"sefeing, actually bought an E46" (sefeing90)
08/24/2020 at 10:55 • Filed to: RV, Motorhome, Review, Fleetwood
5
10|
"sefeing, actually bought an E46" (sefeing90)
08/24/2020 at 10:55 • Filed to: RV, Motorhome, Review, Fleetwood | 5
| 10 |
I’ve never really driven a motorhome before, so driving this thing from my fiancé’s father’s place in the Poconos to Denver was a very new experience for me. This is my (sort of) review of the 1998 Fleetwood Bounder 30E
Warren Dunes, Michigan
The trip started last month when we thought “hmm, we have this motorhome at our disposal, because her dad’s generously offered to let us borrow it, so we should actually take a trip this summer, since it’s easy to keep to ourselves in this”. We originally planned to drive out to California, and sort of bounce around a bit since we’re both working remotely and have hotspots / etc to connect to the internet with.
What we ultimately decided was that we didn’t really know how confident we were about taking someone else’s 22 year old, 90K mile RV past Colorado, in the mountains twice, so we found friends that were planning on going to Denver around the same time anyway, and the 4 of us ( after we all quarantined ourselves & tested negative for COVID-19 ) decided we’d do a trip out here, see some friends that live in the area, and then head back - hitting some Americana-esque stuff in the midwest along the way.
Right now, we’ve completed the first half of the journey, writing this from a buddy’s couch just outside of Denver proper. We head back towards the east coast Thursday AM.
Here’s my experience driving this thing:
The motorhome:
It’s a 1998 Fleetwood Bounder 30E, with a Chevy 454 7.4 Vortec, making something around 290HP / 410 Ft/Lbs of torque. For the most part, everything in the coach works, which is great for being 23 years old. There’s only a few things that need some attention, which I’ll get to.
The Interior:
The interior is 23 years old, and it’s stayed that way - her dad’s had it for about a year and a half. In that time, he’s re-done the plumbing, the exhaust manifolds, and put in a new windshield. Other than that, the original CRT TV’s are still in place, and it smells like your grandma’s home.
The seats are all VERY comfy, which makes 6+ hour drives not that bad.
It’s got a bathroom with a shower (all works fine), a stove and microwave and a fridge, and air conditioning - all which can be hooked up to shore power or run off pumps / generator. The only issue we’ve had here, is the hot water heater ignitor, which I fixed yesterday with a new circuit board from amazon.
Acceleration: (3/10)
What did you expect? It’s a chevy big block V8 that’s trying to pull an 11 x 7 x 30 foot box that weights 6 tons. It gets up to 60-65, and that’s about it. We ran for a while at 70-75 before doing some quick research and finding out about the dangers of tire ratings, as well as drastically worse fuel economy (more on that)
Braking (2/10)
To be honest, I think the brakes need some work. It stops, but you reaaaaaly have to push the pedal in. We leave plenty of distance
Handling & Ride Comfort (4/10)
For whatever reason, I expected the ride to be much softer than it is. It has air suspension up front (with a small leak, so I carry a compressor to fill occasionally) and leaf in the rear for towing. It’s smoothish on smooth roads, but terrible on bad roads because of the weight. Double rear axle in the back.
Once we started to climb to altitude, it was relatively easy to notice that the engine was struggling.
I also suspect it needs a good wheel balance because of some vibrations at speed.
First camp night
Features (9/10)
Here’s where the barge really shine s though. 30 Amp hookup, 4k watt generator, I can cook, shower, charge everything, and use the bathroom without needing to leave the box. It has everything you need.
It’s not fancy and new, it doesn’t have slide-outs, but it has a relatively comfy queen bed and tons of storage, and lights. It’s an home on wheels. We can keep our food cold since the fridge runs both on AC power and LP propane, and I’ve only had to recharge the small leak in the Chevy front air system once this trip. The AC unit on the top of the coach was recently replaced after fiancé’s dad went under a bridge just a bit too low and took it off. Using outlets in motion requires the gen to be on, which in the interest of MPG, we only do if we really need to run the big AC because it’s hot.
With 100 gallons of fresh water & 50/50 grey/black, we still dump pretty much every campsite (less weight), but we haven’t filled totally.
Yes, I’ve dumped the poop. No, it hasn’t gotten on me.
It’s got hydraulic levelers, which I learned really need to be spot on when showering to avoid water going everywhere, but they work totally fine.
It loses a point for sound. It has 4 speakers, which handle 0 bass, and one definitely has a bad ground. I bought that a bluetooth tape adapter for tunes.
Visibility (7/10)
Huge front window, massive mirrors, and a rear view camera. Hell, even the rear view mirror works OK seeing out the back window 30 feet away.
That said, the headlights are mediocre, and night driving is not awesome.
Bugs.
MPG (4/10)
LOL. Better than expected. In the 1800 or so miles we took to get out here, we averaged around 11MPG. I was expecting closer to 6-8. Fill ups are around $100, with a 60 gallon tank on 87 octane. I wasn’t expecting Prius economy, and having 45 ways to split what we’re estimating around $1k in fuel for the trip isn’t bad.
That’s about all I’ve got so far. I’ll update again after our return trip, but until then, AMA!
We went on a local test-trip before this big one, which was my first time driving the coach - it took a bit to get used to the size and how wide it was, but once adjusted.
We’re not staying in it while we’re here in Denver, since none of our friends have land to park it on, so it’s sitting at a friends’ parents’ place just outside of Denver for a bit.
facw
> sefeing, actually bought an E46
08/24/2020 at 11:03 |
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It’s amazing that even 23 years ago someone thought that was a good look for the interior. I guess they were targeting the retiree demographic then too.
It’s amazing that we let people drive vehicles this size with a normal license.
Where do you fill it up? Do you just pull into a normal gas station? I’d assume truck stops would be diesel?
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sefeing, actually bought an E46
> facw
08/24/2020 at 11:08 |
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1 - YES I AGREE
2 - I also agree here. I really thought I’d need a CDL or similar, and this isn’t even the BIG size... You need a special license to drive a school bus, but not this, and that’s terrifying.
3 - Yep, normal stations. The fuel filler is behind the rear license plate, so getting really tight up on the pump is necessary. Awful placement for the filler, and usually just have to pull way far up
smobgirl
> sefeing, actually bought an E46
08/24/2020 at 11:30 |
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We had an old GMC growing up which my mom reupholstered immediately. (Sadly, because those plaid seats were AMAZING). I think the last license plate it had was “8 MPG”
I never want to drive something that large. A 26 foot box truck was plenty.
VincentMalamute-Kim
> sefeing, actually bought an E46
08/24/2020 at 11:37 |
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I’m surprised you didn’t take out any stop signs or gas station bollards while making a turn.
It has air suspension and no on-board air compressor?
“Double rear axle in the back.” - I assume you mean “Dual Rear Wheels”?
Emptying black tanks wasn’t bad? That is my biggest phobia with RVs.
Interior styling appears to have advanced only minimally since my friend’s 1974 GMC Motorhome.
adamftw
> sefeing, actually bought an E46
08/24/2020 at 11:45 |
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11 mpg
is fucking stellar. My dad’s 2015 31' with a V10 Ford got 7-8. Chevy power!
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sefeing, actually bought an E46
> smobgirl
08/24/2020 at 12:21 |
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I love that license plate, hah!
As we came into Denver and traffic started piling back up, it became clear to me how god damn talented tractor trailer drivers are, I can’t imagine putting this thing over the GW bridge, much less something 2x the size
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sefeing, actually bought an E46
> VincentMalamute-Kim
08/24/2020 at 12:27 |
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I’m surprised too, lol, but I take pride in really being careful, especially with someone else’s’ property. Yep - meant double rear wheels, not 2 axles. My bad.
As for the suspension, the way it was explained to me was that it’s air SHOCKS not springs, so I guess a somewhat closed system. There’s a gauge under the front cover with a little Schrader valve. No compressor that I know of, or if there is, it doesn’t work - but for this motor home everything I’ve read points to a closed system that doesn’t have a compressor, that needs to be adjusted now and again.
Relatively new hoses and valves meant that emptying the tanks really wasn’t that bad - just triple check connections and test with a bit of Grey water before putting the black through (and then grey to flush it).
I wonder at what point in the 2000’s they started modernizing interiors, lol.
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sefeing, actually bought an E46
> adamftw
08/24/2020 at 12:28 |
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Ayyyy! Yeah, I was surprised too, I wonder if we had more of a tail wind than we knew of!
Urambo Tauro
> sefeing, actually bought an E46
08/24/2020 at 13:00 |
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As motorhomes go, those Bounders were pretty legit. At least the ’90s ones. I seem to recall hearing that salesmen were encouraged to show off the build quality by doing pull-ups on the overhead cabinetry.
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sefeing, actually bought an E46
> Urambo Tauro
08/24/2020 at 14:01 |
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I’d believe it. As dated as it looks, everything feels SOLID