Just don't be confused. A well made pop-up, like my bro's OUTFITTER! outweighs my Lance Lite 165-s by about 400 pounds. It just looks lighter. How can that be? It's a 9 foot, mine's an 8' 6". Tanks. He has 30 gals. of H2O, and I'm conserving like crazy with 18 gals. My 165-s, xcab weighs 1845 pounds, wet. Wet means full of potable water, the propane tank(s) filled, and he has two, 6V batteries to my one group 31. It's the wet part that you must compare when comparing campers, hard or soft if you are to gather a weight v. weight comparo. If you read my latest t.r., you will see bro's and our campers side by side, with the top up or down. His is about 16" lower with the top down and about the same height when the pop is up. There are some fundamental structural items to consider, for better or for worse. A hardside is like a shoebox with the lid glued on creating a lot of shear value. A pop-up is like a shoe box with a loose lid. Rack/twistable. Less shear value. Bro had a lot of issues with the bottom screws popping out of the frame due to the racking of the bottom of the shoebox. No such woe with the glued-on-lid shoe box. So, it's not so cut and dried as one might think.
My take is; if you live in the NW, a small hardside with a clamshell construction and few windows or other leak-able places would make a fine TC for the area. On the other hand, if you are tough enough, a pop-up will get you farther back into the NW forest than a hardside. Simply a clearance issue. Lots of issues to consider.
regards, as always, jefe
