Why a pop up

[silverjk2007]

New camper and obviously new to the forum asking a question like this.  Let the hate mail start.  Seriously, I'm tring to decide between a pop up or a small travel trailer.  The main advantage, and a big one, is a shower/toilet in a travel trailer.  I know some pop ups have those but they are almost as much as a trailer.  Convince me guys.

Thanks for the help.

[silverjk2007]

Can you guys convince me to buy a pop up?  I am on the fence between a pop up or a small travel trailer.  First time camper and on this site.

Thanks for any advice.

[Old Starcraft]

Can you guys convince me to buy a pop up?  I am on the fence between a pop up or a small travel trailer.  First time camper and on this site.
 
 Thanks for any advice.

Welcome to PUT. I hope you stay away from the "dark side":rolleyes:  and buy a pop-up. I purchased my 1st one last year, just started using it this year. Everyone's reasons for a pop-up, hybrid, a-liner e.t.c. are different. Here's why I choose my pop-up.

1) Off the ground, but still have the canvas giving it the tent feel with creature comforts.
2) Cheaper as compared to hybids, e.t.c.
3) Something I can park in the driveway without any neighbors complaining.
4) Doesn't require a heavy duty gas sucking tow vehichle to tow it.
5) I have nothing to comapare it with but I feel more comfortable working on this vs a larger tow camper.
# 1 & 4 are my biggest reasons. Good luck on your purchase. If not sure there are places you can rent RV's from. I think a bit expensive, but less costly than buying one and discover you rather have another type.

Good luck, keep us posted as to what you decide on.:theking:

[oreo57]

Can you guys convince me to buy a pop up? I am on the fence between a pop up or a small travel trailer. First time camper and on this site.[/size]

Thanks for any advice.

[/size]
 
First off welcome to the group, Second post in 1 place so you get a better response on your post.
 
That being said, a Popup is great with many features, TT is also great....The bottom line is what do you tow with and what you feel comfortable towing?? We have a small FW and it serves our purpose about 99% of the time, with the other 1% wanting to upgrade.If you want more space look at Hybrids.
 
Good luck on your quest.

[badabing67]

We have owned both, we started out with a popup then went to a tt (30ft bunkhouse) now we are back to a popup, the big things against a tt are the tow vehical and the cost of gas, also you have to pay more attention to where you stop for gas or food on the road because with a tt you've got alot more behind you and you've got to make sure you can easily get in and out of the parking lot and you can forget a drivethru. but the main reason we went back to a popup is we missed going to some of our favorite backwoods primitive sites, and now we can. also as a side note I have some friends who just upgraded from a pup to a 24' tt and are now missing their pupand the ease and cost of towing it and storing it.

[sacrawf]

We went throught the same thought process before buying a popup and don't have any regrets. We were also considering a Scamp/Casita or other small, light hard wall campers. Here were our thoughts:

The advantages to the popup:

1. Fits in a standard garage, so no extra costs of storage.
2. Since offsite storage is not needed, it is always available for last minute get-ways.
3. Not having a shower/toilet is an advantage as there is less to clean, drain, dump, maintain, winterize, and repair, Also lighter weight, and less moisture for condensation inside the trailer.  Campground showerhouses provide more room for a comfortable shower than the space provided in a small trailer.
4. The popup's open architecture gets you closer to nature than a hard-wall camper.  Open up all the screens and windows and you have a full view if desired.
5. Light weight allows it to be towed with smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles if desired.
6. Small length when in towing mode makes it much easier to pull into and out of impulse attractions and out of the way campsites you will find when travelling.
7. Limited space makes you limit yourself from overpacking and taking it all with you instead of getting away from it all.
8 Towing visibility is increased substantially, the effect of crosswinds greatly reduced, and height restrictions are not a concern.
9. Price.  We were able to get a popup with all of the options available for less than the price of stripped down hardwall campers.  We were able to buy a new popup instead of a used hardside trailer.
10. A popup is easier and quicker to wash, wax, and maintain than a larger camper.
11. The sound of the rain (or snow, sleet, or falling leaves) on the taught vinyl canvas popups is a relaxing music.

[AZsix]

First let me welcome you. Last year my plans were to buy a tt this spring. My wife kept asking, "What about a pop up?" I resisted for a long time and then finally said, "Well it would need to have at least a toilet." The end result was that we came across a deal that was too good to pass up. We had a pup with a toilet and a shower for a ridiculously low price. I jumped at it and have not regretted it. First is the storage. With HOA's many of them such as ours don't allow a tt to be stored in the yard. a pup however sits below the top of the wall and out of site and totally allowable. Second is the ease of towing and using less gas. Another thing I love about it and didn't really expect was the fact that from inside you still feel like you are outside almost. With all the curtains open you can see the beauty of nature wherever you look. With a tt you have to look out a window. I love feeling the breeze blow through the pup too. There are six of us and we are very comfortable in ours. Space management is important and takes some adjustments and getting used to but once you figure out what works for you it's not a problem. You can also get the pup into more remote places than you can a tt.

I would suggest renting a pup for a weekend and then rent a tt. I think Cruise America rents tt's now. That way you get a first hand look at both and can make an educated decision. Keep in mind though that you do give up some things with the pup compared a tt, mainly space and convenience but for me I am glad we have the pup.

Good luck with your decision.

[austinado16]

Welcome!
Bought our first Pop-up last year.  Had thought about a tt, but then thought, where will I put it, how much am I going to like 11mpg towing it, and how much fun is it going to be dragging it around....let alone getting it in and out of "real" camp grounds.

Thought the pup would be fun because it's a folded up house one minute, and the next it's the Taj-Mahal.  I dig that about them.  When towing it, I can see over it and I can get in and out of all kinds of places without thinking twice about where I'm going.  Still get decent mileage towing.

The "rent one" idea is good advice.

[BootheBunch]

All the same reasons above...we love our pop-up.  My husband likes the ease of towing and storage.  I enjoy still having all my amenities (stove, microwave, toilet, shower) that I have in my own home....but with the extra bonus of being able to sit or stand anywhere in my trailer, and having a 360 degree view of the outside.  

Lisa

[MotherNature]

Hello and welcome!

I agree with all the reasons above, especially about the toilet.  I've often thought about getting a porta so that I don't have to run to the restroom in the middle of the night but when I think about dumping and cleaning the toilet I'd rather run to the restroom.  I am responsible for cleaning the two bathrooms in our house and when I'm on vacation I like to leave that stuff behind (lame joke I know but I couldn't resist).

Another reason is heat - it gets really hot in the PUP so I can't imagine how those TT's hold heat!

The price of gas is only going to go up - the lighter your camping trailer the better off you'll be.

All of this aside, you really have to think about and compare whether you'd rather spend your time inside a plastic box or inside a tent on wheels.

Good luck in deciding what's best for you & your family!

[wavery]

We live in an apartment so storage is a real issue and I refuse to pay to store an RV. Cruise an RV parking lot sometime. It's like driving through a grave yard. People don't use those things....out of site, out of mind (I guess). I can park my PU in the garage with no problem and we use ours a lot.

As others have mentioned, fuel cost is an ever growing issue. With gas prices going to $5 soon and $8 being a real possibility, the RV industry is being impacted greatly.

I watch craigslist a lot. The prices on motorhomes is falling dramatically. Some people are literally giving used RVs away. TT prices are going down as well. When I look at PU ads, the prices for used PUs are going up. it looks, to me, like a drastic shift is under way.

It used to be that the freeways, here in LA, were packed with RVs on Fridays & Sundays. Last weekend, we went to San Diego (about 100 mile drive). On the way home, we saw about 5 RVs on the San Diego Freeway. Normally, the freeway would be jammed. I set the cruise on 75 and never touched it once on the entire trip home.

The bottom line is, if you have a camping budget (as most do), you can choose to go bigger and camp less or go lighter and camp more.

[flyfisherman]

New camper and obviously new to the forum asking a question like this.  Let the hate mail start.  Seriously, I'm tring to decide between a pop up or a small travel trailer.  The main advantage, and a big one, is a shower/toilet in a travel trailer.  I know some pop ups have those but they are almost as much as a trailer.  Convince me guys.

Thanks for the help.

Bottom line is that a popup serves my purpose better overall. I'm an old tent camper that has already went the TT route and found it was too large to get back into some of my favorite fishing places; AND ... there was more to maintain (just washing the two is a huge difference), there were more tires to go bad and the gas mileage (and this goes back a few years when gas was affordable) ate my lunch!

I can get my little Starcraft back into some places in the national forrest that the hardsiders would fear to tread. And when I set-up shop, I'm off the ground and comfeee. What's more I tote the canoe on the roof of the popup ... which would be a hard thing to do for the hardside!



Fly

[CajunCamper]

Everyone makes some very valid points. Let me throw this into the mix.
I think a lot of what you decide to purchase should depend on what you want to get out of the camping experience and where you intend to camp.

Example:

We started as tent campers and backpackers so we enjoy the entire camping experience. When we head to the outdoors, we want to be in the outdoors and feel and taste and hear the outdoors, it's all about the outdoors for us. There's nothing like being in a beautiful campsite and on a cool beautiful night being able to open the curtains, unzip the side panels and having an unobstructed 360 degree view. Man you can lay there and listen to the symphony of the wind blowing through the trees and the chirps of crickets and  the sound of frogs. If there's a full moon you can get a glimpse of critters moving about in the surrounding woods like rabbits and coons and deer, oh my. And on those clear nights you can just lay there speechless as you star gaze catching a glimpse of a shooting star, the milky way and oh yeah fire flies.

The pop up is the only camper/rv that can give you all that plus allow you to pull into a more crowded campground and hook up to electricity and water, run your A/C keep your pup zipped up for more privacy, watch TV at night ,cook inside or outside, enjoy sitting under your awning and get aquainted with the neighbors.

Sounds to me like the pop up offers the best of both worlds. You'll never get all of that out of a travel trailer.

Good luck and I hope you're happy with whatever you decide on.

CajunCamper

[butterflyfish]

We just bought our used pup in March and absolutely love it!  DH tent camped as a kid and before we met.  Me, not so much, but I had wanted to get the boys into camping.  We had briefly talked about a travel trailer, but a good friend of DH's was killed in an accident while towing the tt and that totally freaked me out about getting the tt.  Then DH's sister and bil bought a motorhome off ebay (got an awesome deal on it).  The had to pick it up in FL and stopped to see us on the way home.  My longing for a camper of some sort returned.  So off to ebay to look... motorhomes... way too expensive (and remember my fear of the larger tt's...)  We went to look at a motorhome a little higher than our budget that we saw advertised... the thing couldn't get out of its own way and DH is not a mechanical person.... so we scrapped that idea.

DH held strong that he didn't want to invest any amount of money in a camper and find out that I hated camping.  So we decided to look at tents and figured we could tent camp for a minimal investment and see how the family did.  I continued looking online and found our pup within our budget we went to look at it and it was really clean so we made an offer.  It was sold with a porta potty and it also has AC which was a must because of the 6 year old who has a heart condition.  It is nice because if it rains, we are off the ground and it is roomy enough for us  to sit in there for a while til the rains passes.  We can cook in it if it is too windy or rainy outside to keep the fire or grill lit... And we can lock the door so the kids can't excape (whereas in a tent they might eaily leave without our knowledge.  DH likes it because it is close to tent camping (about as close to tent camoing as I think I will get now that we have it!)  

I can see us keeping this pup for a long time, though I have now seen the high wall ones and I think I would like to upgrade to one of them at some point... but not for a while.  

It has been one of the best things we have done for our family (short of moving down here) the boys love it and look forward to going camping all the time.

[viking camper]

Can you guys convince me to buy a pop up?  I am on the fence between a pop up or a small travel trailer.  First time camper and on this site.

Thanks for any advice.

We are also new to the World of PU camping. DW and I have tent camp (15 years) and love it (no camping last 5 years due to new child and DW's health issues). Moved to PU so we load the camper with gear (4 boys wow that's alot of stuff) but still almost be tent camping, you know almost everything you do is under awning, around the fire pit enjoying the great outdoors. We looked at a 28' tt and the big reason we did not buy it is we are trying to get the boys outside to enjoy nature(and away from video games). As we sat in it at the dealer I pictured the boys sitting in the camper playing video games, watching TV ect.