I’m on the ground at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2025, and it’s already the best edition of AirVenture I’ve ever been to. I have so much to see over the week, and I’m so excited to take it all in. I took a tour of Pratt & Whitney’s Boeing 747SP engine testbed plane yesterday. I also got to tour Samaritan’s Purse, the only Douglas DC-8 that’s still flying in America. I also get to fly in a Goodyear blimp on Friday, which I’m so stoked about.
But first, let’s talk camping! While aircraft is the main focus of AirVenture, camping is a huge element. Camping is such an iconic part of AirVenture that the custom posters and T-shirts made for AirVenture each year often feature Airstreams and other cool campers. The campground is where you’ll meet up with your local EAA chapter, make some new friends, gaze at cool RVs, and have a generally fantastic time. It’s also just great for families. Not only do you get the experience of a road trip, but you get to have the kind of fun that you won’t get in a hotel.
Camp Scholler, which connects directly to the AirVenture event, turns into a whole city for a week out of the year. Seriously, Camp Scholler has grocery stores, signed streets, a laundromat, an outdoor theater, showers, toilets, a transit system, security detail, and so much more. I live in a place that’s officially classified as a city, and yet, for one week, Camp Scholler has more than 13,000 more people and better public transit.
Broken RVs
Sadly, your Camp Scholler experience could be hampered, not by the excellent campground, but by what you sleep in. A camper may be the second biggest purchase you ever make, and sometimes they’re epic piles of crap. That’s the case with my family’s two rigs, one that was purchased used for around $27,000 and one that was purchased new for $62,800. Both of them are broken this summer, and it’s thrown a wrench into our family trips.
If you’re wondering why I’m writing about a camper during an airplane event, the explanation is simple: Internet, or a lack of it. EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2025 is expected to pull around 700,000 visitors this year, and over 40,000 of those people will sleep in the epic Camp Scholler campground that’s next to Wittman Regional Airport. Camp Scholler has Wi-Fi, but only in a few areas. I’ve been going to Oshkosh for four years now, and have been lucky enough to get Wi-Fi coverage only once.
Otherwise, you’re left running what you’ve brung…ing, and the cellular networks in the local area get absolutely crushed under the load. This means that there’s no way for me to research an aircraft. There is coverage in the event itself, but that means lugging my heavy laptop around for at least a couple of miles of walking. Don’t worry, the plane–but not plain–content is coming! I just need a bit better resources than I can get out in this field.
If you read my Oshkosh 2025 introductory post, you noticed that, this year, I did not bring my family’s 2007 Adirondack 31BH, as is customary for my AirVenture excursions. Instead, I yanked in the family’s 2022 Heartland Mallard. I didn’t want to haul in this trailer because it’s bigger and heavier than the Adirondack with several mildly infuriating design decisions, which I’ve written about recently.
The Adirondack Is Beaten
Unfortunately, the Adirondack, which my family purchased for about $27,000 in 2016, was so broken this year that it has been undergoing repairs for a good portion of the summer.
You may remember a story that I wrote a few years ago detailing the Adirondack’s epic water damage. The roof seals failed, as did the seals in the bathroom. This rotted out the trailer’s laminated wall structure, leading to the wood failing, splitting, and partially collapsing, causing the trailer’s outer skin to break. The water damage also rotted out the entire rear floor of the trailer. My parents ended up paying $7,500 to have the wall rebuilt, the floor repaired, and the seals fixed.
My parents likely bought the trailer in this condition in 2016. When I first saw the trailer back then, I spotted the trailer’s exterior fiberglass bubbling and waving. This skin was a part of the sandwich of bonded layers that make up the trailer’s walls. Bubbling is an indication that this sandwich is failing, often because of moisture intrusion.
This trailer has been through a lot in my family’s ownership. One of the left tires blew during an excursion down a dirt road, which took out the trailer’s fender. Then the other left tire failed later, which took out the replaced fender and a portion of the camper’s exterior wall.
Last year, I wrote about an impending disaster that was the condition of the Adirondack. My wife Sheryl and I had found that all three of the trailer’s awnings were failing. The main awning was tearing from its mounts while the awnings over the slides had begun failing to retract. This meant that when you closed the slides, the awnings got caught up between the slide and its seals, which meant that whenever it rained, water got into the trailer. Sheryl and I found what looked to be mildew or mold in the trailer that year, and the source was water getting in from the broken slide awning.
But things got even worse. I found brown-ish red stains next to the rear slide, warped interior trim, and even water actively dripping from the slide. I believed the issue to be the broken slide awning. Unfortunately, when I looked under the trailer, I found that the rear slide’s structure was disintegrating from the water damage. Further, I found soft spots in the trailer’s floor in various places. Even the primary bedroom had signs of water damage with mildew or mold stains, a headboard that detached from the wall, and warped cabinetry.
My parents finally took the Adirondack to an RV repair shop, and the diagnosis was shocking. I was correct about the failures of the self-retracting slide awnings, but there was so much more damage. The shop noted that the rear slide’s seals had completely failed, so even if the awning worked, it still would have gotten damaged. The failed awning was merely a damage multiplier.
A leak was discovered at the front of the trailer, which explains the water damage in the primary bedroom. The soft spots in the floor were determined to have come from all of the new and fun ways water has found its way into the trailer. Thus, the repair process here is going to be pretty comprehensive. The rear floor of the trailer will be replaced for a second time, and the slide’s structure will be rebuilt. All three of the trailer’s awnings will be replaced, and every single seal will be checked and replaced as needed as well.
One additional problem that I experienced on this trip was the rear slide’s power switch failing with a spark and smoke show. Thankfully, no damage was found to the slide’s power system, so the failure was limited to just the switch.
Unfortunately, the trailer’s luck wore even thinner. The shop’s inspection had revealed that the two right tires were from 2007, making them original to the trailer, while the two left tires were from 2009. Supposedly, the blown tires were replaced with “new” tires, but maybe these were new old tires. This also suggests that the Adirondack’s original owner didn’t use the trailer that much.
The inspection had also found that the trailer’s suspension had immense sag from wear and that the axles were also past their prime. My parents declined to replace the suspension. All of these repairs mean that the Adirondack has been sidelined. We have an estimate for the structural repairs. I want readers to try their hand at guessing the total!
The Mallard Is Frustrating
This meant that I’d have to bring out my family’s 2022 Heartland Mallard M33 for this year’s Oshkosh trip, and I wasn’t looking forward to it. The Mallard is taller, a few feet longer, and 1,400 pounds heavier than the Adirondack. I do not need nor want a camper that huge for AirVenture. I was also concerned that my press vehicle, a 2025 Chevrolet Silverado EV Trail Boss, would have poor range trying to pull the 7,746-pound Mallard.
I’ve written about the various hilarious and aggravating ways that the Mallard has broken, and you can read those stories by clicking here. This time, only three issues have cropped up, and like all of the previous issues I’ve talked about, all three are ridiculous.
The first problem is that the exterior of the trailer is beginning to come apart. Check this out:
The side skirt under this mess also flops in the wind, so I’ll have to secure it during the trip home.
We had an issue with the water pump on the first night. It worked just fine throughout the day and then stopped pumping water at night. It vibrated and made noise, but no water exited the faucets. My parents called up the local Oshkosh Camping World affiliate, which kindly sent out its shop techs to investigate broken campers in Camp Scholler. The issue with the water pump seemingly fixed itself, with the techs concluding that a massive air bubble must have gotten into the lines.
My dad planned for this trip by buying a Winegard router to install into the ceiling. The wiring and the antenna were installed at the Heartland RV factory when the trailer was built, so my dad just needed to install the device. Well, this turned out to be impossible. Three wires are required for the install, yet only two are accessible.
The Camping World techs checked this out, too. They found the third wire, but it was buried in the antenna. Apparently, the factory was supposed to drop the wire down so it could be accessed by the trailer’s owner, but this never happened. Unfortunately, Camping World says that the fix is that they have to remove the entire antenna dome from the roof and redo the wiring. At least Heartland RV has agreed to cover the cost of the fix since it was a factory error.
Thankfully, that’s all that has broken on this trip. Three issues seem like nothing compared to what I’ve written about in the past. Remember, this trailer had a rusty frame fresh out of the factory, one of the safety chains failed, it has shifting walls plus failing trim, and it generally has the build quality of a Malaise Era car from Detroit. In a way, these issues are only a continuation of that.
Still A Great Time!
But for now, I’m just happy that nothing serious is currently broken. My AirVenture trip won’t be foiled by stupid camper issues! Even with these issues and over three years of articles, I still prefer RVing over sleeping in a tent. Sure, my tent has never failed me, but at least to me, it’s hard to beat hard walls and a nice bed. I also like being able to use my own shower, use my own toilet, and to blast myself with an air-conditioner when I need to. It’s going to be over 90 degrees this week, so the luxury of an air-conditioner will be appreciated!
As always, I recommend having a trailer inspected before you buy it. Do it yourself if you know what you’re doing or hire an expert if you don’t know what to look for. There are great RVs out there, and there are real stinkers out there. Likewise, you can also save a ton of money by not buying new. Sure, a used camper will mean that someone has used the toilet before, and there might be imperfections, but it’ll be much cheaper than going brand new.
With that, it’s time to get back to some hot plane action. Stay tuned, because this year’s AirVenture is my favorite yet!
What absolute garbage! I’m surprised so many people seem willing to put up with this kind of quality.
I’m currently camping with my family in our nearly 30 year old pop-up camper
The cascading failures have been hilarious.
Mercedes, I am truly sorry for all the trouble your parents have had with these campers. Whenever I see that you’re at AirVenture or another location that involves camping, I know I can count on seeing an “Everything That’s Broken” article soon. Even though I’m now very familiar with the build quality of some modern campers, the problems never cease to amaze me.
Miles of Asphalt, no trees, 700,000 people, crap food for sale at insane prices, parking somewhere near Appleton to get a space (ok that is a lie, we were only 1/2 mile from the entrance last year), and a B52 bomber with a older guy than me talking about how he flew the thing with nuclear bombs attached back in the day. Last year was amazing. I would never camp there but I don’t have to cause I live 80 miles down the road the road. It is amazing and everyone should have it on their bucket list. If just for the fake aerial strafing of the runway by airplanes that will make your jaw drop to the floor. BRING lots of water.
Cant wait to hear more about the Silverado EV pulling the camper, I heard great things about them specifically with Towing. Of course a good comparison with the dually that you just used will be appreciated 🙂
With all of the costs associated with keeping these trailers it seems like you could almost hire an entire staff to build you a luxury camping site, complete with A/C and satellite internet, and wait on you hand and foot every time you go camping and you’d still come out at least even.
Thank you for this piece. So the Adirondack cost the equivalent of over 3 months at a very nice hotel on Oahu (calculating from what we paid last year) and it’s basically trash. Just a reminder for me why camping is not on my list of things to do ever again.
Ironically, this story shows me the first use case for a trailer or RV I’ve seen. There are 700k people invading an event in a town that doesn’t have nearly enough hotel space and rental homes. If you really want to go (or are paid to go like Mercedes), then I would pick an RV. But I would want to rent one instead of owning one for exactly the reasons shown in this story.
I know you don’t need advice from the peanut gallery, but please sell these things. You fought the good fight but now it’s just throwing good money after bad. They were built poorly and no amount of repairs will change that. I take no pleasure in my opinion.
The bad news is that they are all built very poorly. These seem like complete lemons, though.
No, not all of them are. But you have to be willing to trade the fake glitz for actual quality construction, or be willing to pay a lot more. Scamps are very well built, but the interiors still look like the 1950s, with fiberglass cabinets/etc. Even the Deluxe versions are rather plain, but the tradeoff is that there are Scamps from the 1970s that are still in regular use and working just fine because they’re built like tanks.
Escape Trailer campers are also very well built, and are more luxe, but you’re looking at 40 grand for the smallest base model. Most people aren’t looking to spend that for a camper that’s not even 20 feet long.
Bigfoot is even better, but you’re looking at closer to $60k for the 17 foot model.
Most people want leather recliner movie theater seats and indirect lighting and slideouts and all the other jazz that gets drooled over at RV shows, and they also want a large camper that doesn’t compromise any of the comforts of home because people have forgotten that “camping” and “luxury resort” are two different things.
They look at a Bigfoot and realize that kind of money gets you a Keystone Bullet with 3 slides, super fancy (looking) furniture and fixtures, a kitchen with an island, a (fake) fireplace, great looking floor coverings, etc etc.
It also gets you abysmal build quality but it’s amazing how many people don’t think about build quality until they’ve already spent the money and are rolling down the road with parts falling off.
Wait, you mean having every single amenity of a $200k home, but on wheels, that doesn’t cost $200k, has a massive downside? Who knew!
Right?
I saw someone once comment that a travel trailer is like having a small home that experiences a 4.0 earthquake for several hours before you sleep in it for a few nights and then send it through the earthquake again.
If your camper isn’t built to very high standards, it will never survive that, and like you said, if you’re paying cut-rate prices for one that touts luxury, you know it won’t last.
Makes me wish my family still had our ’74 Winnebago Brave. Shag carpet, Chrysler 440ci power (that you had to spray with starting fluid every single cold start), and you might be able to hold 40mph up a small hill. That said it was built like an absolute tank, and if you opened the door too forcefully into someone’s head it would knock them out cold. We took that thing places no motorhome was meant to go, but it never once broke down or got stuck. The only things that broke were the lovely 70’s plastics.
I say a prayer of thanks for the 5th wheel I bought 3 years ago. I have lived in it most of the time with sometimes monthly trips back to the SJ Bay area. Stay at my gal’s place when I do. She says she lives my cooking! I love her… nevermind. Point is I got lucky and found a 20 year old! RV that was from a dry climate. Made by Monaco a top line RV maker in Oregon . Now defunct I believe. Had 1 roof leak which got resealed. Replaced kitchen and bath sink faucet. Were still original! Replaced 1 propane tank. Oak cabinets, hardwood floors. 2 slides, lots of windows! Lot of new trailers have lil windows like gun slits. Still it’s old and I will have to have the roof resealed and the shower stall replaced. It has saved me thousands of dollars on rent. My space rent is only $600! Utilities included. The best blessing of all? I’m across the street from the ocean and if I walk out back I look down on the harbor. I go to sleep to the sound of the fog horn and the bell on the marker buoy. Oh and sometimes the Sea Lions.
Not sure I’d buy an new one. Find the best made used one I can find from a dry area. My rig new cost $88k. 20 years ago! Paid $12k. Count my blessings everyday. Thanks for listening. Keep it under 80.
McKensie? I know Monaco created that brand for non-class A stuff. If I remember they made mainly class C’s and 5th wheels and they had a pretty great rep. Good find, but you’re right, it’s defunct. Monaco declared bankruptcy after the big economic crash of ’07. I think they made it one more year before they folded.
I think you’re right. If you’re full-timing in your trailer, there aren’t a whole lot of new ones that would survive daily use. At least, not ones that wouldn’t cost as much as a regular house.
You are right Eslader! My RV has 3 names! McKenzie Lakota by Monaco! I say a prayer of thanks every day to the people that built my humble abode! Has 2 propane tanks inside a compartment. 4 6 volt deep cycle batteries, and lots of windows. Parked with the kitchen window towards the ocean for the wonderful sea breeze. May the universe smile upon you!
I agree. Rent one when necessary. The best days with an RV are just like with a boat. The day you get it( oh joy), and the day you get rid of it? ( I can’t believe we sold it!)
Are there any American RV companies who build high-quality products? Airstream?
Airstream maybe? Haven’t seen a recent (10 years?) one. People need to stop buying this junk, stop trying to keep up with the Joneses, build/buy a sprinter camper van. Buy am old conversion van, even those would be better quality today!
Conversion vans’ only nod to “camping” is the fold down bench seat in the back so you can catch a nap in a rest area. No bathroom, fridge, cooking facilities, etc.
Building a Sprinter is harder than most people realize which is why there are so many half-completed project vans for sale on the marketplaces. And even the ones that are finished, you never know if the guy did a good job building it or not. Half the time it’s just-out-of-college kids that got sucked into the vanlife vids on Youtube and wanted in without knowing what they were doing.
And then if you want to get a used van/camper you’re looking at something like a Roadtrek, which are awesome but even ancient ones are amazingly pricey. The cheapest one I could find in a brief search was 20 grand for a 25 year old van with almost 200,000 miles on it. And you know that thing’s gonna have all the problems of any quarter-century-old car as well as all the problems of old, clapped out campers.
The bottom line is that everything’s more expensive these days, and if you want a good camper you should expect to pay a lot for it. If you want a reliable camping option that isn’t horribly expensive, go to REI and buy a tent.
The crew vehicle for a rally team I used to work for was a diesel merc sprinter conversion 2500 dually. It had a toilet, shower, kitchenette, tv, etc. I personally wouldn’t want to live out of it, but for a tow pig rally rig, it was plenty serviceable. Just don’t put a 32′ tongue hitch car hauler that weighed 10k lbs on the hitch, and 16x 60lb rally wheels on the roof. The mountains were sketchy as hell.
That was probably either bought (at significant expense) or built by the team, which actually has mechanical expertise. That’s very different from a lot of the “I built something shitty and now want to shove my problems off on someone else” homebuilts you find in the “vanlife” for sale space.
It was built by a company, and this was long enough ago van-life still meant you were broke and living in your car out of necessity. That said it wasn’t anything insane and wasn’t a terribly expensive vehicle back then compared to an equivalent 3/4T diesel truck.
I don’t know much of anything about #vanlifeeee but I imagine most of the so called influencers are as uninspiring as the general public.
Yep, tent is the only solution until companies stop building crap.
And it’s blatantly obvious that paying tons for campers isn’t buying quality. At literally any price.
I’ve been in camper vans with full plumbing and gas, just smaller than a sprinter.
From my personal experience, our 07 Airstream that we bought used about 4 years ago is high quality, but you do still have to maintain them. The biggest thing is keeping up with seals/roof inspection and keeping water out. It’s a metal roof, but there are still penetrations that has sealant that will degrade and need replacement.
The Covid Airstreams seem to have lower quality/more issues. One of the biggest issues is all the equipment that is put into them (appliances, etc.), because that’s mostly the standard stuff that is in every trailer. Current stuff seems to still have issues, but not as much as some other box.
I’ve toured the Airstream factory, and it’s a pretty quality manufacturing environment, and they do put a lot of time and effort into the trailers, but it’s still a hand-built product that then goes down the road at 70mph. Things are going to break. If you buy used correctly, most of the bugs should be worked out.
I do think if you have to have an RV, a used Airstream with a good inspection in the 10+ year old range is a good way to go. They don’t lose much more value at that point, but still cost less than a new trailer. It’s still going easy to spend $30-50,000, but you’d get a good percentage of it back when you sell. If you buy a typical RV new, you’ll usually spend more than that and it’s going to be nearly worthless in 5-7 years.
I’ve made great friends in the Airstream Club and it’s made camping a much more social activity.
If you need something more budget minded that is still going to be fun, we started off with a vintage trailer about 15 years ago from the 1960’s. Those are a lot of work and you really have to be careful to buy a good one, but there’s a great vintage camping club called the Tin Can Tourists that has vintage rallies, and that’s really fun too. The cost of entry there can be just $3-5 thousand dollars.
Recent reports suggest Airstream has gone downhill. Probably still better than most of the mass market crap out there, but not as good as it used to be.
Yes, there are high-quality RVs out there, but they cost a lot more for the given level of luxury. Scamp is built very well but there’s nothing luxury about them, it won’t look fancy, etc, and they’re over $20,000 for the 13 foot base models. On the other end of the scale is Bigfoot, which is much higher in the refinement category and also very well built, but the prices will amaze you.
The Oliver trailers are supposed to be really good too. I’ve only met one person with one, but they really liked it.
Oh yeah, Olivers are pretty great, and they’re even set up by default to be usable in the winter, within reason. Don’t take it to northern Minnesota in February or anything, but if it dips into the 20s or teens, the trailer can take it.
But yeah, they’re even more expensive. Figure 70 just to get in on the bottom rung.
I have a 2022 Airstream Basecamp 20x and it’s been good but not perfect through ~100 nights of use, including being taken on forest roads frequently. Structurally, it seems to be very sound. Materials are decent (mostly) and as I’ve taken things apart to complete service I’m mostly impressed with what I see. Once you’re behind the pretty facade, you can see that some shortcuts were taken.
The things that are crap are the off the shelf systems and appliances. The hot water heater, fridge, heater, batteries and water pump all have had issues and shortcomings. We bought it planning for decades of ownership, and we’ll be upgrading as things go from annoying to intolerable.
All that to say… when I look at my friends trailers of the same vintage that have gotten the same intense use they are approaching end of life. I still feel good that the 2x premium I paid was worth it to having something that can be kept nice with regular maintenance.
Oliver is probably top of the heap for travel trailers. Casita’s a few notches down, but still way above most. Lance, Outdoors RV, and Nash/Arctic Fox are all at least significantly less bad.
Really, it’s mostly just the many Thor and Forest River brands that are this bad, but between the two they own something like 80-90% of the market.
Mercedes,
Your parents sound like great people who take great care of their family.
Good luck with the camper and have a great time at Oshkosh, I’m envious of you being there this year as we weren’t able to attend this year.