Airstream Pad

[jmichaelr]

We have some mountain property about an hour from our home, and are thinking of building a concrete pad with hookups to keep our 25' AS as a convenient mountain getaway when we are not travelling. I am a year from being fully retired, and it would make it possible for us to fully utilize the AS on weekends. Has anyone built such a campsite? If so, how was it done and what tips can anyone give me?

[willyd]

Sounds like a grand idea to me. My idea is a pad at the Airstream park in Melbourne Florida. Best of success in getting the project done.

[kennethowens]

I like the pad idea!

Add one thing....a sturdy pole shed
to keep the direct rain off my baby!!!

[loudruff]

And if you are in a windy or area that gets hail, and the direct sun too...the shed is a great idea. Of course a pole barn would be great too! You will need a place to store outside "stuff" I am sure.

[tinhutjohn]

One thing you have to remember with concrete is that it is like a sponge that holds moisture. That means that you will have a moist surface below your trailer all the time. Not good for the underbelly I would think. I've seen a number of discussions on this type of project on Hunter's list. You might do a search there. AirstreamList : The original Airstream discussion list..

[Lily&Me]

And why not? Sounds like a perfect plan, and this is the place to get all the info on the "must-have's".

We are dreaming of something similar---a wooded acreage not too far from home with a pad/hookups, large shelter with picnic tables, brick barbecue with an oven, plenty of area for visitors with trailers and tents, etc., etc.

Dreams happen---go for it!

[bredlo]

I wonder if it'd be beneficial to cover the pad with several inches of crushed granite, or gravel, or some other kind of material. Depending on what you used, it could really add a touch of elegance and functionality; natural-looking, naturally-draining. Maybe even large pieces of bluestone or flagstone with little bits of moss between the pieces... it'd blend right into the surrounding landscape.

[EvelynDickinson]

We have a couple of acres with a view of the Hood canal on the Olympic Peninsula that we've been developing part time while camping in our air stream so I thought I'd share a few lessons we've learned along the way...

Site Location

In the North West drainage, or lack there of, can be a major issue. Just like with a home site, if possible try to spend some time out on the property in a variety of weather conditions and at different times or day / seasons. This will be a big help when planning out your camp / location, etc.

Utilities

We started with raw land, and had to move a bunch of dirt around, drill a well & cistern, dig trenches and run conduit for power, phone and internet from the road, etc.

One of the best decisions we made was to construct a small 10 X 20 shed / permanent building on a pad to use as a pump house and run all of our utilities (including the power meter base) to and from.

In our county anything under 200 sq. ft. does not require a permit so that was a plus. The shed is lockable and secure so it's a great place to store tools and whatnot as well.

We also had phone and DSL installed and put an omni-directional antenna on the roof for wifi, and installed a propane tank and propane powered generator with an automatic transfer switch in-line to our electrical panel, which has been great. Propane has a long shelf life in the tank and unless your property is very remote you can contract with a local service to stop by and keep the take topped off.

The propane generator ensured that the food in the deep freezer in the shed doesn't spoil if/when we loose power due to a fulling tree or something.

Another good call was purchasing a used mini-excavator / tractor with a front-end loader bucket, backhoe attachment, box blade for grading, a brush hog mower for land clearing and a tiller. This thing saved us a fortune since we were able to do a lot of work ourselves.

AS Pad

We cleared a crude circular drive way with the tractor and leveled a parking pad and had a big load of compacting material delivered which we tamped down and crowned at 2% grade to manage any water run off. And then had a large metal car port installed where we camp. This has worked out great because we can pull right through it.

We ran water, power, phone and internet as well as having a dish-tv antenna installed on the roof -- these all run to a hook up post.


Waste

We're holding off on installing septic for now so we built a little 'dog' house for our blueboy septic tote. And a run off dry well for grey water.

Bath House

My co-pilot and I are not small people so showering in our 69' AS, especially after a long day of working in the mud clearing property and what not, is less than idea. So we picked up one of those 10X20 car port tents from CostCo and a propane powered instant hot water heater and setup a huge bath house tent. We built a little deck and graded the land under the shower area so that the run off drains away. We are careful to only use biodegradable soap (Dr. Bonners in our case).

We also set up some plastic shelves and bins in the tent for clothing and storage, along with a plastic utility sink on legs which is also hooked into the instant hot water heater.

The nice thing is that this entire setup breaks down for storage in the winter.

We're thinking about adding a second out door "dining room"/"office" car port in the spring.


Good luck in all your adventures....


Dave

[DaveFL]

Here at home we have a pad, but wanting low budget and tired of the tax collector, decided, gravel and a carport of tarp will keep off rain and sun. We are on sand so standing water not a problem, If I was designing from scratch I definitely would consider a circle drive to and thru the pad. You didn't say if you had any limits to development, money, time, view, and safe storage between uses.