From Bounder to Pace Arrow

Originally I had thought this blog would chronicle my journey to a simpler life in a Fleetwood Bounder. I had researched the Bounders and found that they were the first motorhomes with basement storage. This was important because with basement storage, besides having more storage, you have a chance to mitigate freezing temperatures. Your tanks and pipes are enclosed in an area you can attempt to keep above freezing instead of just hanging out exposed underneath your rig.

Essentially, the basement area is created by raising the living floor above the chassis. The space between the chassis and floor is your basement. Fleetwood came out with the Bounder in 1987, as I recall, and not knowing what I was going to find in my budget, I focused more on Bounders because I could get an 87 Bounder if I had to, and still get the basement, when no other make or model in 87 would have it. I didn’t look at any models prior to 1987 either.

I also read in the Bounder story how the makers had taken the time to think through some things, and as a result, people would say the Bounder “just worked”. Being an Apple convert, this made sense to me, and kept me focused on what size of Bounder I wanted and what options I wanted with it.

I was looking for something in the 28 foot to 32 foot range. I really didn’t want to go longer. The Bounder 28’s had either a couch or a dinette, which was okay with me because it had a chair with a table I could use for “office” space, but I wanted a pantry, which moved me up to the Bounder 32. Some of the options I wanted or would have liked were awnings on all the windows, solar panels, a hitch, the Banks Power System, to name a few I recall of the top of my head.

Since I was so focused in on what I was looking for, I found I would look on Craigslist further and further from home. I was in the Sacramento area at the time, and would look at all the smaller communities Like Yuba City, Stockton, Reno as well as the Bay Area. Then I moved down the State all the way to San Diego and up into Oregon and Washington. Then southeast to Phoenix, Las Vegas and beyond. This actually allowed me to learn more about the rigs because few people do a really good job with their ads, so what one person wouldn’t show, another one did. (For example one of the things I was first looking for was a chair with a table behind the passenger seat to use as an office. This was something that was most often bypassed when someone was taking pictures or video. I happen to be sitting in that exact spot as I write this 🙂 lol)

Once I was familiar with the Bounder, and realized I was not limited to the late 80’s in my budget, I branched into other rigs made by Fleetwood like the Pace Arrow, Southwind and Flair, since later models also had the basement storage. It was this expansion that lead me to find Penelope. She wasn’t quite the same as I was looking at before and she was a foot longer, but she had the basics I was looking for, and came with a hitch, solar panel, the Banks Power System, a Fantastic Fan and was priced right. I tell you the story of buying her in the post titled Buying a Used Rv – Penelope’s Story, but for now I found this video does a pretty good job of showing the overall layout of the Bounder 32 for anyone who is looking like I was.

Best,

Sherrie

P.S. If you’re in the market for a used RV, I recommend you consider getting the Guide to Buying a Used RV like I did. It is not expensive and could save you a lot of money and hassles.