Interesting TV / Popup Combos

There are times when I'd like to put a hitch on our Hyundai Santa Fe V-6. It's perfectly capable of towing the Apache Raven. On the other hand, when I need to carry firewood, water, kitchen and supply boxes, bicycles, the F-250 is very handy. It only looks like overkill!

We had two Trailmanors in the beginning. Not sure what happened that we changed. It was so easy to tow, even the largest 3326. Folding hard-sided rvs are really cool.

I truly thought that as the price of fuel increased and the SUVs started to downsize, that hard-sided folding rvs would really take off.

I saw this thread today because for some reason, hard-sided folding rvs popped up on my YouTube site.

I could really be happy with the largest Aliner with bath towed behind a Chrysler 300. Small 5000 btu a/c that would run on solar and batteries.

Currently I have 3 rec items. A popup, travel trailer, and fifth wheel

We looked very hard at the Aliner when we retired and planned on traveling. It had several promising features.

We needed,
A bed we could exit without climbing over your partner.
A bathroom you can turn around in.
A pantry you can keep stocked between trips.
Closet space for clothes.
Cabinet space for towels.
Space for two adults and a dog.

In the end the Aliner lost out to a 3 year old, 22 ft. TT for $14,000.00.

I still have my PUP for those occasions when the TT is too big, but for cross country travel we needed more space.

My wife and I are now both 75 (and she is handicapped) We have been camping all our married life starting with tents and sleeping bags on a small motorcycle and working up over the years to big motorcycles and towing a small cargo trailer.
At one time I designed and built a folding camper that was big enough for the two of us. but just barely.
In 2013, I gave up motorcycles and bought a GMC terrain with the v6 for the towing power. (rated at 3500lbs.) Then we bought a 2010 Palomino Yearling Y-4124
pop up camper that looked like it would do the job. And it has. We've been using it 5 or 6 times a year since then to go camping by ourselves or with the kids and grand kids. I took it on it's first trip and then added brakes and a AC unit and the controller myself. I have also installed the friction type anti sway bar. The unit loads out at 2800 lbs. and works for us. I will admit that as I get older I keep thinking about a TT for ease of setup, but we have decided that if we(I) get to old to handle set up then we are going to be done with camping. But we are going to enjoy it as long as we can.

Frank

I used to tow an 8' Starcraft PUP with a first gen Hyundai Santa Fe ('04 with the smaller 2.7L V6). Perfect combo. The Santa Fe handled the PUP well and never struggled.

Mike Up wrote:

wowens79 wrote:
I bet the poster above is right, no one knows/wants to do anything that takes effort. I'd say lots of people that do things themselves already have a truck, so they go with a hardside.

We had 9 great years in our pup before we went to a hardside, about half the trips we pulled with the pilot, and the others with my 3/4ton truck.

Actually I deleted my post earlier not to sound like bashing, but here's the truth of it.

My wife wants a toilet but not a toilet in the middle of the camper with no sound or visual privacy, as much as the 'privacy' curtain tries.

She also wants a freezer, a refrigerator that cools below 45-50 degrees (without adding external fans) and is big enough for a family without needing to bring a cooler also, and storage where she's not crawling on the floor.

She tried to make due with the pop up (2007 Starcraft 2406) but she had enough. That's when we went to the 2008 Jayco Jay Flight 19BH.

I do all the setup and break down so there's no work for her, just the inconveniences of trying to prepare a meal without food spoiling, the extra cooler's ice melting and not being able to freeze anything.

Then there's the bathroom thing that's a necessity where she doesn't have to walk in the middle of the pitch black night by herself (around the ever so common State park campground drunks) because she's to polite to wake me and the kids, to go with her.

She wanted a dwelling that she felt comfortable to cook and use the bathroom.

As far as the truck, you're right. I wouldn't have a small vehicle where I felt claustrophobic and cramped to daily drive. My truck doesn't get much worse mileage than our 2015 Explorer 3.5L and better than any of my older midsize V6 SUVs. I wouldn't have anything smaller for MY daily driver as stated.

Yeah, pop ups are a PITA. They are a compromise that work okay for lots of folks but if you have the space and tow vehicle for a larger trailer they are better in just about every way. We've got a good tent and frankly I think it works better than a pop up in the typical pop up camping situations, and in every other RV environment our fifth wheel works better. Now if you don't have a truck or the space to park a hard sided camper that's where the pop up can make some sense. Just beware of the compromises.

wowens79 wrote:
I bet the poster above is right, no one knows/wants to do anything that takes effort. I'd say lots of people that do things themselves already have a truck, so they go with a hardside.

We had 9 great years in our pup before we went to a hardside, about half the trips we pulled with the pilot, and the others with my 3/4ton truck.

Actually I deleted my post earlier not to sound like bashing, but here's the truth of it.

My wife wants a toilet but not a toilet in the middle of the camper with no sound or visual privacy, as much as the 'privacy' curtain tries.

She also wants a freezer, a refrigerator that cools below 45-50 degrees (without adding external fans) and is big enough for a family without needing to bring a cooler also, and storage where she's not crawling on the floor.

She tried to make due with the pop up (2007 Starcraft 2406) but she had enough. That's when we went to the 2008 Jayco Jay Flight 19BH.

I do all the setup and break down so there's no work for her, just the inconveniences of trying to prepare a meal without food spoiling, the extra cooler's ice melting and not being able to freeze anything.

Then there's the bathroom thing that's a necessity where she doesn't have to walk in the middle of the pitch black night by herself (around the ever so common State park campground drunks) because she's to polite to wake me and the kids, to go with her.

She wanted a dwelling that she felt comfortable to cook and use the bathroom.

As far as the truck, you're right. I wouldn't have a small vehicle where I felt claustrophobic and cramped to daily drive. My truck doesn't get much worse mileage than our 2015 Explorer 3.5L and better than any of my older midsize V6 SUVs. I wouldn't have anything smaller for MY daily driver as stated.

wowens79 wrote:
We pulled our popup with a Honda Pilot, and it worked like a charm. I had to run the wiring for the 7-pin plug and a brake controller, and add a tranny cooler. It was a 12'box with a dinette slide.

You knew it was back there, but it handled fine. I can't believe with all the CUV's, and minivans that pops aren't selling like crazy. I bet the poster above is right, no one knows/wants to do anything that takes effort. I'd say lots of people that do things themselves already have a truck, so they go with a hardside.

We had 9 great years in our pup before we went to a hardside, about half the trips we pulled with the pilot, and the others with my 3/4ton truck.

We used our Pilot with our pop up as well and it did a great job. Ours is a 2010. I had the trailer tow prep so all I had to do was plug the brake controller into the harness under the dash and it was all set. We are much happier with our fiver/truck combo now for a host of reasons but the towing experience was fine with a Pilot matched to a 3500-ish lb pop up.

We pulled our popup with a Honda Pilot, and it worked like a charm. I had to run the wiring for the 7-pin plug and a brake controller, and add a tranny cooler. It was a 12'box with a dinette slide.

You knew it was back there, but it handled fine. I can't believe with all the CUV's, and minivans that pops aren't selling like crazy. I bet the poster above is right, no one knows/wants to do anything that takes effort. I'd say lots of people that do things themselves already have a truck, so they go with a hardside.

We had 9 great years in our pup before we went to a hardside, about half the trips we pulled with the pilot, and the others with my 3/4ton truck.