2000 Fleetwood Flair 30H: Hit the road with Elvis
Written: Jun 30 '09 (Updated Aug 25 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Everything we need for comfort on the road; attractive interior; real queen bed; generous storage
Cons: Somewhat under-powered for towing; this model has neither sliders nor levelers
The Bottom Line: Elvis may have been the bottom of the Fleetwood line, but he's a great traveling companion.
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| Penguinlady's Full Review: 2000 Fleetwood Flair |
We had absolutely NO intentions of buying a motorhome.
None whatsoever.
What we did want to do is rent something with which we could do a one-month camping trip through eastern Oregon and Washington, southern British Columbia, and home via Montana and Wyoming this summer. We’d booked and then bailed on both a pop-up tent-trailer and an 18' travel trailer, the first because tents aren’t the smartest things to take into grizzly country (actually, nothing - especially me - is smart to take into grizzly country, but YOU try explaining that to Penguinman,) and the latter because we learned that our hunky SUV, with a mere 6 cylinders under the hood, probably couldn’t tow a trailer without turning the transmission into meat-loaf.
So we figured we’d have to reconfigure our travel plans and go for the tent-trailer. We were on our way to the rental place when we passed an RV dealer much closer to home and thought we’d stop in and see if they had anything for rent.
They didn’t, of course. But two hours later, thanks to a savvy salesman, we were thinking seriously about buying an RV, both for our trip and to provide us a place of our own when we go to Los Angeles, which we do between five and eight times a year.
OK, so we’re thinking maybe a 26' to 28' Class C, the one with the cab-over bed that’s built on a truck chassis. Nothing too big or fancy.
Three days later, we drove home in a 30' Class A, the ones that look like Greyhounds. Specifically, a 2000 Fleetwood Flair 30H.
FEATURES
Fleetwood Flairs are considered to be entry-level RVs, which we didn’t know at the time. They are relatively simple, with few options or frills. Here’s what ours has:
- 4KW Onan generator
- Chevy chassis
- GM 454 340 HP engine
- gasoline powered
- heated power mirrors on both sides
- solar panels on roof to top off the batteries
- electric step that swings in and out as door opens and closes, or can be locked in place
- two air conditioners
- furnace
- 80-gallon freshwater tank
- 40-gallon grey- and black-water tanks
- 6-gallon hot water heater
- full basement - ten storage hatches around the base, some of which contain the tanks and other technology, leaving about five for our junk
- stereo - in our case, with a multi-disc CD changer, probably added by the previous owner
- a 19" TV over the center console
- satellite pad and antenna on the roof, with cranks in the ceiling to operate them
- jack-knife sofa that seats three and sleeps two
- swivel club chair
- oak cabinetry
- dinette that seats four and sleeps two
- storage under the dinette
- 3-burner stove with oven
- microwave oven/exhaust fan over the stove
- double sink
- laminate countertops
- 6-cubic-foot fridge with separate freezer
- bathtub-sized shower separate from WC
- skylight over the shower
- WC with marine toilet and sink, laminate countertop, storage
- open-vent exhaust fans over the stove and toilet
- queen island bed with full storage underneath
- shelf and hook-ups for a TV in the bedroom
- night-stand, eight drawers, and two closet-cabinets in the bedroom
- carpeting in the living area and bedroom, vinyl flooring in the kitchen and bath
- 17' manual awning
- ladder up the back to access the roof
- outside shower for rinsing off the sand and dirt
- 3500-lb. towing capacity
WHAT WE LIKE ABOUT IT
1. The shower is a good size, unlike the tiny ones we saw in some other models, and it’s separate from the WC.
2. The WC door latches open, creating a complete bathroom accessible from the bedroom. If someone is visiting, or Penguinman is having his coffee at the dinette or on the sofa, I have the bedroom and bathroom to myself.
3. There’s a sliding door between the bedroom and the rest of the coach, so if one of us is sleeping, visitors can still use the bathroom.
4. I’m thinking about changing the interior cabinet handles from curlique brass to something a little simpler, and I counted 36 to replace. That’s a LOT of storage, and it’s just the interior. We’ve pretty well loaded the motor-home with everything we think we’ll need, and several of the cabinets are still empty.
5. Speaking of storage, those big storage hatches in the "basement" are VERY useful. We can carry deck and lounge chairs and a folding table, extra groceries, a spare tire, a BBQ, and a myriad of other things that we need on the road. And the weight at the bottom helps stabilize ol' Elvis.
6. The dashboard is massive - at least three feet deep and, except for the instrument cluster on the driver’s side, perfectly flat. So if we ever need a place to sleep a grandkid...
7. The furnace works very efficiently, as does the house (as opposed to driver’s) AC. Controls are in the bedroom and are very easy to figure out.
8. Because the bed is placed against the rear wall, no one has to run around it or climb over anyone to get out.
9. The storage space under the bed is a godsend. We use it for things we use often enough tat we don't want to have to go outside to the basement hatches, like extra or heavy shoes, a case of wine, the table fan I like to use, and extra soft drinks. It lifts easily and sometimes stays open without being propped.
10. The generator will run as long as there's at least a quarter-tank of gas in the tank. It cuts out at a quarter-tank, to ensure that it doesn't use up all your gas and leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere. Since the gas tank holds about 70 gallons, and the fridge automatically switches to propane when it doesn't detect electrical power, we can easily dry-camp with the generator off all day, as long as we watch the gas gauge, are frugal with water, and don't let the black-water tank get too full.
WHAT WE’D CHANGE IF WE COULD
We stumbled into this entire adventure without having done much research or familiarizing ourselves with the new world of RVs. As we’ve done our two relatively short trips - five and three nights, respectively - we’ve started compiling a list of the things we’d like in our next RV, if we ever get one.
1. Thirty-five-hundred pounds isn’t that much for a toad (that which is towed behind an RV.) You can tow some smaller cars, but if you want to take a 4WD with you, you’ll have a problem. We found that our 2002 Mitsubishi Montero XLS was far too heavy and doesn’t have neutral in the transfer box, so bought a Jeep Cherokee Sport to tow. Even with this much smaller, lighter vehicle, the only way we can make that weight limit is by removing the rear seat, which has us trying to figure out how to carry our (lightweight) kayaks. Had we bought a diesel RV, we’d be able to tow almost anything.
2. The 19" TV is built into an open-faced cabinet over the center of the dashboard, with a fascia to hold it in place. There are closed cabinets on each side. The TV is the "old-fashioned" kind. We can’t replace it with anything larger because of the limited space it occupies; even getting a flat-screen into the space would probably be difficult. The upside of this is that we almost never watch TV when we’re home, and don’t intend to on the road, given that we don’t want to have to pay for yet another satellite service. So it’s no great loss. But we enjoy DVDs and it would be nice to be able to watch them on a bigger screen.
3. There are two latches on the interior side of both the driver and passenger seats. One leans the seat-back. The other swivels the seats. But they only swivel about 15 degrees, because the sills under the side windows are so generous that they crash into the seat arms, even when they're lifted. And the back of the seats bump into either the sofa or the club chair behind them. So the driver and passenger seats can't really be used for extra seating when we have "company."
4. The passenger seat does lean back somewhat, to about 45 degrees. Good on that, but the arm-rests are attached in such a way that they are always at a 90-degree angle to the seat-back. So when you lean back, your arms are raised instead of remaining parallel to the floor. Not very comfortable.
5. The 2000 Fleetwood Flair 30H, as a starter model, doesn’t have built-in levelers, those nice gadgets that help you level your coach at the push of a button. No, we have to stack boards and leveling blocks and then drive up onto them. Then we check the levels to make sure that we’re no more than 1/4 bubble off in each dimension, find that we are, and do it again. We've gotten better at guessing correctly how much more height we need under a given tire, but it's still a guess. A push-button system would be heavenly. (FYI, the coach has to be perfectly level when the fridge is running so the coolant can circulate. If it’s more than 1/4 bubble off, the fridge will be ruined over time and they’re pretty expensive to replace. It doesn’t matter when driving because the motion keeps the coolant sloshing, or when stored with the motor and generator and fridge turned off.) Our next coach will definitely have a leveler.
6. Ditto stabilizers. We’ve named our coach "Elvis," after the King of Rock and Roll, because every sneeze makes it rock. After-market stabilizers are readily available, so that’s our next purchase, but automatic ones would be sooooo much nicer.
7. I definitely need more counter space. We have a double sink, which is very nice, but it takes up all the available space. Custom sink covers are prohibitively expensive, so I bought a couple of translucent cutting boards, the ones with coated wire handles at each end, and just pop them over the sinks. They give me some work-space, but it’s still not ideal. I think they figured that with the dinette right across from the sink and stove, counter-space wasn’t necessary. Even a flip-up board would be helpful. The interior was probably designed by a non-cook.
8. I love the skylight over the shower, but a vent with a fan would be usefuller. There’s one in the WC and one over the kitchen sink, and nothing is very far from anything else, so they work OK. But it would be nice to have one in the shower.
9. Elvis doesn’t have any sliders, those sections of the sides of the coach that slide out anywhere from one to four feet and provide a lot more space. I’d like one for the living-room sofa and one for the dinette, so Penguinman and I don’t have to take turns passing through those spaces; we sure can’t do it simultaneously.
10. The club chair is right behind the passenger seat, which limits how far back the passenger seat can lean. I guess the thinking was that if you want to lie flat, go flake out on the sofa or the bed, but that’s not safe when the coach is moving, even with seat belts on the sofa.
11. The windows all have accordion shades that cut light, and the ones in the main "house" have sheer ones as well, so we can have light without sacrificing privacy. Not sure why the bedroom ones don’t, but it doesn’t really matter, since I’m planning to replace them all with slat blinds. I want both privacy and fresh air, and can’t have both with accordions.
FURTHER INFORMATION
This is a tough one, because the Flair model hasn’t been produced for several years and is no longer shown on the Fleetwood website, and Fleetwood has just gone belly-up anyway. So the only way to find one is to Google on "Fleetwood Flair" with the year and model you want. Sorry! But there are plenty of them out there.
SUMMARY AND VERDICT
Since buying Elvis, we’ve learned that the Fleetwood Flair, as the former bottom of the Fleetwood line, is considered to be somewhat of an underpowered wimp among RVs. No matter; it works for us and we’re quite happy.
It may look as though there are more features to our 2000 FLeetwood Flair 30H that we don't like than ones that we do, but that's not the case. We like just about everything; the items mentioned above just seemed especially worthy of mention. Except for the sliders and levelers, we are very happy with our purchase. And of course, we love being self-contained and being able to stop anywhere we want.
Maybe Elvis is merely a starter for us, or perhaps we’ll keep him for years. I’d give him five stars except that I’d love to have the lateral space that sliders would provide, and we get tired of the leveling battle, so I’ll drop him down to four stars.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 25,000
Condition: Used
Model Year: 2000
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