beside a river in NC and a sore back. I have been a scoutmaster for 8 years and I'm ready to get of the ground! Lookin forward to meeting many of you on the road with our 2015 Flying Cloud 25fb. Thanks for all the helpful posts! Jere
Hello from the mountains of WNC!
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