Is Airstream a quality RV? As an RV technician, I decided to go undercover to look at these new Airstreams and to give

you my opinion on whether they are quality or whether they're a rolling pile of junk. If you're new here, you

might not know that I have a free RV shoppers class. Over a thousand people have already taken this course, but

people are wanting more, which is why I have created a paid version of it, which includes—drumroll, please—a smartphone

app. So for today's video, I'm actually going to be grading these three Airstreams using the app that I've

created so you can see how it works. We've got three RVs we're going to look at today; the smallest of which is going

to be the Airstream Bambi. The Bambi is 16 feet 1 inch long with an average

retail of $56,950. The next Airstream we'll look at is an Airstream Basecamp 20. The

Basecamp 20 is 20 feet 2 inches long and has an average retail value of $

52,200. The last we're going to look at is an Airstream Flying Cloud 25FB, and this

is the biggest of the three. It's 25 feet 11 inches long and has an average retail

of about $106,000. If you've been watching my other review videos, you may notice that my scoring system is changing just a

little bit. I'm not going to bore you with the details of those changes, but you can read more in the description if

you'd like. So after you answer some of the initial questions in the app about details like your make and model, it's going

to ask you about the type of water heater. For RV water heaters, you can usually tell the type—tankless versus

Tank type based on the exhaust vent: if the exhaust vent is round, it's a tankless water heater. There are pros and

cons to the different types, and so if you sign up for my free shopper's class or my paid shopper's class, I'll go

into more detail about what works best for different types of campers. What I saw is that the Bambi and the Flying

Cloud both had a Girard brand tankless water heater, whereas the Airstream Basecamp had a Suburban brand tankless water

heater. Now, all of these are high-quality, in my opinion; they both get a 10 out of

10. The next question in the app is going to be about assessing the RV roof. All of these Airstreams have an aluminum roof.

Not only is it a 10, but it's also one of my favorite types of RV roofs for a

couple of reasons: one is that the sealant they use on it isn't something that you have to touch up

every single year or every six months, the way you do for rubber roofs. The other reason is that you don't get

bubbles like you can in a rubber roof that can result in the whole roof peeling off. Aluminum roofs are much more

resilient, and you'll get a lot more life out of them. The next question in my app

is going to ask to assess slide-outs. Now, the Airstream has the kind that will absolutely never break. If you've not

seen an Airstream, you may not know why that's a joke, but Airstreams don't have

slide-outs. Now, I've read a lot of comments of people saying you should never buy any RV that has a slide-out,

and I don't believe that. There are good slide-out systems that are less prone to breaking. Those are the kinds of things I

covered in my shopping class. Next, we're going to assess the refrigerators in these RVs. Now, all three of them have an

electric 12-volt DC-powered refrigerator. The reason I'm not a huge fan of 12-volt refrigerators is that the inverter board

in these refrigerators tends to break a lot, and it's a real hit-or-miss as to whether you can get replacement parts

for them. Some are better built than others. I actually think the Norcold is one of the best 12-volt refrigerators on

the market, so I'm giving it a 9 out of 10 score. The Basecamp and the Bambi

have a Nova Kool refrigerator, which I'm giving a 6 out of 10 score. Next, we're

going to look at the air conditioners on these RVs. The Bambi and the Flying Cloud both have a Dometic brand air conditioner

on them. I give them a 10 out of 10. The Basecamp, on the other hand, they chose

to put a Coleman air conditioner on it. In my experience, Coleman air conditioners have too high of a failure

rate of just losing their Freon prematurely, which is why I give this a 7 out of 10 rating. Next, we're going

to talk about what the cabinets are made out of. This is a really important part of the RV because some materials are

more prone to water damage than others, and in your kitchen you're going to have water splashing around. For example, a lot

of cabinetry in RVs is actually made out of something called MDF or particle board. MDF and particle board both absorb

water and swell up. Particle board will just fall apart; MDF will swell up super thick and essentially destroy your

cabinets if water gets on it. What I really liked about all of these Airstreams is that the cabinetry is

actually made of plywood. Plywood is not going to soak up water and swell the way that these materials will for the

cabinets. I give it a 10 out of 10 because all the materials they used are

very water impervious. So what was super interesting on the Basecamp 20 is that they used glass doors for their cabinets.

If you drop a pot while the door is open on the edge, you could shatter the glass. Is it quality? I'd say yeah. Is it

something I would want in my RV? Probably not. Next we're going to talk about the countertops. These are all high-quality

plywood with laminate on it. So the countertops are also a 10 out of 10. Next let's talk about the suspension on

these RVs. The easiest way to tell if a manufacturer has skimped on the suspension of an RV is to look at the cargo

carrying capacity. If you're used to looking at fifth wheels, you'll probably laugh at these numbers. The Airstream Flying

Cloud can hold a whopping 1,470 lbs of cargo, and that includes any water you put in the fresh tank. When we look at

the Airstream Basecamp, its cargo capacity is 529 lbs, just itty bitty. And then we look at the Airstream Bambi, a

whopping 264 lbs of cargo capacity, minus any water you put in the fresh tank. Keep in mind on the Bambi, it's going to be very

very easy to overload the suspension by just putting too much stuff in there for your trip. Heck, you put a case of water

in there, it's going to be overloaded. And folks, you really don't want to overload the suspension on your RVs, because you will

break them. Let's talk briefly about the frame on these Airstreams. One of the things I teach in my course is that it's

really important that you go and do an internet search on the particular RV you're looking at to figure out if

There's any known frame issues with that make and model? When I was researching these RVs, I found that for the Airstream

Flying Cloud, and this is particular to models that have a front cargo bay, there's a known issue where the body of

the RV can start to separate from the frame. It's a ton of labor to tear this thing apart and to fix it, so in general,

I would kind of recommend avoiding those front cargo bay models. So next, the app is going to ask you to inspect the

plumbing on the RV, and if you're new to this channel, you're probably wondering why am I having to look at the plumbing

on a new RV? Well, there's a dirty secret about the RV industry, folks, and let me tell you, a lot of RVs—and not just cheap

RVs, but terribly expensive RVs—are plumbed incorrectly; plumbed in a way that wouldn't meet code for buildings

and creates water leaks. After a recent scathing video where I gave all the Grand Design trailers an F for bad

plumbing, one of my viewers went on a factory tour there, and I was very happy to hear that the tour guide has been

pestered with questions about this plumbing issue by my lovely viewers. When this viewer asked him if Grand Design

was aware that they were using tubing with the wrong type of fitting, he said yes, they were aware, and upper management

had said, 'Well, we don't see enough warranty claims about that issue to warrant changing our process.' Your

plumbing warranty is one year. What that means is yes, it does leak within warranty, and the majority of leaks

happen outside of warranty, so they don't care. Back to our regularly scheduled programming. So, does Airstream know how

to properly plumb an RV? Yes, 10 out of 10. Finally, the last question in my app is asking about the

fit and finish, or how well the details were put together on these RVs. And in all three of these Airstreams, I would

give them a 10 out of 10. They were all really well done. Why are Airstreams so

much more expensive than comparable-sized RVs? Are they really worth it? It's an interesting question because part of

the increased price is just the name brand. Like, Airstream is so iconic. But there are some other features that

actually set Airstreams apart. On this Flying Cloud, the axles actually have Dexter's NeverLube bearings. They're

extremely expensive—thousands and thousands of dollars more than the regular axles that come on travel trailers. Is it worth the extra cost?

In my opinion, yes, because it's very low maintenance. You're going to spend money every year having your bearings repacked,

and if you don't, you can wind up with a wheel falling off on the highway. Another feature I really like is the SmartPlug

system. It's a better electrical connector than your standard twist-lock 50- or 30-amp plug. I've worked on other

Airstream trailers where the plumbing faucets were all residential-type, household faucets—very high quality,

rather than being a cheap, lightweight, RV-specific faucet. I've also worked on Airstreams that had Alde hydronic

heat in them. These additional and rare features are things that I think set Airstream apart from other manufacturers.

Final score for the Airstream Bambi was 96 points—a solid A-grade trailer. The Basecamp came in at 93 points, which would be

an A minus. The difference really being the air conditioner up on the roof. So the total point score for the Flying

Cloud is 89, which it lost pretty much all of its points on the known frame issue. So, even though this is technically

a B+ trailer, by the scoring system. I really wouldn't recommend buying it because of these frame issues. So, in case

it wasn't obvious by the fact that I told you not to buy an Airstream, a $100,000

travel trailer. Airstream is not sponsoring this video. So, if you've found the content today to be helpful, I want

you to leave a comment below thanking Arthur. Arthur bought my full shopping course. It's people like this that make

my content possible. Get instant access to everything covered in the course, as well as the app that you've seen me

grading these RVs with today. With that app, you can instantly assess any RV you're looking at and get a score with

the breakdown showing the quality of all the different components. Plus, included in this subscription, you get access to my master database of all the RVs that

I've graded so far. If you're interested in what another graded RV is—in fact, one that got a perfect score in my system—it

costs half as much as an Airstream. Stay tuned for my next video. Make sure and

hit subscribe and hit the bell icon if you want to know exactly when that new video comes out.

RV tech goes UNDERCOVER to review 2023 Airstream RVs

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