Dear WeatherCat community,

I have made it no secret that I had a deep-seated desire to own a vintage Airstream trailer.  Having an RV goes back to my childhood.  My parents did a tour of the western United States with a rented "canned ham" style travel trailer.  My Dad had bought us a Volkswagon bus camper which was our transportation while in Europe.

Since I wanted to tow it with my trusty 1965 Buick Special wagon, I wanted a trailer of the same "vintage."  As you would expect, there are lots of trade-offs involved in the selection of a travel trailer.  For reasons I won't go into now, the sweet-spot appeared to be a 1965-67 24 foot Airstream Trade Wind.  So how do you find such a thing? . . . . . with a lot of patience and a lot of looking!!

This past summer, I spotted on eBay this 1967 Airstream Trade Wind:



It was being sold by the Airstream dealership in Ventura (next to Santa Barbara on the California coast.)  I tried to play hard to get, but they immediately discounted the price - making it tempting.  I contacted the local shop whom I hoped would do the restoration and they also thought the trailer looked okay.

All signals were looking green, and I was feeling bit blue and in need of a pick me up so I . . . . "Pulled da' trigger!" as the slang goes!!

Lesson #1: Never purchase any sort of RV to chase away the blues - especially an vintage one!!

As noted above, 24 foot Airstream trailers were close to the same from 1965 to 1967.  But there were some differences.  In addition, this trailer had a customized front dinette.  I had to make my own drawing of this trailer's floorplan:



There is a photo walk-through on the web:

https://canebas.smugmug.com/1967-Airstream-Trade-Wind-24-feet/Trailer-walk-through-August-13-2025

Here are some orientation photos.  First, the dinette as seen from the entry door:



Next, the kitchen area (stay tuned for surprises in this area:)



The trailer had a pair of twin beds on the way to the bathroom:



Finally, here is a photo of the bathroom:



That is what the restoration shop: Avalon-RV inherited from the sale.

I'll pause here and continue the saga in the next posting.

Edouard

Dear Blick and WeatherCat adventurers,

. . . .Thanks Edouard for the photo but what's with the Colorado license plate on the Airstream?

I promise to start a proper thread on my trailer restoration journey, but in the meantime let me give you a quick explanation.  This 58 year old trailer was traded in for a new Airstream.  In the process of buying it I got all the proper registration and a CA license plate.  However, the trailer needs a complete restoration so there wasn't any point in putting the new plate on.  Right now it cannot move off of the restoration shop parking.  It doesn't even have wheels - never mind tires!

Stay tuned! 

Edouard

Just another shout out, Thanks Again Stu... 3.3.3 is working great even on the following: OS 10.11.6 El Capitan,  Mac Pro Early 2008 32GB of memory.  Davis Vantage Pro which is nearly as old.  Brad 

Thanks Ken. Thanks Stu for getting the old forums back online. Thanks Edouard for the photo but what's with the Colorado license plate on the Airstream?

Dear Ken and grateful weatherCatters,

Glad to see you're back, Stu.      It was my pleasure to host the WeatherCat forums on wxforum.net during the interim time.

Thanks Ken! 

I will try to visit WXForum a bit more, but alas, I'm drowning in forum obligations these days!!



Edouard