[A/S] '96 Airstream Integrity

["George Humphrey" <george@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Streamers, (this is long so delete if no interest in this unit)

Hunter asked me to share my feelings about the '96 Airstream Integrity 30' 
fifth wheel I recently bought. I have been putting off making judgements 
until I had put some miles on it and learned to live with it and vice 
versa. I am still waiting to feel good about the purchase while some 
problems are being worked out.

When I asked this list earlier for information on the unit I received very 
little information except from one nice gentlemen that said that Airstream 
did not make them long enough to know how to make a fifth wheel. His may 
have been the best informed answer. Prior to this purchase I have had no 
fifth wheel or slide out experience. Just the '88 29' Excella which I have 
kept until I see if we can fall in love with the fifth wheel.

I will list good and bad points with some explanations on the bad as they 
are known to me today. We have just completed a six week trip that took us 
from our home near Dallas up through OK, MO, IN, IL, OH, PA, NY and into 
Toronto, Ontario.  We returned through Michigan, OH, KY, TN, AL, MS, LA and 
back home in the East Texas piney woods. I probably met Hunter in Ohio as 
she was traveling to Jackson Center as we were traveling from Jackson 
Center going east.

The good points first;
1. Lots of room with one large slide (dining room table/4 comfortable 
chairs and sofa out about four foot) and one small slide (Queen bed out 
about a foot and a half). No claustrophobia feelings on the wet, cold days).
2. New combination convection/microwave over the stove top. Great cooking 
machine.
3. As mentioned in one above, great and comfortable queen size bed with 
room to walk around three sides.
4. More cabinet and drawer space than we could fill, but we are still 
working on that.
5. More outside storage space than we could fill, even with two Honda 
generators, complete tool box, DTV dish, chairs, tables, ice chest and 
other stuff.
6. Large shower I can bend over in (6'2" 350#) with nice dressing/sink 
counter top and pot  behind one sliding door.
7. Ducted and electronic thermostat controlled air conditioning system with 
two units on roof (although we used the central heat the most on this trip).
8. Wood floor in living area great to keep clean.
9. Lots of windows everywhere and most of them open with screens.
10. Wash out system in black water tank.
11. Very large refrigerator with freezer that automatically changes from 
shore power to gas and back as the outside AC is connected and disconnected 
(my Excella frig had been removed and a AC only one put in its place).
12. Large hanging cloths closet clear across the front of the trailer with 
shelves in the ends and cedar lined.

Now to the not so good, the bad and the ugly.

1. The fifth wheel hitch was not securely tied to the trailer structure 
thus allowing the trailer to jerk us around a lot on rough roads. Prior to 
the trip we had the bottom of the raised fifth wheel area of the trailer 
removed and more structure welded into the frame, sheared bolts replaced 
and a general beefing up of the area. Part of this was due to damage from 
dropping the trailer off of the fifth wheel down onto the pickup bed by the 
previous owner. Part was due from Airstream leaving out some angle iron 
during manufacture and the rest from too weak a design. It was costly to fix.
2  The front jacks are electrically raised and lowered. Prior to the trip 
we had new gears installed in the system. Third day out the system broke 
and caused use some headaches during the trip getting the trailer on and 
off of the truck. The trailer is still in the shop today getting the system 
going right.
3.  Either the suspension system sucks with the torque axles and shocks, or 
there are problems with the axles and/or the shocks. That is next week. The 
trailer was so rough in the rear that drawers jumped out on the floor and 
cabinet doors came unlatched and dumped their contents on the floor. Not a 
pretty sight. I will rebuild the drawers and put some real locks on the 
cabinet doors after the shocks/axles are fixed. To Airstream's defense the 
drawers are not their design and were added by the previous owner when they 
removed the over below the stove top and installed the conv/micro above the 
stove top.
4.  The trailer is heavy compared to the Excella and requires much more 
power from the Power Stroke engine and more patience from the driver on 
mountains. And it backs differently from the bumper hitch, thus I am 
relearning how to back into a space. I have come to really appreciate the 
pull thrus. hi hi

Other problems encountered were the fault of the owners ignorance and not a 
problem with Airstream. It does take longer to sit up and get ready to pull 
out, but then there is many more things to do so that is not a real 
problem. Besides we are not supposed to be in a hurry now that we are both 
retired.

If anyone has any specific questions please feel free to contact me. We 
have not decided to sell the Excella yet and we will drive the Integrity 
for a while longer to see if we can really love a large white whale. Sorry 
this is so long.

George and Jeri
'96 Integrity
'88 Excella