"Dahon Jack" folding bike at our campsite in Florida

Putting bikes on the roof of your car is like dragging an anchor with weeds attached to deep mucky water. Your milage gets hit, you have to scream to communicate to your co-pilot in order to rise above the howling noise-floor, you are always at risk of loosing parts while forcing 70mph winds through those spokes and after 3000 miles of wind, dust, dirt, salt and water your bikes need a lot of love to unsquawk themselves and you have more grease on your Airstream than on your bike chain.

Putting bikes in the trailer was not an option, especially in our 16 foot DWR Airstream. So I thought why not use folding bikes.  But, I wanted full size “folders”.  I’m not a fan of the wobbly nature of the small folding bikes out there.  I also didn’t want to spend a fortune on bikes we mostly use to tool around campgrounds.

The Solution

I found a fat tire folding moutain-ish bike for around $600.  The Dahon Jack D7 Folding Bike. I works very well for our needs.  We added baskets to the front so we could haul our recycling to the campsite recycling bin, the trash to the dumpster, the wine to our friends and the food to our picnic.

Both “folders” fit in the back of our Volvo XC90 and are protected from the elements and we can listen to music while driving again.

A New Option

Airstream just announced a bike rack for the back of the Airstream.  It requires drilling and clutters up the backside of the silver bubble. I still prefer folding bikes packed away securely if you have the extra space in your vehicle. Otherwise there now is new official option in town.

Airstream DWR camping on Madeline Island, Wisconsin

We love camping on Madeline Island in Wisconsin.  And now with our trusty rice cooker we are set to attract all the bears in the forest.

I like using a rice cooker since it gives me space on our two-burner stove when cooking.  I set the time when the rice should be done, letting me focus on cooking the rest of the meal.  By the way cooking in the DWR 16′ Airstream is certainly tight but very much fun. No mosquitos, good music, wine, hey hey.  One pot meals are my favorite, like huevos rancheros, pasta, stir fry’s etc. (lots of chillies).

I decided to put the rice cocker outside since it steams quite a bit and that makes for lots of condensation, which a small trailer doesn’t like.

So here we were on our favorite campsite at Big Bay State Park … that is until our hooligan friends showed up.

Our Mercedes L 207 (1977) Camping Bus

In 1977, my parents decided to buy a brand new Mercedes van in Germany, where we lived.  It was a “Kastenwagen” meaning, it was completely unfinished on the inside except for the front seats and the dash.  My  father immediately dropped it off at a camping conversion outfit and they outfitted the van with bench/beds, curtains, kitchen, fridge, heater etc.

Then we traveled all over Europe for the next 10 years with an under-powered 4 cylinder that liked to vapor-lock. We puttered up the Alps and drum-braked our way down the hills.  This Mercedes L 207 was actually a rebranded Hanomag Henschel with a Austin Motor Company 4-banger. Mercedes did nothing except put their star on the front, back and on the steering wheel.

It was a dog.  But, we saw the world without power-stearing, air-conditioning, or seat-belts.  We traveled all of Europe and slept on the roof-rack when we were in Greece, watching the starry night sky.

Our last family trip with all the family was in 1983, up to Scandinavia, where my mother forced us (me and my two brothers) to stop and sight-see  every church on the way, until we said: “No! No more.”  The next year my oldest brother, Mike, was killed in a motorcycle accident and the family camping trips came to a close.

My father Arthur Thomas with our Mercedes L 207 Camping Bus still in operation in Germany

But then my brother Mark Thomas and I decided to rebuild the rusted-out bus.  It took us a year and we even made it through Germany’s TÜV inspection. Rebuilt motor, radiator, wooden floor, carrier-beams, interior, seals, paint etc.  It was a labor of love.  The color went from green to white.

After then I left Germany and could not use our camping bus much anymore, but my parents still use it a little in the summer.

So now when we barrel up the Rockies with my engine temperature gauge staying where it always is, going 70 mph and pulling our beloved 4000 lbs DWR Airstrem with our Volvo XC90 V8, I remember the days of climbing the Alps with 10 passengers in second gear with the engine stuttering in vapor-lock, since the radiator was a piece of crap, going 15 mph in the emergency lane.  We had to remove the interior engine hood between the front seats and the engine was just blaring, smoking and stuttering.

So, I loved camping and traveling, but the under-powered “camping bus” was always an adventure.  Thanks for all the fun, so many stories.

• When our window was shot by a BB gun in Belgrade
• When I got stung by a wasp that flew in the window while driving on the Autobahn to Munich
• When 7 people slept in this cramped space
• When our dog Pado, leaned into the shifter and put the bus into neutral, making it roll into a garage and ruining the roof, while my father got something out of the house.
• When visitors would puke while sitting in the far back while driving through the Black Forest, since the Mercedes fish-tailed.
• When my brother Mark and I had the left rear wheel ball bearing collapse on the Autobahn in Switzerland.
• and so much more … all a good time.

Oh, and did I mention that it drives like a tank? But, as my father said, it always got us there an back again.

I wanted to tow the DWR Bambi Airstream with our Volvo XC70 station wagon, but since we couldn’t get a class 3 hitch mounted, we needed to upgrade our tow-vehicle and we hit it right with the Volvo XC90 Sport.

Volvo XC90 pulling a 2008 DWR Airstream trailer up the Oregon coast

The whole point of a travel trailer is that when you disconnect you have a great vehicle to explore the region you are camping in and you have a great vehicle to sit in for 27 hours while driving to Florida or California during the winter for a break from the cold.  I would not have been able to sit in most other tow-vehicles for 17 hours nearly non-stop and still be able to walk.

Auto-Leveling Rear Suspension

Since the Volvo XC90 Sport can carry 7 people it has the NIVOMAT LEVEL CONTROL SYSTEM (fully automatic) already installed that is an automatic shock absorber adjustment, depending on the load the car is carrying. The car returns to its unloaded height level automatically once the Airstream is disconnected from the Volvo.  This also meant we didn’t need to get a clumsy load-balancing hitch.

Mirrors

Volvo XC90 Caravan Mirrors

You can also see on the pictures that we use Volvo’s caravan mirrors that give me a great view all around the DWR Airstream. Another benefit is that since the mirrors stick out, it is a great aid while driving through tight spaces, since the mirrors jut out a little past the trailer’s width.

Mirrors are cheap, Airstreams are not.  The mirrors also pop off easily once we unhitch the Airstream trailer by opening the hood on the Volvo XC90. Tristan Grobel from Borton Volvo in Minneapolis found them for me.

Split Tailgate

Volvo XC90 tailgate split

Another great feature of the Volvo XC90 is that the Tailgate is split into two parts.  This means that we can access the trunk space while being connected to the Airstream trailer.

If Volvo would have made the rear hatch in one section, the trailer lift jack would be in the way and you would have to disconnect the trailer to get to the items in your trunk.

Also, you can sit on the bottom hatch section and put your hiking boots on. And, it certainly makes it easy to rest heavy items on there while you make space for the item in your trunk.

Shifting with Geartronic

The amazing thing is that even with the extra weight of the trailer the Volvo XC90 Sport handles with such ease and pulls uphill at 70MPH without showing much strain.  When I’m driving on the freeway, I use the cruise control and when I hit a hill the Volvo will usually shift down from 6th to 5th, on steeper hills it will shift to 4th.  If it really gets steep, it will shift to 3rd – but then why scream up a hill? So, I use the geartronic shifter and switch it back to 4th; this will make the rig slow dow a bit, but I think it is much more pleasant that way.

DWR Airstream easily pulled up over the Rocky Mountains by a Volvo XC90 Sport

I use the greatronic shifter all the time.  I can anticipate a downshift and force the Volvo XC90 Sport to stay in a certain gear, making for a much smoother, less revved-up ride.  On descents I will downshift and let the engine do most of the breaking. Even when rolling to a stop sign or stop light, I will downshift taking the load off the brakes.  I drive this way with or without the Airstream trailer.

Brake-Tax

In fact I would propose a “brake-tax.” If you have to use the brakes, you didn’t anticipate and look far enough ahead.  The “brake-tax” would be a meter in your car counting the number of times you depress the brake pedal when driving and you would pay the state to improve the roads.

I see brake lights going off like firecrackers, for no good reason except that everybody is tailgating and therefore can’t anticipate speed changes of the traffic ahead.  When you leave enough distance, you will hardly need to brake.  Of course, the person behind you is freaking out because they might not get to their destination 30-seconds earlier with burned-out brake-pads, stressed out body and maybe feeling unconsciously bad about having pushed other people around.

So, I really like space in front of me and I’m certain the persons in front of me likes space behind them.  I’m not pushing and if they are slow, I pass, yes even with the Airstream.  It is amazing what torque the V8 Yamaha engine in the Volvo XC90 Sport can crank out, if necessary.

My list of good driving includes:

• Keep a distance and give space to other vehicles – especially bikes and motorcycles
• Merge at same speed as freeway traffic, get it up to speed, don’t dwaddle
• Signal all your turns
• Try to drive using your breaks as little as possible, this will solve most bad driving behavior from the start. It is amazing how coasting will slow you down when you have the space to do it in.
• Don’t push!  Only push if you like to be pushed.
• Enjoy the process of driving; don’t focus on getting to the destination – there are many beautiful people and places between start and finish.

So that is how I drive and why I love a wonderfully-designed and well-powered tow-vehicle to pull our beautiful DWR Airstream trailer.

This is why we camp. To be in nature and to live a life of luxury while being there.

Airstream external refrigerator access panel with replacement fan by Noctua (NF-S12-800)

I read the forums and found out that other people had the same problem. So, I ordered a fan by Noctua for $50 (Noctua NF-S12-800).  I installed it and added some rubber spacers to isolate the fan from the wood panel that it connects to.  The Noctua NF-S12-800 is a 12V fan that only uses 0.60 watts and was meant to be used as a super quiet cooling fan for a computer enclosure. The new fan works well to keep air moving through the fridge cooling fins. And, I can’t hear a thing. I have to hold my face near the vent to feel that air is moving. As a trained recording and audio mastering engineer, you could argue that my ears are super sensitive. But, the fan also annoyed my wife as well. So, now, both of our ears are happy campers!

When attending a hiking retreat with Robert Thurman at Menla Mountain Retreat & Conference Center, the staff kindly let us boondock on their beautiful grounds.

I’m sure the old fan moved more air and made the refrigerator more efficient, but the noise was unacceptable. There is another benefit as well.  When boon-docking, the battery didn’t drain nearly as fast. In fact, we dry camped at Menla Mountain Retreat Center in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York for four days and the solar system kept the battery levels around 60%.  That would have never happened with the old fan. We would have been lucky to eek out one or two days and would have had to turn the fridge off at night, so that we could sleep.

Reasons to replace the Airstream stock refrigerator fan:

Pros: super quiet; uses much less energy

Cons: makes refrigerator slightly less efficient

Night falls around The Streaming Daemon

Living in the deepfreeze that is Minnesota, we are always looking forward to a beach vacation. We were about to travel 3100 miles to get some sun and saltwater in our faces when the nose-biting cold bit us hard. It is difficult to think at -6 degrees Fahrenheit, especially when it comes to connecting a trailer after a six-month travel break. I got our DWR Airstream and Volvo all packed and hooked up and was ready to roll south, but I couldn’t get power to our trailer.  After taking the fuse boxes apart, inspecting electrical panels, cables and connections, and tearing my hair out, it turned out that I simply had plugged in the trailer plug upside down. This will never happen to me again. My wife was already on the Internet looking for a last-minute Hawaiian get-away, so I knew that I had to figure out my lost power issue or we were going to be flying to Aloha-land instead of driving to Florida.

I love to troubleshoot, it is a huge part of my job as a Macintosh computer consultant, but not at 5 AM when my extremities are frozen.  I had to hot tub just to thaw my brain and come to my senses and look at the plug again. It is most often the simplest element in the chain the gets overlooked.

We finally got going and I drove 17 hours (950 miles)  the first day to make up for lost time and and to avoid the blizzard that was coming our way.

Travel path of our Florida trip in spring of 2009

The next day I drove another 400 miles, and when we rolled into Saint Joseph Peninsula State Park, I parked and didn’t even disconnect the car from the trailer for 5 days.  Saint Joseph Peninsula State Park is a beautiful camping spot and we enjoyed every day – even when the temp dropped from 73F to 35F with 35 mile winds. Here are some pictures of this stunning Florida State Park.

DWR Airstream + Volvo XC90 V8 Sport in the Badlands, SD (photo: Martin Thomas)

I love Volvos, for many reasons, so I had to find one that could pull our new DWR Airstream. We went to our dealership and drove a used 2004  XC90 and it was uninspired. I talked to my wonderful sales person, Tristan Grobel at Borton Volvo in Minneapolis, MN and asked, “What about the new Sport Edition?” and he said, “I’ll let you drive it. You’re going to love it.”  He was right.  The moment I opened the door, Kate screamed, “This is it.” And, once I started the V8 and took the first corner, I was hooked.  What a great car.  What a fantastic ride.  Tight, quick and a nice V8 roar when you kick it.

We bought it and Borton Volvo installed my brake controller for pulling the “Streaming Daemon.” That was so much fun for them that we brought the mechanic two 24-packs of Budweiser (that is what the guy liked) when we picked up the Volvo XC90 Sport as a bonus for his effort.  They had to remove the seats and run new cables to the back. Fun!

Then we drove out to Eugene, Oregon to pick up one of the last remaining DWR Airstreams. Tom Hanks bought the other DWR model at our dealership.

Zipping over the Rockies with this V8 beast was more than fun.

Pulling the Airstream is even better.

It is so smooth, quiet and powerful. A combo one seldom sees. I even have a feeling we might be the only people in the US pulling an Airsteam with a Swedish car named WOTAN. It is a great combo. Great design and performance front and back.

DWR Airstream Bambi with Volvo XC 90 Sport in Wyoming

Airstream Camping in Port Crescent State Park‎, MI (photo: Martin Thomas)

We’re docked for the winter – and, it’s a cold one this year. We’re looking forward to parking the Streamin’ Daemon at a beach like we did here in Port Crescent State Park‎ last summer in Michigan. We swam in Lake Huron and watched the sun set.  It was one of our favorite State Park campgrounds on our trip coming back from The Catskill Mountains.

Saint Paul, MN to Catskills Mountains, NY and back

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