What, now we're in a pop-up?
- FamilyTentAdventures
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
Over the years, I've thought about purchasing a pop-up camper. My parents had one when I was kids, and though we didn't camp a ton in it, I have fun memories "camping" with it in the backyard.
As our children have grown and we now have two dogs, our 5-person tent is now too cramped for everyone. We've used our two 4-person backpacking tents, but during storms, we've had to split up and put one adult in each tent. Marcus can only fit in these tents with one other person.
There were a few reasons I was interested in purchasing a pop-up vs a larger tent:
Getting the beds off the ground. We had a few trips where things got wet in heavy rains.
We've had some pretty rainy camping trips and I thought it would be nice to have some extra space when it rains.
It would be nice to leave some items in the pop-up vs pack every time.
Why a pop-up?
Marcus mentioned the idea of getting a travel trailer, but they were significantly more expensive. Additionally, I was concerned about feeling confined and losing the camping experience. He also considered teardrop-style campers, but they were too small for our family. We really appreciate the openness of a pop-up camper.
Pop-up pros:
Lots of windows - more then our tent! I love how you can sleep with the whole bed end opened up! Even when it rains, the plastic covering the screen on the main area of the camper makes it so you can see outside.
Light weight - pup-ups tend to be very light weigh
It fits in our garage - We only have a 2 car garage, so in the summer, the pop-up stays in the driveway. In the winter, it's stored in the garage.
Lots of sleeping space! Our pop-up has two kings size beds, a couch that turns into a bed, and a table that turns into a bed. For the most part, we've used the two beds, but occasionally, one of the kids wants to sleep on the couch.
You can see around it when towing. I absolutely love this. I hadn't towed anything before the pop-up. I really like that I can see over the top of the pop-up and along the sides of the pop-up easily.
In late February I started looking at some pop-ups online. I knew we wanted to get a used pop-up, and we were okay with an older model. A lot of the ones in the Twin Cities were priced higher than we wanted to spend on what we were seeing. We found one over an hour away from the twin cities.
We purchased a 2004 Coleman Tacoma. The cushions, storage areas, table, and beds all looked in really good condition. Unfortunately, when we got it home, we realized that there was a leak in the roof. Marcus took off the roof and replaced everything except the metal parts with the help of one of our friends. I wanted to make new curtains as some of them were damaged, which is actually how we noticed that the roof was bad. When we went to take the curtains down, we noticed that the wood was rotten. I was able to make new curtains, I used UV protected/mold resistant fabric.
We have absolutely loved having the pop-up. Our first weekend out with it, it started raining as soon as we finished breakfast dishes it rained all day, continued raining the entire day. We've had so many trips this last year that we were rained on quite a bit. It was so nice to be dry! We would hang our wet rain coats over the sink when we were in the pop-up. We loved having more space to spread out during the heavy rains.
The children truly appreciate the pop-up, as they enjoy having a bit more room. The dogs have also taken a liking to the pop-up and are comfortable sleeping in it while we're outside.
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