1967 Airstream Overlander · 26 ft · Joe & Cat
One layout, four lives: tool and wood storage while we build, rolling office and home for the nomad years, base camp for festivals, and the guest rooms in the driveway at the cabin. The 1967 face stays — walnut, seafoam bath, moon caps — and the guts go modern.
Updated September 2026. Found on Grand Rapids Craigslist. The August 31 inspection told the real story: new LVP over the original, soggy plywood, rusted-through wheel-well liners, an old leaf-spring axle conversion due for a refresh, and four tires dry-rotted beyond use — while the structure passed everywhere it counts: main frame rails, rear crossmember (stood on the bumper), shell, and the untouched seafoam bath. She had good bones but needed a shell-off renovation, and we bought her on exactly that basis, in September 2026.
September 2026 — she's home. Four new ST225/75R15s mounted and back on the original six-lug rims ($740 all-in with disposal). Against expectations, the original taillights and electric brakes both worked; the rechargeable wireless lights rode along on the bumper as backup anyway. Windows taped, door deadbolted, and the ~25-mile tow home behind the Ascent was smooth and surprisingly cushy. Punch-list from the tow: replace the single inadequate safety chain with a proper crossed pair (rated above trailer weight), and add a breakaway kit when the brakes get their full renovation. Next up: Phase 1 — dry & sound, before Michigan's fall rain.
She's currently mode one — full of lumber and tools, waiting on her new floor — but that hasn't stopped us from dreaming. This is the layout we keep sketching on napkins: where we'll sleep, where we'll work, where the batteries hide, and where guests will wake up wondering why their room has rivets. It will keep evolving as the build teaches us things; the drawing below is the dream as of today.
Queen up front under the big front window — a cool-sleeping nook by design, which is exactly how you two like it. Measure the front curve at mattress height before building the platform; orientation follows the tape measure. Under-bed storage takes the light, bulky stuff so tongue weight stays honest, and a fitted window cover handles festival privacy.
Counter, sink, and propane cooktop stay on the existing plumbing wall; the original fridge bay takes a modern 12V compressor fridge. Propane cooking keeps the inverter load light and never touches the battery bank.
Facing benches (Option A) with the full-size table, aft of the galley with the rear window as the desk view. The bench boxes are the battery vault — the lithium bank rides inside them, centered over the axles where the frame carries weight best, with short runs to the power wall. Drops flat into the guest bed, conveniently right next to the bath.
Untouched 1967 seafoam, kept on purpose. A real bathtub is the rarest luxury in any trailer, vintage or new — this one is the trailer's signature and its single most valuable original feature.
Same dinette zone, two furniture plans. The choice is really about what the space is most of the time: a dining room that becomes an office, or an office that becomes a dining room. (Layout note, Sept 2026: at Cat's suggestion the dinette moved aft and the bedroom moved to the front — these sketches show the bench shapes, which apply the same way in the rear zone.)
The deciding question: how often will the driveway guest-room mode need a second real bed? Regular overflow guests → Option A. Guests mostly get the queen while you two take the cabin → Option B is the better daily office.
Her first job, starting now: a dry, lockable shop annex in the driveway. Lumber, tools, and parts stage inside while the renovation happens around them — nothing moisture-sensitive until dry-and-sound is proven by a rainstorm.
The guest-ready milestone: shore power, furnace running, queen up front and the dinette dropping flat for overflow, bath working. Heated and insulated, it hosts well past summer.
First outings, with hookups: full-service campgrounds while the systems shake down. Water, sewer, and 30-amp on tap, A/C without touching the bank — the low-stakes dress rehearsal for the road.
Final form, fully off-grid: solar and the battery bank carry the fridge, fans, lights, Starlink, and days of festival camp; the awning side faces the party and the tub earns cult status by Sunday. Then south for Cat's winters — Gulf Coast, desert Southwest, Baja.
Designed around a boondocking workday — both of you online, fridge running, Starlink up — with an inverter-type A/C running partial duty through a warm evening as the stretch case.
| Daily load | Est. per day | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 12V compressor fridge | 1.0 kWh | largest constant load |
| Two laptops + monitor | 0.7 kWh | full workday |
| Starlink Mini | 0.4 kWh | ~30W × 12h |
| Lights, fans, pump, toilet fan | 0.5 kWh | Maxxair ~30W is the big one |
| Furnace blower (cold night) | 0.7 kWh | winter only — propane does the heating |
| Misc charging | 0.2 kWh | phones, tools |
| Baseline | ~3.5 kWh | |
| + Evening A/C (inverter unit) | +2–3 kWh | 6–8h partial duty, 400–900W modulating |
| Design day | ~6.5 kWh |
| Hardware | Have | Target | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battery bank | 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 units | 600–800Ah ≈ 7.7–10 kWh | 6–8 × 100Ah paralleled in the dinette bench vaults over the axles |
| Roof solar | assorted 100W panels | 800–1,000W on roof | use matched 100W panels in series strings; one MPPT per string type |
| Portable solar | assorted 50W panels | 300–400W ground array | 50W panels wired as a deployable suitcase set on its own MPPT — chase sun while the trailer sits in shade |
| Inverter/charger | — | 12V 3,000W inverter-charger | one box does inverter + shore charging (e.g. Victron MultiPlus) |
| Charge sources | — | 2 × MPPT + 50A DC-DC + shore inlet | DC-DC adds ~600Wh per driving hour |
| Monitoring | — | shunt + battery monitor | the gauge that makes off-grid predictable |
Why it works: ~900W of roof solar returns 4–5 kWh on a winter-sun day, the ground array adds 1.5–2, and the bank carries two baseline days with zero sun. A/C runs off the bank in the evening and the sun repays it by afternoon. Around-the-clock humid-summer A/C stays a shore-power activity — which the warm-winter migration route mostly avoids anyway. System stays 12V throughout: every RV appliance (pump, fans, fridge, furnace) speaks it natively.
Sequenced so each phase protects the next: nothing goes in until the shell is dry, walls don't close until systems are roughed in, and "guest-ready" arrives long before "road-ready" — matching how you'll actually use it. Dates assume working couple weekends with occasional long weekends, starting September 2026.
| Phase | When | The work | Exit test |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 · Purchase & recovery | Sep 2026 — DONE ✓ | Purchased, title in hand, new tires ($740), lights and brakes working, towed home home without drama | trailer in the driveway ✓ |
| 1 · Dry & sound | Sep–Dec 2026 | Skylight and window panes replaced, every seam and vent resealed, full subfloor replacement with secondary steel and new wheel-well liners, frame de-rusted and painted, suspension refreshed, belly pan patched | a rainstorm leaves the inside bone dry, on solid wood |
| 2 · Systems rough-in | Nov 2026–Feb 2027 | Electrical backbone and 12V runs, PEX plumbing, fresh/grey/urine tanks, furnace and ducting, wool/Thinsulate insulation — then interior skins close | walls shut with nothing left inside them to regret |
| 3 · Guest-ready 🏁 | Mar–May 2027 | Bed platform (strut-hinged) + mattress, dinette A benches and table, Separett installed, shore power live, furnace running, bath refreshed | first overnight guest, driveway mode |
| 4 · Road-ready 🏁 | Jun–Oct 2027 | Roof solar mounted, ground array kit, DC-DC, water heater, A/C, running lights/brakes certified, CAT-scale weigh, tow vehicle acquired, shakedown weekend within 100 miles | a two-night off-grid shakedown with zero hookups |
| 5 · South 🏁 | Nov 2027 | Florida / Texas. Polish (the 100-hour shine) stays optional, forever | Cat, warm, in November |
| Item | Rough range | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Trailer | ✓ purchased | Sep 2026, west Michigan |
| Tires (4, ST225/75R15 D) | $740 ✓ paid | mounted on original 6-lug rims incl. disposal, moon caps stay |
| Electric brakes | $150–250 | worked for the tow home! full renovation + breakaway kit still planned |
| Safety chains (pair, rated) | $40–80 | replace the single undersized chain before it moves again |
| Suspension refresh | $400–800 | leaf-spring conversion: springs, shackles, hangers; check hangers pre-tow |
| Floor + steel + wheel wells | $1,000–1,500 | full subfloor, secondary members, galvanized liners, rear patch |
| Electrical backbone | $2,000–3,000 | 3kW inverter-charger, 2 MPPTs, 50A DC-DC, shunt, wiring |
| Battery bank (600–800Ah) | $1,000–1,500 | 6–8 × 100Ah LiFePO4 in the bench vaults |
| A/C (inverter type + install) | $1,200–3,000 | 12V rooftop or small mini-split; fans first |
| Solar panels | $0 | roof + ground arrays from your existing stock |
| Plumbing + tanks + water heater | $1,500–2,500 | PEX, tankless, fresh/grey + urine tank, no black tank |
| Toilet (Separett Tiny, tube) | $700–800 | plus ~$60 dedicated urine tank |
| Heat + insulation | $1,000–2,000 | ducted propane furnace, wall insulation |
| Interior build-out | $2,000–4,000 | bed platform, dinette, finishes — your labor |
| Tow vehicle (eventual) | TBD | Ascent moves it home; loaded nomad weight wants a 7,500+ lb rig |
All-in, roughly $16–23k including the trailer (tow vehicle aside). Comparable renovated 26-footers with modern off-grid systems are selling for roughly $35–55k (restored-1960s guide range $50–115k at the concours end; regional comps: renovated '65 Sovereign at $41k, restored '64 Tradewind asking $29k) — the spread over your cost is your labor and parts shelf converted to equity. Market prices, not guarantees.
The trailer flunked its floor inspection and we bought her anyway — this layout stands on the new subfloor we now know we're building, over the frame that passed with flying colors. Dimensions are schematic — measure the real interior before cutting anything. The seafoam bath is load-bearing (emotionally).