We love our 2014 Fleet. It's got a few issues, but nothing big enough to suck too badly, and there doesn't seem to be anyone better on the market without getting silly custom and spending mega bucks. We've probably used ours more in six months than most do in six years, with 85 nights in it since we bought it used in October, 2014. Overall, a hell of a concept. I'm not a show offy kind of guy, and people downright stare. We've had people walk in the bar and holler out asking whose rig is outside. Stock truck with a neato little camper, but being in south Florida and the keys on vacation for 8 weeks saved us probably $6 or 7k on hotels, just this year. Hell, motel 6 in Denver is $65 a night. Wow. This is the dream rig for a previous decade long flippac guy. Going back seems like giving up the smartphone or air conditioning. Why would I?
I'm thinking I read that FWC changed from the crappy wood looking laminate finish inside to a thermofoil style paint...damn do I wish for that. Ours is really getting beat up, we USE our stuff (but treat it well!), and the high level of wear and tear is really not very cool. We had to use a mattress topper, but read they changed the godforsaken mattress, too. Wish we had the rear steps as we have racks (standing on the tire with her pushing on my butt to keep me there might sound like a prelude to some romance, but not so much), and wish we had the LED floods on the back. We LOVE the compressor fridge, but we are glad we did our own solar. The 80 watts available at the time from FWC might be enough for June 10th through July 4th sun angles, but the 270 watts we have is amazing and works great all year, especially for our long florida trips. Trying to hide an extension cord when plugged into the city park gazebo sucks. There is almost no such thing as too many watts, and once you're doing it, tripling the capacity isn't that much more expensive. Think fridge, fantastic fan, and furnace...they use lots of power if you like comfort. We like the inside to have that new camper smell, not the smell of my sweaty hairy areas.We can tell you ad nauseum from experience, worrying about power really sucks. FWC should ditch the silly small panel and offer something that is worth something. DO NOT waste your money on theirs. Front Dinette rocks. Front opening window allows us to leave the pups in the truck and let them in when we're ready. Same for kicking them out in the morning and they're in the way. We have a fantastic fan in the back (make sure you get at least one!) and have yet to use the camper in the summer, but one over the bad probably (two total?) would have made more sense (we did do a few 75 degree nights/85 degree days in the keys). At least we should have gotten a hatch so we could reverse the rear fan and air would come in. We could simply not live without our outside shower and water heater/water pump system. There's no difference in mpg or truck handling with the extra weight. We urban boondock a fair amount, or we're up in the Colorado mountains, and if I don't have a shower, I whine like a little girl. Truthfully, they really whine a bit less than me with stinky swimsuit areas. Furnace is a must, but one of those single bottle catalytic heaters would do almost as well if you're running a tight budget. Same for a Zodi shower, I suppose, if you had a water tank. It would be easy to rig something cool up, we used it a lot with our flippac. Oh, get the lift strut (outside) things!
Ultimately, we're pretty convinced we scored. Half price on a less than a year old unit from a smart purchaser who set it up right can be done. We've seen a half dozen of them, especially in the winter months.
It's a great life.
