FRONT RUNNER ON THE MOVE: August Hausman

- 2022-12-02

Musician and interior designer August Hausman lives out of a beautifully restored 1968 Airstream with his new wife Madison and their pup Meadow. Hausman invested a good deal of time and money into the renovation and the three are now living their mobile home dream. We chatted to August about what it takes to tow the Airstream, how their Front Runner products have assisted in the effective use of space and storage (on their vehicle to save space in the tiny home), and some of the best spots where they've parked the Airstream.

Home is where you park it, right? You really have lived that line over the past year. Roughly how many kilometres have you done in the past 12 months or so?

I’d say roughly about 50 000 to 60 000 — just off the top of my head.

You’re on the road pretty much full-time, but still make some smaller missions too, correct?

Indeed, living on the road — so to speak — is kind of a never-ending expedition, constantly moving from place to place, always learning and going through the hoop of figuring things out, but in between it all, I’d say we try to do shorter one or two-night little trips deeper off-road, to areas where we can’t take the Airstream. That way we add a bit of an additional adventure element and when we do come back (from camping in a tent) the trailer feels like a nice cozy mansion.

Out of all the spots you’ve ever camped in, what are your 5 favorites?

My Grand Father’s Bison Ranch

It is about a thousand acres in central Montana in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest area and we like staying out there because it is simply amazing having all that freedom. It also has some incredible skies, sunsets, and stars, but we also like being there because of having the purpose of taking care of the family land and doing daily chores on the ranch.

Alabama Hills, California

Madison and I both love to climb, and being out there and being able to camp and just walk over to the crags and climb is epic.

Revel Stoke, British Columbia

We love this place for the same reason as Alabama Hills and the two areas are very much on par. I’m not going to give away exactly where in Revel Stoke, but if someone does their research, I'm sure they can find it.

Tofino, Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Madison is a big beach girl, so we love staying up in the far North West area of British Columbia. We had to put everything on ferries to get the Airstream to Vancouver Island and spent a good bit of time up there. Aside from the beautiful coastline, there are also great towns where we could hit civilization for a bit.

Any river line in Idaho

We love fly fishing so it’s really special to spend time along any of those streams and be able to walk from the Airstream to wade and cast for trout.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve ever had to deal with on a trip?

We’ve actually been pretty lucky with no major dramas, but there is one funny story: We were about 25 miles down a remote forest road somewhere along the Oregon/Idaho border and the plan was to spend three or four nights out there. We’d filled up the water tank in the Airstream (which holds about 25 gallons) at the last town and at one stage I looked out the window only to see this trail of water behind us. We realized we had never turned our water pump off and over a bump or something it turned on the faucet and drained our entire water system. Not only did we lose all our water, but it flooded the Airstream (we had a 4” deep puddle across the entire rig), so we had to dry it out. Fortunately, we had our Front Runner Pro Water Tank on the truck so we had a backup supply for drinking and cooking and could purify out of the river, but it was definitely a wet night.

Can you give us a brief rundown of some of your favorite Front Runner?

It’s all about storage and saving space, right? Our Front Runner gear has really helped us keep our lives organized. Just as a small example, we always used to have a jerry can in the back of the truck with extra fuel, with that now mounted on our Slimline II Roof Rack it’s solid, secure and out of the way. Aside from mounting gear and effective packing, the one piece of gear that has been an absolute game-changer for us has been the Pro Stainless Steel Camp Table that mounts under the rack. That, combined with the Easy-Out Awning just makes for the perfect chill-area setup sheltered from the elements.

Where to next?

Well, we have these snowboarding passes, where you get two days at a bunch of slopes, so we’re going to cruise up to the ranch in Montana and then spend New Year’s there and then start a trip south. The plan is to tour through the Tetons and Targhee and down into Utah. From there we’re going to keep on winding down into New Mexico and snowboard along the way. After that we’re going to go East which we haven’t done yet, we’re going to loop around through New Orleans and then maybe hit the Tennessee area, the idea being to avoid being in Montana or Wyoming for the really intense part of the winter and then make our way back west in Spring.

If you could give somebody traveling (towing) with an Airstream or trailer one tip, what would that be?

Traveling as a couple we’ve learned that you need to clearly delegate your tasks on the checklist. We each have our roles for when we pack up or unpack and we just stick to that. This helps it all go smoothly (and fast) and there are no arguments even in crazy weather or long days.