Palomino Soft-Side owner reviews

egarant wrote:
I owned a top of the line Northstar pop-up. I sold it after 4 years primarily because of two things.

The desert winds would make move the pop-up material and keep me up at night. The noise is especially annoying when metal zippers click against each other. Several times Mohave Desert I've dropped the top down and slept on the dinette do to the wind.

Second was it's lack of insulation. You might as well be sleeping in a tent as there is no meaningful heat retention. I found the optional insulation package was too bulky to carry around, took too long to install and when installed you had no more windows.

I decided to sell it when I started to see areas of wear on the tent material....I didn't want to be the one replacing that tent material.

Just though of another reason.....DW was not going to camp in a soft sided camper in Grizzly bear habitat anymore.

Zippers on the Palomino have plastic pulls, not metal. No noise.

We haven't had a heat retention with ours at least on cool mornings, I quick burst of the furnace is all you need. I don't use it in cold weather, I use the Super 8.

Never camped in Grizzly bear country but my wife is real handy with a pistol and long gun, a regular 'Anne Oakley'....

Everything wears out over time, you and me included. The tent on the Palomino is replaceable in sections and sold that way. IOW, you need the back section, you unzip it, pop the tabs and it comes right off.

When I was a kid, I saw what a bear did to a station wagon in Pennsylvania. The guy put his garbage can in the back to take to the dump on the morning. During the night, a bear literally ripped the entire side off the car to get to the garbage. I don't think a Filon side 1/2" thick is going to slow down a determined bear for much longer than about 15 seconds.....

We always sleep with a piece close by anyway. Bear or no bear.