Thinking of buy our 1st pop up need advice

[mcglothlin96]

Hello everyone,
We are thinking about buying a 1982 Coleman Redwood pop up. This will be our first pop up. We have owned 2 motorhomes and done a lot of tent camping. Does anyone know anything about these campers?? THe one we are looking at has a broken cable. The camper is suppose to be in excellent shape inside. THe outside is in good shape.  Most likely we will get the camper for $200.  Is that a bad deal?  Also can anyone tell me where I could possibly get a floor plan or find a picture of this camper set up??   Also any information about replacing the cables would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help!!

The McGlothlins

[hoppy]

A 1982 model Coleman is TRULLY a Coleman product. Fleetwood Industries began to produce PU's using the Coleman name trademark back in 1989.

 The real Coleman's hold up exceptionally well, and the model that you are looking at is a living testimony to that.

 For the price of $ 200.00, you really can't go wrong.

 But I would recommend propping up the roof using 2 X 4's and inspect the inside of the unit. You need to check out the canvas for holes, dry rot, and mildew, check the floor's condition for wood rot, the ceiling area for water stains, conditions of the cabinets, etc.

 Also check the condition of the PU's frame, tires, and suspension.

 Replacing cables is a straight/forward task, and could be performed by yourself. There are lift system instructions available on this forum outlining the lift system if you need them..... but make sure that every thing else is in good condition before working on the lift system.

 Replacing canvas, roofs, and floors can be expensive.

  Hope this helps, and good luck with your decission.

[mcglothlin96]

THank you for the information.  

My husband did inspect the flooring and framing from underneath.  He said it looks great. The roof is in excellent shape other than needing cleaning. A friend of ours saw the inside about 6months ago when the cable broke. He said it was in excellent shape.  One of the tires are dry rotted but the spare and the other one are in good shape.  I'm getting ready to call the owner and tell him for $200 we will come and get it today. So as of this evening I will be the owner of my first pop up. Hopefully we will get to use it soon.  As I said earlier we've owned 2 motorhomes and tent camped a lot. The motorhomes were just to big and bulky to take a lot of places we like to go so we figured a pop up would get us off the ground and out of a wet tent. We camped last weekend in a tent and got wet we decided it was time for a change and just lucked up on this pop up.

Thanks the info and I'm sure if we buy it you will be hearing a lot from me. I've enjoyed what I've read on your site it  has been very informative.

Thanks again
Lisa

[hoppy]

Good luck with the purchase Lisa, and enjoy many years of camping pleasure with it.

 How you describe it, it sounds like a real "peach"

 Finds like these are hard to come by.

  I personally love the earlier year model PU's. They just seem to have had more character back then than the newer versions. They were definetly were built stronger.

  If you go to the fix-it forum, there is an attachment named liftman.PDF in one of the repair topics that shows the operation and repair of the Coleman/Fleetwood lift systems.

  Good luck again, and welcome to the PUT forum.

[mcglothlin96]

Just thought I'd let you know that we did buy the 1982 Coleman Redwood . It's in great shape inside and I can't wait to get the cable fixed and take it camping!!  
Does anyone have any advice for when we replace the cable? I did find the directions on that someone had pointed out and will down load it tomorrow so we will have them.

Hope you all don't mind me asking questions because I'll probably have a lot!!

Thanks again
Lisa

[hoppy]

Does anyone have any advice for when we replace the cable? I did find the directions on that someone had pointed out and will down load it tomorrow so we will have them. Lisa

 Hey Lisa,

 Great news about the camper. I know you will enjoy it.

 As for the advice, the liftmanPDF file consists of over 70 some-odd pages. Scan through the pages until you find your model and year camper, and print these pages only.

 After you have read the replacement procedure, it should be pretty much self-explainatory.

   Good luck with the replacement cable.