New Members

[DANIEL OTTEN]

Hi
Dan & Star here, we live in beautiful Rockford MN. We are looking for an Airstream for under $10,000 not to far from home.

[Airboss]

Willing to drive to Michigan???

[CanoeStream]

Welcome to the Forums Dan and Star! New Airstreams (also box trailers and tow vehicles and airplanes ... infinity ...) have their problems. Those issues certainly increase as prices get smaller and you look at older Airstreams. It is difficult and pricey to hire out such work, so it helps if one is handy .. and patient! Cruise the Classifieds up at the top of the page to see what falls in your price range.

Seeing in your profile that you have a 2006 CHEV. SILVERADO 1/2 TON V6, I can say the suspension is capable of handling older trailers up in to the 25' range -- but a V6? A V8 would be so much better. You might want to stick to smaller trailer sizes because of that. Sub-20' vintage trailers are in high demand and higher priced in relative terms. Don't know that they'd make a truck with anything less than a 3.73 ratio rear differential but you'd want that at minimum (4.10 is better).

There are no central collections of used Airstreams for sale in our area. Seeing some is believin' -- for instance, that the size is what you want. My Argosy is for sale though not currently listed. I have done about half of the rehab work but it still needs a furnace, water heater and has other issues. I'm up at St. Cloud. PM me if interested. Personally? I'd be wary of pulling a 3800# empty, 5800# gross weight trailer with a V6.

Best advice again -- patience. Welcome aboard the best place in the world to hear about Airstreams from regular users!

[CaddyGrn]

Welcome to the forums! We have been proud Airstream owners for almost a year (about 3 weeks to go...) and have a 1963 Bambi. We are retired and needed to find something "affordable" as well.

We bought our Bambi on ebay ~ we had made ebay purchases before, but never anything that big or for more than $100... so it was a bit scary. But the folks selling it seemed honest and straightforward. We emailed them back and forth a lot while the trailer was active during the auction, called and spoke with them as well. We decided to take a chance! We needed to give them $500 deposit and pay the balance upon arrival if it met with our approval. That seemed fair enough for us. We did have to travel about 800 miles to pick it up, however... So, we took along our certified check for the balance and away we went! It was a smooth and great transaction for us. They put on new tires, greased the wheels, checked the brakes, etc. because they knew we would be traveling with her... We just had to get the lights to work with our truck, and we were ready to roll!

We knew she would need some major restoration, but we figured we could pay as we go on that part, but everything was there in the interior and looked in pretty good shape.

We have been very happy with our decision. Even if making a purchase on ebay isn't your cup of tea, you might want to watch the trailers, look at the pictures, ask questions, and see what they go for to get a fair idea of what you might be able to purchase in your price category.

There are several places to look for trailers and one is in your local papers. If you have one of those "Thrifty Nickel" type papers I would scour those! If you are close to any of the cities listed on Craigslist.com I would put the word Airstream in the search window in the for sale category... check Craigslist every day as they drop off quickly! Other than that, of course, scour all the trailer websites for trailers for sale and see what you find. It may take awhile, but I am sure you will be able to find something you like at a price you want that can be towed with your current truck!

Of course place a "wanted" ad here in the forum under classifieds!

Good luck! If you aren't really sure what you would like in a Airstream, please feel free to look at the rally calendar at the top and show up to a rally and ask folks if you can ask them questions and see their 'streams. You will more than likely receive a warm welcome!

Mrs. NorCal Bambi (traveling in S Tardis)