mdamerell wrote:
When I was a kid we had a popup. Everything above the 2' high sidewall was canvas. Had to snap a canvas cover over the whole thing before it went down the road (no hard top). No sink, no potty, no fridge, nothing but an empty floor. Basically a tent mounted on a trailer. Much of the increase in price is probably all the "extras" found in popups like fridges, stoves, slide outs, A/C unit, etc.... It's probably easier to put all that in a fixed wall trailer than make it so it open up, rises up, etc.. for you to put the canvas panels in.
When we went looking for a tent trailer in 2004, we wanted something off the ground with places to sleep. Would have loved to have the bunk ends with a mattress to climb up into and just a bare floor to store our clothes and room to change clothes without stepping on sleeping bags and people. My aunt had some kind of tent trailer when I was a kid that opened up with one large bed you stepped up into, and then you had an area to dress and store stuff. I didn't want to get up and down from the ground every time I got up for myself or my kids. Dh has a hard time getting up off the ground. Also, we didn't want to worry about the floor of the tent getting wet.
Even though we have a sink and stove inside our PUP, I wash dishes outside using two tubs, and we cook outside using the PUP's external stove (could just as easily use a camp stove). We love having a campfire for hot dogs, marshmallows, pie iron dinners, and tin foil dinners when campfires aren't banned. It is nice to have the lights and heat.
I do put up the tent in the backyard at least once a summer for the kids and I to sleep in. They love it.
Jean
