How do pop ups handle at the beach

[NCSunshine]

We were down at Myrtle Beach years ago when a strong storm came through, there were said to be gusts of 60 mph in the storm.  It came during the night, we had already went to bed.  I woke up hearing the man behind us taking down his awning.  I stuck my head out the door and he told me about the storm.  I woke up my DH and we went outside to put down our awning.  It was already raining hard and we had the awning that you had to roll up by hand.  All we could do was to get the awning out of the awning bases and lowered it down against the side of the camper.  The top of the camper did sway ALOT but it held up beautifully.  The next morning we got out to survey for damage and for us there was none, but plenty of others did lose their awnings during the storm.

[lizzyinatizzy]

I've camped in a PU at Duck, NC before and LOVED it. My aunt didn't seem to have any issues with the PU at all. She had a model from the 70's I'm sure. And I don't recall any issues except for waking up wet one morning after a huge storm.  I was laying up against the canvas!  

ITA with the awning advice.  We have a very basic awning and while it does pretty well with some slight windy conditions and even fairly heavy rain, I wouldn't chance it with a steady 20+knots at the beach.

Regarding your tow vehicle.  We have an 04 Pontiac Montana.  It's rated to tow 3500 also.  We have a Starcraft 1701L.  Not sure what the weight is but I am guessing from the other Bayside owners' comments, that my Star is lighter than the Bayside(shorter too)  If you have the tow package on your TV you may be o.k.  But we experienced some transmission slipping and other issues while towing our PU to the TN Mountains.  Now, from Chantilly to the beach may be downhill(I grew up in Newport News btw), but you may experience some issues if you don't have the tow package(tranny cooler being the biggest thing IMO).

We recently purchased a used 02 Ford E150 Extended van. It's got the tow pkg with tranny cooler and all those nifty towing things.  We can't even tell the PU is behind it.  It's so sweet!   I'll never tow the PU anyplace with the Montana again.  Once you load up the cargo area with your junk, then the PU with some extra items, that poor Montana just can't cut it!

But that's just me. Maybe people have great sucess with their Chrysler products and towing.  
Wishing you Happy Camping,
Morgan