kfeusse Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 1) if you own a pop up camper....what brand do you have, what do you like and dislike about it?? 2) if you own what is known as a "roo" camper (it's like a pop up in the sense the end beds pop out, but the middle part doesn't flatten down), do you like it...why or why not? it would also be helpful for me if you would tell me how many people (and kid's ages) sleep in your camper comfortably.....thanks. we have 5....my husband and I....and a 14, 12 and 10 year old. thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 I have a Coleman Taos, which is an 8 foot popup. Small enough to tow with my sedan (under 2000 lbs, with electric brakes etc). I love it. I can camp anywhere. I don't have to deal with hookups. I typically go to state parks for $10-$12/night. I see a lot of my camper and similar, slightly bigger campers in state parks. I have friends with bigger campers but they are much more limited in where they can camp. I like being able to get nice waterfront sites. It is incredibly versatile in being able to fit into not-entirely-flat sites . It does have battery powered lights and heat. It has a propane camp stove - stored inside, but hooks up outside to cook. No toilet which is fine by me. When down it has tons of storage: camp chairs, lots of kitchen stuff, sleeping bags and tools fit inside. It would be too small for 5 people. It's plenty for us now, 2 adults and 2 small kids. When they're older, we will put the kids outside in a tent. I paid $2000 for it. *always buy used* with popup campers, no matter what size you are considering. Ours had a musty odor, had been put down wet and not aired out. We put the fabric through the washing machine and washed the rest with laundry detergent and aired out for a few days. It was fine. DH does annual maintenance: patch any holes in the screen, check battery charge, I'm not sure what else. What would I change? Friends of ours have a popup with a microwave. That would sure be handy. The fabric is horribly ugly. The canopy is a pain to put up, we don't bother. Takes less than 10 minutes to put up or down, one person, easy for me to do alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carriede Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 I don't know specifics but... DH's family loves to camp. They had a true popup that they'd take cross country. They'd sleep 4 "adults" (some kids were teens) and one 11yo in 2 queen beds and a kitchen table that converted. HTH a little! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolt. Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 I have a jayco pop-up. It has two double beds and one single. We have 2 kids, so one gets the 2nd double bed to herself, and there is a ton of space on the single bunk too. (The beds are standard 'bed sizes'.) Our maximum tight-squeeze "sleepover" arrangement would be: - 2 kids on the single - 1 or 2 adults, plus 1 or two small children on each double. Total: 4 adults and 4 children, or 2 adults and 5 or 6 children. Also, older kids often use a 'kids tent' to sleep apart, but in the same site, especially if the weather is doing well -- so that's the evolution when you have more teenage sized children, and fewer bed-sharing sized ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrookValley. Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 I have a vintage 1975 Apache hard-side pop-up (the bed end sides are plastic panels that snap into place. No canvas). It has two full-size beds on each end and the bench seat/table area converts into another bed. Technically it sleeps six--and the people we bought it from said they slept 11 in it one night when a horrible storm came through and their family in tents crammed in the camper--but I think six is pushing it. If you had two kids who didn't mind sharing one of the full-size bed ends, the third could sleep on the dinette fold-out. We have two adults and two kids and it's fine (of course, ours are younger, but I imagine it would be fine with them as tweens/teens, too). I like that ours has a full kitchen (sink, stove with three burners, refrigerator, microwave). It has plenty of storage. Also, it has a shower stall with room for a portable toilet, which is kind of cool, but we've dismantled the shower. It takes up a lot of space. We still have the pieces and we may put part of the shower stall back in and add a toilet eventually. I like how roomy ours inside, but yet it still folds up pretty small. It's easy to tow. I LOVE that we have a pop-up but no canvas to get damp and moldy or musty--everything in our camper can be wiped down. Also, our particular year/model has huge windows. Basically, the entire side panels are windows with screens. It's very airy and bright inside and it's easy to get great ventilation going if you slide those big windows open. I love that it's old. The floor and seat cushions are the original '75 funky green and yellow. Tacky as hell, and I love it. :laugh: Even though the company that makes the Apache pop-ups went out of business in the very early 80s, there's a big market for them and you can still find replacement parts for nearly everything in it. They've got a huge following, and it's easy to find knowledgeable people online who can answer questions. Things I don't like: It's not hard to put up, but there is a bit of a learning curve--you've got to figure out exactly how all the panels snap into place. It is easier with two people. And the "vintage" factor is both a positive and a negative. We had to replace some major parts (gearboxes/lift system and plexiglas windows) because they were nearly 40 years old and had lived out their useful life. Heating and cooling is tricky--there's no heater, so you have to use a space heater, which can cause condensation issues on the bed ends. We can put a window AC unit in one of the windows in the summer, but that's a hassle. All in all though, I love this thing. I always loved the idea of a pop-up, but I didn't want to mess with canvas sides. I didn't realize they existed in any other way until we came across the Apaches through our internet travels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maplecat Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 We have a 10' box Jayco pop-up. I've had it for about ten years and bought it used. We sleep one adult and two kids on the front wing (queen), one adult on the booth that converts to a twin, and one adult and child on the back wing (full). There is another seating area that could also convert to a twin. My kids are a lot smaller than yours and they like to sleep in a heap. We are expecting another child and are looking to upgrade to a 12' box in a couple of years. Features that I like: an awning, being able to store my camper in our garage, it is easy to tow with a minivan, furnace, a layout that let's us access the fridge when the camper is closed, and my portable potty. I believe the other camper you are asking about is what is known as a 'Hybrid.' Several manufacturers make them. We've seriously considered one, but are reluctant to have to upgrade our tow vehicle and have to pay for storage. Hybrid manufacturers often downplay the weight of their campers. I wouldn't try it with a minivan. Gas mileage also takes a hit because of the vehicle and the greater surface area you are dragging into the wind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datgh Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 We have a Viking that is probably about 15 years old. We have owned it about five years. One thing I wish we would have thought more about is that our kids would grow. We never dreamed that our son would get as big as he has. The camper is OK for sleeping. We have a Queen, full and twin (put the table down). I usually am on the twin now as my daughter is smaller so she winds up with dh on the Queen also she doesn't have a tendency to need to "go" in the middle of the night like her poor mother. The other thing I wish we had looked closer at was how much room we had inside on a rainy day. With our kids now adult size it is really tight around the table to try and play games. On the flip side if our camper was any bigger we would need to upgrade to something other than a mini van to tow it. Because it is a pop up and not a regular camper we fit into a lot more sites in national parks. It is also wonderful to be off the ground on a rainy night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 Yes I think it's best to approach a popup as 'way better than a tent ' than a portable hotel room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saraswati Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 We stared out with this one: http://www.forestriverinc.com/PopUpCampers/RockwoodTent/default.aspx?model=rktc&page=floorplandetails&floorplanid=263&RVType=TNT#prettyPhoto We've since upgraded twice and have ended up with a 36ft. Triple slide bunkhouse trailer by Keystone. We travel a lot and use ours, not only to camp, but as a portable hotel room. Using a popup that takes a minimum of 1 hour to assemble and disassemble was just not practical for our needs. That said - we did love it for camping. We lived out in Virginia near Pocahontas State Park, and it was wonderful to take the PUP out for long, relaxing weekends. Our second trailer was a Jayco Swift 184BH - it had enough room to sleep 5 people, and actually weighted less than our PUP. So, there are options out there for box trailer that can be hauled by a minivan if you're looking for something without canvas pop-outs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 We have a 2008 Starcraft 2406. It is about 19 ft long including tongue and 24 ft long popped up. Pros: Propane run heater (love this option, we always have heat whether dry camping or not) Cassette toilet (no middle of the night bathroom runs, yet small enough to empty into a regular toilet with no dump fees) Outdoor shower Electric winch, set up is super easy and quick - 15-20 min. max Sleeps 6 - 1 king, 1 queen, 1 double when table folded down with real sheets, comforters, etc. No wet sleeping bags! Sink/washing set up - love not washing up outside and having to haul all those buckets, etc. Awesome in the rain Air conditioning when hooked into electrical Battery operated lights :) Fits in our garage so no storage fees Relatively inexpensive way to move away from tent camping (we got a great deal on ours used) Cons: Heavy 3000+ lbs when packed - you need a good tow vehicle or it can really mess up your transmission (we tow with a Ford F150) Not a lot of storage inside Hard to turn/back up to get in the garage for storage - we ended up buying a power dolly but I imagine this is a problem for many trailers, not just pop-ups It is a big camper - it sleeps a lot of people and we have plenty of room, but it can be harder to find a spot in National Parks (we have not had the space issue anywhere else, but those sites built in the 1930s can be tiny). Have to dry it out before packing it away - we live in the Pac NW where it rains all. the. time. In our new location we are able to pop it up and dry it out after camping no problem (we can even dry it out in our garage if necessary), but at our last house that would have violated HOA rules and caused a problem We love our pop-up and the pros completely outweigh the cons for us. It is one of the best purchases we've ever made as a family. We would never be a camping family without our pop-up but if you are more outdoorsy I can see how it would just be simpler to pack a tent or backpack stuff and go too. We are a family of 4 - 2 adults, and kids 10 & 7. We only use the king and queen bed right now, but our pop-up could easily fit a family of 5 using all 3 beds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skimomma Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 We have an OLD Coleman Roanoke. It is tiny and light which is what we needed because we will never have a tow vehicle hat can pull more than 1500 lbs. This is about as small as they come unless you count motorcycle pop-ups. And because it is so small, dh and I are both too tall for the double beds on both ends. This is solved by sleeping diagonally on the beds but means that only one adult can fit one each side. And we are not tall.... The dinette folds into a "double" bed but it is considerably narrower than the already-dubious "double" beds on the ends. On top of that, our 11 yo dd is too tall for it. We fixed that problem by taking out the sink we never used so her feet have lots more room to grow. I have a love-hate relationship with our pop-up. It is far far FAR more comfortable and easy to camp in than a tent. We do both every summer and it is just so much easier. I love that we can store our gear inside making packing super-quick and that we can cook indoors during bad weather. Even our tiny one is quite roomy when stuck inside during rain. I also really like sleeping in the screened in ends. It is very relaxing. I like having power so I can turn over and flip on the coffee maker from my bed:) The best thing about it though is that it fits in the garage and we do not have to store it. The things I hate mostly have to do with age and general "cheapness." Pop-ups are rarely made "well." So you have to learn the quirks. Ours has a very annoying quirk of not popping down all the way. Especially during thunderstorms when we are in a field and need to be somewhere at a certain time. We have always eventually gotten it to go down (since you cannot very well drive down the freeway like that) but it has taken up to an hour of messing with it. The awning, as someone above mentioned, can be a pain. It is always flapping when we get wind or storms. We have added additional guy lines which has helped a great deal but also means more to trip over. We do generally set it up anyway because it is nice to have that tiny square to get into our out of wet rain gear. The indoor sink is useless. Just useless. We didn't bother after the first attempt. Because ours is old (20+ years), it is not super easy to set up or take down. Everything is rusty and it just takes a lot of elbow grease and sweat to work with it. This would not be the case with a newer one. All that said, I do recommend them to people who want to get out of a tent on a budget. We really do love ours. Keep in mind how big your kids will be in a few years and factor that into your decision. Our current set up does not allow dd to bring a friend unless they sleep in a tent.....which is something we would never of thought of 10 years ago when we bought it. Also, get the whole family inside when looking at them. Lay down and make sure there is the space you need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedicMom Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 We have a pop up. It is a 2003 and i believe it is a Coleman. Right now it is passable for us, but we like to camp with both kids plus two golden retrievers. Sleeping is okay but if it rains during the day it is pretty crowded in there. We are going to be purchasing a 30 footer with slide outs and a bunkhouse next spring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saraswati Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 We are going to be purchasing a 30 footer with slide outs and a bunkhouse next spring. This is the BH we bought a couple months ago. http://www.keystonerv.com/laredo/models/320tg-new/model-mobile Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jelbe5 Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 We also have a Coleman Taos. I do not believe Coleman makes the Taos anymore - it was the smallest camper they made when we purchased it. As stated by a previous poster it is lightweight enough to be pulled by a smaller vehicle. Up until recently all 5 of us slept in it. However, my kids are all older and bigger now. My eldest daughter is bothered by dh's snoring so she now has her own tent and is very happy with that arrangement. The warranty on the roof was 5 years. The camper is now 17 years old. No problems with the roof or anything else! If I could have a "do-over" I might have opted to buy a bigger camper in anticipation of our children growing up. We thought we might upgrade to a bigger camper but finances have not permitted that. That is okay - we have made do and have had many fun, affordable vacations with our pop-up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pippen Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 We have a circa 1998 Camplite. What I like about it is that it's very roomy for a popup, as the kitchen slides out, in addition to both ends. The slide out ends are both queen sized mattresses, plus the table converts to a full size bed and the sofa to a small bed (narrower than a twin). We're a family of 5 and even with three teens we're comfortable. http://thehuntingtonian.com/1998-camplite-pop-up-camper-2000-obo/ We had a new vinyl cover made as the original wore out in the roof area and started leaking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfeusse Posted July 29, 2014 Author Share Posted July 29, 2014 thanks for all of these responses. we don't know what we want to do. we have a GMC Yukon (not XL) and we aren't sure what we can pull. Plus we aren't sure what we really want. I am not looking to be uncomfortable just because we are camping...but I don't need all of the comforts of home either...a few would be nice though. :) So this give us a place to at least start. It seems though, most of the big camper "stores" sell mostly the really big rigs...and it seeems they don't have many (if any at all) of the hybrids. And we don't live in or even near a big city, so that doesn't help our cause at all. Have any of you used Craigslist for big ticket items like this? I am going to check that out...just am a little nervous about it....don't want to get ripped off. thanks again for your help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoJosMom Posted July 29, 2014 Share Posted July 29, 2014 We have (soon to be had) a Wanderer Lite, what is known as a hybrid trailer. It is hard sided with pop-out tent ends. One of the beds is queen (ish) sized and the other is king. There is a small couch which can be made into a small bed and the U-shaped dinette can also be made into a bed. In sum: You can sleep a bunch of people in there, if necessary. The bathroom has a sink, a small tub/shower, and a flush potty. There is an RV sized refrigerator, stove, cooktop/oven, microwave, and sink. DH cannot recall the exact weight, but he says that it is towable by a Yukon. We love, Love, LOVE it. IMO, it is the perfect camping solution for a family with small children. I love to camp, but grew up as a more primitive camper (read: sleeping bag on the ground, tent only if weather was likely.) The Wanderer preserves the feel of camping, but makes it more doable (and way less exhausting!) I would highly recommend looking into hybrid trailers and would definately suggest trying to find a used one. RVs lose a tremendous percentage of their value as soon as they leave the lot and are frequently impulse buys that people soon regret. There are some great deals to be found. Ours is soon to be "had" only because we now live in a region of the US where such trailers are referred to as "bear traps." :scared: Hence, the purchase of a used travel trailer. With hard sides. Oh, P.S., RV camping is much easier if your DH is handy. They bear some similarity to boats wrt maintenance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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