Need some advice

[mountainrivers]

We started out RVing with a popup and moved to a motorhome. We loved the MH, but it was expensive to maintain and gas was outrageous, so we sold it and have been without a camper for a couple of years. Now, we miss camping and think we would like to go back to a popup. There have apparently been a lot of improvements in popups in the last few years, so I have some questions. We think we would like to have one with a dinette slide, a/c and heat, a toilet and seating other than the dinette. Does anyone have an opinion regarding the quality of the various brands? Do the dinette slides have problems? Should we consider new or used? Any other advice will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Neal

[Monaco_Montclai]

man look, we had a POPUP, nagara by Fleetwood. wow what a popup.weighed 4k, two king beds, hard side bath,opened up-28ft long. now its all happy-camping

[mountainrivers]

We've discussed the pros and cons of a toilet/shower as opposed to a u-shaped dinette and decided we would rather have the u-shaped dinette. In our old popup, we had a porta potty, just for those night time emergencies, and that seemed to work fine. I like more space to take a shower. Even the nice shower we had in the motorhome was too small to be comfortable. Thanks for the reply.

[aaguilar]

We own a 2010 Starcarft 1224, with a slide. Have around 30 trips or so with no issue other than the power converter having to be replaced.

We have the combo toliet/shower and we find it useful.

[mountainrivers]

Thanks for the reply Bondebond. We are trying to decide whether we should continue looking or go with the unit I mentioned. It's not exactly what we're looking for, but it's close. However, $6000 for an 8 year old popup with canvas problems seems a bit high, so if we decide we would like to buy it, a little price negotiation will be required. Don't know if the owner is open to that or not, so I will make a low offer and see what happens. Thanks again!

[bondebond]

Sorry to hear about the cancer but glad you're pursuing the good life.

There's a couple of "it depends" on replacing just a section of canvas. If you have access to a local upholstery place, they'll charge a pretty penny but could sew in a new section. If the existing canvas has zippered sections, then Bear Creek Canvas could make you just the section as much of what they do is made upon order. You might have to ship them the damaged section so they can use it as a pattern.
Failing those or other possible options, replacing the whole thing is a last resort and adds $1,000 to your PUP costs. Unless you are just smitten with the floor plan, I would keep looking at $6k as is. It took me many months to find a suitable PUP.

As for the slide out, I really want a dinette slide out. It gets that blasted table out of the main walk-way. That's about the one major thing I would change about mine. Of course, an outside kitchen would also be on the Nice-to-Have list.

[mountainrivers]

Prostate cancer put a kink in our camping plans, but all seems well now, so we are again looking for a good used popup. Our necessary equipment includes an electric lift, a/c, and a u-shaped dinette or kitchen. I found one on Craigslist in Iowa, a 2006 Rockwood with all of our requirements except the popout is a sofa instead of a kitchen/dinette. Price is $6000. Owner sent pics and the only thing he says is wrong is a couple of small rips in the canvas where it attaches to the bottom rails and some staining on the canvas over the Queen side bed. So, we would like, if we buy it, to replace the canvas that's stained. Can anybody tell us what it might cost to do the replacement of only that piece or do we have to replace the whole thing? Also would appreciate opinions on the price. Thanks!

[drae0814]

If you are going used Colemen still has good pup only bad i can see is that your in a wetter climent and that could be a problem. Down in socal its just dry so a working AC is more of a big deal then water. find a layout you like open it up check the tent ends amd floor remember its still a tent and yes i agree with you get one with the slideout table area it really does add tons of room good luck and have fun

[PAThwacker]

I had a brand new flagstafff. Initial trip home from dealer and both locked storage doors swung open and damaged the side panels. Brand spanking new $14,000 piece 0f crap. Frame flexing 600lbs under its gvw. Lost a bal leveler out the side door once after making a slow speed left turn at busy intersection. I traded it after 2 years and got 7k for . Horrible lesson learned.

[lfloom]

We were in the market for a new PUP.Out last two were Coleman, and like AirForceAngler, I thought they made a good PUP, but, sadly they went bust.
Starcraft and Jayco are basically the same, BTW, and probably the 2nd best in quality, but still did not seem to be as good as Colemans. But, what stopped us is the high sleaze factor at our local dealers that sold those two models.

We ended up with a small Trailmanor. We love it! There are larger models that might fit your needs - though without slideouts.

[p220sigman]

We've been very happy with our Viking (2485SST). It has a dinette slide and it does make a difference in the interior space. We don't typically spend a lot of time in the Pup, but for those times that it is raining or otherwise not good to be outside, it is nice to have the extra room with 2 kids. If it were just the two of us, I don't know that it would be as important.

[bondebond]

The Quicksilvers are often short on the list of amenities because they are designed on purpose to be lightweight. Check out the features before going too far on that. Otherwise, the handful of people I've run into who have them absolutely love them but I get the feeling they are more of a "tenter" mindset than other PUP owners. My impression is that they are tents inside a box with wheels on most of the smaller models. They do have some higher-end models with decent amenities but I think the price gets to be a little noticeable. The good news is that the wood won't rot out because they don't use any, at least in the core construction.

I have gone with used PUPs for both purchases and wouldn't want to be the one who pulls a new one off of the dealer's lot. I appreciate those who do, as it saves me a hit on the price and generally get the early quality problems sorted out. But I can appreciate the desire to have a year warranty and ownership of a brand new unit.

With that said, I was very picky about the condition of both and they came to me in near-showroom condition. The first one took me about 3-4 months of looking before I was satisfied. I probably looked at a dozen before I understood what people meant by "needs a little work" and such language. I would ask pointed questions before wasting their and my time with an onsite inspection. The second one was only a casual, nearly accidental find. Couldn't pass it up.

So if going used, look at the condition of the roof, the canvas/vinyl, the sub-flooring, appliances, etc. Look up under the hard roof on the inside of it to see any signs of water damage and rot. Look for bubbling in the ceiling covering inside (water intrusion).

Ask questions if there has ever been a problem (either while they owned it or before).

Have them (private seller or dealer) do a full run-though of all systems on the unit you're seriously interested in buying.

[mountainrivers]

Thanks AirForceAngler. That's some good advice. Just the kind of thing I'm looking for. I understand from some friends that Starcraft makes a good quality popup. Any thoughts about them? We are also looking at a LivingLite Quicksilver. They are very light weight, and apparently eliminate a lot of leakage problems, but they are also quite small with no seating except the dinette. At least a sofa would be nice. I found one not too far away, but I don't know a lot about them. Hoping somebody can clue me in.

[AirForceAngler]

They're all about the same, qualitywise, these days. Horrible. Look around until you find one that's been well taken care of and hopefully stored inside if you're going used. The downside to slides is that is another place for a camper to leak. Be sure to check out the floors and surrounding areas around a slide for water damage. We moved from a TT back to a PUP recently and I looked at 5 different ones before buying the one we have now. 2 were Colemans, 1 was a Viking and the other was a Coachmen. I think the Viking and Coachmen are made by same company. Both of these had rotten floors by the door and under the front storeage area. I looked at the 2 Colemans because our first PUP was a new 1999 Cheyenne that we really like and it was well made. The downside was the ABS roofs that Fleetwood used for several years. One of these that I looked at had all kinds of small cracks everywhere. This one also had a slide-out with some water damage to a cabinet next to the slide. Total junk. The other Coleman was missing some options I wanted so I never looked at the roof on it to see its condition, but I suspect it had problems too, given the condition of the rest of it. We ended up with a 2005 Palamino Mustang with no slide but a 14' box. It spent it life stored inside and well taken care of but it doesn't have the strenght or quality that our Coleman had. Basically, know what you're looking at and check them all out closely. Good luck!