After six years of faithful service, we sold our old pop up camper last month. Pop-ups occupy the extreme modest end of the RV spectrum. Think of it as an awesome big mobile tent rather than an apartment on wheels and you will have an accurate picture. But for a family on a budget, a pop-up has a lot to offer:
- Its affordable. I bought ours when it was seven years old for $2,500 dollars. We took it to 14 states, 11 national parks, and a whole bunch of state parks, not counting short trips all over Texas. We probably put 15,000 miles on it. I sold it in July for $2,200. Even with costs of maintenance and improvements, the amortized per-camping-night cost is under $10 per night.
- Its relatively big when up. After modification ours could easily hold all of our stuff with 7 foot-long beds for six people and had enough space to hang out in a rainstorm.
- Its comfortable. Pop-ups have real beds that are way more pleasant than an air pad or cot. Ours had an air conditioner, which made camping in the Texas summer possible rather than an exercise in torture. When the temperature is nice the ability to open all the windows is great.
- Its easy to tow. Most pop-ups are under 2,000 lbs even loaded up. Ease of towing is something that is overlooked until you have to actually do it on a twisty road in the mountains or rush hour in a big city. Towing a pop-up you have good vision, can still go 75 mph, and the hit to gas mileage is only a few mpg.
- It fits in garage. Because fits in a normal garage, it is easily secured and accessible. Most RVs cost more just in terms of storage over the years than pop-ups cost in total.
There are some disadvantages:
- It takes some time to set up and break down. Over the years I got good at it, but it’s a 20-minute process up and down, even with practice. While not a deal killer, we found that compared to other options a pop up is not great for moving campsites every day. It’s a base camp.
- Pop-ups are not always designed with convenience of real camping families in mind. For instance, ours came with an incredibly impractical drop down stove and sink. The stove and sink took up almost all of the storage space when down, but was not big enough to allow for convenient cooking when up. Since we prefer to cook outside when camping anyway, I rebuilt the interior and took all that stuff out. This was a vast improvement. Most pop-ups on the market would be better if they were simpler and did not try to compete with fifth-wheels.
- Pop-up build quality is shit. American RVs are generally cardboard/particle board held together with staples. The hardware is flimsy. Even if you baby it, things will break and wear out.
- The build quality limits where you can go. I would never take a pop-up down a rough gravel road, not to mention some of the nice four-wheel drive campsites.
- Because it is not hard sided some campgrounds in grizzly country are off limits. If you don’t plan on camping in Wyoming, Montana or Alaska, not a problem.
So why did we decide to sell our pop-up? Mainly we wanted something that is easier to set up and that we can take to remote campsites on rough roads. There don’t appear to be a lot of options that fit six people and meet these criteria for a reasonable price, but I have some ideas. For families looking to get outside on a budget, particularly for those with little kids or where one spouse is hesitant to sleep in a tent (it happens!), the pop-up is a real option to consider.
Vamonos Baby! 