[A/S] Old vs New

["Thomas Dickieson" <lleather@xxxxxxxx>]

As with the others who have expounded on this topic, I had my own 
reasons for going for older rather than newer.  One of course was 
price.  As I am not ready to full time, I cannot justify the cost of 
a new Airstream.  Also, as I had a 3/4 ton truck already, I could 
not justify the cost of a Super Duty Diesel to pull a newer heavier 
trailer.  I looked for a mid seventies, and found exactly that.  My 
1976 31' has all the things I was looking for, such as rear bedroom, 
and center bath.  I love all the tambour doors, and the weight is 
perfect for my truck.  It weighs in at 4810 lbs empty, and my truck 
is designed to pull double that so the fudge factor is great.  The 
only repair that cost me money, was the blown hot water tank.  I 
only replaced the tank, not the heater.  Hunter mentions the push 
button fridge and hot water, well one out of two ain't bad.  I have 
to light the hot water heater.  Everything else in this trailer 
worked, and as it was owned by an unmarried man, I was surprised at 
the cleanliness.  My closet doors are hinged top and bottom by small 
pin hinges.  Are these the ones that others have had problems with?  
Mine are tight and as perfect as when the trailer was new.  I guess 
I got lucky there.  I had to pull out a pretty horrendous dent in 
the upper curb side rear quarter from a tree having fell on the 
trailer, but my Ding King repair kit was up to the task, and the 
dent is almost totally gone.  No leak there either.  I did however, 
when going from my 24' Argosy to this 31' Airstream have to give up 
my forays into the deep dark forest.  The longer trailer just won't 
quite go into the places the Argosy went.  The longer trailer is 
harder on propane for the heat too, in November.  In a week, I used 
more than one forty pounder, and that was with electric back up when 
my genny was running for things like breakfast and TV in the 
evening.  As all before me stated, and all after me will probably 
also acclaim, the quality is not a question.  Price, weight, layout -
 these all count, but quality was a given with the name of Airstream.

Tom
The North woods of Canada