Dear Ames:
We own a Bounder 33' 1998 Vortec, we have had nothing but trouble with this RV, I will point out all the problems that we have encountered and maybe others will be luckier to find out what could happen before buying a RV.
1) Our first incident was a bad tire, OK this could happen to
anyone, however when we went to put the spare on, which
came with the RV we found out it was the wrong one, the
was a 19.5 alright but it only had 8 holes and it should
have 10, when we called Fleetwood, they insisted that they
put in the right one, this was our first call, they informed
us that someone must have switched it " very unlikely", how-
ever they did not want to replace it, we tried to get another
rim but no one had one, these rims are hard to find, we called
back to Fleetwood and was told not to worry, because now they no
longer put in spare, the reason given was that people try to
change their own tire and will get hurt, but if we call their
special road service they will come and change the tire and
rim as they carry them with them at all times throughout the
USA and Canada, Lord behold we had another bad tire, but the
road service never heard of such service for Fleetwood, so we
had to find the right tire, which by the way is a "as we where
told by many tire shops, a custom tire, we did find one that had
this size in stock in Montreal, Canada and had it put on.
On our last trip May 2004 we hit a pot hole on the highway and
blew a tire and bended our rim, after twenty phone calls with
Fleetwood, the only thing they could do for us was to ship us
a rim from California overnight for approx. $400.00 and we
would have to stay three days for it, this was not an option
we drove 1,500 miles with this broken rim and flat tire
(lucky it was the one on the rear outer side and the inside
tire was alright, we could not find a 19.5 rim, finally after
many calls on my cell phone and tire shops we got the
that had this rim in stock, a little truck shop, $65.00 each
needless to say I bought two, they guided me to some one that
happened to have the right tire for that rim, and we now had
a spare and went back on the road, on our way back the inside
new Michelin was a diffective tire and blew, again drove from
one tire shop to another to find this tire, Michelin gave us
credit and had to pay for what we used. Now we are back "ON
THE ROAD AGAIN" unfortunatly the two tires are worn on the
inside due to bad alignment or something, but could not find
the right size so we had to drive all the way from St. Louis
Missouri back to California with bad front tires. Now this
is only our tire story.
2) On our first trip we went to Prince Edward Island, Canada, we
wanted to retract our level jacks and they did not want to go
up, all the oil leaked out of the rear jacks, we again phoned
Fleetwood, they intructed us that it was the responsability
of Versa/tek Company who supplied the Power Gear, we phone
them but they could not do anything for us, only to give us
the wrong information on how to push them up. Whe we
arrived home we went to our RV shop and had them replaced,
but it took over a year to receive them, and when they where
delivered they where the wrong ones.
Again on our last trip we arrived very stressed at the RV Park
Riverside Casino in Laughlin, Nevada. We set everything up so
we could stay a few days to get over our other ordeals see (3)
I was packing up, and finally time to retract my level jacks,
and you guessed it, the rear drivers side did not go up, the
reason was that the heavy duty spring just snapped (broke) like
pot metal, I called quite a few rv repair places but no one again
had that particular spring, as it is an odd ball, we got the
jack up and tied it, this is still under warranty as they where
the new ones replaced before we went on our trip, as off today
we have to bring it in to the shop to have it repaired.
3) Then on our second trip back home, my transmission blew, lucky we
found a transmission expert in Montreal, Canada that rebuild it
and it was under warranty, Fleetwood paid for it, which cost us
three days, then when asked to check the breaks, we where in-
structed that the breaks have crumbled and will have to be re-
placed, which we did but paid out of our own pocket.
4) On our Third trip, we stopped in Myrtle Beach, Florida, while I
turned to park my engine went dead, could not start it again,
I called Fleetwood to see what they could do to help (ha, ha)
Called the Automobile Association, when they came they found
that my front new battery and reserve two new batteries where
melted with a short and they could not do anything, they gave me
a number to call, but he only could come in the morning, when he
arrived he know immediatly what happened, he said that he had
quite a few of these repairs on the bounder. It was the cable
that is grounded underneath the chassis that was installed in-
correctly and rubbed agains the steering rod, which wore out the
cable cover and shorted, this melted all three bateries and he
said ou whole coach could have been on fire, that we where lucky,
he replaced the cable and showed me the correct installation, he
was the best mechanic of Camping World for15 years until he went
on his own, while he was under the coach he also noticed that my
suspension was loose and found out that my A Frame broke, also
the two other spare batteries where again odd balls and will have
to go to a rv place to replace them (they where also brand new)
lucky for us there was a Camping World nearby, it also happened
that we are members, they took us immediatly, the mechanic that
helped us and that used to work there, instructed us to tell the
technician at Camping World to weld the A Frame, which they did.
5) Now we are back on the way to our destination, however the oil
gage did not work and the motor started to slow down, thinking
that this time our engine is gone, we where just at a gaz station
I checked the oil and it was low on oil, so I put oil in and we
where back on the road, arriving without further incident (ouf!)
Not to mention that the engine does not take hills, mountains even if
they are not steep, we start at 60/65 m.p.h. and ended up doing below
20 m.p.h. by the time we arrive at the top, this is not loaded and not towing a vehicle, it does worst with towing.
This RV was a stress box, a anxiety package, it made a nervous wreck out of us when we arrived we where almost brain dead.
We hope that our experience will help other to avoid it to happen to them.
We must say also that the Bounder is not all bad, it has one of the best floor plans that we have seen, it is easy on the road to drive
we like the shape and all the comforts of home if not more, except it should be parked instead of driven or use it for very short trips flat driving and down hill.
Yours sincerely
RDG
RONALD DE GROOT
