XC Trip with Tent Trailer?

[maria_bettina]

I am in the preliminary stages of planning a cross-country trip for my son and me for Spring 2015 (or maybe even 2016). I thought we'd get a cabover camper for our truck, but apparently Tundras aren't made for those. So Plan B is to buy a popup trailer. I am thinking that it would be easier to tow than a travel trailer (which we have).

We'd be driving upwards of 10,000 miles over three months, so I am wondering if anyone has done this, towing a popup. We are going to head south from Northern California and stop in Las Vegas, Carlsbad NM, New Orleans, Orlando FL, and head up to Connecticut to Nova Scotia, then back to Buffalo, up to Canada and drop down to Glacier Nat'l Park, Mt Rainier, and back down to Nor Cal. Looks fun on paper, but I am thinking I may be under-thinking the towing part of the trip. I know it'll be tiring, but we'll be staying at least 3 days at most stops. And I fully intend to get a decked-out popup - with AC, toilet (for the boy who needs to pee in the middle of the night!), etc. Probably a high wall I'm thinking. 🙂

Any suggestions, comments, innuendos? 😉

[maria_bettina]

Thanks for all the info and advice! My son is six (and a half), but we wouldn't make this trip til he's probably 7.5 or even 8.5 years old. Right now he doesn't want to leave daddy for so long, but I am working on that. I would expect he could help with set up by the time we go on the trip; if not, I'm not doing my job. :B

I am thinking that an AC unit is a must because we will be in the muggy areas (Florida) in May. I was thinking that most stops would be at FHU sites, at least along the southern portion of the trip. Thoughts?

campingken wrote:
Maria,

We are from Auburn CA. When I retired from the Placer County Sheriff's Dept. I took our youngest son on a trip from Auburn to Alaska. We drove a 4 cylinder Toyota pick up and towed a Coleman pop-up trailer. I don't recall how many miles we drove but we were gone for 6 weeks and spent every night in the tent trailer. It was a great trip that we still talk about.

Campingken - Howdy! We live right outside LOP. And my husband has worked and still works for Placer County Counsel (going on 11 years now). We have the Alaska trip on our To-Do list, but my husband would kill me if I went without him, so that's a trip for a few years down the line. I look forward to that, and love that you brought your son with you on the journey. (Personally I like driving more than flying.)

[BUFFALODAN]

http://www.livinlite.com/truck-campers.php

looks like 2 Toyotas on the page with their products

[Intheloonybin]

I skimmed the posts, but;

We did a 3 week trip in 2010 that covers the southwest US part of our map. 10,000 miles in those 3 weeks. We hit every "tourist" place we wanted to go to on the trip.

I think you would do fine with the schedule you are looking at. Pick your campgrounds carefully. We mostly went with KOA's, but used rvparkreviews to check them all.

*just noticed our map is gone. Will fix that later...

[campingken]

Maria,

We are from Auburn CA. When I retired from the Placer County Sheriff's Dept. I took our youngest son on a trip from Auburn to Alaska. We drove a 4 cylinder Toyota pick up and towed a Coleman pop-up trailer. I don't recall how many miles we drove but we were gone for 6 weeks and spent every night in the tent trailer. It was a great trip that we still talk about.

[xzyfsk]

I agree with slowp. Check out the aframes. We have the Rockwood A128s and love it. I can set it up in less than 1 minute so stopping for a break is not an issue. The A128s is almost as easy to tow as our tent camper but does weigh about 500lbs more. It has alot more stuff on it though. I tow mine with a Nissan frontier pickup with a 152hp 4 cylinder and get 19.5 to 21mpg on a regular basis. This model has a large storage area on the front and all the other storage areas have outside access. I think you will find the Scamp and Casita easy to tow also but they do weight around 3000 empty as I recall. So many choices and so little vacation......

[slowp]

jackquontee wrote:
You may be interested in looking into the Aliner brand of popups. I don't know how well they hold up on a trip of the distance you intend to take but they popup very quickly - within a minute.
I was originally interested in the Quicksilver brand due to weight considerations (at the time I had a 4cyl GMC Terrain) until I saw a YouTube video of the Aliner Scout's set up time, and I was sold!

An Aliner is kind of an in between. I've got a Chalet brand. You do not have to pack and unpack each time. They are built so the bed can stay made and have a few drawers. I keep stuff in rubbermaid bins inside. They can be quickly moved around. I've got a bunk model so there is lots of room under the bed even with half being for the dog's bed.
The setup time that the dealers say is true, once you've figured it out. I think it takes me about a minute to put up the roof and walls.

I tow it with my Ford Ranger. If you get an A frame trailer, I recommend getting a model with the storage box on the front.

The bad thing is that you can't get inside without putting up the roof. But, it only takes a little time to do that.

They aren't spacious inside, but seem roomier than a small Scamp. I think it is the high ceiling.

Have a good trip and have fun.

[jackquontee]

You may be interested in looking into the Aliner brand of popups. I don't know how well they hold up on a trip of the distance you intend to take but they popup very quickly - within a minute.
I was originally interested in the Quicksilver brand due to weight considerations (at the time I had a 4cyl GMC Terrain) until I saw a YouTube video of the Aliner Scout's set up time, and I was sold!

[patperry2766]

I took my trailer back to the dealership to have some warranty work done, and they had just started carrying the Palomino Hybrids. I did have a chance to look at this model and I was very impressed, and it was only a few thousand more than the Flagstaff Highwall that I bought. Had this been an option at the time, there is a high probably that this would be the one sitting in my driveway.
Palomino

[patperry2766]

"Fewer issues I assume and fewer things that may break along the way"

Not true, there are ALOT of things that could go wrong.

The roof might decide it doesn't want to go up/down.
The bunks might not slide it like they should
You can't leave the tent closed for long if it is wet before mold/mildew can start....

And these are just a few of the problems unique to a tent camper in addition to the normal problems that can arise with a camper

[patperry2766]

We have a Flagstaff HW27KS and it is the perfect size for the 5 of us. Since you didn't specify how old your son is, I will tell you that it takes both me and my wife about 30-40 minutes to set up/break down each time. If he's not able to help, then I would probably advise against this type of model for your excursion.

HW27KS

Now, if you're wanting the "tent" experience, maybe a hybrid should be something to consider. The benefits are significantly less set-up time, and if bad weather arises, or you just want to pull over in a Wal-Mart, you can just not fold out the bunks and sleep on the dinette.

It looks like alot of your trip will be in the hot/humid states so to make the trip more pleasurable, I would suggest PUGS. These are reflective devices that fit on the exterior of the tent that will reflect the heat and help keep the insiders cooler during the hottest part of the day. It will also protect the canvas from bird droppings, etc.
PUGS
Hybrid

You should also consider Reflectix. You basically cut it to the size of the bunk window openings and put them between the screen and the canvas. Again, keeps alot of the heat out and does add a minescule amount of sound deadning. When you're not using them, just put them under the bunks.

Another option could be a R-Pod

R-Pod

You have endless possibilities of which camper to get, but you always have to be thinking about will it be something that you're happy with 5 years down the road. All campers will have their pro's and con's but you just have to decide what you can live with and what would be a deal breaker.

You have a AWESOME plan, and hopefully when my son gets a little older, I can do something similar.

[Steeljag]

Sounds like fun, have a great time!

[maria_bettina]

These are great stories. Thank you 🙂 Keep 'em coming!

BTW, just me and my boy on this trip - no dogs, no hubbie. This will be my and my son's first big "camping" adventure alone together. Usually we have the TT and my husband to fix things, or we just stay in a hotel within 8-10 hours from home.

Since it's just me that will be able to fix stuff, I want a new PUP. Fewer issues I assume and fewer things that may break along the way. 😉

[kknowlton]

Having done a 3-week, 6000+ mile trip with a PUP, our advice would be to make sure to plan about every 3rd day or so (at the very least) to stay 2 nights or more in one campsite. There is a lot of busy work to setting up & breaking camp anyway, more so when you have a PUP, as you have to tote things from tow vehicle to camper when setting up, and back again when breaking camp, as well as putting up & taking down the camper itself. During our trip, we ended up staying only one night in each campsite, except for one, and 2/3 of the way through the trip, DH had just about had enough. I learned after that to build in "stopovers" so we weren't going through all that work twice a day, every day!

That said, it's a great way to travel. We loved our PUP; had it 17 years.

[twichers]

AS a kid, we did cross-country trips from West Coast of Florida to Northern Alberta and back. Different routes. ~3wks. This was in the 70s with 1 or 2 children in a basic StarCraft or Venture Popup.

I don't remember any issues ... tho parents may say otherwise lol.