Stabilizers
If you have read some of my earlier tales, you might
have picked up on the fact that I knew very little about travel trailers before
I became a Vintage Airstream owner.
“Ignorance is bliss” certainly helped me out in the early days as it
allowed me to concentrate on the obvious challenges of getting my Overlander
back into a campground after it’s 22 year lull of activity.
Now, in spite of my
professional career, where state-of-the-art control systems are an active part
of day-to-day activities, there are lots of things that either bounce off of
me, or I just enjoy doing the hard way.
For example, every Sunday morning, there are four separate clocks
throughout our house that must be wound, and since some of them have three
different shafts to wind, and the window of winding opportunity requires a
little bit of attention to catch. Not a
problem – One of my small thrills in life is to get all of them wound
sequentially in a five minute window.
My favorite tow vehicle, our
’84, ¾ ton Suburban has a choke on its carburetor, and no computer on
anything. Just getting it started in the
morning (you have to set the choke by pushing the gas pedal) is more trouble
than most people are willing to endure.
Not a problem for me. My arsenal
of two guns stands ready to drop tonight’s dinner should Kim suddenly decide
wild game is better than stockpiling our freezer with meat from the
Supermarket.
I’m still using my ’67
Airstream’s original refrigerator, furnace, oven, cook-top, and water
heater. All were checked out during the
refurbishment, and were restored to safe, 1967 operating standards. In other words, keep a box of matches handy
to light everything, and be aware that you can blow yourself up if you leave
common sense at home. Lotsa things on my
Overlander either build character or substantiate the fact that only idiots can
operate some modern-day appliances with all their lawsuit-inspired, 12 volt
hungry, operational hurdles.
But portable, screw-type jack-stands for stabilizing a travel trailer? I toted four
of them around (made by Reese as OEM equipment) for as many years hoping to
discover some inner peace that came from kneeling down under the trailer on all
fours with the stands, a box of 2X8X8s from placing them, and orange plastic
wheel chocks from Wal-Mart in an effort to keep the Airstream from rockin’ & rollin’ when we
were camping. I never became “one” with
effort. While the jack-stands’ general
design precluded vertical movement, everyday wear & tear did nothing for
side-to-side movement. Enter: the
gift-giving spirit of Christmas 2008.
My Overlander made out with
new, front and back, BAL
stabilizers, and BAL scissor-type wheel chocks from PPL. Astute readers may, after reading this page,
recognize that I requested stabilizers commonly marketed for white-box trailers
as BAL does supply Airstream
dealerships with a product ostensibly geared for Airstreams. The marketed physical difference between the
two offerings is how far the winding nut protrudes from the outboard side of
the trailer. The distance in question
bounced off of me while the difference in potential, overall stability did not.
I needed forward and aft stabilizers. If I had gone to Airstream, I would have
received four separate stabilizers (one for each corner of the trailer). PPL sent me two boxes: each box had an
expandable steel channel with two stabilizers on either side of the
channel. In prepping for the
installation, I noticed that the expandable steel channel did not contract short enough to fit the space
available between my Vintage Airstream’s frame rails. Later, I noticed the directions confirmed my
action of getting Mr. Sawzall involved in the task.
The next step was figuring out the stabilizers’
locations. “Bolt to frame” was obvious,
but forward/aft placement was up for study.
The jack-stands had always been put where they appeared to be most
effective to me even though not much thought had ever been given to the
situation. Now I needed to think about
it since frame holes were about to be drilled.
Tom Patterson’s site had a
bulletin issued to Airstream Dealerships which confirmed the placement
dimensions gathered from several, fellow, later-model (seventies) Airstream
owners.
The gas line was the next hurdle
as the curb-side stabilizers wanted to occupy the same space. I chose to relocate the gas line to the
center of the stabilizer because the line looked most protected in that
configuration. Several “clean”
installations I reviewed had the gas line mounted above the winding nut shaft
(not crossing the channel as I did).
Suffice to say I like my idea better.
Both forward & aft stabilizer installations involved moving gas
lines.
Number two son helped me test out stabilizer
operation.
He found it so easy that I think even his Mom could
do it. 
But being
able to, and wanting to are, as
we all know, two separate things. 
The new, scissor-type wheel
chocks also proved to be much better than either bricks or the plastic-type
wheel chocks.
All these improvements were installed during a
January warm spell as we had already signed up to attend the 2009 Texas Vintage
Airstream Rally scheduled for the first part of February. I suppose I could have, as a final check-out,
towed the Overlander off of
Our trip to
The overnight layover was scheduled to be so short
that I would not have normally bothered with stabilization. But, after making sure the Overlander came
out of winterization with no problem, my attention naturally shifted to playing
with the Airstream’s Christmas presents.
Man! Deploying the stabilizers was sweet! And fast! And STABIL 
. Money well spent… by my parents .
Now I have heard that some
Airstream purists eschew the use of anything other than jack-stand-type
stabilizers on Vintage trailers. If I
had to speculate, I’d say those folks are long-haired-hippie-types who live up
North and probably still split firewood for heat in the winter. Of course that’s just speculation. 
But I invite ALL vintage
owners to travel to the dark side to enjoy how BAL can make Airstreaming much
easier. 