It’s been a pretty rough time for the country and the world during the Coronavirus pandemic. Airstream is affected just like everyone else, and sadly our Airstream Customer Council finale has been cancelled due to the personal exposure risks. This is of course terribly disappointing for me since the past year has been an awesome experience meeting with Airstream and telling them what I think of their products. Our final get-together was supposed to include face-to-face meetings with all the ACC members and a tour of the new factory. At least Airstream does suggests the Terra Port may be online later in the year.
In the meantime, Airstream is getting creative and they have released a nice shelter-in-place-helper called Portable Park. It’s a nice IMAX style page where you can look out your virtual Airstream widow and fantasize about your next adventure when the lock-down madness ends.
Other people’s problems can be funny, and I think RV problems are right up there. So I thought I would give you a peek at what we’ve been dealing with on this trip. Not a particularly deep topic I know, but maybe this will help you address issues while on the road or at the least give you a chuckle.
Furnace
Problem
Immediately after arriving in Crested Butte we discovered the furnace was having trouble lighting – again. Our particular model is a propane furnace so the blower would come on, then run for minutes as the furnace tried to light. Even after lighting the furnace would often go out restarting the process all over again.
Fix
Kudos to Airstream of Scottsdale for walking me through the diagnostics process. The culprit was a ridiculous component called a “sail switch”.
The purpose of this switch is to inform the furnace control circuit that the blower is on before lighting the burner. It’s called a “sail” switch because it’s designed to sense air flow by catching the air like a sail.
The absurdity of this switch is the design – that large protruding piece of aluminum fin has to be bent, prodded and coaxed to barely fit against the furnace squirrel cage to pick up the breeze. It’s vulnerable to hair, obstructions, catching on the blower fins and evidently spontaneous self-deforming.
In diagnosing my switch I found that the switch was not actually defective, but instead the fin simply needed to be re-shaped to catch air better – until I broke the switch in earnest trying to bend the sail. DOHH!
Cost
$30 for a new sail switch shipped from Airstream of Scottsdale, my time and a little duct tape. Yes, duct tape – the new sail switch only had a tiny little fin at the very end and it wasn’t big enough to pick up the blower air. I had to increase the area of the fin with guerrilla tape and then spend an hour finessing the new switch into a shape that would work. This was a new switch. We’ll see how long this fix lasts.
Had I designed this furnace, I would have used an optical solution which has no moving parts, like a Photodarlington. But that would cost $0.000000001 more so that’s probably why they don’t do it.
Satellite
Problem
We have a Wineguard DirectTV (now AT&T) satellite system mounted on the Airstream. This system offers a self-locating dish that pops up, spins around and hunts for satellites all automatically. It’s a remarkable product that works with exceptional reliability.
Except.
The LNB (Low Noise Block downconverter), which is the part that actually receives satellite signal, seems to lose SD (standard definition) satellite reception about every 2 years. No idea why – could be a slowly corroding circuit, a split in the unit’s environmental seal – who knows.
The symptoms are the DirectTV (now AT&T) receiver will quite happily show you your HD (high definition) content but it insists on showing you a warning that a channel you aren’t watching is missing.
Fix
The fix for this problem is to replace the LNB.
We’re going to wait on this fix until we’re back in Phoenix since this is essentially an annoyance and not an outright failure. Additionally this fix involves ladders and getting on top of the Airstream; something I do not want to do in the field.
Cost
The cost can run in the hundreds.
Airstream
Problem
Our Airstream experiences fairly routine rivet pops and this trip popped two of them on the small toggle that holds the front visor down. I actually popped those rivets on the first few weeks we owned the Airstream and I think it’s because the rubber toggles are incredibly tight and literally rip the rivets out over time.
I also noticed some of the casual weather stripping on the front visor was coming loose, almost certainly from storage in the heat.
Fix
I drilled out the rivets and replaced them here in the field.
I always bring spare rivets and tools, which we describe in one of our YouTube videos. The weather stripping was easy to push back with a flat-head screwdriver.
Cost
$0 and about 15 minutes of my time.
Generator
Problem
Though we have shore power in the Crested Butte RV Resort our next destination in Silverton will be dry camping. I’ve been periodically running the generator to circulate oil and keep the battery charged. On the last generator start I discovered the battery was dead and after some diagnostics found it would no longer charge. Considering the battery is over three years old it’s time to replace it.
Fix
I made a quick trip down to an auto parts store in Gunnison. The part is a standard motorcycle battery called a YTZ14S. It was easily located and replaced with nothing more than a #2 phillips screwdriver.
Cost
$100 for a new battery and recycling fee and about 15 minutes of my time.
Truck
Problem
Our Sierra Denali pickup experienced a failure in the DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid) tank temperature sensor two days before departure. I knew this was the DEF tank because I hooked up our ODB scanner which gave me a code I could look up on the internet. If you don’t have an ODB reader get one, they’re cheap and can save your butt on the road!
Also in a separate incident the passenger side spherical mirror popped out. I quickly discovered how critical that mirror had become to towing the Airstream.
Fix
My Phoenix Chevrolet dealer was able to replace the DEF tank in a few hours and incredibly the tank was covered as part of the drive train warranty. I’m also most grateful we were able to fix this before departure.
AS For the mirror we were able to order a replacement at the Chevrolet dealer in Gunnison.
Cost
Because the DEF tank was covered under warranty cost to me was $0 though I did spend several hours at the dealer. No biggie. The mirror, however, was a whopping $150.
Internet
Problem
By now you all know my job is software, and to do it I have to remote into my office over the internet. Because of this I have multiple redundant systems to connect to the internet:
WiFi Booster
This device amplifies a WiFi (wireless fidelity) signal and presents it in the Airstream as my own strong personal WiFi hotspot.
A WiFi booster is useful when you have WiFi available from your campground but the source is weak or spotty. The down side to the WiFi booster is, honestly, most campground WiFi sucks even when you can get a clear signal. Because of this I rarely use the WiFi booster though the Crested Butte RV Resort WiFi is exceptional so I’ve been using it extensively.
Cellular Booster
This device amplifies cellular LTE signals for any cellular device placed next to the booster’s patch antenna. As long as I have one bar of LTE service without the booster I can usually achieve a workable connection with the booster.
iPhone 8
The iPhone can serve as an excellent personal hotspot. When combined with the cellular booster I can usually work anywhere that has at least one bar of LTE service. The booster gives the iPhone excellent connectivity to the cellular tower and then the iPhone gives me a strong personal WiFi hotspot in the Airstream.
Ellipsis Jetpack
The jetpack is a device sold by Verizon that presents a strong personal WiFi hotspot in the Airstream. Just like the iPhone the jetpack is combined with the cellular booster and I can usually work anywhere that has at least one bar of LTE service.
For reasons I can’t begin to explain, though, I have found that even when using the cellular booster the iPhone and jetpack achieve different results. Because of this, I have found that in areas where I am having trouble one of these two devices will usually work.
On this trip I have been experiencing a host of problems connecting to the internet, as I shall explain.
Canyons of Buses
I’m very happy for the owners of the Crested Butte RV Resort. Their resort has taken off and by my eyes they’re averaging near full capacity every day. The down side for us, though, is a new phenomenon I call “canyons of buses”. And by this I mean there seem to be an unusual number of excessively massive RVs here, usually bus-sized monsters that have been parked on either side of us for weeks now.
Because WiFi is a line-of-sight technology, it works best if you can see from the Airstream directly to the campground’s WiFi antenna. However, when these giant buses park next to us our WiFi coverage drops to near zero.
The traditional way to combat this problem is a WiFi booster. You mount up an antenna on a high point of the Airsteam, which usually gives the antenna line of site to the campground transmitter. Only this time, we’ve found that the buses are so massive, even the booster is struggling.
Cell Tower Overload
Given my WiFi trouble as of late I have been relying also on cellular. Sadly, even with the cellular booster I have experienced relatively poor performance from the cellular network. One of the leading causes of this problem is cell tower overload. Simply put, one lonely cell tower simply has too many devices to service.
Fix
The fix for internet access isn’t a catch-all. I haven’t taken any action yet, but here are some ideas I’m noodling.
WiFi
The problems I’ve been experiencing with line-of-sight WiFi seem to be several fold. I spoke to the campground owner and they explained they’d just upgraded their systems but they’d been warned by the vendor they might need another transmitter in the center of the campground. So this might be a one-off.
Barring an actual fix to the campground transmitters, which is a non-starter in general, I’m noodling the idea of an external WiFi booster that I could raise on a mast.
Also I’ve been considering a new WiFi booster that would also have the nice side effect of giving the booster wireless wireless a/c band capability, which is supposed to handle multi-path and obstructions better. The down side is any kind of new booster will likely trigger new wiring and mounting which I can’t tackle in the field. Also an a/c band booster would of course only boost an a/c band transmitter at the campground, and a/c is still relatively new.
Cellular
Cellular boosters don’t address cell tower overload so the only real way around this problem is to use an alternate means of communication. Specifically, some RVers subscribe to multiple cellular providers and often discover that when Verizon is jammed AT&T is just fine or vice versa. I already pay a hefty cost for a non-throttled Verizon service so I’m hesitant to pay for yet more cellular service.
Still, AT&T offers an “unlimited” Airstream Plan, which I may look into. That plan reduces your bandwidth under peak loads (throttling) which could effect my work connection but that may be better than no connection at all. The plan is very affordable though, about $400/year, but AT&T’s coverage isn’t as good as Verizon’s.
Cost
If I decide to buy one, a new WiFi booster runs around $500.
The AT&T Airstream cellular plan costs about $400/year.
Conclusion
So far I’m feeling great about the trip. I’ve been able to solve most of the issues that have come up or make strategic plans for the more complex ones like internet access. I hope this blog also demonstrates that as an RVer you really need to practical know-how to solve problems on the road and a willingness to perform at least basic diagnostics when problems arise.
With that, I’ll continue to blog about our trip and as always keep an eye on our YouTube channel. In fact, we just released a video about an avalanche!
A few weeks ago I announced we were heading out to Airstream Colorado for the summer – and strangely enough, here we are Airstreaming Colorado! With all the demands on my time, though – I’ve found it difficult to keep all our media outlets merged; YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and WordPress. Sadly the blog is no exception, and it has been somewhat ignored lately.
The reason is mostly this:
I’ve been spending a hell of a lot of time picking up Davinci Resolve, which is the extraordinary video editing software we use to produce our YouTube content. The edit above was my most complicated yet.
I call this software “extraordinary” because Fred and I previously had been using the very expensive Adobe Premier suite and we have come to find that the free version of Davinci Resolve outperforms Premier in nearly every way. Fred seemed to roll with the changes easily, but I’d never video edited before so the learning curve was higher for me.
In addition to learning Davinci Resolve, I’ve also been diving pretty deep to learn better photography techniques. For example, in the video above I used the GoPro 7’s nitelapse photo mode to achieve those beautiful streaky long-expose Airstream shots. And in a peculiarity of how GoPro chooses to assemble its shots, nitelapse yields a long sequence of JPEGs that then have to processed into a movie by Davinci Resolve.
Fred and I have also been long lusting for drone to add that additional level of polish to our channel with aerial b-roll, but the $1000 price tag and the high level of drone banishment in almost everyplace where we ride/Airstream has put that idea on the back burner. The next best thing is Google Earth Studio. I applied for an invite and was approved so I’ve been learning to build “flights” and also render them in Davinci Resolve.
The video below was a much simpler edit. In this case, I’m experimenting with a “day in the…” format, trying to entice folks to enjoy mountain biking with us since our riding videos see the lowest view counts. This is ironic, of course, since this is mostly the kind of content we wanted to produce when we started the channel.
Lastly, we’re in Crested Butte right now and they’ve had an absolute bumper crop of alpine flowers this year. The featured image for this post was taken by the East River trail. Fields of Lupines (the purple flower) are all over this area right now. There are even some Aspen Sunflowers peeking in there.
Anyway, keep an eye on our YouTube channel if you haven’t already for more interesting content.
If you follow our YouTube channel you might have noticed we just released an episode about ice. As trivial as ice sounds, it’s not! Well…maybe a little. I’m lining up a few more luxuries for our travel to Colorado and one of the items on my checklist for a while has been a counter-top ice maker for the Airstream.
We used to make ice using trays of course, but certain people in my orbit have a habit of picking out one or two cubes at a time and not refilling the trays (you know who you are!!!). And the tyranny of the Airstream is you’re already so spoiled by the comforts of home like internet and satellite not having an automatic ice maker stands out. I did say we were spoiled.
So behold, my solution is presented thusly:
One thing I didn’t squeeze into the video though – searching Amazon for ice makers is a curious exercise. There seems to be a hard ceiling pinning virtually every unit at about $180. Price fixing?
Hmmmm.
Still, I landed on the Vremi counter-top ice maker, part number VRM010636N. Mostly I selected it for the the stylish looks, and their consistency with the Airstream. But I also looked at the reviews. This consumer nailed my one little gripe about this machine precisely.
Based on what I showed you in the video, is this honest advertising?
Guess where we’re going to Airstream this summer???!!! I have secured six weeks remote travel and we’re heading to Crested Butte in July and Silverton in August!
Think we’re excited?
Um… Y E S!
So seriously, I’m losing my mind with excitement. If y’all have any ideas for things you want us to post/vlog/record please comment on this post. One of the ideas we’ve got brewing is a scenic tour covering Colorado 92. We’re going to make a weekend drive through some of the best country the Rockies has to offer.
Obviously since I do enjoy this tiny little thing called mountain biking, I’ll also be bringing you plenty of content about the Evolution Bike Park. Plus I’m planning a ride on Teocalli Ridge, which is going to be bonkers.
In the meantime, if you’re from Colorado or you’ve been there and there’s something you really think we should do around Crested Butte and/or Silverton please comment on this post!
Riffing on our repair video here, we noticed during our last trip in the Airstream that there was a perceptible bow in the closet shelf. Looking more carefully at the design it became apparent the shelf was not supported in the rear where it meets the exterior shell. This left the shelf hanging precipitously in space, so even without much weight on it just fishing around for items on the shelf would cause the wood to sag.
Fred and I talked about various approaches to this problem and finally landed on the idea of a supporting bracket affixed to the Airstream shell itself and a floating “T” to hold the shelf up and away. We decided on the floating “T” because we felt like the Airstream designers probably left the shelf floating to give everything a chance to flex in transport – bolting the shelf directly to the Airstream skin would risk tearing it apart.
At last, armed with the idea pictured above we proceeded to manufacture a bracket and you can see the results in a four minute video below.
Yes, the blog still lives. But sadly, boring things like work keep getting in the way so we haven’t been producing as much content as we’d like.
Still, we found some time to address a fairly serious issue in the Airstream which is separating closet panels. While I would normally jump all over Airstream for their bad quality on this front, I have to say I think I understand what they were after.
The closet in its original form has sort of a “negative edge” appearance, which has almost no visible screws and a nice clean white appearance with few seams. When new, this approach is quite stunning and makes the closet look very spacious.  Until the screws back out, the unglued pegs fail and panels start to bow.
Fred and I talked about various solutions to the imploding closet, like re-threading the failed wingy/doodads that made the negative edge possible in the first place, or running a white piece of angle along the closet edge. In the end you will see see our video below we settled on a very straight forward set of brackets to keep things in place.
Please join us and enjoy our 10th YouTube episode as we share a detailed exterior walk-through of our 2016 Airstream International Serenity 30′! We’ve been waiting months to make this video and it’s finally here!
And yes, if you were wondering, this video is different. After living in this Airstream for over a year we have many observations to share, so unlike many Airstream aficionados we’re not shy about pointing out where the Airstream falls short. We hope that after watching this video not only will you come away as much of an Airstream enthusiast as we are, but also a realist about what to expect from these metal monsters.
And fear not, we’re following this video up next week with an interior walk-through that offers even more detail.
Please join us for our 9th YouTube episode, E1.9 Airstream of Scottsdale Full Model Tour. In this video we go full geek-out mode and take a tour of the full range of Airstream Travel Trailers starting at the very top with the Airstream Classic and winding up at the end with the Airstream Basecamp.
It’s 4th of July weekend and time to Airstream again! For the next few days we’re up here at Prescott’s White Spar Campground. We already did an extensive review of this area here, so instead we’re using this time to blog about what’s new – in this case, more mountain biking!
The Wolverton Mountain Trail is rated as a blue-black and after comparing notes on the ride we agree with this rating.
This 10-mile (16km) out-and-back begins across from the campground and immediately slaps you in the face with aggressive sustained climbing that meanders anywhere between 5% and 10%.
I think the trail might be better named “Touched by Fire”, though. The climb takes you through dense scrub and evidence of a terrible forest fire sometime in the past.
One thing that caught us off guard climbing here was the exposure – there is so little foliage, and so much dead-fall, the temperatures already hit low 90s (33C) by 9AM.
By the end of the ride we’d both worked our way through most of our water.
The climb consists of moderately technical surface though much of the trail is steep off-camber single-track and crushed rock like this. It never occurred to me why the campground was named “White Spar” but it turns out the term “spar” refers to any bright crystalline substance.
We only made it 4mi (6.4km) in before turning back, the altitude and heat was getting to us.
On the descent you are greeted with an extraordinary view; San Francisco Peaks visible in the distance.
Also we took some time to smell the flowers.
And… enormous private telescopes?
Conclusion
We’ll absolutely ride Wolverton Mountain Trail again, probably on Tuesday. By then we should be adjusted to the altitude and we’ll head out a little earlier. Seen you soon with more Airstream updates!
Airstream MTB 