can you winter camp in a pop up?

In southern New England. PA/NJ you have some state parks open throughout the winter. Accessibility is not guaranteed, and December deer action ends in the second week of December. Archery/flintlock deer is Dec 26 to Jan 21. I do not bowhunt in the deep freeze season. Tree stands on icy trees are not my idea of fun. Promised Land SP, Pickerel Point is open throughout the winter. Bathrooms are solar powered and have hot water. The full hook up sites are winterized. Many ice fish, and if it snows they are snowmobiling. Otter Lake private, has direct access to DCNR Snowmobile trails. Feast or famine in the snow department or safe ice this far south.

'Winter' can be a subjective term: In northern New England there extremely few campgrounds open and no state parks open for camping (roads are usually not plowed) and never any water; with temps usually near 0 at night and in 20's/30's during day (during a warm spell) it wouldn't be feasible in a pop up due to heat loss (zero R factor with canvas); in southern and central areas where snow pack is not as deep and moderate temps in 50's during day a pop up might work (electric blankets and down comfotors, etc

They do it in Australia

I basic pup with zero water vs a glamper pup loaded to the tilt. The basic Spartan pup: beds, dinette, pump sink,
Glamper: slideout, water heater, cassette pottie, 26 gallon fresh water, shower.

The Spartan would winter camp with ease. Zero water, 1500w heater, good to go.
Glamper would crack cassette pottie view glass, crack open water heater, and burst water lines, and possibly rupture the 20 gallon belly tank if not properly winterized and off limits Nov-April. Let me tell you how much a PITA it was to winterize our old glamper pup. The water pump was under the folding couch. You could not easily reach or finagle a water pump winterizer feed line. I had to fill the belly tank with 8 gallons of antifreeze before the pump would be able to syphon it up. Good riddance glamper!


We have gizmos and I'd recommend those as the number one condensation killer mod.

Winter in New England can be neg 15F to 50F from late November into March. I bow hunt in the fall where temps are not something to worry about. I don't burn a vacation day for December rifle. Waste of time, money, and risk for injury.

Sorry, I just have to roll back to this one.

boston blacky wrote:
The risk goes beyond a crack in the vinyl tent!! You could cause serious injury or even death to yourself or others! As a test, send a message or note to the unit's manufacture and ask them if they would recommend it. BB

How do you risk serious injury or even death?

I have camped in snow and wintry conditions before and cannot see how anything I've done could induce injury or death. If you've seen that happening, then I suspect something is being done seriously incorrectly.

How I do it and wonder where the risk is: one to two 120v electric heaters (auto turn off if knocked over) if shore power is available backed up by the onboard furnace. Silver reflective materials stuffed in all windows, extra insulation stuffed in the usual gaps around doors, etc, Popup Gizmos on the bunk ends. We can keep it at 65 degrees inside when it is 30 degrees outside with minimal furnace usage if at all. The heaters are plugged into different 120v AC circuits and nothing have ever given an indication (I've purposefully checked) of overloading or overheating. And even buttoning it up as much as I can, I have never had a condensation issue inside the PUP.

Like others, I will turn on the furnace before taking the PUP down. You have to move quickly as the vinyl will cool down quickly.

And in all of these situations, I have winterized all of the water system. We use containers of water for whatever needs we have.

Yes, you can do it if you want to. It is better than I tent because you are off the ground. However you can lose a lot of body heat sleeping on the pullout beds suspended in the cold air. I prefer to lower the table and set up the front bed over the storage boxes. I also prefer electric heaters.

Winter camping is a mindset; you do it because you want to, not necessarily because it makes sense. On the plus side, there are not to many other campers around.

thanks for all the feedback, great pics eric1514

I camp in mine every year with temp's. down to 18 degrees. I set the heater at 55. I also carry the big lp bottles from my fifth wheel. I don't like sleeping bags so a comfoter, sheet and blanket is enough. This is at 7500 feet. Weathered up to 11 inches of snow like this in comfort.

We frequently winter camp, and love it- usually. There is one not so great time, and it was in a blizzard warning. The weather forecast changed quickly once we were already camping. The main complaint was the walk to the vault toilet.

We have camped regularly down into the single digits, and once it got below zero- with wind. We run 3 electric space heaters. Two off of camper 30 amp plug in, and an extra off of another outlet from the power pole via an extension cord. We all sleep with electric blankets in the bunks with lots of blankets. I am very good with electrical, so know how to load balance everything so as to not pop breakers or overload anything. The propane heater supplements the electric when it gets below about 10-15 degrees. It is dicey though, as a camper heating/propane system is not designed for cold weather use, and therefore the heater output is a lot less.

The canvass and windows on our pup do just fine in the cold, other than making it more difficult to break down because everything is stiffer. Meaning it is harder to get the roof down and latched. I've ended up on top of the roof to get it squished down to latch. You learn to leave the heat cranked up until it is time to actually lower the roof.

As for snowstorms, yes they can be a problem. I bent one shepherd pole in a heavy snow storm, as it snowed heavily while we were sleeping. You have to be diligent about knocking the snow off of the bunk ends during heavy snow. PUP gizmos help because the snow comes off easier.

Bring a shovel with you for around the campsite.

We usually camp in state park CG's in the winter. Many are open in MN year around, and have good electrical.