UPDATE: We’re back in our Airstream after a successful trip to Jackson Center to complete our warranty work at the Airstream Factory Service Center. Ari did a video about his journey to Ohio, the work completed, and his experiences working with the team at Airstream.
You can watch the video at www.youtube.com/trekers.
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We purchased and moved into an Airstream travel trailer for long-term adventures over two years ago. This week, we moved out of our Airstream.
We won’t be out for more than a couple of months. Still, it’s odd seeing empty cabinets in the rig again. And since it wasn’t by choice, it feels much more unsettling.
After nine months on the road, we knew upon returning to the sticks ‘n bricks that we needed to overhaul our storage. Particularly during that last month on the road, I thought, “I’ll reorganize this properly when we get back to Michigan,” too many times as I tossed or shoved something into a storage bay or closet.
But there’s a difference between reorganizing and repacking a closet and emptying it to carry the contents into a house.
Why have we moved out of our Airstream?
Two things are happening in the next six weeks that required our moving out of the Airstream.
First, it’s time for the annual inspection and maintenance check-up at our local dealership. Plus, after continual use on the road since last December, some miscellaneous repairs are necessary.
We need to reinforce some cabinet and drawer attachment points. (If you spend enough time traveling the deplorable roads across the U.S., things will shake loose.)
We also have an intermittent leak from the macerator on our macerating toilet.
Speaking of leaks, we have a stubborn P-trap and pipe under the kitchen sink. It likes to shake itself loose periodically. I finally put enough sealant on it to keep it in place with only minor seepage now and again. But someone needs to repair or replace it correctly.
Since it’s an Airstream, it’s also time to check the main front door and screen door alignments. Not everyone understands why this must be done regularly, but I’ve learned that Airstreamers are used to it. It’s one of the prices we pay to have hand-made units.
The good news is that the original 3-year warranty or the extended warranty we purchased should cover most of the work.
Front End Separation
Once the dealership finishes, we are hauling the rig to the Mothership, as those in the Airstream world call it. The factory service center in Jackson Center, Ohio, plans to have our rig for two weeks to fix two major issues under warranty.
First, there is a problem with some of the longer Airstreams, known as front-end separation (FES). People debate the cause and fix regularly. Airstreams like ours, which are 30 feet long and have a front storage compartment, are starting to show stress between the frame and trailer body. Hence, the “separation” part of front-end separation.
Soon after ours rolled off the assembly line, Airstream started reinforcing the front ends of the longer units. Jackson Center will be adding that reinforcement to our rig. (There is an after-market fix that supposedly is beefier than what Airstream will do. But we’re not shelling out thousands of dollars when the manufacturer will cover their solution under warranty.)
I’m not positive we have FES. We only have one potential symptom of it. I sent a picture to Airstream asking if we had FES. They didn’t hesitate to reply with an offer to reinforce it. If we don’t have it yet, we might in the future, so doing the preventive work to guard against FES is worth it.
There’s a crack…
A more significant issue is that we have a crack in our ceiling. Since we were already headed to Jackson Center for the FES issue, I asked them if they could also address the crack. After seeing a picture we sent, the answer was yes. Unfortunately, they would need it for two weeks instead of two days. The tech I’ve been talking with said there can be a problem where an interior trim piece is cut too long. That puts pressure on the ceiling, and a crack can result. (More joys of hand-built units with human interaction directly impacting templates.)
We’re not happy about the crack. It’s a bit unnerving to think about them having to remove part or all of the ceiling panel since it runs most of the length of our rig. But everything I’ve heard about the factory service center suggests they know what they’re doing. Most people seem satisfied with the results of service visits there, so our fingers are crossed.
Missed opportunity
By the way, I reached out to Airstream’s PR team to find out if we could do some filming of the FES reinforcements. There is a lot of information and misinformation online about what it is, what Airstream is doing, and how they’re doing it. But I was told they “didn’t have the bandwidth” for this. You may see a video about the Jackson Center trip on our YouTube channel. It will include the reasons for the journey and the results. Still, the actual work they do will remain shrouded in mystery. It seems to me that Airstream is missing out on an excellent opportunity for some positive PR from a negative situation. But I only have about 30 years of experience in that field, so what do I know?
If all goes as planned, we’ll have the rig back in early December so we can move back in and report that things are great again.
It could be worse
Thankfully, our home base is in Michigan. So it’s about a 3.5-hour drive to haul the trailer down to the Mothership. Otherwise, this post might have a bit more grumbling about time, mileage, and fuel expenses necessary for factory warranty work.
Moving out of the Airstream has been tiring. It’s incredible how much we have packed into that trailer. Honestly, we didn’t take out everything. We removed stuff that we knew would be in the way of the dealership and factory techs as they worked. All of our clothes and shoes also are out. We plan to take inventory while the rig is gone and repack only what we need to wear, not what we might wear.
Since winter is coming in Michigan, we also have done the annual removal of any food that freezing temperatures might ruin.
Moving back in will be another chore, but somehow, moving in doesn’t seem so bad. Moving out of our Airstream wasn’t by choice, but moving into our Airstream is something we are looking forward to. It means adventure is right around the corner, down a bumpy road.