coleman pop ups

[cwilson]

I am asking for anyones opinions on coleman pop up campers.  i am a first tiime buyer, married with 3 kids, 6,4,3. I think we will keep this for several years 5 to 10.  i am not sure what thw better option is?

I have two camper options:
option #1
 2002/3(can't remember which) coleman sun valley: two queen beds, 3 way fridge, a/c, brakes, battery,and in great shape. a friend of mine owns it. He is selling it to me for $4,800.00. a great deal i think, but a lot of money

option #2
1991 coleman chesapeake queen/full, no fridge, no heat of A/C. used only a few times and been kept in his garage for the last 15 years. it is in great shape. A guy in my neighborhood has it for sale.  He wants $2,000.00.  I am concerned about the age of the camper and having to deal with various repairs and resale value..

your opinions are welcome. i am not sure which way to go

[tackhammer]

I am asking for anyones opinions on coleman pop up campers.  i am a first tiime buyer, married with 3 kids, 6,4,3. I think we will keep this for several years 5 to 10.  i am not sure what thw better option is?

I have two camper options:
option #1
 2002/3(can't remember which) coleman sun valley: two queen beds, 3 way fridge, a/c, brakes, battery,and in great shape. a friend of mine owns it. He is selling it to me for $4,800.00. a great deal i think, but a lot of money

option #2
1991 coleman chesapeake queen/full, no fridge, no heat of A/C. used only a few times and been kept in his garage for the last 15 years. it is in great shape. A guy in my neighborhood has it for sale.  He wants $2,000.00.  I am concerned about the age of the camper and having to deal with various repairs and resale value..

your opinions are welcome. i am not sure which way to go

WE have a 1995 Stoney Creek Colman with all the bells and whistles and didn't give much more than the 91 your looking at.  if it's been taken care of not much to repair, and has a proven top on it.  The newer abs tops are giving some trouble from what I'm reading in here.  And if your going to keep that many years then you will get your moneys worthanyway.

[GrizzlyTaco]

Since you have 3 small kids I think i would go with #1, because you have heat, A/C, a fridge, etc. I have 2 small kids also ages 3 and 5, they get cold at night and here in vegas it gets HOT, AC is a must. If we didn't have the kids I would take # 2. You know how it is, sometimes we have to do things for the sake of our children......Ed

[dthurk]

I would go with #1 also for the 2 queen bed.  The extra bunk space will be needed in a few years.  Our Yuma has a queen and a full.  When our 11 year old takes a friend on camping trips, they're already cramped in the full size bunk (and we're not about to give up our queen).  We like the camper except for that.  We may upgrade soon to a model with 2 kings.  Don't really want to do that, but we probably spend more time sleeping in the bunks that what we do using the rest of the camper during the day.  Of course, there's always the option of setting up a tent for extra bunk space.

[Jasper]

Hi there!
We have the Coleman Sunvalley.  It's our first pop up - we've been camping with it for 4 seasons now and LOVE IT!  We also have three kids - boys, who are now 10, 9, and 7 yrs old, so when we started, they were about the age of your kids.  I'm a mom who loves being outdoors and the whole camping scene, but I don't want things to be TOO hard, because let's face it, camping is not a total vacation, if you know what I mean.  We bought it for about $10,000 Canadian, so I think your price is GREAT!  We were the second owners, but the camper had only been camping twice.

Ours has a hot water tank and the screen room.  Both of these things make life a lot easier.  There are two king sized beds.  We line up the three kids in one bunk end, and we take the other.  On longer trips, when we have the screen room set up, we put the port a potty in there at night; on shorter weekenders, we bring it inside at night.

We also have a HUGE dining tent from Paha Que (you can read about it on this website somewhere - it's fantastic) and we also have the shower teepee, which we use for the port a potty or for changing clothes - it's hard for adult women to change into bathing suits during the day in a pop up - no privacy above the waist!  

When we were looking, we found that Coleman's retained their resale value better than other brands.  I'm not sure if this is still true, but that helped us make our choice.  This is a HUGE pop up - we always book the extra large sites - it opens up to about 25 feet or so.  And we have the other structures to put up as well.

We had the opportunity to weigh in once, fully loaded and we were 240 lbs over the towing capacity of our mini van - we tow with the Plymouth Voyager - Extended.  This helped us determine that we probably shouldn't invest in a bike rack and bring bikes along - at least not with our current tow vehicle.

I think it's a great deal for a great camper and you will have lots of fun with your family with this pop up.

Good luck!
Suzy and Jasper the dog!

[griffsdad]

I too have a Coleman Sun Valley (2002). I love it!!!! Go with option #1. You'll have many years of great camping.

[tlhdoc]

option #1
2002/3(can't remember which) coleman sun valley: two queen beds, 3 way fridge, a/c, brakes, battery,and in great shape. a friend of mine owns it. He is selling it to me for $4,800.00. a great deal i think, but a lot of money

This is a very nice camper.  Plenty of space for sleeping without tearing down the table every night.  It may have an ABS roof (which I love), but if it does have the ABS roof you need to check to make sure it is in good shape.  Having AC is also nice when camping in hot humid weather.  It is newer and has more amenities.  If the roof is a good ABS or Alumitite replacement roof I would go for this trailer if you can afford it.  The kids will get bigger and may want to bring friends camping.  With this camper you have a lot more room.
 

option #2
1991 coleman chesapeake queen/full, no fridge, no heat of A/C. used only a few times and been kept in his garage for the last 15 years. it is in great shape. A guy in my neighborhood has it for sale. He wants $2,000.00. I am concerned about the age of the camper and having to deal with various repairs and resale value..
 

This is a less expensive option and if it has been garage kept should not have any water damage.  You would need to make sure that the roof doesn't leak (it may need the roof recaucked).  There isn't as much room in this camper as the first option.  My PU has the king/full bed and sleeping 2 in the full bed is fine when the kids are younger, but as they get older it has turned into a single bed with storage along the sides.
 
You say you want to keep the PU for a while, so I would go with the Sun Valley, as long as the roof is good.  Another question to answer before you buy is what will you tow it with?  Make sure your tow vehicle is capable to tow the PU that you buy.  I went with the 10 foot camper when I purchased my current PU, because I was towing with  a minivan and was restricted to 3500 pounds.  If I had my Explorer at the time I may have gone with a bigger trailer.  Good luck and let us know how you make out.

[delavan611]

I wouldn't buy a Coleman/ Fleetwood pop up with an ABS plastic roof. (or any other Coleman/ Fleetwood product for that matter any more).  That's what my '98 Sun Ridge has and it has developed numerous hairline cracks all over the roof.  Coleman/ Fleetwood knows it's a problem but only replace it under warranty to the original owner.  Since I'm the second owner, I get no help.  Now I am trying to sell it for $2500.00 instead of the $4200.00 I thought it was worth.

[Tim5055]

I wouldn't buy a Coleman/ Fleetwood pop up with an ABS plastic roof. (or any other Coleman/ Fleetwood product for that matter any more).  That's what my '98 Sun Ridge has and it has developed numerous hairline cracks all over the roof.  Coleman/ Fleetwood knows it's a problem but only replace it under warranty to the original owner.  Since I'm the second owner, I get no help.  Now I am trying to sell it for $2500.00 instead of the $4200.00 I thought it was worth.

Here is my reply to your post on RV.net

I figure I lost $2000.00 last weekend.  I was getting ready to sell my 1998 Coleman Sun Ridge and in cleaning it up found hairline cracks all over the top.  I talked to a local Coleman dealer and found that this is not an unheard of condition.  Coleman knows they have a problem and there is a lifetime guarantee on the top but they will only honor it if you are the original owner.  I

[jimlinalf]

I wouldn't buy a Coleman/ Fleetwood pop up with an ABS plastic roof. (or any other Coleman/ Fleetwood product for that matter any more).  That's what my '98 Sun Ridge has and it has developed numerous hairline cracks all over the roof.  Coleman/ Fleetwood knows it's a problem but only replace it under warranty to the original owner.  Since I'm the second owner, I get no help.  Now I am trying to sell it for $2500.00 instead of the $4200.00 I thought it was worth.

We bought our westlake about a year before the big name change to Fleetwood.  Have had a lot of small things break down and wearout the past 4 years.  When I really started looking at the construction I realized I didn't really give the popup a good going over concerning construction quality.  After doing this I realize now that I wouldn't have bought the popup.  Drawer slides broke and fell off, water heater problems, trim falling off, inside trim fabic pulling loose.  Also way too much stapling instead of screws.  Don't get me wrong, we really enjoy sleeping and listening to the outside world, love the comfort, but in our opinion the quality just isn't there.  I would go with the one with the ac, bigger beds, and just get as many years as you can from it if you feel you really want it.  At our older age we would have been better off with a hybrid or a small trailer.

Jim

[GuzmanGang]

Check the roof on the Sun Valley as well (I think 2002's might also have the ABS problem roofs). I can't remember the year they switched from ABS roofs, but as a second owner, you would be best protected to go witht the newer roofs. We looked at used models for quite a while, but the comfort of the warranty on the roof made us decide to just buy new. Out of your 2 choices, I'd take the Sun Valley for sure. Well worth the little extra money.