Airstream Flying Cloud 19 CB Bambi reviews

Just letting you know that we call our 2023 Airstream Bambi 19cb trailer "Shiny Lemon" This is what I tell everyone I meet about Airstreams: I have a 2023 Airstream Bambi 19cb trailer that I bought new in October 2022. Almost every system in it has failed. Batteries went out at 10 months because of a faulty design in the WfCo 8955lis converter. I replaced the batteries and converter at my own expense as I had a trip planned for a month of travel in a few days and working with the dealer would have meant canceling the trip. The furnace failed multiple times for various reasons but several times just because a part called the sail switch failed. Cabinets fell off the wall on two occasions. Our Girard water heater started leaking at 2 years and two weeks. Parts warranty expired at 2 years. We chose to put in a Truma AquaGo Comfort water heater partly because people love them and I'm hopeful it will last longer than the 2 years our Girard water heater lasted. This was last week. Generally, the components now used by Thor (who owns Airstream) have been cost reduced and manufactured by conglomerate companies, like dometic, with quality suffering. We no longer recommend Airstream to anyone. We replaced our Vitrifigo refrigerator with Isotherm. If you are unfortunate and have a Vitrafrigo refrigerator, immediately purchase a temperature monitor so that you can log the temperature over time. Refrigerators need to keep the temperature below 40 F and mine couldn't do this in hot weather. You won't know unless you make the effort to find this out with a temperature logger. Vitrafrigo refrigerators only have a replacement warranty for 1 year so you need to find this within 12 months. Our dealer went from fixing the Vitrafrigo's inability to stay cold to an inability to turn off when the correct temperature is reached. Even with the control knob rotated into the off position! This over the course of of many return visits from June to December! Just for the refrigerator! Lead batteries replaced by Battleborn. Also pricy. But worth it. Skip the Airstream. If you do buy an Airstream, try to get a precovid one. 2019 or earlier. If you follow my footsteps and buy new. Use it a lot for the first year. Bring it back to the dealer repeatedly to get things fixed. Repeatedly. Buy a temperature sensor that logs the temperature in your refrigerator. Get your refrigerator fixed if it can't keep the temperature below 40F. Most subsystem warrantees are only a year. Many things on the Airstream are only a month, such as the door not closing. Holes in the roof are not covered by warranty, at least the two holes in our roof were not covered about 18 months after purchase. Fantastic fan lids have a defect in that they fracture where they are screwed into the lid. I glued a wood block to address this as new lids are backordered because so many are breaking. Better yet, buy a Lance or some other brand not made by Thor. -Stephen Witte - Show less

Just letting you know that we call our 2023 Airstream Bambi 19cb trailer "Shiny Lemon" This is what I tell everyone I meet about Airstreams: I have a 2023 Airstream Bambi 19cb trailer that I bought new in October 2022. Almost every system in it has failed. Batteries went out at 10 months because of a faulty design in the WfCo 8955lis converter. I replaced the batteries and converter at my own expense as I had a trip planned for a month of travel in a few days and working with the dealer would have meant canceling the trip. The furnace failed multiple times for various reasons but several times just because a part called the sail switch failed. Cabinets fell off the wall on two occasions. Our Girard water heater started leaking at 2 years and two weeks. Parts warranty expired at 2 years. We chose to put in a Truma AquaGo Comfort water heater partly because people love them and I'm hopeful it will last longer than the 2 years our Girard water heater lasted. This was last week. Generally, the components now used by Thor (who owns Airstream) have been cost reduced and manufactured by conglomerate companies, like dometic, with quality suffering. We no longer recommend Airstream to anyone. Vitrifigo refrigerators replaced by Isotherm. If you are unfortunate and have a Vitrafrigo refrigerator, immediately purchase a temperature monitor so that you can log the temperature over time. Refrigerators need to keep the temperature below 40 F and mine couldn't do this in hot weather. You won't know unless you make the effort to find this out with a temperature logger. Vitrafrigo refrigerators only have a replacement warranty for 1 year so you need to find this within 12 months. Ours will be replaced next week as our dealer went from fixing the Vitrafrigos inability to stay cold to an inability to turn off when the correct temperature is reached. Even with the control knob rotated into the off position! This over the course of of many return visits from June to December! Just for the refrigerator! Lead batteries replaced by Battleborn. Also pricy. But worth it. Skip the Airstream. If you do buy an Airstream, try to get a precovid one. 2019 or earlier. If you follow my footsteps and buy new. Use it a lot for the first year. Bring it back to the dealer repeatedly to get things fixed. Repeatedly. Buy a temperature sensor that logs the temperature in your refrigerator. Get your refrigerator fixed if it can't keep the temperature below 40F. Most subsystem warrantees are only a year. Many things on the Airstream are only a month, such as the door not closing. Holes in the roof are not covered by warranty, at least the two holes in our roof were not covered about 18 months after purchase. Fantastic fan lids have a defect in that they fracture where they are screwed into the lid. I glued a wood block to address this as new lids are backordered because so many are breaking. Buy a 2019 or earlier, better yet, buy a Lance or some other brand not made by Thor. -Stephen Witte - Show less

I love my Airstream. We purchased in 2016 from the Seattle Airstream dealer and immediately travelled to Utah. It towed easily and was easy to handle. We decided immediately to make some changes internally and took it to Ultimate Airstream in Portland to re-do the kitchen and eating g area. We installed their "Grand Lounge" design and included a washing machine in the upgrade. In 2018, we purchased land to build a house and started living in the airstream full time for 18 months while it was being built. It was a pleasure to live in and at one stage, my wife broke her pelvis and so we even had to use a wheelchair in the Airstream to move her around. Very adaptable. Show less

We bought the Airstream Bambi 22FB specifically because we could tow it behind our Ford Explorer (GVWR 5000lbs). We put several thousand miles on our Bambi with two adults, two children under 5, and two 40lbs dogs. Towing was easy. The smaller size of the Bambi (and the single axle) makes it very maneuverable - great for tight campsites and turnarounds. The layout was great for our family. Our longest trip was two weeks. Thought we would have trouble with the smaller refrigerator/freezer but it wasn't an issue. The limiting factor for boondocking was actually the greywater storage capacity - four quick showers and some hand & dishwashing over two or three days was enough to fill it up. Our longest boondocking session was three nights, four days, in a national park with no hookups... it was perfect! Show less

We have been the proud owners of the 1999 Bambi for over 21 years. She has held up wonderfully over the years and we still get complements. I must say back in 1999 everything with the exception of the Dometic refrigerator (made in Sweden) was made in USA. I mention this only because to date we have only replaced the water pump (8years ago), new brakes (2016) Dexter axel (2022) and LP tanks (2020) still running strong is the “original” A/C, stove/over, frig., water heater. We have two friends and our grown son that own late model Airstreams and most if not all appliances and fixtures are made in China and many of them have failed and been replaced. We have made a few updates because she was looking dated in a bad way. We upgraded to 16” rims and Michelin tires, stripped clear coat and polished. Only buff once a year with Mothers aluminum polish and looks great. We removed the mouse fur, which was sagging and kept the beautiful shinny aluminum and added all the recessed lights like the newer models. Also ripped out carpet and installed 15 year Armstrong vinyl flooring. The fabric on dinette still looks new although a bit dated, maybe we’ll redo one day soon. I’m pretty sure another brand would not of lated this long. We hope to keep Bambi another 20 years. 😊 Show less

We like our Airstream but there have been problems and really, too many for what Thor charges. About $5000 - $10,000 less would be more reasonable considering the build quality. Fortunately, we're do-it-yourselfers and have remedied the problems we've encountered. But what about those that don't have or are unwilling to acquire the skills necessary to fix them? That's a topic we cover when on some of our journeys: can you imagine not knowing how to fix some of the things an RV-er will have and then having to take it in to the dealer? A lot of RV service epitomizes bottom-of-the-barrel customer relationships and quality of work is seriously lacking, generally. Believe us, the problems will be there whether you spend six figures or a low-5 number on another brand. Expect that assembly problems will be part of your complaints on any brand and again, Airstream is no better or worse. Airstream fanboys will say, 'oh, the quality is great and we love our Airstream' and for a few, that's an accurate assessment. Some Airstreams are 'tongue-heavy'. Airstreams' specs say the tongue on our Flying Cloud weighs over 800 lbs. That's a good deal over the general guideline of 10% of the total weight of the trailer. No comment from Airstream (ever) on this and we deal with it. I do not know how other brands fare in this area, BTW. Would we buy another Airstream? I think we'd try Lance, Grand Design or a couple of other brands next. They won't hold their value as well as the Airstream does but that's because of the 'cachet' Airstream has, certainly not the build quality but the fact that it's an iconic brand. Other than aerodynamics (which are great) it does not do anything better than the average other RV. Do a search under 'cabinets falling Airstream' or 'skin buckling Airstream' which is this brand's Achilles heel. Each brand has its own unique failings, not just Airstream. And this is not an indictment of Airstream but just one of those 'to be dealt with' things. We like our Airstream but we also realize that it will require constant maintenance like any other RV does, not more and not less. If you're not willing to learn some basic skills in repair, rent an RV for your trips. Yes, I know you may pay a lot for your RV but price in an RV does not equate with quality like it does (generally) for a car. Paying megabucks for a trailer does not entitle you to hands-off or trouble-free ownership. Show less

First, let me begin with my list of problems, which started on day one. 1. Zinc screws on roof rusted within weeks. 2. Axles out of line 3. Radiused windows leaked badly, causing black stains on floor covering, that does not come out. Brought to Airstream's attention on month 14, but problem had been going on for months, still within the warranty. Airstream's response was I had discovered it outside the warranty and told me to reseal all the windows. 4. The piano hinge on bath door sagged considerably, due to insufficient screws, causing the misalignment of the handle, locking a person inside. 5. To all the drawer slides, I have added additional screws, as they came loose within a few weeks. 6. Two of the plastic U trims that cover the top and sides that butt up to the walls of the cabinetry slid down behind the cabinets, and disappeared. Very very difficult to fix. Had to remove the cabinets. All it needed was some kind of adhesive or fastener when installed, to prevent this. 7. The two radius doors under the sink in my model were way too much weight for the hinges. Replaced several, eight, over time, at my own expense (Airstream sent me two), plus added an additional hinge to each door. After a while, I just removed the doors to travel. Finally, I removed the hinges and installed piano hinges to solve the problem. ALL these problems were discovered well within the first two years. Airstream did nothing, not willing to work with me and borderline nasty about "no longer under warrantee". After owning a Keystone Cougar 24' fifth wheel for several years, loving it, no problems, we decided to go for it and move on to an Airstream Flying Cloud. The reputation it has had needs to be amended as it has been a nightmare: one problem after another. The sharp appearance wore off quickly. Show less

This is a great trailer for two happy campers. It has everything you could desire, and what we like best is the shower! It is just like being at home when camping with full hookups. As the original owner, I can vouch for the unbelievable outstanding dealer service and three-year warranty that litterally covers everything, no questions asked. Airstream trailers are built to last, which is why they keep their value year-after-year and why there are so many older Airstreams still serving happy campers. I highly recommend Airstream for anyone who wants a great piece of equipment that will maintain its beauty and servicability for as long as you own it. Show less

Travel in style! Sleek, modern and compact trailer sleeps 4. Quality parts and great functionality. Has Ac, solar panels, inverter, stove with oven, refrigerator, flat screen tv, alpine system, stand up shower, toilet, sink, outdoor shower. 18g black water, 21g grey, 23g fresh water Show less

Best RV experience ever! Towing an Airstream is like nothing else, you sometimes forget you are towing. Very comfortable living space with all the comforts of home. Stylish and reliable, you feel very safe in it. We loved it! Show less