|
Thoughts on owning our TB Airstream 27' Trailer
Our 2019 27' Tommy Bahama Airstream Trailer rolled out of our driveway Saturday. It was purchased by a great couple from Colorado who drove for 2 days to come get her. We watched her go with sadness and at the same time, a little bit of relief. I thought I would post this to summarize our thoughts on our 3 years of ownership of this wonderful trailer. This is a long post, feel free to skip it if not interested. I am writing it partly to share our viewpoint on Airstream quality and value.
We have camped on and off our entire married life. In fact we did a 7,000 mile trip with a pop-up through the western parks, as far as Glacier for our honeymoon. And that was in late September - early October. We also both camped as kids many years ago. We had 3 travel trailers. The first we bought used for $4,500. The second we bought new, a 27' Starcraft for about $18,000. We bought Tiny Shiny, our Tommy Bahama in May, 2019 for much more. We always liked Airstreams, and considered them many times over the years but we were always turned off by the interiors. The design of the Tommy Bahama was perfect for use and we loved it.
Here is a list of all the things about our trailer we enjoyed and appreciated:
1. Design - I love the monocoque body design and iconic appearance. This trailer was by far the nicest and best equipped of any we have had.
2. Build Quality - Compared to many of the posts I've read on this forum, the build quality of our trailer was excellent. No leaks, no popped rivets, nothing other than an initial power awning issue that the dealer corrected. We had a leaking rear camera and faulty ice maker that Airstream replaced.
3. Rear Hatch - We loved the well engineered rear hatch and roll up screen
4. Interior Design - The wooden louvered doors, louvered window screens, and hard surface counters were great.
5. Lighted Corian Bar - Beautiful
6. Excellent HVAC systems - the distributed AC worked great and the propane furnace was excellent on cold Michigan nights.
7. Large Fridge and Freezer - Large is relative of course, but we were happy with the fridge and freezer. We normally ran it on electric when we had power and LP when we didn't and it always worked well. The key is to make sure the trailer is level in both directions. Our freezer was consistently 5-10 degrees and the fridge about 37-39.
8. Bathroom Fixtures - The fixtures in our trailer were Kohler and they were fine.
9. Porcelain Toilet - A nice extra.
10. Towabilty - we pulled the trailer with our Escalade SUV and a Reese Straightline Hitch. Sway was never a problem and it tracked well.
So why did we sell?
We had 3 serious concerns with our trailer:
1. Weight, esp. tongue loading. With careful, and minimal loading I was able to get my TV rear axle loading down to it's max rating but it was difficult. I was always concerned we were in potential trouble and this caused us to forgo several trips we planned where mountains would be an issue. I never thought about this when we bought the trailer as it was the same length as our previous Starcraft and I assumed similar weight. In fact it was almost a ton heavier. And the advertised 800 pound tongue weight was actually 1,100 pounds. This was the biggest reason to sell. If we kept it I would have to buy a 3/4 or 1 ton pickup. We like our SUV for many reasons and have no interest in a pickup. We had a 3/4 ton GMC Suburban prior to the Escalade and it was great with much larger brakes and running gear. If someone made a 3/4 ton SUV we would have probably kept the Airstream.
2. Fragility. Hail damage was a big concern. We have serious hail in Michigan, and of course many other places. The thought of our beautiful trailer being trashed by hail, or anything else was worrisome.
3. Campground availability. With the boom in camping, getting good sites has become a challenge. Still possible, but not fun.
The last issue wasn't a concern, just a nice reality - The trailer has great value. We were able to sell the trailer for more than we had in it, three years after we purchased it. This made the sale painless in terms of money.
So, based on all this, we decided to put it up for sale and it sold within a week. This says a lot about Airstreams, especially special edition ones, IMHO.
We will miss our trailer but happy it went to some great people who will enjoy it more.
|
Linear Mode
