18 months with the Airstream Basecamp

New Years Eve, 2020. After looking online at campers and camper vans and truck campers for two years. After renting a Casita Camper and taking a trip through Tennessee for our Covid honeymoon. After looking in person at several dealerships.
At last, we had a handshake agreement to purchase a 2017 Airstream Basecamp.

I was so stoked. This camper is the thing that dreams are made of. It’s tiny, but full of features. It’s top notch build quality, and it’s really effing pretty too.

So now after about 18 months and several trips it’s time to recollect my thoughts. Here are the things that led me to buy the Basecamp, my favorite and least favorite things and lessons I learned along the way.

Panoramic Windows - There is nothing better than looking out of the front windows to an incredible view. Parked up at Frisco Woods campground on the Bay side of the Outer Banks in NC, I watched some incredible sunsets over the bay and watched kite-boarders rip while I sat comfortably in my camper on work meetings until I was able to join them.

But, I soon found that these windows have a slight downside. They can break when they meet a lucky rock on the highway at 70 mph. Luckily mine did not ever break. I found that there are some very amazing upholsters out there who will make you custom fabric rock guard shades that will protect your windows.

All of the windows have black out curtains that are easy to zip up and down. It makes sleeping until 11am much easier than it should be.

Rear Door - I loved the idea of the rear door. Being able to load in bikes and surfboards straight from the back and tie them down with ease was a very nice touch.

But, there were some downsides that came with this door. Mine didn’t really ever shut well. I had to slam it shut constantly and after driving down the road, it the seal would break. It wasn’t a big deal, it wouldn’t actually open because it was locked, but because the seal was broken it could leak slightly in the rain. I found myself constantly having to check the back door to make sure it was still closed tightly. There also isn’t a latch to keep the door open, so if you open the door and there is a breeze, or you’re on an incline it’ll be hard to keep open.

Side Tents - I also loved the idea of the side and rear annex tents. Being able to expand the living size of the camper is pretty clutch. We used our side tent to give the docs their own little space. The tents are roomy and not too hard to set up.

While the tents were cool, we really only set them up one time. I greatly preferred the moonshade awning because it was just so easy to set up and gave us more of a camp area outside of the camper. I never set up my rear tent because it’s kind of awkward to go in and out of the rear door.

Height - The height of the Basecamp is great. You can walk around comfortably all through the camper. There isn’t a noticeable decline or any areas that feel like you have to crouch or you’ll bump your head. When we rented our Casita trailer, the bathroom was on a slant and it made that area feel really camped. The Basecamp is tall throughout.

Functional Kitchen - The up-front kitchen layout on the Basecamp is so incredible. You can cook very comfortably on the front counters and you have a great view out of the windows while you do it. It’s easy for one person to cook while the other person can move comfortably around the camper without bumping into you. There’s also plenty of counter space and the propane stove works great.

King+ Sized Bed - When the bed is made up, it is such an amazing size. We can both sprawl out on it and still have room for our Australian Sheppard to lounge comfortably. Also, when the bed is set up, there is still plenty of room underneath for items, like luggage. The padding on the bed is generally very comfortable. Many people add a 3” memory foam mat on top, but the mat ends up taking up so much room that it isn’t worth it. We found a nice pillow top mattress pad instead that doesn’t take up nearly as much room but still gives an extra layer of comfort.

With the compact 16’ size of the Basecamp and a King sized bed, there is a compromise to make. That compromise is that you have to make and unmake the bed every morning to convert between your sitting area layout and your bed layout. This is probably one of my biggest gripes about the Basecamp, but the more you make the bed, the more efficiently you’re able to do it and the less painful it becomes.

The newer models offer a slightly different layout option, where you can only make up the front half of the bed and leave the lower half set up with a small table layout. On older models this can be done via a ‘bed-mod’ that consists of cutting the wood panels and hinges to get this same effect. I never got to experience this, but I could imagine this would be great if you were camping in the Basecamp with just one person.

Work Area - I worked from the Basecamp very comfortably on several occasions. In the Outer Banks, I worked for an entire week remotely. It was super comfortable the entire team. The bed area converts to two bench style seats with two small tables in the middle and it is a really great place to set up a laptop and get to business.

Storage - While it may seem like there isn’t much storage in the Basecamp, I actually found it to be quite roomy. We had plenty of room for our kitchen gear, our dishes, and our cleaning and household supplies in the kitchen area. Under the kitchen area, we stored many camping supplies like lights and fire supplies. Our towels stored in the bins up above the kitchen area and we hung a fabric shelf in the corner of the kitchen by the door and put any groceries we had in it.

Our clothes and sheets all went in the back of the camper in the upper bins and I bought a nice hanging closet that fit perfectly against the wall in the back corner by the bathroom. Carabiners hung all over the overhead racks so that we could hang backpacks, or whatever else needed a home. Any of our camping gear could easily stow on the floor of the camper, tied down until we arrived at the camp site and set up.

That still left us with the entire bed of the truck to put any other gear we had, like our Mini Green Egg Grill and cooking table.

Climate Control - Whatever the temperature was outside, we could always count on the Basecamp to be the right temperature inside, as long as we were connected to power. It is such a small unit and the AC and Heater are so effective that they will cool or heat the area quickly and they’ll keep it that way. While in many campers, the AC is super loud and annoying, we found the AC to be a good volume. It covered up any outside noises and gave us ambient sound so we could sleep our faces off without feeling like we were in a wind turbine.

There is propane heat that will keep the area warm via a furnace under the bed area, but I preferred the overhead unit’s electric heat source instead.

During the cold of the winter, I turned on the tank heater and turned on the electric heater inside when it got below freezing and never had any issues. One night we stayed in super cold weather and the hose going into the city water source actually froze, as did the spicket, but once it warmed up we were good to go again. We didn’t have any bursted pipes or any problems caused by the freezing temperatures.

Towability - I wanted something I could pull easily with my Tacoma and not get terrible gas milage, so the 2600 lb weight of the Basecamp was super appealing. At only 16ft is more maneuverable than most other campers out there. One thing to keep in mind is the 400lbs of hitch weight that the Basecamp has. Hitch weight directly takes away from your vehicles payload capacity, so this can become an issue.

I did enjoy towing the Basecamp generally, but there were definitely some times in strong side winds and at night that there was a bit more sway that I would have liked. This made me pretty on edge for hours at a time, especially when driving at night in rainy conditions. At the time, a sway control bar felt like over kill but in retrospect, maybe it is a good idea.

There are so many amazing things about the Airstream Basecamp. Our 18 months in it was such a blast. I’m excited to see how Vanlife in our Hymer Aktiv will compare. Honestly, I’m a little nervous that it won’t quite stack up. We’ll find out soon :)