Category Archives: Airstream

Restoring a ’61 Airstream


Over the years in aviation, I’ve known quite a few airplane builders and restorers. Their attention to detail and perseverance amaze me — they work years and years on their planes. Some then fly them a lot, others seem to prefer to work on them or start a new project. I’ve always been more interested in flying than building.

I think it might be the same with vintage Airstreams. Some folks love to tinker with them and their shiny babies hardly ever leave the driveway. Others head on out. My brother is the latter type.

He and his wife have owned a small Airstream for a decade and have logged thousands of miles each winter, spending months in south or southwest U.S. But over a year ago, he bought a tired old ‘61 Airstream, a 24-footer, and has bitten off an awfully-difficult renovation project. Having seen it gutted this summer and thinking, “No way are you traveling with this in December, ” I went up to see the project yesterday. Well, I think they’ll make it.

Having small little fixes to do on our own Airstream, I get tired just thinking of the work he’s doing. Right now, he’s finishing the plumbing — after having a grey water tank added and completely redoing the belly pan. Later this week, he’ll start the electrical. The walls are all insulated and back in place, painted professionally in a warm yellow. The gaucho is out for recovering, the cupboards are all refinished, the floor is done.


We plan to meet up with them in Big Bend National Park in late January. I’ll look for the shiny vintage Airstream with the Vermont plates. I hope my admiration for Barry and Mica’s skills and energy are apparent: it’s wonderful to see a tired old camper restored to 2010 standards — but keeping its 1960’s look. It’s tempting to consider a project …. no, I think I’ll just hook up and go.

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Lessons Learned

Ever since we bought the Airstream this Fall, I’ve been concerned about tire failures — mainly because of the stories I’ve read on blogs and the damage to the wheel well on our A/S from an incident several years ago. The tires were about six years old and in spite of their good tread, there were a few small cracks in the sidewalls. I replaced all four, learning how to hoist the trailer (using 2 x 6 planks) and getting ready for trouble on the road. Little did I know that my tow vehicle tires would cause me grief first.

The truck is a 2007 and there are only 16,000 miles on it and the tires so I’ve been pretty confident of having good rubber for the winter and for our upcoming trip. Well, not so fast. Last week, I was driving down to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center for a routine appointment with my cardiologist. It is about a 1 + 20 trip and about 45 minutes into the trip down I-89, the tire warning light came on in the truck. I noticed it right away — but because my previous Honda had many false warnings of the tire light, kept going. I passed the Bethel rest stop which is closed for budget reasons (thanks Gov. Douglas) and one exit where I knew there was no service stations. I was hoping to make it to a rest area in New Hampshire and the truck felt fine.

Just as I crossed the Connecticut River and approached busy Exit 20 for West Lebanon, a tire blew. I was in the left lane and managed to veer through the stream of traffic to the right breakdown lane and hobbled to a stop just before the exit. The traffic streaming by shook the truck and I had to wait to even open the door and get out to check the damage. I was so close to the guard rail that I couldn’t fully open the right door.

The right rear tire had shredded after blowing. I looked underneath at the spare tire hanging there, as the traffic zipped by — and realized I had no idea how to extract the tire or even find the jack. (I had the truck about five months but figured I was good for a while tire-wise.)

Fortunately, I had good cell coverage and called the doc and cancelled and then called AAA. They said about 30 minutes and that’s about what it took. I remembered that I had some road flares so after fiddling with the instructions, got them going up the breakdown lane as a warning.

My dog, who was in the jump seat, needed a walk and I needed to get us away from the truck and traffic so I extricated her, got her underneath the guardrail, and we walked back and forth on the steep embankment until the wrecker arrived. Tieing her to convenient post, I watched the young man use the long rod to lower the spare tire down and then change the tire. The spare, fortunately, was a full-size tire and brand-new. In ten minutes we were all set, and after thanks and a tip, he found a break in traffic and ran interference with his well-lit truck while I got going and off at the exit.

Of course, the spare tire has no sensor so the tire light was on the whole way home. It was a good lesson to me to believe the warning light and stop and inspect things right away. It also showed me how to use the spare tire system so if I need to in some remote area out west, I can do it. And the final lesson is to keep renewing our AAA membership – you never know.

Getting Out of Dodge


We’ve had our first snowfall, which melted right away, and the Airstream is perched on the side of our front yard headed toward warmer climes. Even though it will be several months, and several feet of snow to move beforehand, our trip to the Southwest is in our minds. We’ve got travel guides, vacation material from Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico tourist offices, and the trailer is winterized and waiting.

One of the big concerns is timing our departure and getting south of the snow/slush zone with dry roads and no blizzards to fight. I know too well how tricky winter driving can be — and as a pilot, also know how unreliable long range weather forecasts are. However, my brother has done it for years — picking a window of decent weather, and driving long distances until he gets out of snow country.

Getting out of Vermont is not easy hauling a trailer. Getting down our driveway isn’t either — summer or winter. However, if we avoid the passes in the Green Mountains, we can hit Route 7 and take our normal cut-over to the Glens Falls and then take the Northway (I-87) south to Albany.

My thinking at this point is to take I-88 over to Binghampton and head south on I-81, which can be terrible in winter heading down toward Wilkes-Barre. We’ll have to stop somewhere north of Harrisburg I suspect, and then head south toward Knoxville. Haven’t thought too much about beyond there — since I may have an airplane to look at in the Knoxville area. (I’m in the market for an old Luscombe)

I’ve done some online research on Flying J and Walmart locations along the way and need to gameplan as to how and when to activate the winterized systems. As I sit in front of our woodstove, it’s fun to think about heading into warm dry desert territory in early 2010. We just have to make sure we get out of Vermont unscathed — easier said than done in January.

photo from skidrd

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Time to winterize


Yikes! The Airstream is covered with frost this morning – it’s 31 degrees outside- and I’m just starting to read up on winterizing.

I need to get some RV anti-freeze and get serious about getting things ready for winter. I need to get my hands on an air-compressor to blow the lines dry and find out which valves isolate the water heater.

The previous owner left a number of cryptic notes on fittings he changed and tips on draining sumps — and reviewing them, I’m getting a better sense of the process.

RV anti-freeze is about $4.00/gallon and as it turns out, my neighbor has a small air compressor. Now he just has to find the fitting for tire valves (nothing like being a picky borrower.)

So, I’m draining the drinking water tank through the spigot on the bottom and will read once more all the guidance I’m finding online and with the materials that came with the Airstream.

This isn’t rocket science — and once I’ve done it – I’ll have it down for future winters. I’ll tackle it in the next day or so and report back. Meanwhile, I’m checking the forecast – 32 tonight but getting down to 26 later in the week. Tomorrow is winterization day!