Airstream ‘Nest’
RV Business
Airstream Inc. will begin production next year of the all-fiberglass Nest by Airstream travel trailer brand that it acquired March 21 from Bend, Oregon-based Nest Caravans.
Production of the lightweight, diminutive trailer will be moved to Jackson Center, Ohio, where the Thor Industries Inc. subsidiary produces its iconic ”silver bullet” aluminum Airstream travel trailers.
It’s a big step in terms of product design for tradition-clad Airstream.
”We’ve had our eye on the fiberglass space for some time,” Airstream President Bob Wheeler told RVBUSINESS.com. ”The Nest looks like what we would envision a modern fiberglass travel trailer to look like.”
In fact, it’s the first acquisition by Airstream since founder Wally Byam bought the Bowlus travel trailer brand in 1935.
Initially, Nest by Airstream will be offered in a 16-foot, 8-inch floorplan at a retail price that has yet to be established. Nest Caravan’s website lists an MSRP of $29,999.
”It’s likely that we will make some tweaks, but our intent is to go with the design largely as it is,” Wheeler said. ”We expect we will be able to introduce some floorplan variations, even though it has a small footprint.”
The Nest features a monocoque design with vacuum-infused fiberglass molding, which does away with most of the interior framing and brings the unit in at about 2,400 pounds which makes it suitable to be towed by mid-sized SUVs, crossovers and small pickup trucks, according to Nest Caravan’s website.
Current Airstream production facilities are not suited to build the Nest, said Wheeler, adding that the company will build a small factory on its Jackson Center campus or perhaps purchase a building nearby. ’’We’ll have to hire people for a production line and establish a supply chain,” Wheeler said.
With Nest Caravans headquartered in Oregon, Wheeler didn’t close out the possibility that in addition to Jackson Center, the Nest by Airstream might be manufactured elsewhere.
”Our intent is to start production in Ohio to get the process created and established,” Wheeler said. ”Potentially, down the road, we could produce in more than one location. Somewhere west of the Rockies would make sense if we get to that point.”
Nest Caravan’s founder and designer, Robert Johans, will join Airstream as a consultant. ”We are keeping him on for a good period of time to help us see it through to production,” Wheeler said. ”There are some things that need to be changed before we go to market.”
Other than the Wally Bee, a prototype designed by Airstream founder Wally Byam in the 1960s, this will be Airstream’s first foray into building a product other than aluminum travel trailers.
”Wally Byam made two fiberglass trailers in the ’60s that looked like Airstreams to test the market,” Wheeler said. ”So, Airstream has been in this space before, but it was more than 60 years ago.”
Originally published here.