My wife and I have this dream. It’s not even a huge dream. It seems very approachable. I’m not sure a ‘second home’ is ever going to be in the cards, but maybe one day we could swing a little land up in the Berkshires? We’d start tent camping out there as a family and slowly improving the site until one day we put an Airstream for the summer months. But which Airstream? A fantasy gets increasingly ridiculous and simultaneously better the more detail you feed it.
One of the cooler features of the launch for the 2024 Volkswagen Atlas I went on last week was that VW snaked an Airstream trailer from Airstream PR. And not just any trailer, the new-ish Airstream Caravel. This is kind of the in-betweener Airstream I’ve been thinking about in my rare, idle moments.
The first question you have to ask yourself when even considering a travel trailer, after how much money you have, is: Am I buying a vehicle to tow the trailer or am I buying a trailer my vehicle can tow? The magic number for most trailers is 5,000 pounds (GVWR) because there’s a huge number of big crossovers and small trucks that can tow that much. The Atlas, for instance, has 5,000 pounds of towing capacity, as do most crossovers in that space (Telluride, Traverse, Highlander). Anything bigger than that and you’ll probably need a real full-sized SUV like a Suburban or Expedition or, even better, a truck.
My current car is a Subaru Forester with the base motor that can barely tow an empty U-Haul trailer. It’s possible my next vehicle is a small truck, like a Maverick or a Santa Cruz, which brings me up in the key 4,000-5,000 pound range if properly equipped.
Guess what! The Caravel is also in the 4,300-5,000 pound range as well.
The Caravel Is In The Sweet Spot
All Airstream products are expensive. It’s the best brand in travel trailers. Ask anyone to name a company that makes trailers you can sleep in and the one they can name is Airstream. There’s a good reason for that: Airstream makes high quality stuff that looks good and works. You could buy a cheaper trailer and maybe that’s ideal for you, but if you want a big aluminum tube you can tow with your family hauler your options get smaller.
I think it’s appropriate that the Caravel is dead in the middle of this graphic. Your ‘entry-level’ Airstream is the Basecamp, which doesn’t have the classic look and is more oriented around people who are looking for an actual basecamp on a short trip than a place to live for longer periods (though you could definitely live in a basecamp). If you want a little trailer that carries the immediately recognizable Airstream appearance there’s the Bambi, which starts at $59,300.
Size-wise, the Caravel is quite similar to the Bambi in what it offers, but everything is just a little nicer (ducted A/C) and a little more full-featured (nicer interior appointments, a three-burner stove). There are also additional functional touches, like the big stainless steel rock guards.For car people: it’s a Porsche 911 GTS compared to a basic 911 Carrera.
The Classic Airstream Look Always Works
The particular Airstream I was able to poke around in was the Caravel 20FB, which in Airstream-speak is a 20-foot-long single-axle trailer with a “front bed” (i.e. FB). With its polished and riveted aluminum exterior it can only be an Airstream and, frankly, I love the look. I’m not a huge fan of the brownish swooshes-on-white exterior most trailers have.
The Caravel features a large, wraparound window up front with a storage cubby and a powered tongue jack (the Bambi has a manual). Out back is another big panoramic window. There are big awnings on three sides so you can shade the side of the trailer, the rear, and make a nice little seating area outside as they did here.
Airstream manages to iterate its design with each generation, but I’m glad they haven’t tried to update the classic look of the rear taillights which, here, are stacked. It’s friendly! If it had been locked I’d have made someone find the key to let me in. Thankfully, it was not.
What The Airstream Caravel Is Like Inside
I grabbed these photos with my iPhone which, at the very least, allowed me to use the wider angle lens to show you all what it looks like. It seemed like someone was also using this as a mobile office so I didn’t prod too much.
Right away you can see the ducted air vents up top, which is why the ceiling on this particular model felt so tall. I’m not short, so I don’t like the claustrophobic feeling of a short trailer or RV. Because someone was using it as an office I didn’t spend too much time rolling around in the bed, but sitting on it (you can probably see my butt depression) I think it’s definitely a place my wife and I could share more than a few nights. I especially like the shades and blackout curtains.
If there’s a killer feature of this particular model for me it’s the kitchen area. I’ve cooked in RVs before and I suppose I’m not efficient enough for most of those spaces. I make do just fine, but I like a big prep area and I want to use all the pots. The stainless steel triple-burner setup, big convention microwave, and even deep faucet is a nice setup. I could really cook some meals here.
I mean, your back is to the bathroom, but there’s not a lot you can do about that in such a small space. And speaking of the bathroom:
I love the separate shower and toilet. I’ve used RVs where you have to shower in the toilet space and it’s fine for showering, but it makes using the restroom immediately after a little uncomfortable. With the 20FB you also get a 23-gallon freshwater tank, a 30-gallon grey water tank, and an 18-gallon wastewater tank. There are three of us and so that’s probably enough for a week if we’re smart about it.
While most of the trailer operates off of a propane tank, there’s the option for shore power and even an option for solar panels to produce a little more juice.
My daughter is definitely too big to share the forward-mounted bed so, instead, we’d use the office/dining lounge area, which folds into a bed big enough for two kids or a regular sized adult.
Not A Bad Way To Spend $80,000
I don’t have an exact spec sheet for this particular model, but the Caravel 20FB starts at $80,600 and, as optioned, I’d guess it’s a little bit more than that. The nice thing about the Caravel is that a lot of what you want is already included.
At that price point you have a lot of options for big, bunkhouse-y campers of dubious construction. I just want something that has all that I need, looks good, and I don’t have to worry about. For me, the Caravel is in a nice sweet spot.
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I was hoping for a dissertation on crafting lox out of a Golden Trout whole residing in an airstream trailer from the lede picture
I feel like I could make that happen…
At the campgrounds, it is striking how much more presence an Airstream has when compared to the plastic shitboxes.
We bought our 23′ Airstream Safari about 2 years ago and it’s been great. It’s was 15 years old when we bought it, but really isn’t much different than the ones sold today. It’s a much better point on the depreciation curve than a newer one. It’s pretty pretty flawless so far, and most of the work I’ve done on it has been cosmetic or improving function (things like a nicer kitchen faucet or changing the TV.) It’s still a dumb purchase, but if camping is your thing, it’s going to last longer than anything else you can buy. I think you have it right though, the 20′ is a real sweet spot for 2 people, or 2 with a kid because you get the dry bath. We have 3 teens that camp with us, but we were looking ahead to a few years when we were traveling alone. The 23′ is nice because it’s the shortest dual axle trailer, and I liked the idea of 2 tires per side. It’s also still small enough that we can tow with a 1500 truck. We’ve probably camped about 40 days in it so far and are really enjoying it. It’s also been a nice place for people to sleep when they visit because we don’t have a good guest room in our house. We keep it in our backyard and have a 30A line run out to it. If you are looking for an Airstream and are handy at all, I recommend getting a well cared for 10-15 year old one. It’s also nice to have a few minor dings and dents out of the way, so you aren’t freaking out the first time you scrape a branch or catch a rock.
Also, whoever put that Awning out didn’t do it right. 😉
A travel trailer long term in the Berkshires? Have you met your neighbors? They’ll run you out with pitchforks and torches, assuming they manage to come down from their ‘shroom high. Better you put up a yurt and get yourself a couple of goats, maybe wear some Birkenstocks and weave your clothes from the hemp you didn’t smoke. And don’t forget your James Taylor cassettes. Listen to me, I’m trying to save your lives!
I have seen both fire and rain…
Maybe so, but it’s patchouli and hummus that’ll get you.
Nice… but for $80K… I’d take yesterday’s Aero Flite Falcon all day long.
Falcon was way nicer.
Good rule of thumb for deciding when getting your new trailer (or tow rig) is to take the towing capacity of your tow rig and subtract 20%. That’s gives you a cushion for adding gear and people to your vehicle as well as gear, water, etc to your trailer.
When we bought our trailer we had an ’04 Avalanche with a 7,200lb capacity. I looked for a trailer in the 4,500lb range to give us more of a cushion because it was old and had gremlins.
Now we’re looking at a larger trailer because our ’21 Ram 1500 4×4 with the eTorque Hemi has a towing capacity of over 12k. This one will be in the 8k range if not a little lighter. We bring too much crap sometimes.
This is good advice. I love bringing too much crap places.
If the plan is to buy the trailer and permanently park it on your lot, you don’t need a tow vehicle, just get it delivered to the site.
But honestly, if you plan to permanently park a trailer on your own lot, you’re better off building a house/cottage. The trailer makes a lot of compromises on space, insulation, comfort, weatherproofness, durability etc. so that it can be towed.
For the same $80,000 you can likely get a pre-fab, modular or kit house that will have way more space, better insulation for year round use, and a real toilet/shower/kitchen.
Trailers only go down in value. You can finance them like a house but they depreciate like a car. A permanent structure will increase the value of the land and go up in value over time. Plus, you can renovate the house and even expand on it if you need more space in the future.
For example, Home Hardware in Canada offers a line of house kits from Beaver. For $106000 CDN ($80500 USD) they have a kit called Yellow Tail II that has 800 sqft of space, 3 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms.
“But what about water, electricity and power?” You’re going to need those for the Airstream as well. I’m sure there are off-grid solutions that would work for either a trailer or a small house.
For sure. I think the idea is not to permanently put something there, but just find a place that’s grid adjacent so we can have power (a decent number sites like that where we’re looking) and bring in a trailer for a week or two and still have it to tow to events and other places.
You can look into these as don’t move much/hire a driver for a bit less. One example https://www.generalrv.com/product/new-2023-keystone-rv-residence-401mbnk-1925441-3
this, 100%. As soon as you “buy some land” the idea of a trailer should go out the window. Too many compromises. Get a modular cabin, pit toilet and cistern/tank for water. Far more comfort for the money.
Our friends bought property to build a retirement house on 10 years ago. About 4 years ago they bought a used 28′ bumper pull so that they could live and work on site while the builders were there. It’s been handy as they’ve ended up using the trailer to take vacations with.
Something to consider with a modular building or such is that depending on where you’re at you might have to have it permitted and infrastructure put into place just to use that. In that case a trailer might be the best option, depending on time frame and costs.
We’ve considered the concept of working towards a piece of land and building a deck on it to park a camping trailer up to it. Permanent structures = property taxes. Keeping development limited helps to keep things reasonable in that department.
Heck, a sheltered kitchen area goes a long way, RV or no. A 12×12 foot horse shelter can be had cheaply enough. Out west, electric service is hard to get but if you can get service you are golden.
Heck, if you can get cell coverage you can work up there!
Nice unit. One thing to remember about towing that doesn’t include people in the car or stuff in the trailer. Unless you haul 100 empty (which you want some water in the tanks) make sure to take that into consideration.
If you are planning to haul it somewhere and leave it most of the time then a hotshot driver/tower is a good option vs buying a tow rig.