I’m still learning one of the main things about owning an Airstream travel trailer that no none tells you when you are shopping:  They look beautiful, tow like a dream, hold value better than practically every other brand of RV… but they are what I’m now lovingly calling “Maintenance Queens.”  (Sort of like an airplane that’s a “hanger queen,” which spends more time on the ground than in the air, or the car that’s a “garage queen,” and is broken down more often than it’s running.)

If you don’t keep up with maintenance on an Airstream, it will most assuredly come back to bite you in the butt!  Which is why the past several days have been spent replacing the belt trim on mine.  The old, chrome molding was flaking off and looking terrible, so it was time to pull it off, clean all the filthy channel works, and install this new, black trim instead of chrome.

And I couldn’t be happier!  The black trim really pops, sets off the black windows, dark smoke vent covers and black solar panels.  And this item is off the maintenance list for at least five years!  (Plus, I can’t wait to see this new look hooked up behind my all black tow vehicle!)

Maintenance queen she may be – but she’s worth every bit of the work!