Sooooooooo, we might be in the market for a pop up camping trailer. My wife isn’t exactly nature friendly but starting to like to hike. She’s been camping exactly once, with me, in Rocky Mountain National Park, and it was not her thing.
We also looked at motor homes but have decided that they are expensive, too big, and still don’t replace a nice hotel room.
Pop up camping trailers have the advantage of
can by pulled by our Honda odyssey
make camping convenient as you can pre-pack and a simple set up once you’re one site
not stupidly expensive
can sleep at least 5 (my wife and I, 14 year old, 10 year old twins)
So, beyond buying used, what advice do Dopers have? We’re in the Pacific Northwest so really don’t need AC (and why car camp if you want all the amenities of home?), but need to sleep at least 5. Folding trailers might be advantageous, but they seem to max out at 4 beds. We’re in the PNW, so I do worry some about the tent trailers getting wet, and then not drying out and getting moldy when we get back to Seattle. I think we can fit it folded (not sure about unfolded) in the garage.
Me, I like a tent and used to back pack extensively. That said, my kids have never camped except for half a night in the back yard 2 weeks ago during spring break. And we are in the PNW where it rains a lot except for about 60 days of no rain in July and August. I’d love to take my wife and kids out and about for overnights and long weekends in this area.
Anyhoo, suggestions for a light, cost effective (I’m just cheap but we can pay up), pop up and/or folding trailers that can be easily pulled a Honda Odyssey, are welcome.
It’s ideal for two of us. It’s a wee mite cramped with three. I would start strangling people with five, although we’d all technically have a place to sleep (two in each slide out bunk and one on the dinette conversion.) It would possibly be bearable in good weather when we’re mostly outside, but for rainy days hiding in the camper? No.
Canvas will mildew, there’s no real way around that if you camp in damp climates. Factor replacement every few years into your cost. But despite that, I love my canvas. I’m a tent camper at heart, only in a camper because my husband’s health can’t do tents. To me, the canvas gives me a few of the things I like most about tents - dappled leaf patterns, shifting light, the pitter pat of little birdie feet over my head in the morning… I just feel more connected to the nature around me under canvas. I missed that when we had a hard camper.
A-frames are trendy right now, but I don’t like the loss of headroom. They’re hotter because there’s less volume of air in there. They’re cute, but so tiny. Teardrops are a little better in terms of room, but I’ve not found one I could stand 4 other people in.
If money and tow weight were no object and I wanted to give up the canvas, I’d get a hard-sided popup, like a Hi-Lo.
We’ve always gotten our campers used, and found them by driving around in rural areas with a wad of cash in our pocket and calling phone numbers on for sale signs. We tried Craigslist, but had a stereotypical Craigslist experience.
One thing to keep in mind when you’re looking at the tow capacities is the hitch weight or tongue weight, which is the amount of weight from the trailer that pushes down on the hitch. Single axle trailers like most pop ups tend to have relatively higher tongue weights, and FWD vehicles like minivans tend to have relatively lower tongue weight ratings. Your Odyssey probably has a pretty high overall tow rating, but the limiting factor here is going to be the tongue.
Also kind of echoing what WhyNot said, you should definitely bring everyone you intend to sleep in the thing along to look at it. The number of people the manufacturers claim they’ll sleep tends to be rather imaginative.
We’ve had two. I don’t know what models are available nowadays, but I would stick with those that have an actual door. 30 years ago, some had a lower door but the canvas above zipped. Kids tend to go in and out a lot and the regular door makes that easier.
Regarding wet canvas, ours wouldn’t completely open in the garage, but we could raise the top partially and pull the canvas out in such a way it could dry. You don’t have to set it all the way up. We had an air conditioner mounted on ours. I realize you’re in the PNW, but I thought the AC was a godsend. We could also use it inside the garage to help speed the drying. We also bought a small portable toilet from WalMart to place inside. In bad weather or middle of the night it was really nice to have.
We have a 6 gallon bucket with a toilet seat. Classy. But yes, so nice to have in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm!
I don’t know if they’re still doing this - our current camper is 20 years old - but one thing I love about ours is that the propane stove can be used inside the camper or outside the camper. We almost always use it outside, hung onto a bracket on the side of the camper. There’s a propane line run under the bench seat that you can access from outside. That keeps things cooler inside, allows the cook to be out and social (we’re that camp people are always stopping to chat with, and often we feed stray hippies) and frees up some space inside. I will definitely look for this feature when we decide to buy another camper.
We had pretty much the same situation as the OP. Honda Odyssey, small family. I was able to acquire one from a friend (whose family out-grew it) in 2007 and it was great! We loved it and had many adventures (Yellowstone, CA coast, Yosemite, and the Sierras). I think it was a Coleman Laramie, from the mid-80s. Canvas was intact, but I mended a few thin areas. I think it would have been impossible to replace the canvas entirely - they don’t make it any more, so any replacement would be custom ($$$). It had a small stove and a sink and electrical lights (never did go somewhere with hook-ups). Table collapsed into a 3rd bed. Great advantage of the trailer was on the very first day we used it - eating a comfortable lunch with no mosquitoes!
We did wait out a rainy day in it on the CA coast one time - we all stayed dry no problem. Most of our trips were dry and cool, and where we live it dried out quickly. I was able to store it in our garage as well. I would think if you got the canvas wet, you would want to open/dry it out when you got home. Still took a couple hours to air it out once opened.
Ours slept the 4 of us and the dog very well for a few years, but the kids grew too big as they entered their teens, and we just essentially out-grew it (same as my friend). Also, changing family vacation tastes made use of it infrequent - down to once or twice a year. Last year, we replaced the Odyssey with a non-towing car, so the trailer had to go.
Some things to consider:
It’s easy to keep things packed and ready to go - ours allowed some storage space for plastic bins. However, if you wanted to get at the dishes or pots or linens, you had to open it up entirely to get at the interior cabinets. Each trip we would need to open it up and stock everything, and at the end of the trip open it again to take things out - kind of a pain.
It is recommended to keep it light as possible while towing, so only sleeping bags, shoes, and light stuff went in there while driving - keep the cooler and other heavier gear in the van. Once we took a full tank of water up to the mountains - not good on gas mileage with that weight.
Our 2002 Odyessy handled it pretty well, but Honda recommended getting their transmission oil cooler/re-circulator installed for towing (we did). The van loaded down with the trailer attached made it compress the rear springs almost all the way, so I added a set of those small spring blocks to firm-up the suspension. We had the hitch installed by U-Haul and it worked fine.
If you get any trailer, make sure you practice backing it up at home and around town a few times before you take it to a campground with narrow driveways and parking stalls.
All-and-all it was great while we had it, but we eventually out-grew it.
Lol. Plenty of campers, even pop ups, have toilets. Ours doesn’t. Of course, the ones with toilets don’t exactly have plumbing, they have a tank. So you have to suck out the gross periodically.
I can’t comment on your local prices, but the value for dollar of tent trailers is crazy. For less than $1000, you can get a very good, reliable trailer that will last you years. I don’t have a ton of advice, you seem to understand the strengths/limitations of them. A big advantage of having a set camping vehicle is that you can pack all the dishes/axe/sleeping bags/etc and don’t have to worry about packing them again.
I used to sell them back in about 2005. I would not recommend buying a used one unless it has very little use on it. Things that go wrong through misuse, lack of maintenance, or rough handling:
Torn canvas
Fucked up winch system
Rotted subfloor
Mold/mildew
So if you do buy used, have it checked over very thoroughly. Also find out if the warranty is transferable. I seem to recall that it isn’t, but may be wrong.
When I sold them, Jayco had the best warranty on the market. The flooring had a ten year warranty and the canvas had a 5-year. Also, the winching system to raise the top was the easiest to operate because they had more pulleys that the other brands (one-handed operation). It looks like their top-of-the-line now has an electric lifter. We also sold Fleetwood (who bought the Coleman brand), which were nice enough.
The main thing to remember is to make sure everything is moving smoothly when you set up and take down. If there is any resistance whatsoever, stop what you’re doing and find out why, or you’ll risk ripping the canvas. Have the salesman or the prep staff walk you through a complete setup and take down.
By the way, if you snap the cable, replace the whole damn thing. It’s like $40 worth of cable, and it’s not that hard to do. Yes, you can technically splice it, but the connector WILL slide, and then you’ll be up to your knees in the mud with one end of your popup popped up and the other leaning over like a drunken whore, and your wet wife standing there trying to hold an umbrella over your lower half while the rest of you is under the camper will have a very hard time not saying, “I told you we should have replaced the whole cable.”
I worked on one of the old ones with the balky lift system. Someone had managed to rip the windlass completely out of the floor by trying to crank up a stuck top. The floor being wet and somewhat rotted didn’t help.
thanks for the replies everyone. We’re probably going to look at a used TrailManor this weekend.
Claims to sleep 6, and my Odyssey tow rating of 3500 pounds should be doable…
It will be great to get the kiddos out to various state and national parks in something like this. Plus it will fit in my garage. More than I was hoping to spend, but when one does have the money, and some special family requirements that demand it, I have been known to lighten up and fork over the dough. Will keep y’all posted
Money spent on things like this - campers, boats, etc… is only good if you use it. Even if you guys only get 2-3 seasons worth of fun that might be enough. Just dont be a slave to the thing and not be afraid to throw in the towel and sell it if some things change.
I think that’s a good point, and a valid reason for first-timers to get a used model (less depreciation to take). I have relatives who recently bought a brand new Tiffin Allegro (35 ft) as their very first camper. Seems to me it would’ve been a good idea to try RVing first with a smaller investment. I bet Chefguy can tell us what a coach like that costs, and has a few depreciation horror stories.
I recently sold our 12 year old fifth wheel. My records aren’t perfect, but it seems we spent about 340 nights* in it. That’s about 30 nights per year. According to the hour meter on our boat, we’re averaging 112.5 hours per year with it. I suspect these numbers are well above average, and they’re proof (to me anyway) that the toys were good investments for us.
*I added all this up before trading it in. I was curious about the totals.
A 20-30 foot trailer is a completely different animal than an 8-10 foot pop-up trailer. Have fun with it.
Your Honda should handle it okay, but check the towing information on the website for that model. There should also be a metal tag somewhere on the trailer’s exterior that gives you the gross vehicle weight. Keep in mind that your towing capacity is based primarily on towing on flat, low-altitude surfaces, with occasional grade and higher altitude towing figured in. Try to avoid prolonged steep grade towing, which can overheat your transmission.
Resist the temptation to stuff everything you own into the trailer. The GVWR is the weight of the trailer fully loaded. Subtract the ‘curb weight’ to find out how much stuff you should ideally load into the trailer, and try not to exceed it by too much.
Many years back I looked at pop ups and someone made them with fiberglass panels that folded out instead of canvas. Are they still made? I know fiberglass still needs care, but less than canvas maybe?
