I've lost my love of camping with the pop-up

[neilc88]

I really never thought I would say this, but I've lost my love of camping.:S

I have a family of 5, kids are 13,13 & 10. Tow vehicle is Ford Excursion.

It seems like too much work to pack everything. 5 bikes is a killer. 3 are inside the excursion and 2 on the bike mount above the trailer hitch. Hard to crank the camper tongue wheel up or down as bikes are in the way.

I feel like I spend half a week packing everything, then a day to unpack upon return.

We do keep the pop-up open in the summer at home and kids like that.

I think a bigger non-popup would be nice, but it is not really in the budget.

I'm looking for suggestions.

I don't know if I should go the hotel route, rent a bigger camper for a week, or just grin and bear it for 1 trip a year. :h

[DutchmenSport]

lizzie wrote:
Lots of good suggestions here but I amazed that anyone with children aged 13,13, and 10, has to do anything but drive the tow vehicle and pay the bills. You should be backing the pop-up into the campsite and then going for a walk. Come back in awhile, after they are all set up, and help them make dinner. lizzie

Sometimes folks don't WANT to let go for a number of reasons. 1) underestimate the ability of their kids. 2) Parents are control freeks and rather than letting kids grow up, they do everything for them instead. 3) The owner of the camper may feel he is the ONLY one that can set it up right, without breaking anything. 4) Sometimes parents just don't have the patients to work with their kids, so they ship them off as fast as possible .... the bicycles. Unload them, kids gone! Now dad has to do it all himself. He's actually less stressed with the kids occupied with something else, leaving him alone.

At one time or another in my lifetime, I have responded to my own 2 kids like one of these or another. (and unfortunately, have the same inpatients with my 4 grandchildren now too). The end result is total exhaustion and the fun and thrill of the moment get's swallowed up in frustration, and the question, "why am I doing all this work when I get nothing out of it."

It's hard to let go and let someone else take control of a situation! But if you do, the end result is good. You have the joy of seeing your kids grow, develop, and mature into responsible adults, not held back as babies that grow up expecting everyone to hand them everything on a silver platter.

[lizzie]

Lots of good suggestions here but I amazed that anyone with children aged 13,13, and 10, has to do anything but drive the tow vehicle and pay the bills. You should be backing the pop-up into the campsite and then going for a walk. Come back in awhile, after they are all set up, and help them make dinner. lizzie

[cbshoestring]

Once, with the tent, I had the boy foot pumping the air mattress for mom and I. He asked: "Why do I have to pump it, if I do not get to sleep on it?" My response: "I work 365 days a year for your comfort, you can spend ten minutes working for mine."

I must have said it rather loudly....I heard chuckles from several other campers.

We got rid of our pup because I was tired of putting it up and down. So much nicer being able to grab a bag of clothes and some grub....and be gone.

Since that is not a viable solution for you at this time...make sure everyone helps out.

[mockturtle]

I would hike instead of bike. And, yes, every member of the family should have his/her designated tasks. I have witnessed some really smooth operations by families even with much younger kids.

[Ryanincc]

I WISH my kids were as old as yours to help me out with setup and take down. Im looking forward to it needless to say.

Other than the delegation of duties, I recommend you look at this site for hauling your bikes.. They have some neat racks that go on the pup roof when traveling... no drilling and can hold up to 8 bikes.

[dewey02]

Decide what is important to you.
Keep the camper and/or Excursion stocked with everything but perishable food so that you are ready to go with minimum preparation.
There are lots of things to do beside bike riding. Hike, swim, whatever. Or just take the kids bikes if that keeps them busy.
There are lots of ways to go camping and lots of things to do when you get there. If something doesn't work (sounds like the bikes are a big hassle) then don't take them.

[Houston_Remodel]

Our rule:

No one sleeps inside the camper who doesn't help equally with the workload.

[Dog_Folks]

MickeyBrennan wrote:
Delegate!
Spread out the chores a little at a time.

Sound advice. Also: no one goes to the restroom or leaves the campsite until it is set up. You will be surprised how fast everything gets done. Don't accept sloppy work. 🙂

[Snowman9000]

An alternative is a trip to a cabin resort. Those can be fun and give about the same kinds of experience and memories.

[toedtoes]

I agree with the delegation - at 13, 13, and 10, there is no reason that the kids can't be helping. Heck, they should be able to do it all while you sit back with a beer... 🙂

I also think that at their ages, and since you only go camping once a year as it is, that camping may not be something your family will continue to want to do in the near future.

I would find ways to reduce your workload: delegate and (as gcloss says) simplify. If the family isn't willing to help or simplify, then they probably don't really care about the camping that much, so you can sell the pup and look at other vacation options.

[gcloss]

My father in-law had a few pop-ups over a 35 year period taking a family of five camping 6-7 times a year. They went all over, short trips and long trips like NY to Disney, NY to Canada, NY to Maine etc. all while pulling with a full size Chevy station wagon.

I learned one of the most important thing from him, "Keep it Simple". He would setup camp by taking out two folding chairs, a table cloth and a bug repellent candle for the picnic table. Cooking consisted of the stove in the PUP, a folding charcoal grill and an electric fry-pan. Refrigerator was a 2cuft Sear fridge that replaced a built-in icebox. Kids sat at the picnic table, no chairs for kids, no bikes, no toys, only old black inner tubes for riverside or lake camping. Everyone had a small gym type bag for clothes and each had a sleeping bag, simply nothing else.

My wife and her brothers had some of the best times of their lives with simple camping. My wife and I laugh, if her father was alive today and saw our Jayco Eagle, he would think we were crazy.

Keep it simple!

[RoyB]

We are JEEP and TENT campers from back in the 60s doing the high country of Arizona back in those days. Nothing better than waking up in the cold morning seeing the sun hit the red rocks of the Sedona back country. Living in the Tempe AZ area we made good us of the Apachee trail every chance we got. Fortunate for us we had three or four folks that had the same love and made many group trips with our Jeeps pulling a utility trailer...

We would look like this google image heading for the high country.


I got a OFF-ROAD POPUP in 2008 and with my truck bed and the rear seat super cab area along with the 5X8 front deck of the POPUP trailer we can carry some serious camping supplies with us.

Now we still tent camp and also make runs with our OFF-ROAD POPUP camper as well. Actually we do both - always carry my tent bag...




Having all the things you need in the POPUP is a learning thing for sure... With the top coming down for travel forces you to store everything in the one long hallway. When i open the trailer half door there is not one inch of space to stick anything inside the door. All of this has to come out first rain or shine and sit under my trailer before I can setup anything. If it is a clear day I will sit everything from this area on the picnic table first then put it all where it belongs after we setup camp...

I carry five or six ACTION PACKER cases from LOWES-WALMART and they are lined up on the back side of the front deck. I have a label on the outside of each Action Packer for whats inside. I can also slide two of these action packers under the wrap around seating my POPUP has where the table get stowed.


My saving grace is the front deck on my OFF-ROAD POPUP. You can carry some serious camping supplies here... This PHOTO is from google images as my 14RT has my battery frame next to the deck where I have room for four each GP24 batteries cases extending out over the tongue frame. My two propane tanks are just behind the trailer jack.


Mt Truck bed has all of the heavy duty items like chairs, Coleman Road Trip grill, gazbo tent bag, 5-day ICE Chest, 2KW Generator, truck tool box. My truck bed has the lockable FOLD-A-COVER - all weather tight when traveling. The back seat area is usually our important things, clothes and groceries we pick up just before arriving at the camp site.


We also have to have at least two 5-gallon fresh water totes and two Aqua-Tainers to support our fresh water and carry out gray water routine. Also a folding two wheel cart is a must have item along with a folding two step ladder. I also carry a 32-inch round firepit with three logs under the fire bowl to be our first fire in case we get in late when arriving.




It gets exciting when you arrive at camp site when it is raining

Once the POPUP is setup then since there is only the two of us we can use the second tent bed area for day time catch all items...

If you can't live without inside storage areas you will need to get a high wall enclosed trailer. POPUPs just don't have room for much inside storage. Having said that I still have alot of small areas where it packed to gills for things we use when camping...

I didn't dream this up over night. Each trip made comes up with more storage ideas and what you need to bring along.

With our beefed up trailer items we can stay off the grid for a couple of weeks with ease running all the 120VAC items we want to have on using an inverter and all the 12VDC items direct connected to the battery bank. This requires us to connect our trailer shore power to the the 2KW generator each day to recharge our batteries in a three hour time frame using smart mode charging.

We are both in our 70s now and still keep doing it... C'mon guys haha... We thought about getting a TT but it is a known fact that camping in the POPUP is very inexpensive and with all the modern appliance we watch HDTV every night just like the big RV trailers guys do.

Roy Ken

[p220sigman]

You could also consider a roof rack for the Excursion to get them outside or the ones off of the Pup.

Also delegation works. My kids had jobs to do when they were 8 and 11. As they got older, their responsibilities have expanded.

[TubaPete]

I agree with delegation, but it sounds like you main beef is the bikes. The method you described for hauling them seems awkward. Maybe leave the bikes home. Or how about one of those bike racks that hold the bikes upright on the popup. A fairly common method of hauling them.

[Halmfamily]

My son helps with everything on the outside and the wife and daughter the inside. My son,15 now, spots me backing in, hooks up shore power sewer lines and water while I'm disconnecting. While I'm putting out the slides he put the stabilizers down and x-chocks in. Ten minutes and we're done. Granted its a fifth wheel but you can still delegate out 75% of what needs to be done.