Can You Live Full Time In An Airstream?

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Can you live full time in an Airstream?

If you ask the manufacturer, they will clearly state that an Airstream is not designed or intended for permanent housing. Use of the product for long-term or permanent occupancy may lead to premature deterioration of structure, interior finishes, fabrics, flooring, and drapes.

Damage or deterioration due to long-term occupancy may not be considered normal. It may, under the terms of the warranty, constitute misuse, abuse, or neglect and may therefore reduce the warranty protection.

However, we have found that all the RVs that we have owned have made the same claim, yet we lived in one for almost eight years, enjoying full time RV life.

We have owned five full time RV homes in our full time RV life that started in 2008. You can read more about our journey on this page. Our Airstream is our sixth.

Our Full Time RV Life Journey

Pam and I started RVing in 2002. We decided that renting would be a good way to start out. We wanted to be sure we would enjoy RV travel. It only took one trip, the first one, to decide we were hooked!

After six years of spending our vacations in rental RVs and having moved from the mountains of Colorado to the Florida Panhandle in 2007, we decided to live in an RV full time. So, in 2008, we bought our first RV. We are now on our sixth full time RV home, our Airstream.

Why Did We Choose an Airstream?

Our fifth full time RV living home was a 2023 Newmar Superstar. It was my twenty-five-year dream to own a Super C. A Newmar RV of this caliber is not something you just decide to buy one day. At over a half-million dollars, it’s something we wanted to be sure we really wanted.

I chose a Newmar over other manufacturers of Super C RVs. Our first full time RV home was a Newmar, and we enjoyed the quality of the RV. That was before Winnebago bought them.

Well, my twenty-five-year dream turned into a nineteen-month nightmare! There were so many manufacturing issues covered by warranty plus other annoyances. The RV spent a total of three weeks at Newmar and three trips to Freightliner for chassis issues.

After that experience, plus others, and wanting to simplify our full time RV life, and the desire to have slideouts no longer, we chose to buy an Airstream trailer.

They have been known for their superior quality over the years, even though the Thor Corporation owns them.

Building an Airstream trailer takes about 350 hours compared to other companies that typically spend less than 50 hours for each trailer. Given that fact, one must conclude that more hands touch the RV to ensure a quality product.

So, can you live full time in an Airstream trailer? So far, the answer is yes!

What is Full Time RV Living in an Airstream Trailer Like?

We bought our 2025 Airstream Globetrotter 30RB in November of 2024. Again, we chose the Airstream brand for its history of quality, fewer service issues, an aerodynamic trailer, and NO SLIDEOUTS (slideouts leak and are always a service issue – our experience).

What About the Tow Vehicle?

Our big concern at first was whether our 2022 Chevy Silverado 1500 LTZ would handle the Airstream even though the vehicle placard stated that the truck could pull the trailer and handle the tongue weight. We also installed the Blue Ox Sway Pro system to assist in safer towing.

Even though the truck could handle the Airstream, our first experience towing the trailer a short distance, and not fully loaded, was a bit scary. After we weighed the truck and trailer on a CAT scale, we knew we were at the truck’s maximum for safe travel. That is not the way I like to travel!

We wound up trading the 1500 for a 2024 Chevy Silverado 2500HD LTZ. The towing specs for the truck put the Airstream on the low end of what the truck can pull. In other words, the truck would not even know it has the Airstream behind it.

Our next trip, towing the Airstream on mostly highway travel, was very enjoyable. A great way for me to feel comfortable with my RV setup is when trucks pass at 65-70 mph, and there is no notice in my RV handling, then I am happy.

Towing an Airstream – Our Experience So Far

The only other towable RV that we have traveled with is our first RV: an M2-106 Freightliner Sportchassis towing a Newmar 5th Wheel trailer. Of course, that setup was not like most tow vehicles and trailers on the road. The 5th wheel had eight tires: dual tandem axles.

We have never owned a traditional RV trailer with a tongue-weight and ball and hitch setup. Most of our 200,000+ miles of RV travel have been in motorized RVs. So, needless to say, we were apprehensive about towing the Airstream.

I knew that a good weight distribution/sway control device would be necessary. Some Airstream owners say they don’t use them, but I think it adds an extra measure of safety as long as you purchase a good one.

Once we got everything set up and hooked to the tow vehicle, I found towing the Airstream to be very easy. I have towed a lot of cargo trailers and cars behind a vehicle, so I know how to handle turns and backing.

I find the Airstream tracks fairly close to the track that the tow vehicle takes. It is much better than a 5th wheel because the trailer is shorter at 31′, and the pivot point is moved back behind the axle.

Backing can be tougher than a 5th wheel due to the pivot point behind the axle, but I have found backing the Airstream into a back in RV site to be very easy! The large mirrors and cameras on the truck and Airstream assist in making the process very easy.

My first time backing into a site was a one-time deal. I got it on the first try! I was delighted with that, as I had some anxiety about how that would go.

What About Carrying All Your Stuff?

In all our previous RVs we always carried all our possessions. We have never had a need for a storage unit. That will not be the case with our Airstream. We only have a little over 1,500 lbs of cargo carrying capacity.

What we did was take a lot of things we have been dragging around for years and hardly use and got rid of them. We have put everything in the Airstream and truck that we feel we need for full time RV living in an Airstream and weighed the RV and truck. We are about 600 lbs under the maximum GVWR, so we are doing well (that includes only a quarter tank of fresh water).

We currently have a small storage unit, but we are continuing to think about what we don’t need and get rid of those items as well. The cool thing is we are not overloaded inside the Airstream and have room inside our storage areas.

For us, we don’t need a lot of stuff to be happy in full time Airstream RV life!

Do We Have Enough Room When Living Inside the Airstream?

Our RVing friends have asked us how we are doing living in the Airstream. They ask because we have had much larger RVs most of our full time RV life. We lived for almost four years in a thirty-foot class C, so we figured we would have no problem with the Airstream.

The magic for us was choosing the right floor plan and options that would work for how we live our RV life. After many years of living in RVs, we know exactly what we like and what we don’t like. So, based on the floorplans Airstream offers, we chose the Globetrotter 30RB.

Has it fulfilled our needs so far? Yes, it has. We have been in the trailer for almost three months and we are doing fine. Many of the reasons we chose an Airtsream have proven to be true.

I would say not everyone can do what we are doing, but we are minimalists, and tiny living is no problem for us!

How About Warranty Issues on Our New Airstream?

I fully expected to have many fewer warranty issues than any other new RV we have owned. So far that is true. Do we have a few problems? Yes, we do. Several I was able to resolve being that I am a registered RV technician and RV inspector. Others, I will wait till we get to Ohio in a few months.

Also, we are going to have Airstream install a three-inch lift kit on the axles to have it sit a little higher. This is recommended for Airstream trailers that are twenty-eight feet and longer.

Is There Enough Room to Prepare Meals?

Let’s be honest. Most RVs typically do not have an abundance of counter space for cooking, especially thirty-foot trailers.

However, we chose a floor plan that has a long table opposite the sink/stove area. That assists us in having enough room to prepare and serve our meals. We are not LEOs (Let’s Eat Out), so we took this into consideration when we chose the Globetrotter 30RB floor plan. It is unique in the Airstream line of products.