SUPER NEWBIE! Need advice....

[yiselbe]

Hello all,

We're a family of 4 + dog and we've decided we want to try camping.  We think we'll rent a pop-up and see how it goes, however, we're pretty sure we'll buy one.  Anyway, been looking around and there are so many brands....viking, jayco, fleetwood, coleman...are there more?

Is there any one that we should NOT even look at?  Is one considered the best?  What adds to the price?  Do you really get what you pay for in pop-ups? Or is it just different name brands?

We have a minivan (Oldsmobile Silhouette) with towing package.  Should we stick to a certain length?  Any other must haves we should be sure to have as extras? (screen room, potti, air conditioning,)

Any help is appreciated.  I just don't know where to even start!

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Cheryl]

Wow! You want to cover a lot of territory! There are loads and loads of posts on this board covering a lot of these topics already. READ, READ, READ.
Main points to cover.....How much can your tow vehicle REALLY tow! Do not trust Salesmen, dealers, or mechanics...they want to SELL.

What type of camping do you really want to be involved in and how many emmenities do you WANT.

Then it's just a matter of research and READING. One other point that is important for the future enjoyment of your camping is - find a dealer you can trust.

I know this doesn't begin to cover all that you wanted to know but enjoy the research, looking, dreaming, and shopping. There is nothing more exciting than the FIRST time!
Welcome to the board and Happy Camping!
Cheryl

[fritz_monroe]

As Cheryl pointed out, your first step needs to be to determine what your tow vehicle (TV) can actually tow.  Some ratings are made with an empty vehicle and a 150# driver.  Once you load up all your camping stuff and the family, you've lost a lot of tow capacity.

As for brands, there are many different brands that have their good and bad points.  There is no best brand out there.  The best for you will probably not be the best for me.  What worked for me was to take a look at what was available near me and try to get an idea of which dealers were good or bad.  Then decide what features are important to you, while looking at the various floorplans.  Finally, visit each of these trailers to see which one fit us.

If you look at pups in the show room, keep in mind that they usually take out the front tent panel to allow you to look in from the outside.  While it does allow this, it also makes the pup feel bigger.  Since you have kids, spend some time sitting in them and try to imagine being stuck in the pup with the kids on a rainy day.  Is there enough room to keep them occupied?

Not to add too much to this, but you also need to think about where you will park the pup.  Can you park it in your yard or do you have an association that doesn't allow it to be seen outside?  If you have to store it in your garage, you will probably be looking at the 10' box pups since they are shorter.

Good luck in your search. I hope you find exactly what you are looking for.  Come here and to PUX and PUP with any questions.  There's many really friendly people around here that are very willing to help answer your questions.

[cobbs1]

As far as size, if you plan on storing it in your garage, go double check the measurements of both your garage and any pop up you are interested in.  We measured our garage and knew it would be a very tight fit.  I still think the manufacturer's measurements didn't include things like drain covers and latches.  Count those in, and our pop-up only clears by 1 inch on each side and about 2" in the rear. :yikes:  (we have a garage with 2 seperate doors). Fortunately, the pop-up is moving to my grandmother's garage this weekend.

Also, many people have said it on this board - the dealer really matters.  I'm not so sure there's much difference between brand names, but the dealerships vary drastically. That might help you narrow it down.

We did our shopping at RV shows so that we could have several manufacturere's side by side.  It showed us some differences.


With 4 kids and the dog, you might want to consider a slide-out dinette.  It gave us more floor space for the dog.

Enjoy the shopping!

[OC Campers]

Welcome to PUT.  Unfortunately, I doubt your Olds has more than a 3500 Lb tow rating.  Most of the 12 ft box models weigh in the 3,000 lb range.  The ones with a slide out dinette a little more.  I know some people have towed with a setup like this but it probably isn't ideal.  I would probably suggest a 10 ft box in the 2,000-2,500 lb range at the most.

As far as models.  You have to decided what your family needs and wants.  I required a potty/shower combo, furnace, and hot water heater.  I do not regret any of these options.  But other people were fine with a porta potty.  I agree with everyone else.  The dealer is very important.  

Jacqui

[dthurk]

Welcome to PUT.  I should let you know, though, that you only qualify for the SUPER NEWBIE category if you have a blue cape and pull your camper without a tow vehicle.   :p

[balbrt1]

Hi and welcome..  I am new to the board but I am sure you will enjoy this forum because of all of the info you can find and learn from peeps that have been using a Pup for a long time....We pull with a Ford mini van and being in southern Illinois it is pretty flat so we have no problems.  We settled on a 10 ft Jayco, which we love btw.  The only extra we got was a/c. We had camped in a tent for 30 yrs. Since we mainly go to State or Federal parks the shower and flush toilets are not far away.  It all comes down to what comforts you have to have. All of the extras put more weight on your TV. Renting for a weekend would be a great idea. I would rent no smaller than a 10 and see how you all fit. Most of the time we do everything outside.  Good luck on your search but do not be afraid to ask questions...

[SpeakEasy]

I agree that renting is a great idea to explore the camping lifestyle. I suggest that you concentrate more on exploring the camping lifestyle than on the specific model that you want - at first. I say this from a little bit of experience. Long before we even thought about buying a popup, we rented a MOTORHOME (!) for a week to tour around part of Colorado. The experience of camping in an RV was so much fun that we decided we had to have our own. The price of motorhomes was prohibitive, and our towing capacity limited us to popups, so here we are!

There are so many different ways to camp that you should see what you like about camping, then try to find a popup that you like. Camping can be very primitive (even in a popup), or it can be resort-style, or anywhere in between. Find out what you like. That will have an impact on what features you end up wanting in your popup.

[flyfisherman]

Yiselbe - add me to the list that think renting a popup first is a very excellent idea. Of course, your no doubt limited to what is available by rental agencies in your area; and as to just what you'll be able to tow with your present minivan. I'm sure any reputable dealer will have a good look at what you intend to tow THEIR popup with. Although I have a Starcraft I use a Jayco Dealer for service (both are the same distance from my house), as the Jayco dealer is an old time dealer with an excellent reputation for service, regardless of what brand you have. They also rent out RV's and are careful about just what they will allow you to us as a tow vehicle. Just as a reference for your information I've posted their website in that it might serve as an idea in your search -

http://www.trailcenter.com/

Whatever brand and size of the camper, I'm thinking, will give you a first rate hands on experience of towing a popup on down the road; not to mention the  setting-up and taking down initation! This hands on experience will be worth much in your future decisions as to what you like, don't like, want and can do without. Believe me, you won't get that from looking at brochures or just setting inside one on a dealer showroom floor. At least, that's been my experience.

Lots of luck!


Fly