Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/30/watch-airstream-trailers-being.html
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Me likey!
The forklift driver’s beard is almost into ZZ Top territory.
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The music is an odd choice, but the video is synced really well to it.
I love these, but the starting price for an Airstream is so far out of my budget.
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Airstreams are awesome, but I don’t think the term “canned hams” applies to their curvy designs. Canned hams usually refers to the campers that are round in profile but have flat vertical sides. You know, like a can of ham.
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Travel to Florida and buy used. People will live the dream and retire to Florida in their air stream. Then die…well maybe moving into a nursing home first.
So you can usually find a glut of Airstreams for sale in Florida.
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Well that’s my problem then. I’m as far as you can get from Florida and still be in the contiguous US.
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I was surprised by how much is still done by hand. I guess the videos of robots building cars on an auto assembly line have influenced my way of thinking.
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The volume is tiny compared to mass production cars, probably less than a hundred per week
As of January 2015 Airstream was producing 50 trailers per week or about 2,600 per year. The company was expanding its capacity with plans to increase production by at least 50% over 2014 levels.[5] By April 2016, the Dayton Business Journal reported Airstream was producing 72 trailers per week–an annual rate of 3,744 assuming consistent production all year. The same article said they were aiming to increase to 77 trailers per week in 2016
Airstream’s manufacturing process is probably more like traditional rail vehicle production – a hand-made body mounted on a separate underframe, with even more manual labour to fit out the interior. The upside to all that hand-crafting is that customisation is easy and the extra cost is small.
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Would make for a fun road trip home.
A friend of ours bought an old, neglected Airstream and fixed it up himself. Basically gutted it and completely renovated the inside.
One of our neighbors bought a new one recently. I guess Navy Seals make more than I imagined and she’s currently a stay at home mom…
I wonder if they have improved the design since then. My brother’s 1972 Safari had major frame rot, caused by improper layering of the metal at the bottom of the rear end. The insulation was also home to many rodents, but that’s another story.
I’m more like to gut an old neglected one than buy a new one.
Man, I don’t know what they make, but they could also be living deep in debt. I work for the DoD, and my coworkers live deep in debt. New houses, dual new cars, boats, trailers, vacations out of country. They are all super in debt, though. It’s kind of the culture.
I really don’t know. Maybe he gets big bonuses for having to go overseas all the time. They’re pretty young, early 30’s.
My dad had a '55 Airstream for a while. Like many 1970s manufactured things, '70s Airstreams were… not great. They are typically the least valued era due to all the issues they have due to design and material choices, frame problems being one along with electrical problems and all the aging plastics in the interior becoming brittle and cracking with age.
They also began to switch in this era from duralumin skin as used on earlier trailers, which was highly reflective, to cheaper, less shiny grades of aluminum that were clearcoated. With time and UV exposure, the clearcoat crazes and takes on a dull, yellowish hue.
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