Airstream

Airstream is one of the oldest names in the RV world, and they make some of the most recognizable rigs around. The company was founded in the 1920s, and the brand has been primarily associated with travel trailers ever since. Although they’ve made other RVs, including a range of motorized rigs, over the years, the “Airstream” brand is inseparable from the iconic aluminum-bodied, aerodynamic travel trailers that inspire such incredible loyalty and enthusiasm from their owners.

Between its founding in the 1920s and the present day, Airstream passed through a number hands — including big conglomerates and a food company. Today, Airstream is part of the Thor family of RV manufacturers. Thor Industries was actually created when Wade F.B. Thompson and Peter B. Orthwein purchased Airstream, making it the first (and the flagship) brand in the Thor family.

Small Airstream Motorhomes

During the 1970s, Airstream branched out into class A motorhomes, some of which utilized the same, unpainted aluminum bodies as their trailers. These rigs were replaced during the 1990s by new models that used fiberglass construction that was more in line with the rest of the RV industry. Airstream continued to build class A rigs until 2006, so you are no longer able to buy brand new small class A Airstream motorhomes. If you want one of these rigs, you’ll have to turn to the used market.

Unlike their current small class B motorhomes, some of Airstreams earlier class A rigs featured aluminum bodies.

In the late 1980s, Airstream introduced their first class B motorhomes to compliment their line of class A rigs and travel trailers. For about ten years, they built class B rigs on both Ford and Dodge van chassis, but abandoned those platforms in 1999. Today, all of Airstream’s motorhomes are class B, and they’re all built on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter platform.

Airstream Insterstate

Airstream’s current line of class B rigs are built on the Mercedes Sprinter platform.

Airstream currently offers two class B motorhome options: the Interstate and the Interstate EXT. Both are built on the Sprinter 3500 platform, and they have identical power trains and GVWRs. Since the EXT is a little bit longer, and the dry weight is a little bit more, it has a slightly lower towing capacity than the vanilla Interstate model.