High mileage B-190s out there?

Can't go anywhere without a working drivetrain
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Reddeer
Seasoned Traveler
Posts: 137
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2012 1:40 pm
B190 Year: 1993
WBCCI: 0
Location: Santa Fe, NM

High mileage B-190s out there?

Post by Reddeer »

Hello All,

Just curious how far some of you have pushed your B-190. Another one with over 150,000 miles? 200,000?
We are at 117,000 after the last trip - 40,000 in 3 1/2 years. Speak up and be recognized.
Thanks.
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lido14co
Seasoned Traveler
Posts: 259
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 1:12 pm
B190 Year: 1992
WBCCI: 0
Location: Los Osos, CA

Re: High mileage B-190s out there?

Post by lido14co »

Our 92 had 58000 when we got it five years ago and now has 78k


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Mgittrich
Seasoned Traveler
Posts: 103
Joined: Wed Jul 24, 2013 9:01 pm
B190 Year: 1993
WBCCI: 0

Re: High mileage B-190s out there?

Post by Mgittrich »

I acquired my 93 B190 in 2009 with about 58,000 miles. I currently have 109,000 miles on my B190 averaging about 7,000 miles per year. I have had no breakdowns while traveling and it appears to be in good shape. The only real problems I've had are with a leaky transmission after a fluid change and rear brake issues. Both of these were resolved about 3 years ago have not been a problem since then.
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skater
Site Admin
Posts: 2569
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2007 1:00 am
B190 Year: 1991
WBCCI: 13270
Location: Annapolis, MD

Re: High mileage B-190s out there?

Post by skater »

Mine had about121,000 miles when I sold it 5 years ago.
1991 Airstream B190 - bought, 2005; sold, 2011; bought 2017
1995 Airstream Excella 30' trailer

WBCCI #13270, Washington, DC Unit
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pstrom
Newbie
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 8:34 pm
B190 Year: 1999
WBCCI: 0
Location: Jacksonville, FL

Re: High mileage B-190s out there?

Post by pstrom »

We bought our '99 at 165,000. It had gotten a new engine in May, 2012, at 151,000. We're just about 100 miles shy of 170,000 today, and it's humming right along. We hope to baby it to a quarter of a million miles. :-)
DavidP
Weekend Camper
Posts: 78
Joined: Wed Nov 25, 2015 8:01 pm
B190 Year: 1994
Location: Southern NJ

Re: High mileage B-190s out there?

Post by DavidP »

Me and my girl purchased ours a year ago with high mileage for cheep. All major components worked but it had wear and tear on the inside. Re-did the shower, closet, medicine cabinet, some of the head liner, reupholstered the couch, Fixed the isolator (fuse) reinstalled (rattling around) the fridge (norcold), microwave, and stove. and had custom removable mattress covers made $205 (if anyone interested I can give you the name of the company) cleaned curtains and replaced all slides that were broken, replace all 6 speakers. Found that the transmission had problems so I rebuilt it again (someone supposedly did it 40K before we bought it) replaced the slip yoke and 2 U-joints. If I had to pay someone for all this work it would have been well over $5K. I am a transmission Tech so I did the trans myself and me and my girl did the interior. I supplied the fabric and the upholstery shop charged us $410. Inside is super nice, runs perfect. Only had 2 issues since putting it in service in March 2016 over 11K miles. Generator would just shut off out of the blue. Found that the gas line was dry rotted and was sucking air. And the fridge stopped working on 12V. Found circuit breaker under couch failed open. Replaced breaker and relay. I love this thing. 177K so far. EDIT I almost forgot. Some previous owner replaced the bedroom windshield with a piece of safety glass so on a trip to NY the window EXPLODED causing a glass tornado! The correct laminated windshield, seal, lock with shipping was a $850 ordeal.
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pstrom
Newbie
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 8:34 pm
B190 Year: 1999
WBCCI: 0
Location: Jacksonville, FL

Re: High mileage B-190s out there?

Post by pstrom »

Wow, that's a lot of work! Good thing you're handy. And it looks like you're the winner on mileage. What year is your 190?

We also bought our '99 for what seemed like a good price, but we had to fly from Florida to California to pick it up and drive it back, and we also had to do a lot of repair and some modification. In no particular order, here's what we've done:

The original radio worked fine, and the speakers all sounded great, but the radio had a cassette player, and I wanted a CD player so we yanked the radio and installed a new one with all the bells and whistles. I still have the original one and will be happy to send it to anyone who wants it for the cost of shipping.

There was no TV, so we added a new 23 inch flatscreen and an HD DVD player, but couldn't find a practical way to connect to those nice original speakers.

Internal water lines were slow, so we had them blown out and cleaned, which solved the problem. Had the fridge serviced, because we weren't able to see the flame. Still can't, but we take it on faith that it is working when we go through the prescribed process of starting it up on gas, and it has not let us down.

The microwave oven proved unreliable so we put in a new one. It's the only thing so far that has cost less than we anticipated.

The centers on two of the wheel covers were missing. So we got a whole new set.

Added a backup camera.

Wasn't comfortable with the steering and handling, and wound up spending $3000 on ball joints, shocks, sway bar bushings, steering shaft, tie rods, new tires, a front end alignment, and new bags for the air suspension system. I love the way it drives now -- solid feel of the road and pretty much ignores crosswinds and passing semis.

During the drive back from California, something hit the windshield and cracked it. Luckily, insurance covered the replacement.

Lastly, we decided that having the couch block everything when it became a bed just wasn't acceptable. Leaving the back up, though, made the couch too narrow as a single bed. We removed the rollover mechanism and had an upholsterer cut the back in two, using material from the hidden side for the cut ends. The two halves are easy to handle and just go on the front seats at night.

I've lost track of some of the expenses along the way but I figure we've got about $24-25,000 in our Airstream at this point.

We've made two 5-day trips to Disney recently and plan to spend a little time in Georgia and Virginia in the next couple of months. Also planning a 5-6 week trip to Newfoundland in the summer. In nearly 60 years of camping, we have had everything from a pop-up camper to a class A and a couple of fifth wheels, but I think we have finally found our perfect rig. We are 80 years old, so this is probably our last RV, but we hope to give it plenty of use while we're still healthy.
Reddeer
Seasoned Traveler
Posts: 137
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2012 1:40 pm
B190 Year: 1993
WBCCI: 0
Location: Santa Fe, NM

Re: High mileage B-190s out there?

Post by Reddeer »

Great stories from B-190 land!
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