One Person Pop Up + Campact Car

[Bernadette Corlett]

Hi: I've (58yo female) tent-camped alone from Massachusetts to Alaska and between for the last fifteen years.  I am retiring soon and want to go on the road for three months.  My hubby says he'd feel better if I traveled with a pop up.  I spoke to a retired couple about five years ago at Recompense Campground in Freeport, Maine who had a small pop up that had only one bed on one side that they pulled with a compact car.  Unfortunately I didn't write the name down and everything I look at that is around now even the Livin Lite Quicksilver 8.0 is too big for one person.  I could use some help to identify the pop up I saw or I'll  be going on the road with my tent again.  Thanks alot, Bernadette

[PJay]

Hi: I've (58yo female) tent-camped alone from Massachusetts to Alaska and between for the last fifteen years.  I am retiring soon and want to go on the road for three months.  My hubby says he'd feel better if I traveled with a pop up.  I spoke to a retired couple about five years ago at Recompense Campground in Freeport, Maine who had a small pop up that had only one bed on one side that they pulled with a compact car.  Unfortunately I didn't write the name down and everything I look at that is around now even the Livin Lite Quicksilver 8.0 is too big for one person.  I could use some help to identify the pop up I saw or I'll  be going on the road with my tent again.  Thanks alot, Bernadette

Bernadette:
Look at Aliners or chalets, I have watched one person set up and take down this kinf of camper in less time than it takes two people to complete a pop-up set up.  Ideal for one person.

Happy Camping,
PJay

[fritz_monroe]

I've seen mention of a pup that has a bunk on one end and the other is set up for storage.  There's been a discussion recently about the Jayco J-Trax.  I think it's probably bigger than you want, but looks pretty decent for a tent camper that wants to use the pup for sleeping only.  It's probably under 2000#.

[wavery]

If i were going alone (which I wouldn't do) and wanted to tow a trailer, I would definitely look at the Aliners and Chalets.
http://aliner.com/
http://www.chaletrv.com/
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/car/149941018.html

If my wife and I didn't have the grandkids along sometimes, we would have gotten one of those. Our PU is ridiculously big for the 2 of us and our bird (he has a king size bunk to himself) . Sure, the room is nice but it's not needed and quite frankly, a pain in the butt to set-up on a long trip where you're going to be in a different place every night. The Aliners and Chalets look light to tow, simple and quick to set-up. They just don't have enough room for 4 people and all their gear IMHO.

[raptor]

Maybe you'd be interested to check these out?

http://www.leesurelite.com/welcome.htm

Small enough to pull behind a motorcycle or the smallest of cars.  I don't know anything about it other than what I've seen on the web site.  Pretty interesting looking.

[mike4947]

A lot depends on what you call a compact car and what it's towing capability is. For cars like the Ford Focus, Chevy Cobalt, and Dodge Neon there aren't any hard top trailers that would be in their 1000 pound range. With all three of those cars that 1000 pounds also includes any loading the car as well.

There are several makers of ultralite tent trailers with weights in the 400-800 pound gross weight range, but you won't get things like air conditioning, bathroom, furnace, hard roof, etc.
here's a few to look at that might fit your car's capacity:
http://www.trailmasterinc.com/
http://www.trailman.net/
http://www.livinlite.com/gallery.html
http://www.outbackkamping.com/
http://www.haultent.com/
http://www.com-pac-camp.com/home.htm

[griffsmom]

Our good friend and fellow PUT member surfcal (*AKIRLA Ray) has "half-a-pop-up."
 
It's made by Starcraft and you can see a picture of it on his Webshots page:
 
http://community.webshots.com/photo/67386972/1067387682041651227FCrYCm
 
* "also known in real life as"

[ForestCreature]

Hi Bernadette, Like most are saying A frame is a good way to go. We have an Aliner, the LXE model with the cassette toilet and shower. For 1 it can't get much easier unless you have a small TT like a Casita or something.
 
 Those half pop ups are nice too. The advantage to having an A frame is the ability to pop up easily anyplace to make a fast lunch or even use the facilities.

[AustinBoston]

Bernadette:
Look at Aliners or chalets, I have watched one person set up and take down this kinf of camper in less time than it takes two people to complete a pop-up set up.  Ideal for one person.

Happy Camping,
PJay

While a A-Liner may be perfect for one person, it might be a bit heavy for many compact cars.  A Chalet is even more likely to be too heavy.  But for ease of set-up, nothing beats an A-Liner.  We've seen ForestCreature set up and take down her ALiner just to show off.  Ready to sleep in 3 minutes, ready to tow in three minutes + connect time...

Austin (Usually takes us 20.  Can do it in 5 in the rain)

[wavery]

This is funny.....

I had a dream last night about removing one of my bunk ends and replacing the canvas on that side with a flat panel with a window :p .

I got up this morning, went down to the PU to see if this would be feasible. We hardly ever use that other bunk. It's a lot of weight and a lot of area to heat in the winter and cool in the summer.

I think that I could remove the bunk platform, slides and all related hardware without a problem. This would probably drop my trailer weight by 200-300 pounds and make set-up and tare-down easier.

I'm thinking of making the flat canvas panel angle out slightly to accommodate a 20" wide shelf all the way across. The canvas would support the weight of the shelf and anything that we might put on it. The only thing that we put on that bunk end now is the bird cage.

I think that I could do this in such a way that the bunk-end could easily be re-installed in less than an hour for those times that we bring the grandkids. Even then, they could sleep in the dinette area, if push came to shove.

The only thing that concerns me is the balance of the trailer. I can't take any more tongue weight. I will have to figure out a way to compensate for that. Might be a good excuse to put a bike rack or a storage locker on the back of the trailer. That would be much less weight than the bunk end but the center of gravity would be farther aft. HMMMMMMMM....that could work.

THANKS for the idea . That's what I love about this place.

[bkfdwife]

How would that work if I wanted to take the front bunk out?  And...what would you do with the tent canvas on that side?? Hmmm..got me thinking now! Mom is the only one that sleeps in ours!
Lisa

[wavery]

How would that work if I wanted to take the front bunk out?  And...what would you do with the tent canvas on that side?? Hmmm..got me thinking now! Mom is the only one that sleeps in ours!
Lisa

It depends on the PU. I have a Coleman/Fleetwood Tacoma. My bunk-end has locks that allow the bunk-end to slide completely out of the track.

The canvas is the hard part. I used to have a canvas business so it will be easy for me. I believe that you could actually do this with a home machine.

You would need enough Sunbrella (or whatever material that you choose) for the job, snaps and zippers. It can all be found here:
http://secure.sailrite.com/items.asp?CartId={E6902BBC-1346-488E-8A84-49AAEVEREST11CD881F}&Tp=&iTpStatus=1&Bc=SUNBRELLA

Sunbrella comes in 46" or 54" widths. My PU is 90" wide but the canvas is a little less, probably 86". My roof sits about 40-45" off of the box. I would need about 90" of the 46" wide Sunbrella. Cut it into appropriate lengths to sew 2 panels together, to make a "curtain". I would need the appropriate size "Bolt rope" to sew to the top of the curtain to slide into the track in the roof. I would need about 6 snaps to attach to the bottom edge of the curtain and the other half of the snaps to the outside of the camper box.

Now comes the tricky part. I will need to find zippers that match the existing Coleman tent zippers so I can sew a 1/2 zipper to each side of the "curtain" so that I can zip it onto the existing tent material on both sides. That may present a real challenge. The other option would be to sew dual zippers on the existing canvas. In that case, I would leave the one for the original bunk-end and add one for the "curtain".

The other idea that I had was to install a light weight "hard side" as apposed to a "curtain". I could even put a piano hinge in the middle to fold it in half for easy stowage and have it so that it locks in place. It would still require zippers though. HMMMMMMMMMMMM, the possibilities

[TexasCamper]

http://www.fleetwoodrv.com/element/
[IMG]

Here is a 1/2 a PU called a Neon element.

box 6'10''  open 14'8''  GVWR 1500  UTW 105

looks good.

[wavery]

I just measured my opening. It's 47" from the top of the box to the inside top of the roof. It's 83" from side zipper to side zipper.

My slide out bunk is 72" long. That means that I can make a solid pop-up panel that is 80" wide by 47" tall and put it up in one piece. It will fit snuggly up inside the top, to keep out rain. I will still have to put a 2" piece of canvas on either side (vertically) to zip into the existing front and back canvas.

I can make the panel out of aluminum inside and out with a 1" foam core and 1"x1" wood frame. The whole thing should weigh under 20 pounds. If I add a window, maybe another 10# but I will still be saving well over 100# on the trailer. It will also be a lot easier to set-up. Just lift the panel in place and zip up 2 zippers.

I'll start on it when I get back from our cruise. We'll be gone from this Thursday until a week from Sunday (11 days). When I get back, I'll start drawing plans and collecting material. I'll take pics along the way for anyone that may be interested.

The reason that I decided on the solid piece panel was because it will give the trailer a lot of lateral stability (fore and aft) for the roof, to keep it from swinging when the wind blows. I may have to come up with something to stabilize the side-to-side swinging of the roof because I am removing the support (bunk-end canvas) on one side. Any suggestions on that would be helpful.

[TexasCamper]

I just measured my opening. It's 47" from the top of the box to the inside top of the roof. It's 83" from side zipper to side zipper.

My slide out bunk is 72" long. That means that I can make a solid pop-up panel that is 80" wide by 47" tall and put it up in one piece. It will fit snuggly up inside the top, to keep out rain. I will still have to put a 2" piece of canvas on either side (vertically) to zip into the existing front and back canvas.

I can make the panel out of aluminum inside and out with a 1" foam core and 1"x1" wood frame. The whole thing should weigh under 20 pounds. If I add a window, maybe another 10# but I will still be saving well over 100# on the trailer. It will also be a lot easier to set-up. Just lift the panel in place and zip up 2 zippers.

I'll start on it when I get back from our cruise. We'll be gone from this Thursday until a week from Sunday (11 days). When I get back, I'll start drawing plans and collecting material. I'll take pics along the way for anyone that may be interested.

The reason that I decided on the solid piece panel was because it will give the trailer a lot of lateral stability (fore and aft) for the roof, to keep it from swinging when the wind blows. I may have to come up with something to stabilize the side-to-side swinging of the roof because I am removing the support (bunk-end canvas) on one side. Any suggestions on that would be helpful.

Just go out and get the new Neon Element. No problems