Collapsing the tent trailer

You will get better at it with practice, if you don't give up.

It sometimes takes more than 30 minutes to get my motorhome de-camped and ready to move, but my wife and I have done it in less than 5 minutes if just driving a few hundred feet to the dump station.

Owned a PUP for 17 years before upgrading to a TT.

Make sure everything is clear for the bunk ends to slide in.
Undo all outside fastners.
Undo all elastic banding holding the bunk end fabric in place.
Drop the roof support bars to pop out ends.
Push both bunk ends in.
What I would do is lower the roof (at a pretty good pace, but I had 17 years of practice) I would get to the point where the roof is about 12" from the main body and walk around tucking in all the fabric.
Continue to lower roof until I got slack in the steel cable. That tells me that its not going down any more.
Walk around the trailer and give any exposed fabric a final tuck and simply lean on the roof while you latch each corner.

Should only take about 10 minutes.


Also with the awning, I would unzip the bag prior to raising the roof. (i had a velcro strap in the center of the awning, inside the bag to hold it in place.)

And at tear down. right before I was ready to lower the roof, i would fold up the awning legs. (it was a nice awning, no strings or poles. it was a carefree of colorado. very similar to what on most TT's) I would let the awning hang and lower the roof to a height that was reachable for me to roll the awning up and tuck it inside the bag and zip it up. I then would continue with the tear down process above.

Welcome from another Oregonian Sneiller. What part of Oregon?

regis101 put it briefly & best. Just getting the roof down & latched shouldn't take longer than about 10 minutes.

Roy B has learned the value of Rubbermaid Action Packers I see. I swear by them and occasionally at them (weight) but it is the first thing out (by door) and last thing in the pop up. The big one holds all my stuff including lynx, toolbox, tent stakes, lights, batteries (19.2 Sears)for set up and a few propane tanks etc.

When we had our popup we would crank it down some of the way, tuck in the canvas all around, crank down some more, tuck some more, etc. It was slow at first, but after we'd had it out camping several times, by the end of the season (and for the rest of the time we owned it) we got it down to a science and setup or takedown took us about 1/2 hour, with another 15-30 minutes to load & unload it. (Clothes & food always went in at each setup and came out each time we took down & hitched up.)

Drop it half. Tuck it in. Drop it to six inches. Tuck it all in. Drop 'er down and latch it up.
Pretend it's starting to rain and you have to get the heck out of there.

Sigh - I never was succinct. Good description. Don't worry about putting downward pressure on the corners to latch it - I think you'll know when the lifters have gone as far as they should, after which more downward pressure will be needed for the latches to catch properly.

By the way, this setup/takedown time included setting up the awning. Our dealer had advised us to set it up (except for staking down the support poles) when we had cranked up the camper about halfway. We didn't do that for the first year, then realized it was SO much easier the way he had told us. :)

Oh - make sure you have the rear stabilizers set up before you enter the camper. :) I think all popup owners have experienced the consequences of not doing so, at least once. :) We usually set the stabilizers (which were attached to our camper, not separate) before all the cranking - easier to reach them that way, rather than half-crawling under the bed ends once they're deployed.) Never had a problem with our lifters in 16+ seasons.

Drop it half. Tuck it in. Drop it to six inches. Tuck it all in. Drop 'er down and latch it up.
Pretend it's starting to rain and you have to get the heck out of there.

My tent beds actually touch my roof now when I lower it for travel. This was after I added 3-inch memory foam on both bed ends... This is good reason to change over the incandescent automotive bulbs in the ceiling that get really hot to the no-heat KEDs lights.... You sure don't want those to be touching the memory foam until the cool down haha

Mine is pretty straighet foward... Remove the bottom of the window flaps and tuck inside... Push both ends in and gently tuck things around them. Then I just lower the top with my electric switch... When its get down to about two inches from the bottom then I do one more walk around to stuff the window flaps inside the area...

Then it clear sailing the next two inches and latch in place...

It takes take some training on folding over the kitchen area and put eveything in its place. I use the ACTION PACKER cases from WALMART and label what is inside them... Think I have of these medium size cases... Three or four goes down the hallway after the kitchen area has been folded over. Then the rest goes on my 5x8 deck lined up good with all of the outside items... Then I cover the outside items with 9x12 tarps...

It takes me 15-minutes or so to get ready for travel after we have have cleaned up everything placed in the actionpacker cases... I am never in any hurry... Doesnt other me how long it takes.... Same for setting up... It gets up when it gets up...


Roy Ken

My memory recalls 10-15 minutes TOPS---. No weight on the roof, at most a little push downward on the top---basically pushing the seal between the top/bottom, not much more than that. This is total time, pushing in beds, lowering table/stove top, etc.... The actually dropping of the roof. Maybe 5 minutes, depending if someone helped me keep the canvas pushed in.

Remember the top should go up/down with the stabilzers in the stowed position. This means putting up the top prior to deploying the stabilzers. Stowing stabilizer prior to lowering top. The reason for this is "frame torgue". Twisting the unit can but an added strain on the tracking/pillars (whatever they are called) that go up with the top. If the trailer is "sitting" naturally, there is less change of the top binding....At least this is what my old coleman manual taught me.

As far as lowering it SLOWLY. The only purpose I see for a slow lowering is...in order to make sure the canvas is tucked in so it does not protrude beyond the confines of the top/body. In other words...you walk around continually pushing the canvas in, so it does not go between the top/bottom. I would lower 1/4 way...push in canvas. lower again, push in some more. Stop lowering just "UP" enough to get my hands in...make sure the canvas is pushed in...then lower the rest of the way.

If you are having to put a lot of pressure on the top to get it latched...you might want to make sure the canvas is not between the top/bottom.