Buying our Airstream “Charlie”
We’d like to introduce to you….Charlie our 2005 30′ Airstream Classic!!!!
I’ve posted pictures in previous articles, but really pictures don’t do him justice. So now you can follow along on our adventure of finding and buying our new Airstream home and then going to pick him up! Plus you get a full look inside.
When we first saw Charlie he was a little rough around the edges (he is over 10 years old) but as you can see he cleaned up real nice! Everything is original or added by his previous owners (who apparently really liked mirrors). We have a lot of updates we’re planning to make and some we already have. You can find more detailed accounts of our weekend picking up and moving into Charlie in our articles: Courtney’s & Steve’s.
Enjoy!
I wish we would have taken more video especially while actually driving, but we were all so focused on our first time that we forgot. Don’t worry there will be plenty of video to come! Make sure you don’t miss out and subscribe to our Youtube channel.
We already have some organizational videos in the works, plus updates on how Charlie is shaping up. Once we start traveling you can expect even more travel based video over on our sister site fulltimeexplorers.com.
We hope you enjoyed your first peek into our new home.
Great first video! Can’t wait for more 🙂
Thanks Fervent! We’re already working on the next ones 😉
Hello,
Thanks for the up-close-and-personal tour of your new home! I’m really curious to hear what sort of reservations you had regarding buying a 2005 model. My family and I are considering full-timing in a few years and, while I hate the idea of paying retail for a brand-new one, I also can’t help but worry about the potential problems that could be associated with one that is 5-10+ years old. Based on your experience thus far, what could you tell me that might ease my concerns? Any thoughts are appreciated! 🙂
Hi Brandon
I’m right there with you on concerns over an older RV. We went back and forth for quite a while. For us we decided it wasn’t worth working another year (or god forbid taking out a loan now that we’re almost debt free) to purchase a new one. That being said we did do some things to relieve my mind. First we decided on an Airstream for a number of reasons. Airstreams are known to last (and hold their value) for a long time and are made well. They also don’t have slide outs and while extra room is nice, the extra complexity and cost associated with slide outs just wasn’t for us. We also purchased our Airstream from a reputable dealer who did a full inspection and fixed a few things before we picked it up. Lastly we have a good sized emergency fund. We know there are going to be issues (there certainly were plenty with our house) so we have funds at the ready. We are also budgeting in repair costs for future problems.
So far so good (knock on wood) for us but my suggestion would be to do some research and see what makes the most sense for you and your family and what makes you feel the most comfortable. Hopefully we wont have any negative updates on our purchase but you can be sure if we do that we’ll share them here. We want to give a real picture of the transition and life for those who might follow.
Hope this helps!
Thank you; it’s nice to know we share similar concerns. While I haven’t actually seen an Airstream in person, that is definitely where my sights are set…and for the exact reasons that you mention. Slide out are just one more thing that will ultimately break down, especially if frequently moving and being lived in full time. We are planning a trip to Denver next month and there is an Airstream dealer there that we are hoping to stop by to take a look at the model I’ve been eyeballing for the past several months. It’s the Flying Cloud 30FB Bunk, which I love for the two separate sleeping quarters that would be perfect for our son. It appears to be a newer model within the past year or two so I’m not finding many used ones yet…at least not used enough that there is any significant savings over buying new. So I’m hoping that if/when we decide to pull the trigger and buy (finance 😐 lol) one, then there will be a better used market available. Certainly, a lot can change in the next few years so who knows what the future will entail.
As I’ve said before, I’m looking forward to hearing more about your and Steve’s experiences and learning from the ups and (hopefully zero :))downs that you experience along the way.
Outta curiosity, if you don’t mind naming, which dealer did you purchase Charlie from? Assuming they have a website with available listings, it would give me another avenue to keep watch out for the model I’ll be looking for. Thanks again!
FYI – I don’t know if it’s just me or if others are having trouble, as well, but the “commentluv” keeps giving me the following error: “It appears that you are offline or another error occured contacting the API url, have you set it to use www or missed the www off the api url?? check the technical settings and add or remove www from the api url.”
Hey Brandon
I wouldn’t be surprised if a few years down the road what you are looking for is available used and a little more affordable. We bought Charlie through Desert Autoplex in Mesa AZ. Denny is in charge of their Airstream department and a great guy! They have both used and new there. You should also check out airstreamclassifieds.com . If we hadn’t found what we were looking for from a dealer we would have considered buying through there (and getting an inspector to check out the Airstream before the purchase).
Meanwhile thanks for the info on the commentluv error. We are looking into it! Have a great weekend:)
PS: We’ve already had our first learning experience “down” involving our black tank. I’m sure there will be a hilarious article to come about what we learned 😉