With this setup my wife and I are looking forward to traveling throughout the Lower 48 States and Canada for the next several years with our “beefed up” Airstream Sport 16. We like the smallness, interior design, and versatility that the Sport 16 offers. However, in thinking back over our experience my impression is that the Sport 16 was grossly underbuilt for what we had in mind. Certainly, most of your customers who buy the small single axle Airstream models do little more than have their RV sitting in their driveways 90% of the time and then take them a short distance to where they sit in a trailer par
With this setup my wife and I are looking forward to traveling throughout the Lower 48 States and Canada for the next several years with our “beefed up” Airstream Sport 16. We like the smallness, interior design, and versatility that the Sport 16 offers. However, in thinking back over our experience my impression is that the Sport 16 was grossly underbuilt for what we had in mind. Certainly, most of your customers who buy the small single axle Airstream models do little more than have their RV sitting in their driveways 90% of the time and then take them a short distance to where they sit in a trailer park the rest of the time. It would not take much strength to stand up to this use. As I think about it, the single axle is an inherently weak design. The most strength in design comes from having two axles at either end of a vehicle like in a car. The next step down is to have the two axles together in the center of the vehicle such as most larger trailers. This provides a larger load bearing area for the frame than the single axle. The weakest design is the single axle. This puts all the flexing of the frame resting on a single small point as the unit goes over bumps down the road. Consequently, and in my opinion, the frames of these single axle units need to be built up rather than downsized, particularly where the frame sits on the axle.