Airstream Living

[partscounterman]

I recently unearthed some pictures from when Dennis and I took leave of our senses and went fulltime in an Airstream Travel Trailer. Ours was a 1963 24' Tradewind model.

The cool thing about pulling an Airstream is that nearly everybody waves at you as you go by.

I've learned that a regular square trailers gives you much more livability

 

[scott55405]

Very cool! Do you have any pictures of the inside? I've never seen the inside of an Airstream.

How long did you live inside the trailer? It would be an adventure, I'm sure, spending all one's time with one's husband in that amount of space...

I do have a friend who lives and travels in a motorhome, but it's just him. I'll see him in Tucson in March.

 

[partscounterman]

interior

our living room

 

[scott55405]

Very cute and fun!

 

[partscounterman]

veiw of the kitchen

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[partscounterman]

Us and our trailers

Our first go around with trailers was in 1992. We decided to move out to southwestern Colorado. We thought a travel trailer would facilitate the move, so we purchased a 1953 Fleetwood "teardrop" style trailer. That was the best little rig! We then "moved up to a 1977 Ideal 25' trailer. We actually live in that trailer for almost 4 years.

After that, we moved into a house like normal people, but always dreamt of the freedom we had as full time RVers. We knew someday we would go back to trailer life and really wanted to do the Airstream thing.

In the summer of 2002, we bought the Tradewind and we were on our way. Sadly, we did not enjoy RVing this time as much as we did before-maybe we're getting old-I dunno. The Airstream was a far bigger moneypit and needed more work than we were able to deal with. In the meantime, Hawaii changed its quarantine laws for pets, which meant we could emigrate to the tropics with out sticking our cat in kitty prison for a month. Our friends Martha and Mark were also moving ahead with their plans to move to Maui. So we sold the Airstream for a song (yeah, I really took a bath on that one!) and now we're here!

If the idea of taking off in a trailer appeals to anyone, I recommend checking out Workkamper News for employment.

My favorite trailer book is "Galloping Bungalows". It tells the story of how America fell in love with Travel Trailers in the 1930's

 

[scott55405]

Well thanks for the pictures, and what fun that you have followed your heart and experienced these adventures!

 

[rickr]

Airstream trailers

Cool vintage Airstream. My parents had two or three of those,in the 31 foot version. They were known as the "Cadillac of camping" back in the 1960's. Airstream even had a monthy travel publication,and club. Wally Bernham?? Or something like that. They would feature various national parks,and other cool places to visit.I can remember reading them when we were on our trips out West with our Airstream,and the burgandy 1966 Ford Galaxy tow car.Made for a nice looking "rig" for the 1960's
Thanks for sharing,Aloha!
Rick

 

[westytoploader]

Hi Rick,

I think a vintage Airstream would look good behind the '55 Coupe DeVille! ;-)

 

[Designgeek]

Yeah, those are way cool. And the interior of yours looks quite nice too, looks like the cabinets etc. are real wood, and you've got some interesting furnishings around.

When the anthrax attack happened in 2001, a close friend & I started making bug-out plans that called for using RVs to live on a large chunk of land owned by friends-of-friends in Northern California. At the time the economy had gone down the toilet due to 9-11, and anthrax was making it worse, so we didn't have the $$ to pull it off. And in the end, it wasn't necessary.

I think there are lessons to be learned from travel-trailer design, with respect to the design of regular household living spaces. Much more efficient use of space, for example; which counts for something in expensive real estate markets (such as the San Francisco Bay Area where I am). So you start with a "cramped" house or apartment, do some intelligent design/remodeling based on camping trailers or sailboats, and end up with lots of usable space.

 

[gansky1]

Cool way to travel - you just can't argue that the design is one of the most unique!

 

[rickr]

tow cars

Austin,the 55 Cadillac would make a great tow car,however I am more of a Motel 6 type of guy!! LOL The 1950's and 1960's and even 1970's Cadillacs were used as tow cars very often. They had powerful engines,were heavy and stable,oversized cooling system and brakes,and a heavy duty Turbo 400 Hydramatic transmition. My dad used full sized Fords,and they were less than ideal. Too light,and "flighty" in the steering with heavy loads. Dad wore out two,a 1966 Galaxy,and a 1970 LTD. The final Ford tow car he used was a 1977 LTD. The unstablity of that car caused a loss of control in the Smoky Mountains,resulting in a horrible accident that nearly took the car,my parents,and their Airstream over a cliff! They were ok,however the 1974 31 ft Airstream,and 1977 Ford were destroyed. I will say one thing about the Airstream. They are very well made. The trailer rolled end over end four times,and was very well crumpled up,but it never came apart at all! After that dad switched to GMC Suburbans.
Rick
Rick

 

[drmitch]

Cool Airstream David! Looks like a lot of fun!

 

[foraloysius]

WOW!!!! Every time I see one of those I'm in awe!!

 

[partscounterman]

The sticker says it all!

If you can make out the sticker that says "Trailer Park Trash" in this picture!

From the outside there is nothing quite as cool as an Airstream (unless its an old Avion, Silver Streak or a streamliner). They are built like a brick *moon*house.

Sadly, the total restoration that we had envisioned for this took a lot more $$$ and time than we were willing to give up.

I have always been interested in trailers. Every year my folks would take us to the camping show. I loved to look at all the trailers and imagine living in them-good thing I had a chance to do this. Trailers have that "dollhouse effect"-they appeal to people because they are so little and cute.

Airstream still has its special Wally Byam club for its members. I didn't see the point of joining. For me, RVing is about doing your own thing-not hanging out with a bunch of old rich white folks like my parents. Besides, we ran into a Wally Byam group and they kinda looked down their noses at us because our trailer was old. If they only knew about the boatload of money we spent on that thing! Land Yacht indeed!