1999 American Dream purchase

If I am not mistaken, the American Dream was a Fleetwood product and well built. Some things just fail to do age and not use, especially rubber components. Some electronics, like boards on the refrigerator and water heater, also fail to do age, or at least that has been my experience.

As the owner of a 2000 American coach, the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT item to check is done by laying on your back and inspecting the underneath of the basement floor. The stupid engineers at Fleetwood build the basement compartments from steel tubing, and then covered it with aluminum sheet. The aluminum reacts with the steel and corrodes away, exposing the steel tubing to road water. Then the steel tubing rusts away and before you know it, the basement is falling off of the coach.

We have had our coach for over a decade and still enjoy it very much. The "Heart" inverter/charger is very outdated if it is still being used. The engine is a Cummins ISC and will last pretty much forever However, that engine has a known weakness with the design of the exhaust manifold leaking from the gasket and may need to be replaced.

The design of the windshield support is weak and tends to cause broken windshields unless you learn very quickly how to extend the leveling jacks properly. AC decided to use three jacks rather than 4. Procedure is to raise the single front jack first, than level side to side with the rear jacks while pivoting on the single front jacks.

The chassis is a Spartan Mountain Master which is well built and solid. Historically, three biggest problems are front ball joints, the rear height control rod failure, and (the absolute worst!!) the power steering/engine cooling system. There is a hydraulic pump on the engine which sends hydraulic fluid from a 5 gallon reservoir to a hydraulic motor which drives the side mount cooling fan, and also sends hydraulic fluid to the power steering system way up front. This system requires periodic maintenance and if not done, fails in a very big way. Failure means you can't steer the coach, and failure also means your engine overheats. The overheating sets off a very loud beeping alarm that will wake the dead, and also shuts down the engine, no matter where you are. Neither of these situations are fun to handle.

An annoying feature of the coach design are the basement door "slam latches" which are difficult to get to latch properly and will be a constant source of close attention prior to leaving on a trip. If you fail to verify all latches are latched, you may have a basement door fly open while driving which can lead to some serious problems as you can imagine.

Having said all this, we still enjoy ours, and after putting on about 140,000 miles, I would not hesitate to get in it and head across country for an extended trip. It is very comfortable to travel in and to live in.

IIRC, there were three models in the American series. the lesser ones had a rubber roof, the top of the line had a fiberglass roof. I wouldn't want a 20 year old rubber roof.
bumpy

Thanks for the great feedback.
I think I will pass on that one and keep on looking!!
Best regards,
Roland

Bumpyroad wrote:
IIRC, there were three models in the American series. the lesser ones had a rubber roof, the top of the line had a fiberglass roof. I wouldn't want a 20 year old rubber roof.
bumpy

The Dream has a fiberglass roof.

Well I went to look at the coach anyway and I'm glad I did. I bought it right on the spot. It is the most flawless, well maintained coach I have ever seen. Now I have to change my signature.

Ro646a wrote:
Well I went to look at the coach anyway and I'm glad I did. I bought it right on the spot. It is the most flawless, well maintained coach I have ever seen. Now I have to change my signature.

Glad it worked out! There are some crazy buys out there. The original owner of my rig had a pole barn built for it, and stored it indoors. The dealer that was selling it swore that it was the cleanest, nicest seven year old rig they had ever seen, and they we not lying. The original owner even outfitted the thing with a new set of water and sewer hoses, new pressure regulator, and a bunch of other stuff, still sealed in factory packaging. He insisted that the new owner be shown a few pics. of the barn that he kept it in. I paid 40% of MSRP for what was essentially a new rig.

Ro646a wrote:
Well I went to look at the coach anyway and I'm glad I did. I bought it right on the spot. It is the most flawless, well maintained coach I have ever seen. Now I have to change my signature.

Well, I'm glad you decided to get the Dream. I'm sure you will enjoy it as it is a great motorhome. You can get a lot of information on the Yahoo American Coach group, including the "files" section that has a ton of information. Happy traveling!

With 28000 miles I bet it still has original tires on it. Have you checked the dates on the tires?

I swear some of you people would find fault with anything.