We tent camped for 18 years with kids. The pop up is an easy step up from tent camping. As someone else mentioned, getting up off the ground gets harder with age. 😉 We bought a new pop up, but it was 1/2 price because it was the previous year's model. We can pull it with our 12+ year old Outback. The bunks are smaller than a full-size bed, but we made a bed extension and now have a bed that's larger than a queen. We've been figuring out how to make our own repairs. It has AC and heat, so we took it to southern IN last week for the eclipse. We've had it out in mid-October in IL. We've been through 100+ temps in MO and 60 mph winds in heavy thunderstorms. I don't necessarily recommend those experiences, but the pop up held through all of it. 😎
Yep, getting older sucks for tent camping. Recently purchased a 2010 Coleman Evo E4. Hard to find one. It has a front deck where we can take the golf cart if we want to. Going to retire in a couple of years and plan on doing some camping.
Thank you for sharing your perspective-great video-I’m now sold on a pop up. ☺️ I also live in PNW and you addressed some of my biggest concerns such as camping in rainy weather and whether I’d be able to dry it out inside my garage which doesn’t have enough room to be able to fully open the camper. Thanks again! 👍
I have a pop up, as well as other reasons, it does not hurt my fuel mileage on average. In a couple of years we are taking it from Vermont to Louisiana.
Great video. We had a travel trailer and 1 young child for years. Pros - no setup, bathroom with a small tub and privacy for number 2 at midnight. Major con and the reason we switched to a pop up is where you can't take the travel trailer. It's nice for pavement camping, but once we got our jeep we wanted to go further into the woods. The pop up cam go where with the travel trailer would not make it. Thanks for the video! Great points!
Great video. We are in a holding pattern just like you explained in the beginning. I have gone back and forth from big RV to small to A frame now to Pop Up. Being able to store in the garage is probably the #1 plus for me. We have camped in one before and had a blast. The bathroom issue is a bit of a sticking point, but we shall see. Really like your channel.
Just bought one yesterday for 1,800 lol. I pick it up tomorrow. No major problems with it at all! Just some cleaning and refreshing and I think it will be awesome!!
We are looking at buying a pop up. We used to tent camp but when we got older it became to hard to sleep on the ground and we didn’t like cots either. The pop ups would let us continue to camp but have a comfortable bed up off the ground.
I am glad you mentioned the car. I have the exact same vehicle and I was wondering how it would fare pulling a trailer. I will have to get a hitch installed because it doesn’t have one currently. You say you have a travel box as well and it’s ok on transmission? We will be purchasing one in December for Christmas present to our family. Can’t wait to get my hands on one!
Yea we put the travel/cargo box on top of the car. It’s been fine. Our MDX has a 5,000 tow capacity. We only do one trip a year over a mountain pass and we take it slow. Happy Camping!!!
I have been cautiously approaching this decision for a few years. I really appreciate your video. My background is backpacking, but I have a younger family of 5 I would like to get away with. I have looked at small bunkhouse travel trailers and hybrids… looking at the used market, you can find decent hybrid travel trailers for the price of higher end pop up campers… this is kind of where I am at currently, trying to decide between the two. I have a 5000lb tow capacity as well… so a big travel trailer is out of the question. I can see the hybrid TT as an easier setup/easier to use for longer distances (stopping multiple times along route). However, the ease of towing, better mpg, ability to store in garage, possibly go on paths the TT wouldn’t fit as easily really has me leaning towards the pop up.
Good things to think through. The set up and tear down is more work with a pop up. Ultimately for us the storage, ease of towing, and price were the deal breakers because we were not going to buy a higher end pop up.
@@Popupinrealife87 I probably should have said “higher end used pop up campers” like a Flagstaff HW for example. I’m trying to keep the budget semi-reasonable, but if the hybrid would be worth it in the long run, I could see investing a little more. It’s a tough decision though.
Had popups for years. If it’s raining when I get home with a wet popup, pop it up and leave it up till it dries. As long as you open it up it won’t mould. For noise we always have fans to provide white noise.
Turn off the background music! Attempted to listen to what you said all the way up to the one-minute mark, it then stops, again begins at the two-minute mark. Enough is enough, I turned off your video. It is beyond me why RU-vid content creators think playing background music over their voice is somehow enhancing their videos, it is not, it is distracting. We came to hear you, not to fight background music which quickly becomes extremely annoying and intrusive. Many folks have hearing difficulties, thus while concentrating on your voice they must also concentrate on tuning out the music; frustrating. Your background music ruins an otherwise exceptionally good presentation.
