Soft vs. hard side TC

I never went the pop up route for a few reasons; One I did not want to be putting up and down. Had a tent trailer and that was a pain so did not want to do that with a TCer. Second was the Northern Lite that I bought came in at 1600 lbs and a pop up that I was looking at was over that so did not have any possible weight savings and finally was the winter camping - in a hard sided it is warmer, but I am talking -20 to -30 type camping.

For me I do not have to worry about low trees, around here a low tree is a tumbleweed and we drive over them. Plus I really liked that I could load a hard sided cupboards and not have to put things in different places when traveling.

The downside with a hard sided is you have more camper hitting the wind when driving, not a lot but about double from a pop up, and that effects the MPG more than the weight does. How much I never really figured it out but all the other benefits outweigh the MPG savings that I would get in the pop up.

I went through this same decision making process last year. See my thread here.

Bottom line is that I ended up with a Northstar 850SC popup. Weight, clearance/drivability and storage options were all concerns that I was able to address with a popup. After one season, I couldn't be happier with my choice. I sat through the whole winter wishing I was camping again and am anxious to get the season started.

One thing I would say is that unless you buy new, you will have to adjust your needs slightly based on what comes up on the used market. I would have purchased an Outfitter, Hallmark or Northstar and when a nice clean one came up for sale, I had to move quickly!

Good luck on your search,
Mike

We moved from a pup to popup TC. Many of the things you loved about the pup but easier and faster. And less space.

We have a Northstar 800--just a portapotty, so that can be used with the top down. Everything can be used with the top down except the bed. I don't use the cooktop with the top down but if you're really careful, you could. Popping up and down is really fast. Nothing like a pup.

The ones with bathrooms often have shorter dinettes so you might not be able to stretch out on it to sleep.

hands down,nothing beats a pop up for back woods access to fishing lakes.the wife and I bought a used sun lite pop up 2 years ago to see if we liked them.i just sold it for what I paid for it and am now waiting for my new northstar 850 sc.in my opinion,popups are very specific as to what type of camper will use it.also the pop up part really doesn't play much of a factor.if you really don't want to spend a whole min. lifting the roof,its not for you.

Thanks for all the replies. Mentioned my idea to the Admiral and it hit the fan. We went from a class A to a park model we have in Pa. We go there for the summer and have the grandchildren rotate in all summer long. Admiral said the class A with no slide was too small! No way is she going to a TC.
When we sold the class A and bought the park model I bought an old pup to do my hunting and fishing trips and she will not go with me in the pup.
Many years ago,@40,we had a TC. It had few amenities, no battery, refrig,hot water and only a porta potty. Kids loved riding in the cab over and looking out the big window. It had a heater that did not use power, you lit it outside and warm air waifted in without the annoying blower motor.
Don't even know if it is legal to ride in the TC anymore. Thanks again for all the responses but this will have to go on the back burner for awhile.My plan now is to get a used TT with slides for trips with her but get a suitable truck to tow then get a used TC and be able to put it on the truck when I need to. This will take some scheming, wish me luck......Bob

rpetritsch wrote:
Thanks for all the replies. Mentioned my idea to the Admiral and it hit the fan. We went from a class A to a park model we have in Pa. We go there for the summer and have the grandchildren rotate in all summer long. Admiral said the class A with no slide was too small! No way is she going to a TC.
When we sold the class A and bought the park model I bought an old pup to do my hunting and fishing trips and she will not go with me in the pup.
Many years ago,@40,we had a TC. It had few amenities, no battery, refrig,hot water and only a porta potty. Kids loved riding in the cab over and looking out the big window. It had a heater that did not use power, you lit it outside and warm air waifted in without the annoying blower motor.
Don't even know if it is legal to ride in the TC anymore. Thanks again for all the responses but this will have to go on the back burner for awhile.My plan now is to get a used TT with slides for trips with her but get a suitable truck to tow then get a used TC and be able to put it on the truck when I need to. This will take some scheming, wish me luck......Bob

That is where I ended up. TC for me, TT for "US".

Since I'm the Admiral here I voted and pushed for the TC over the larger units for access to smaller areas and no big trailer to tow. Do kinda miss being able to drop unit, we're in the dark ages is manual crank jacks, so once attached it's in there for the trip and the dually wouldn't be all that nimble off road anyway, camper or no. At our age now our time on this earth is on the shorter side so I wanted to spend as much time doing things together before one or the other of us is gone. If that means fishing together, hunting, traveling and seeing sights or visiting family we'll be doing it together as long as we're able. When we can't climb into the cab over bed there's the dinette. After 47 years this year as a pair I can't imagine enjoying not doing things together even if it's not always what I want to do or he wants to do. We take turns at who gets their way. I'd rather always go horse camping with a little fishing on the side, he's more fishing and absolutely doesn't ride horses or bike. It's a trade off but at least we still go....... together.

Sweet. We were married in 1967, so we're basically in the same boat. Big number 48 comes up this year. By the time Jeanie was 40, both kids were out of high school, so we've lived a couple lifetimes after they were out on their own.
jefe

trailgranny50 wrote:
Since I'm the Admiral here I voted and pushed for the TC over the larger units for access to smaller areas and no big trailer to tow. Do kinda miss being able to drop unit, we're in the dark ages is manual crank jacks, so once attached it's in there for the trip and the dually wouldn't be all that nimble off road anyway, camper or no. At our age now our time on this earth is on the shorter side so I wanted to spend as much time doing things together before one or the other of us is gone. If that means fishing together, hunting, traveling and seeing sights or visiting family we'll be doing it together as long as we're able. When we can't climb into the cab over bed there's the dinette. After 47 years this year as a pair I can't imagine enjoying not doing things together even if it's not always what I want to do or he wants to do. We take turns at who gets their way. I'd rather always go horse camping with a little fishing on the side, he's more fishing and absolutely doesn't ride horses or bike. It's a trade off but at least we still go....... together.

trailgranny you're a wonder. I love your style. DW and I are also best friends. We like people okay, but were more comfortable just us.

Not everyone is like that though. Many relationships require each to have their own friends and interests, and RV size is just one more difference. Relationships are compromises.

I hope the OP can get his little camper. It sound like a relatively inexpensive pop-up for single trips is the answer. You can easily use a pop-up at places like Walmart, we did many times.

Just a couple of observation I have made using a pop-up, with an insulated Weblon soft-wall:

-we have camped in extreme winds during tropical storms (Norfolk, VA area: 45 to 55+ MPH) and in desert windstorms (Island in The Sky, Utah: 50 to 60 MPH)

a) we eventually put the top down at the Utah site to lower our wind profile (the truck was moving like a yacht in 30 inch broadside waves), but were pretty comfortable with the top up for ~8 hours; some dust did get in around the Weblon soft-wall stitching, the Weblon soft-wall barely moved at all during these extreme winds.

b) the TS we went through at Norfolk was an extreme one (Norfolk streets were very flooded, as were the roads through Currituck area). We spent the night ~120 feet from the beach, and had horizontal rain blasting us broadside for most of the night. Slight streamers of water was coming in around a few sections of stitching at 4 of our windows, but were easy to dry up with rolled up dish drying towels. The soft-walls barely moved in the wind. By morning, the water was up to the bottom of the differential pumpkin, so I brought the roof down and we waded out (with rafting sandals) to the truck, and headed down to the OBX.

So, for us, there were a few negatives riding out such storms, but we would probably continue to occupy camper with roof up in similar situations in the future. No biggie.

...oh, in winter (winter starts for us around October 5th, with our 1st snows), before we store the camper away, we usually get 3 or 4 good snows. The camper is always set up (24/7) when parked on our property (I use it as an office 5 days a week) right up to the day it goes into heated storage (about Oct 28th). I have absolutely NO problem heating "my office" with a small space heater (900 to 1100 watts) to ~64F ~ 71F with the camper covered in snow. Especially since the Weblon soft-walls have insulation sandwiched between 2 layers a very robust reinforced polyester, guaranteed not to stretch beyond about 0.5%

About ~1.5 hours before the TS hit:



Near Elizabeth City (on route to OBX):



Boondocking at Overland Expo East near Asheville, NC last October (at 27F):

I like the idea of a hard top if I want to stealth camp at a rest stop or Walmart. I would like to know if is possible to use the soft side while the top is down, access to head, refrig. And can you sleep on the dinette with the top down?

We've boondocked in several towns in Maine-- one of them was Freeport, several times, mid ~September ("LL Bean" has an RV parking section down on the lower part of town). We both (wife and I) easily sleep on our dinette bed while boondocking. Read, sleep and eat, too, all with roof down. Our camper has 100% blackout curtains. We also have a large electric flush toilet (full height) installed in our Outfitter closet (a Thetford Curve: 4 gallons fresh; 5.5 gallons black). Quite expensive, but worth it. The fridge runs on propane. Full access with roof down. My wife can almost stand up in our camper with roof down (I have to stoop down, and walk around). Both of us can very comfortable operate at our dinette when the bed is made up (we both work with the laptops when roof is down; prepare food; everything)...

Anyhow....that's my story with our pop-up.