Pete’s RV Expert, Randy Murray and Airstream Sales Manager, Tim Maxwell answer all the heavy hitting questions about what makes Airstream such an iconic brand.
Video Transcript for “Airstream RV Q&A | Pete’s RV Buyer Tips”
Randal Murphy: Hey guys, Randy with Pete’s RV TV here today. Today, we are fortunate enough to have Tim Maxwell from Airstream at our Vermont location. And, super excited to have him here and super excited to have the Airstream products. So, how do you like Vermont, Tim?
Tim Maxwell: I love Vermont. Beautiful.
Randal Murphy: Vermont’s a beautiful state.
Tim Maxwell: I absolutely do. And it’s nice to see the Airstream trailers stacked up against, against the road.
Randal Murphy: It’s [crosstalk 00:00:26] the mountains, and stuff like that.
Tim Maxwell: Looks really, really nice.
Randal Murphy: Absolutely. So, today we’re going to do a little Q and A, [00:00:30] Tim.
Tim Maxwell: I would love it.
Randal Murphy: Alright, perfect. So, again, Pete’s RV is super excited to have the Airstream product, and, again, excited to have you here today. Why don’t we start with a little history on the product? I mean, you guys have been around a long time. How long has Airstream really been around?
Tim Maxwell: You know, Wally Byam started Airstream. Wally Byam, our founder, started Airstream in 1931.
Randal Murphy: Isn’t that incredible?
Tim Maxwell: That’s 86 years ago.
Randal Murphy: Amazing.
Tim Maxwell: 86 years ago, we’re starting our 87th year here coming up, really, really excited. We’ve maintained our roots, but we’ve also, we’ve also [00:01:00] evolved the trailer into what it is today. It’s kind of like that, that retro exterior with the modern interior. And we’re sitting in a Classic here. It’s, it’s a 30-foot Classic, and it’s beautiful. It’s your home away from home.
Randal Murphy: Beautiful trailer.
Tim Maxwell: But if you really start looking, looking at our roots, you know, Wally Byam started Airstream in 1931. That’s big. I mean, we’re the oldest RV company in existence. And-, the mid-30’s there were over 400 RV companies around, and only, of those 400, only Airstream [00:01:30] remains today.
Randal Murphy: Wow.
Tim Maxwell: And that’s not an accident. That is a, that’s goes back by our roots. It’s quality. It’s a quality product that’s proven to last. And we last generations. Generations. That’s big.
Randal Murphy: That brings me to my next question, is, what percentage of Airstreams are still on the road? (laughs)
Tim Maxwell: Believe it or not, 70 to 75%. And Randy, you don’t have to take Tim Maxwell’s word for it. You don’t. As you travel up and down the highways, just look out, just look out the side of your car. Look out through the passenger window. [00:02:00] You’ll see trailers, you’ll see vintage trailers traveling up and down the road. You have a 1965, 17-foot trailer just two trailers over. And it’s in for service. A 196 … What other manufacturer can say that?
Randal Murphy: They re-
Tim Maxwell: There’s no other manufacturer.
Randal Murphy: They really can’t. I talked to a customer about it the other day, and the only thing that he had with that longevity was his Rolex watch.
Tim Maxwell: Yeah (laughs).
Randal Murphy: Which I thought (laughs)-
Tim Maxwell: That’s true.
Randal Murphy: Was a great way to compare the Airstream trailer. so being that we have that longevity, obviously your build quality’s a [00:02:30] little bit different. How long does it take to put one of these together?
Tim Maxwell: You know, 250 to 300 man hours. We’re in a 30-foot Classic, excuse me, a 30-foot Classic. This 30-foot Classic’s going to have upwards of 400 man hours in it. They’re built by hand. It’s a, it’s one of them true, iconic brands that is built by hand.
Randal Murphy: I’ve been to the plant, I’ve seen it, and I’ve seen the materials they use when putting these together, and it’s unlike the materials we see in any other product out there in the RV world, which really drew my attention to the quality-
Tim Maxwell: Sure.
Randal Murphy: And the craftsmanship [00:03:00] of the Airteam. You’re team out there is incredible-
Tim Maxwell: It’s amazing.
Randal Murphy: And, again, unlike anything that I’ve ever seen. And you can see the care and the compassion that goes into the build process and the product that we end up with, which, also ties back to your longevity. help me build to the customer. I mean, obviously Airstream’s going to cost a little bit more-
Tim Maxwell: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Randal Murphy: Than some of the other trailers that I have on my lot, and your other dealers have on their lots. Why is that? I mean, other than how long it takes to build them.
Tim Maxwell: You know, it’s time proven, really. We’ve been around since 1931, [00:03:30] just as we spoke. 70% are still on the road. Why is that? It’s how we build the product. It truly is. This trailer is built so different than any other trailer out there.
Randal Murphy: Absolutely.
Tim Maxwell: We build the trailer from the outside and work our way in. This Airstream trailer is built like we would build a home, like we would build a yacht, like they would build an aircraft. So what I mean by that is, we start with the shell. We got two guys, this is-this is aluminum superstructure. There’s no wood inside this aluminum shell that’s gonna rot and mildew, wear [00:04:00] out. So we’re going to build this shell. After we build this shell, and by the way, we’re going to put 3,000 buck rivets in the average shell-
Randal Murphy: Isn’t that incredible? (laughs)
Tim Maxwell: 3,000. It takes two guys to put ’em all in-
Randal Murphy: Done by hand.
Tim Maxwell: And all done by hand.
Randal Murphy: Yeah.
Tim Maxwell: So, after we build this shell, we’re going to send it through a water test process. And we got, we got hurricane force winds, some rain, the equivalence to like 91 inches of rainfall an hour. That’s a lot. And we’re gonna, we’re gonna pour water on this thing, and we’re going to make sure that it’s a leak-free shell at that point. You know, that’s different than the other manufacturers.
Randal Murphy: Seriously.
Tim Maxwell: [00:04:30] The other manufacturers do it exactly the opposite. They start from the inside, they’ll set the cabinets on the floor, they’ll build around the cabinets, and the cabinets kind of hold everything together.
Randal Murphy: Right.
Tim Maxwell: Not with Airstream. With Airstream, we basically start from the outside, work our way in, send it through a water test booth, which is unique in the travel trailer industry. It really is.
Randal Murphy: I’ve seen that water test booth. That is absolutely-
Tim Maxwell: Impressive.
Randal Murphy: Incredible. It makes car washes look kinda (laughs), not very good (laughs).
Tim Maxwell: Yup. And it, and you know the exciting fact about that is? So, we’ll send it through water check, and the majority of the seams of the trailer is sealed [00:05:00] after the water check process.
Randal Murphy: Right.
Tim Maxwell: So, if you kind of look around our clearance lights, there’s no smeary, smeggly around it. There’s no caulking around our outside accessories.
Randal Murphy: Yup.
Tim Maxwell: It’s all a gasket. You know, you start looking at our seams, all them seams on the outside trailer are sealed after water check. That’s huge, because if it leaks, we want to find it in water check.
Randal Murphy: Absolutely.
Tim Maxwell: That just all together. So, that just kind of goes by our build process. There’s a lot of things that-that also sets us apart. We walk all the cabinetry through the door then, and we give it that custom, that finished look on the inside. They’re [00:05:30] all hand-fitted, hand-scribed into position.
Randal Murphy: Each trailer is a one-off. That was some of the things they really-
Tim Maxwell: It’s like snowflakes.
Randal Murphy: Yeah, they stressed that to us when-
Tim Maxwell: Yes.
Randal Murphy: We were going through the plant tour, and, as I watched them go together it was very apparent that it was a one-off. Guys were scribing, they were making fit, so every trailer is kind of that custom built trailer-
Tim Maxwell: Yup.
Randal Murphy: And a custom built trailer feel, and everything centralizes around that toilet and the camper’s built around it.
Tim Maxwell: That’s right.
Randal Murphy: Because that’s the only thing we can’t move because of the tank underneath (laughs).
Tim Maxwell: Yup.
Randal Murphy: so, before we wrap it up here, [00:06:00] help me build value to the customer. what is our … What is our customer for the Airstream, and, why would they buy the Airstream product?
Tim Maxwell: You know, the customer that’s looking at the Airstream understands quality. He really does. And again, like I said earlier, this trailer’s gonna last generations.
Randal Murphy: Sure it is.
Tim Maxwell: And, you know, and some people say, “Well, I only want to use it for a few years.” That’s fine, but the end of that few years, there’s going to be value left in this trailer.
Randal Murphy: There is.
Tim Maxwell: And I can tell you, Randy, you can take, you can take loans on trailers, you know, upwards of 20 years.
Randal Murphy: Sure.
Tim Maxwell: [00:06:30] At the end of that 20 years, there’s going to be value in this Airstream trailer. That’s going to be-
Randal Murphy: When a typical RV we’re-
Tim Maxwell: You make. You know-
Randal Murphy: Yeah, we’re not going to see that.
Tim Maxwell: Where you’re not going to see that.
Randal Murphy: Absolutely.
Tim Maxwell: But that’s one part of it. It’s value, right? Let’s talk about the towability. We haven’t really talked about tow, but the Airstream trailers are going to stick to the road like glue. Low center of gravity, independent wheel suspension, it’s the whole package, right? So, we have this towability part of it, as well. And then you bring in the quality side of it, you know, and it’s how we build this trailer. Just, Randy, just open and shut the main door. That main door is going to shut [00:07:00] and protect like a bank vault.
Randal Murphy: It’s incredible.
Tim Maxwell: It’s like when, when you sit into a high-end car. When you sit into a high-end car you just kind of sit down in the front seats, and the seats kind of wrap themselves around it, sort of like we are here today-
Randal Murphy: Absolutely.
Tim Maxwell: And then you shut that passenger door, or you shut that driver’s door, it’s solid.
Randal Murphy: You know.
Tim Maxwell: It deadens the sound on the inside. You can feel the quality. With Airstream, you can feel the quality, and you can see the quality. And, and it’s no mistake that Airstream’s been around since 1931.
Randal Murphy: It is, and you guys have definitely bucked all the trends [00:07:30] and set a standard, and set a bar so high, that I don’t think anybody could compete. I joke about it with our customers that the only real, things that Airstream has in common with the rest of the RV industry is we pull it behind our car and we sleep in ’em.
Tim Maxwell: Yup.
Randal Murphy: (laughs) Everything else-
Tim Maxwell: That’s about right.
Randal Murphy: Is completely different. You guys have definitely taken your own path-
Tim Maxwell: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Randal Murphy: And it shows, and the longevity of your company is completely amazing, and we are super excited to have you guys on board with us, and-
Tim Maxwell: Same here.
Randal Murphy: Working with the guys at the factory, and warranty, and on the sales side [00:08:00] is bar none probably the best I’ve seen in the industry, and one of the best reps in the industry, as well.
Tim Maxwell: Oh (laughs).
Randal Murphy: (laughs)
Tim Maxwell: Big points for that (laughs).
Randal Murphy: (laughs) Well, Tim, thank you for sitting down and-
Tim Maxwell: Oh, love it.
Randal Murphy: Taking the time to do this with us today. We always love having you here, and we look forward to, seeing some more great product roll, d roll through our door in the future.
Tim Maxwell: It’s a deal.
Randal Murphy: Thank you.
The video of this presentation by Pete’s RV Center is available here
