With a popup, go small, or get a real camper

I've come to the conclusion, as I work on my lift system yet again, that if one is buying a pop-up some advice is in order. If you just have to have a popup, stick with one in the 8-foot range and keep it reasonably simple. I see Debbie and Dice (ETNCC buddies) set up in just a few minutes with a hand crank that is no problem. I see Jeff (Volman from ETNCC) and myself setting up over a period of an hour or so.

I think the problem is that the campers use essentially the same lift system for all sizes, and the 12 footers have roofs that are just too heavy, mix in the AC units designed for full-size campers and you have way too much weight on the top. I can't even imagine fooling with a slide-out or a screen room.

All that stuff is great once it's set up, but it's just too much trouble for just one or two nights. Easy setup means less hassle. Less hassle means easier to go camping more. If it's raining during setup or takedown, the hassle factor is even more important. Setting up a big pop-up is like building a cabin instead of enjoying a quick camping trip.

Coolbreeze and I can pull in at the same time. He's relaxing and shooting the bull with our buddies while I'm trying to remember all the 5000 details I have to do to setup. If I ever get another pop-up, it will be much smaller. Don't get me wrong, as much as I complain, I still like my PUP, I just didn't know the facts before I bought. I'm camping, but I feel like I'm building a cabin or something.

If you need the space in a 12-foot-box popup, you really need to skip a step and buy a small travel-trailer in the first place.

Richard, you really love that pup. You have a lot of patience with all the problems you have with the lift system. I love that I just push buttons with my 5'er

Coolbreeze1

coolbreeze1 wrote:Richard, you really love that pup. You have a lot of patience with all the problems you have with the lift system. I love that I just push buttons with my 5'er

Coolbreeze1

Tim, my love for my popup is directly related to this being the worst year of the last 10 in my business, and the worst of the 33 years I've been in the publishing business. I just don't have the money to get what I want, and if I can't get what I want, I'll just make due with what I have and save up.

Richard wrote:

coolbreeze1 wrote:Richard, you really love that pup. You have a lot of patience with all the problems you have with the lift system. I love that I just push buttons with my 5'er

Coolbreeze1

Tim, my love for my popup is directly related to this being the worst year of the last 10 in my business, and the worst of the 33 years I've been in the publishing business. I just don't have the money to get what I want, and if I can't get what I want, I'll just make due with what I have and save up.

Richard...This is the beauty of camping. It doesn't matter if your camping in tents or a Bus we all are in this together and accept each one of us as we do the other.

Richard,

I had trouble with my lift system as soon as I got it. When buying a PUP, don't just check out the system going down, bring it down and then let the seller give you a chance to put it up... "LESSON LEARNED, they had it up when I got there".... Another thing I learned is don't count on the PO to have done all the maintance on it that is supposed to be done. My pulley was frozen and my tree was "BONE DRY" of grease. Fixed the frozen pulley, Loaded the tree with grease, a little silicon on the lift arms and my 12 foot roof cranks up as smooth as an 8 footer. Now I get to play catch up on 15 years worth of overdue PM on the rest of the camper. The cool thing about PUP's is that if you want to work on them, "They fit in the garage"

They go in the garage, yes, and if it gets right down to it, they can be handled and manipulated with one-person muscle power. Add a lever or two, and maybe a block and tackle and even the top goes up.